made up stories, baby showers, and garbage bags

Okay, so I thought I'd let you in a bit on the quirkiness of my days. I usually try to be level-headed and logical. Most of the time, I think the act is believable. This weekend was not one of those times.

Case #1 Good Stories can actually be more trouble than they are worth
Well, let me first start with yesterday. I had my Saturday packed back-to-back from 9 am - 9 pm. I biked across the neighborhood to babysit and the morning really started out well. I love the three kids, especially the little one who insists on wearing one pink sparkly shoe and one regular blue croc. I'd forgotten all about that until I had him on my shoulders and we were all on a walk. I started to see people give sympathetic waves and stares and then I realized my little guy with the mismatched shoes and it made sense.

Anyway! They were getting antsy, so I made up this whole story about a treasure hidden by the lone family living here before they were scared away by the big, new development. In their haste, the sweet family forgot the treasure they had buried. The kids really got into it; before I could tame down the story, the oldest girl was stopping at every crack in the cement, claiming it was a sign to the treasure! She was actually convinced there was a giant, priceless stone in my backyard and she enlisted the help of her siblings to uncover it. I couldn't crush the dream by this point, so I continued to add to the legend, saying the family would feel so bad if they came back to get their treasure and it was gone. I finally persuaded them home, but I've really got to be careful about those stories!

Case #2 Don't throw garbage at an unmarked trailer
Last night, after meeting up with some students in the park, I came back to attend a beautiful baby shower my housemates were hosting. I was excited to celebrate and practice my Spanish (more on that later!) with the ladies from Nueva Vida, the spanish-speaking service at my church. My good friends Norma and Monica cherished every teachable moment and my attempts were full of laughter. At the end of the night after washing dishes and loading cars, everyone was exhausted and I slipped away to my room to breathe, in English:).
































So, today I wanted to help with any of the leftover cleanup. I saw an enormous garbage bag in the backyard where multiple bee families had decided to spend their afternoon. I calmly tried to consolidate the trash and tie a knot (my cousin used to keep bees, so I'm pretty qualified in bee-ing). Having succeeded, I thought the best place for this smelly bundle was in a dumpster. There's a builder site right across the street with a green, unmarked trailer and so I heaved as hard as I could (it's a big heave from 5 feet) and it just barely reach the top. It was sitting kind of precariously, so I went back to fetch a rake and push it more towards the center. I felt pretty accomplished... until I told my roomates and they just stared back blankly.
"You know that's the builder's trailer, right? It's all locked up on top."

What? We looked out the window and saw a monstery white thing conspicuously waving in the wind in the middle of an otherwise picturesque development. Ooops! So, I decided to go back under the cloak of night to retrieve my mistake and take it to another dumpster. After I got back from church tonight, I grabbed a shovel and started across the quiet street. RIGHT as I set foot on the pavement a car turned on to the street to get a headlight-framed picture of me, in a dress and carrying a shovel in the dark. Creepy. Then, when I reached the unmarked trailer, I realized what a good job I had done earlier by pushing the bag further back. So that now, even with the shovel, I could not reach it! So, I had to go back to get a stepladder and walk to the trailer again. This time, right as I set the stepladder down, another pair of headlights illuminated the scene, this time capturing a lone figure, shovel in hand, standing next to a stepladder in the only vacant lot. Creepy. I finally procured the package and heaved it in to the real garbage dumpster and called it a night. Hopefully there won't be rumors circulating on the Homeowner's Association forum about a 'shovel lady,' that would be too much!

Well, who knows if either of those stories were worth telling, but they are lighter than most of the thoughts I am thinking right now. And if I get any feedback from the blog at all, it usually has to do with it being 'heavy', so here's to the readers who just need to know I am foolish most of the time!