Friday had been a full and productive day with travel to a city over an hour away for meetings and site inspections at a couple of city parks to plan for an event there next Memorial Day, then rushing home for a fundraising event by local HS students who are building a home for a wounded warrior. (Update: they raised $88,000 in 3 months and have closed escrow! And this is entirely the work of HS students who conceived and organized the project, dubbed 'Operation All the Way Home,' or OATH--partly because the students had pledged themselves to making this goal a reality.)
So Saturday was to be a day of NO plans, until I remembered an email I had gotten about a local city event, a 'Celebration of America' family event on the boulevard by City Hall. What got my attention was the news that the OATH students were to have a booth there, so I decided on the spur of the moment to be there.
With my car temporarily out of action, I looked up the bus schedules and caught two of the last weekend-schedule buses heading that way. And the second busdriver liked my OATH T-shirt so much that when I went to pay the fare, she said, "Forget it," and didn't charge me.
Once at the site, it didn't take too much walking around to find the OATH booth and say hello to the wonderful bunch of students working there (and to pick up a couple more coffee mugs and other mechandise benefitting OATH).
Just across from that booth was the Blue Star Mothers, so I spent some time seeing friends there and making new ones and collecting some more merchandise.
When I turned around again, the OATH students' teacher, Jamie, was there. She's the inspiration for the special projects her students undertake every year, and she's a good friend. She and her entire family and I have worked together on school projects and community volunteer events, and she and I co-chair a committee of a local veterans' group together.
After spending some time with Jamie I kept running into friends I know and love, including another amazing person, the director of our local food bank/resource center/homeless shelter.
It was hard to turn around without running into somebody I was overjoyed to see, even If I had just seen them at the event the night before. Including our wounded warrior, Jerral, whom I thought might be too fatigued after the Friday night OATH event. He left his new tracked wheelchair at home and showed up in his old one. He can't shake hands with his one hand, so we did the usual fistbump. What a trooper! He was happy to have gotten a babysitter, because his two kids can be a handful even for a fully-abled person.
Jamie and her students were lucky to have gotten the site they had because the bands on the nearby stage, including the Elvis impersonator doing the King's tunes, were very good. Just a block down there was nothing but a stream of non-stop announcements over the mike as the winners of the car show were announced and the trophies handed out.
I also took a break to pop into a restaurant there for some scampi and a beer. While waiting, I popped outside for a moment to find, RIGHT in front of my eyes, a SPECTACULAR fireworks display that I had no idea they were going to do. I only regret that I forgot to bring my camera. After the great show, the scampi and the beer were delicious!
So all of this is by way of saying that what is shaping up to be another boring night can be totally transformed into a GREAT night if one is willing to kick oneself in the ass and just say, "Let's do it!" Even if it's spur-of-the-moment and the transportation may seem problematic.
I ended up getting a ride home from Jamie, who lives nearby. And with the satisfaction of knowing that, for a few hours, all was right with the world.
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