encounters with strangers. . .

lately logan & i have had some pretty random encounters

with some pretty interesting strangers.
the other day we went to smith's to get groceries.
as we were leaving the store, a tiny old
hispanic lady walked up to logan and asked him if he spoke spanish.
when he said yes, the lady started speaking
a million words a minute.
i caught bits and pieces of what she was saying.
4+ years of spanish have quite literally gotten me nowhere.
before i knew it, we were walking to the parking lot
headed for our car.
the lady was pulling this huge blue cooler that was half her size.
we got to the car and i quickly asked logan what was going on.
"we're going to give her a ride home".
i thought to myself that logan must be a genius if he
was going to somehow fit 3 people and a huge cooler into the bug.
nevertheless, we made it work.
we put the top down, and i crammed myself in the back seat
right next to the huge blue cooler.
we were like two peas in a pod back there.the little old lady just chatted away with logan in the front seat.
her name was consuelo and she was from mexico.
she sells tamales every day from her big blue cooler.
she usually sells them by smith's because it's a busy area.
she walks about 8 or 9 blocks from her small apartment
every day to smith's and tries to find a kind stranger who
can give her a ride home at the end of the day.
if you look real close you can see little consuelo in the right mirror.
i was trying to be inconspicuous while taking the pic.

we got to her place and logan pulled out the cooler from
the back of the car and walked it up to her doorstep.
she was SO happy that we helped her.
she hugged logan and i probably 10 times each and kissed my cheeks.
she said gracias like 50 times and had a huge smile on her face.
logan told her i knew a little spanish and that she should speak
to me so i could practice.
i graciously told her that i really didn't know anything
and made a wide eyes at logan in order to make him stop egging her on.
it was neat giving her a ride home though.
logan told me as we drove away from her place that she is
the only one over here from her familiy-the rest are in mexico.
she sells tamales and sends money home to her family.
she was a really sweet lady and i'm glad logan & i were in the
right place at the right time so we could help her!

as for another random encounter. . .
logan & i went to a surprise birthday party the other night for a friend.
we parked the car a few blocks away so we wouldn't blow our cover.
after the party as we walked back
to the car, we saw ANOTHER little old lady
walking around the car and looking at it intently.
as we approached her, she asked if we were the owners.
i said yes, but was terrified she was going to say something
like we were parked on private property & she was going
to call the cops on us or something.
i am a nervous person in general so this is just how my mind works.
she launched into telling us how cute it was and how clean it looked
and basically asked us if we wanted to sell it.
logan & i smiled as we looked at eachother.
we told her we were planning on selling it within the next year or so.
she told us that we just had to come inside and talk to her husband about it.
so we did.
they just so happened to live in one of the cutest homes
in provo that logan & i have always wanted to go inside.
we met her husband and made some small talk.
he asked if we were going to school/studying/working, etc.
we told him we graduated from BYU and he said he used to teach
there in the school of social work.
logan said, "really?? maybe you know maren's grandpa, he used
to teach in the social work department!"
the old man got an excited look on his face.
"that's right" i said, "his name was john christiansen".
the man got a slight smile on his face as he said
"not only do i know him, but i love him".
apparently this man and my grandpa had talked a lot during
the early years of this man's career as he was deciding where
to teach, etc.
my grandpa john passed away about 9 years ago, so it was neat
listening to this man tell me stories about my grandpa.
we ended up staying and talking to these people for about 30 minutes!
at the end of the conversation we talked about the car.
they basically told us to come back in a few months and let them
take it for a test drive and then we could talk about selling it to them!

what is it with my car and getting me into random situations?
i'll admit i will be sad to see it go-but logan & i need a bigger
and more reliable car ASAP.
any suggestions for what we should buy?
after test driving the cube we were really excited about
the prospect of buying one, but we heard they have a lot of problems.
i'm sure we will find a great car when time time comes.
for now we will just enjoy the time we have with the bug!
the weather is finally getting warm, which means the top can finally come down!