Such A Lovely Surprise...

Michi and Me

I know I told you that I had one more day of work last week on Saturday. It was a crazy busy day, and in addition it was wicked hot outside - even for this former Florida girl. The air conditioner could hardly keep up at the store. The a/c was set to 73º, and the thermostat registered 84º inside. I felt bad for the ladies in the kitchen, but they said they loved the heat. Truthfully, I was a sweaty mess.

Late afternoon, I had a line of people stopping for bags of ice, water and beer, and I happened to catch the face of one person in the crowd. I took care of my customers and when the line was gone, I noticed this face was with a group watching one of their own at one of the gambling machines. She was leaning again the wall, facing toward me. I said, "Are you Michele?"

She said yes, so I told her, "I used to live with your mom after high school." She came running over to me and I told her my name. You see we're friends on Facebook, but have never met in person. On top of that, her mom is now my step-sister since my mother married my friend's dad. 

Michi whooped and asked for a hug and it was quiet enough in the store that we could chat for a bit. I told her that I lived with her mom and another aunt in our first apartment, and when her aunt got married (I was her bridesmaid), then her mom and I got a different apartment together. 

There was more, but I won't bore you with the entire conversation. Suffice it to say, we had a lovely, albeit short, conversation. Before they all left, I asked one of the guys to take a picture of us together...step-aunt and niece. It really was a lovely visit.

While I don't have an especially great memory for names, I almost never forget a face. In this case, I put the name and face together because I follow her posts. She's had major health issues in the past decade, and I spent many moments praying for her. She's a sweet young woman and I'm so happy that we finally met in person. 

I posted our photograph on FB with some of the same story, and her mama commented, so she knows I saw one of her daughters. A cousin also commented that she couldn't believe I knew so many of her family prior to our families being joined through marriage. Mum hasn't seen my post yet, but I guarantee she'll comment when she does.

After Michi left, I looked at the clock to find I only had about an hour of work left. We got busy again and the rest of the day flew by as quickly as the rest of my shift. I'm now off the schedule for another two weeks. 

I'm expecting to hear from the surgical scheduler this week to set a date for my knee replacement. I the meantime, I'm going to get some housekeeping done around the farmhouse, and get that fencing stitched for my bluebirds. This girl's got goals! See you tomorrow.