Moving help is on the way

The big news for today is I found someone to help us move. I had been of the opinion that we should hire a local moving company (providing a truck and a couple of guys for a total of  about $125/hr., which I think is quite reasonable). But John was quite adamant that he did not want a moving company; he just wanted one teenager. As if that would be easier to find! And, somehow it fell onto my shoulders to find a teenager, even though I had already found a local moving company that reviewed well, and was available when we needed.

So I set out to find a teenager. John nixed Craigslist (for good reason, you never know what you’re going to get.) Problem is, we are not all that well connected. I don’t know very many people at work yet, and the ones I do know have two-year-olds, or their kids are grown and moved away. John didn’t know anyone either. So I started emailing people who might know someone, who might know someone, who might…and not hearing anything back. So I was definitely getting grumpy about the whole thing, particularly since I had found a moving company, and I preferred a moving company, and I was getting tired of being the one who had to implement John’s preference when it wasn’t going very well.

Meanwhile, we had a 3-day weekend and went hiking in the Bisti (Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness). We came back with some excellent photos, by the way, but we took over 400 photos and I can’t imagine how I’m going to weed those down to 5 or 6 for the blog. I just can’t even comprehend trying to do that.

Anyway, we decided to come home Saturday night instead of Sunday morning, so I went to church this morning. I sat down in an empty pew and the next thing I know, a tall thin teenager sat down right next to me, and another one next to him. I’m looking over at them thinking, oh yeah, that’s what I need!

I don’t know anyone at this church, but a little ways into the service, we all get up and shake hands and greet each other. Typically, that’s my very least favorite part of the service – it’s really not my thing. But today, I was all excited to get to that point in the service, because I was going to offer that kid a job!

But before we all get up to greet each other, the really little kids go up front and hear a short kid sermon, which of course is very cute. But little did I realize, the entire youth leaves at that point, not just the little ones! The moment the little kid’s were done up front, all the teens got up and left too!

And I was thinking, dang, I missed my chance! I was also thinking, wouldn’t it have been nice to have youth programs during the service when we were young?  For everyone, even the teens? Maybe John wouldn’t have objected to church so much!

After the service I went up to the pastor and tried to describe the teen, and he said, “Oh yeah, that’s my son.” Oh! Oops, it seems like I should have known that? But in my defense, the pastor and his family have been on a sabbatical basically since when I started attending this spring, and they’ve only been back for a couple of weeks.

His son appeared at that moment, and the pastor introduced us, and now we’ve got our moving help! His name is Santiago, and that’s now officially my total favorite name. Carina’s little boy’s name is Santiago, and my pastor’s son is Santiago too. I’ve never met a Santiago, and now I’ve met two in two weeks. It’s so cool; how many 4-syllable male names do we even have in this country? I can’t even think of another one. Ok, you’re right, there is Alexander. But I’ve never met an Alexander who didn’t go by Alex, so that doesn’t count.