thursday night in a small town

Tonight a dog ran into the diner I was eating in. And I sat there and watched while people ran around chasing it, shooing it away from the kitchen towards the door and then repeat that sequence a couple of times. Then the girl I was eating with sprayed Dr. Pepper out of her nose.

Hows that for a hook? Specially when it's all true? Welcome to small town living!

One of the local ladies decided to do something different with her Sunday school girls this year and get the Christian ladies of the town involved. During the summer/early fall she passed around a list of Biblical women and asked us all to pick the person that we identify the most with.

After thinking about it and getting her input, I went with the Widow who gave her mite. Granted I did not give up all THAT much to come to Montana, but I was still willing to take what little I had and give it over to God. I had never really thought of my story in relation to sacrifice, but it was cool to think about it.

Anyways. As Debbie worked through the Bible, she would ask each lady to come and have supper with her girls on the Thursday night after they talked about that specific story. That way that girls would get a chance to get to know some of the local ladies better and the ladies could spend time with some of the younger generation.

Tonight was my night. I had been waiting and waiting and waiting for months and finally got the call. So, I excitedly headed over to the Wagon Wheel at 5:30, ready to impact these young minds and impress them with my wonderful self.

Of course, of her class of four girls, I know three of them fairly well and recognize the other one. But still. You never know what God has for you!

Turns out one girl was sick. Bummer. Another girl had to go home cause it wasn't very nice out today and she lives on a ranch, so they just headed out of town after school. Well, that left two girls. Not bad.

Except these are the girls that I have worked with in AWANA. One of them for two years (she stopped coming this year) and the other one for three years. So, I'm nothing too exciting to them. But they still seemed willing to hang out with me so we sat down and ordered (Thursday = breakfast night at the Wheel!) and waited for the food to come.

Soon the girls are regaling me with stories from school of being hit on the head by the door and getting kicked for accidentally hitting someone else. They slurp down their shakes and Dr. Pepper and gradually get more and more animated and excited. Soon they are laughing and choking and falling out of their chairs.

Occasionally they ask me questions about myself but do not really have a long enough attention span to pay attention to the answer. The only time they focus on me all night is when they ask me if I am dating a certain guy because they always see me with him (I am not, just for the record). Then they want to see the pictures on my phone and found videos that were taken by my friend when the phone belonged to him.

People we know walk by and come in and we smile and wave and say hi. Then in trots a dog. Just like that. Walks in and starts for the kitchen. Soon everyone in the place is yelling the dog's name (cause obviously everyone knows this dog) and chase it around and around the room. One of my girls gets up to help block the kitchen. Just when they think they have the situation under control, the dog makes a break for it and goes back to the food. Finally the owner figures our where she disappeared to and comes in to get her out.

After the girls got calmed down from that, they finish up their meals and start wandering around. They pick up a lot of the different "Made in Montana" products and start oohing and aahing over the lotions and the huckleberry taffy. After awhile, they come back to the table and suck down the rest of their beverages. I was making fun of them for being so hyper and while one girl claimed she was going to go home and calm down, the other girl said she was going to go home and eat sugar cubes all night. Apparently this was the funniest thing she could have said, as the other girl shot Dr. Pepper out of her nose in appreciation.

I gracefully extracted myself from the situation (read : ran away as fast as I could) and came home, grateful to not be in 5th grade anymore.

However, there must be bliss in just being yourself. Enjoying the moment and everything in it to the fullest. Every joke is the funniest, every story is the best. Remember those days?