Experiencing the *real* world

Today had me out and about for a number of different things: 1) to visit a woman in our church who just had her baby 2) for a massage 3) to get exact change for the massage 4) at a bank 5) getting an oil change. I say this is out in the real world for me because quite honestly, most of the time I am at church things with church people. I do see *other* people at the grocery store and there are good folks where I volunteer. But otherwise, there are ATMs, pay at the pump gas stations, and I am rarely at a restaurant or other such lugar, so I simply don't have natural occasions to interact with folks outside the church.

Anyway, my lack of interaction was not supposed to be the focus of this post, rather, how interesting it is to have conversations with some of the folks I encounter. The guy who helped with most of my car stuff (including the actual maintenance) looked like he was probably in ROP through the high school. He was helpful, but not terribly talkative. But as soon as his manager came in to do the biling, the whole experience shifted. The manager was outright flirting (an aspect of life I sometimes forget actually exists--it's not really a popular past time of serving communion or teaching Bible study to older adults). And he as much said he was flirting. (well, rather, asked for space from the other guy so he could flirt). I'm okay with that, it, at the very least, provides entertainment. So we chatted about where they were from (VA and OH) and places I might visit when I go to VA in a couple of weeks. Then Mr. "Excuse-me-so-I-can-flirt" tells me his 5th baby was just born. Wait, you just had a 5th child and you're flirting with me because why?? Yeah, graduated a year ahead of me and is on baby #5 (no wedding band) and is reveling in flirting. Definitely a reality check for me. I didn't have the _________ to interrupt him (people often get skiddish around me when they find out what I do) when he told me that when he was in HS he "didn't like any of [his] classmates, so [he] started fornicating with the underclassmen". They say confession is good for the soul, and I wholy believe it, but he definitely did not know to whom he was confessing, and I am not quite sure why he was confessing.

It's a strange strange world friends. A strange strange world.