Guardian Angels

I think I met my guardian angel today. He’s an elderly man from Baltimore, I kid you not. You know when you meet people and after they leave, you have a weird smile on your face? When you have a really good warm feeling after talking to someone? That’s what I got from this guy. I don’t know his name or anything about him really, but I know that he’s special.

I was volunteering today in the museum gift shop. It was a typical day full of glances at the clock and me miming shooting myself in the head. I was starting to zone out. Then all of a sudden, right in the middle of a blink, there was a man in front of me. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked. “Sure” I said, assuming that I was in trouble or that he was going to yell at me because we didn’t have his size in a t-shirt. Instead he talked to me about Carigdarroch Castle. This is a cool castle that we have in Victoria B.C., which I still haven’t visited yet…oops!

He talked about how much he loved it and then he mentioned that he was originally from Indiana but now lives in Baltimore. “Hey” I said, “I lived in Indiana when I was younger. In Fort Wayne.” This made him really happy. Why are old people so easy to please? Like, any mention of anything familiar and they’re all smiles.

He told me about how he lived in Lafayette and went to college at Purdue. He also told me about how he wanted to work for the best insurance company in the states. So he worked for Social Security. I told him that’s pretty impressive and he seemed to give me a look that said “I know!” So then I gave him look that said “Alright calm down.”

He asked me why I was in Victoria. I basically told him my life story and at the end of it he said, “Well that’s great! But are you happy?” I told him I was. And it wasn’t a lie. But I think I’m a genuinely happy person so maybe I wouldn’t even know if I was sad. He told me that being happy is the most important thing.

After he left, a few of the gift shop employees were like, “Who was that guy?” I said that I didn’t know. But I knew he was sincerely wishing the best for me.

I hope he doesn’t mind me awarding him the honor of being my guardian angel. He seemed like a natural.

And I knight you my guardian angel.

Growing Up Is Hard To Do

I feel like I’m a pretty capable person. I figure things out quickly and I like being independent. However, there are plenty of things that I haven’t figured out yet. Things that only adults should know how to do. I guess I’m an adult now. Technically I’ve been an adult for 6 years now. Barf.

Throughout my years, I have had parents who’ve helped me with everything. I don’t usually ask for their help, but it’s gotten to the point where it just goes without saying that they’ll set up my flight info, or make sure my bank account is okay. Now that I’m married, they don’t have to do that much stuff for me. Well, they still take care of a lot of things for me, but not as much.

In high school I remembered having friends who had to pay for their cell phone bill. That always freaked me out. I wouldn’t have known what to do with a bill if it was handed to me. I still don’t.

Now my husband takes care of a lot of stuff at work, so I don’t even get to see how it’s done. I know bills involve sending money. THAT MUCH I KNOW. If you haven’t guessed by now, this is the blog where you find out how truly retarded I am. The Game of Life even scares me a little bit. Having to deal with school loans and buying a house causes too much anxiety for what should be a fun-filled game.

I think I know how insurance works, but whenever I go to the doctor they ask me a million( yes, a million) questions about what insurance I have and did I know that my insurance covers only this much, and stuff like that. So complicated!

I literally have no idea what the words mortgage and equity mean.

Taxes also seem scary. People keep telling me that I should be filing a blank tax return even if I don’t work. That kind of freaks me out because first of all, where do I get a tax return? Second of all, where do I file it? From now on I’ll just pretend I’m interested when people tell me things like this and then, hopefully,  erase all knowledge of it.

How does everyone figure stuff out? Experience? Practice? Not being so retarded? I guess I’ll just keep wondering. Ignorance is bliss, really.