Restoring Faith in Humanity

Last weekend I was leaving a co-worker's place in the city, after watching the U.S. v England game. As I strolled down the sidewalk, I noticed a driver's license staring up at me from the ground. It was a little blue billfold, containing not only the license, but also several credit cards and a medicare insurance card for an elderly woman. At the moment I found myself sorely regretting my lack of a smart phone (which would enable me to find her phone number, look up her address on a map, and figure out which bus I could take to get there from where I was).

I looked her up in the white pages when I got home, and left a message on her answering machine. She called me back as I was enjoying the (rare) sunshine on my roof deck, and we ended up chatting on the phone for about 20 minutes before deciding that I would drop the billfold off at her place on my way out that evening.

Her place was a high-rise condo building not far from where I work. She met me in the lobby with her daughter who was in town visiting, and gave me a hug and thanked me. Then we all plopped down into armchairs and visited like old friends catching up after some time apart. It was surprisingly pleasant. She gave me a copy of one of her daughter's books (The Book of Qualities) with a card and some money inside. I didn't open the card until I was in my car...it said, among other things: 'It always restores my faith in humanity to meet a young person of integrity.' The whole experience left me with a warm, gooey feeling inside. She also remarked that "your parents raised you well!" Good job us, Mom and Dad, for restoring someone's faith in humanity :)

What's New...

The last time I tried to create a new post, it got deleted and I had no motivation to re-write it. I'll try again.

The month of May included a trip to Austin, Texas for my former roommate's wedding. It was a great trip (surprisingly wonderful to be back in Texas), although the experience pretty much confirmed for me that I do not ever want to plan a wedding. Highlight of that trip was 'floating the river' which basically consisted of tying a large group of people together in tubes (with coolers full of 'refreshments' in their own tubes), and floating down a river on a beautiful day :)

Toward the end of the month, I flew back to St Louis for my mom's birthday and my parents' pool grand opening. It was nice to be back for a visit, but the plan of luring me back to the midwest with an awesome pool didn't work :)

Here's Xavi trying to figure out what the deal is with the pool. The splash zone in front of him suggests that someone had just jumped in, but I don't remember who it was:

Here I am enjoying the pool and the bubble gun:

Didu showing Xavi and Irene how to splash. The water was about 70 degrees at that point, and Didu didn't like getting splashed back by his grown-up offspring later :)

Match-y poo-poos Xavi and Isaac:

Me and my nephew Isaac. We are pretty cute :) and it only took about six tries to get this picture.

The rest of life has been same old, same old. Work seems to finally be picking up (we have been very slow for a very long time...which is not good, financially speaking). I have to move next month, as my roommate is moving to Portland with her boyfriend, and I can't afford this place by myself. I kind of enjoy the purging process that goes along with moving, though, and am also excited to get to know a new neighborhood in this great city.

The weather has been primarily cold and gray lately, with the exception of yesterday (73 and sunny...pretty much my ideal day). I went wine tasting with my roommate and some friends. It was a little strange. I guess my only previous wine-tasting experience was in St. Louis at an actually winery...big outdoor patio, lovely scenery, live music. This was more like a strip mall, with a bunch of 'tasting rooms' from different wineries next to each other. You go from place to place trying the wine. In spite of the many varieties I tried, I am just not a fan of red wine. And I'm okay with that. I did purchase a lovely bottle of Viognier. And made a new friend named Lucy, an extremely friendly 2-year-old Labradoodle :)

As soon as I figure out where I'm moving, I will post pictures and details! And I'll try not to let so much time go by between updates.