I'm not the most helpful person in the world, but I do like to help people out when there's something I can do. There are times, however, when I am just not as helpful as I might be.
Sometimes I get a case of the lazies and tell my friends I can't help them move because I'm tired. Now, this is truthful, but I'm not so tired that I can't help out. I'm basically being a lazy, no good friend.
Sometimes, I'm more than willing to help out, but I have to work when they need me. This is frustrating, but it kind of comes with the whole "working three jobs" territory. Chances are, if you call me last minute, I'm not going to be able to help.
Other times, people ask me to help out with stuff when I'm not the best person for the job. "Hey, Ruth, I could really use some help with my calculus homework." "Hey, random person with calculus homework, I'm not your guy. How 'bout letting me edit your English paper, though, eh?"
Then there's the situations like the one that occurred last night:
My friends and I are all standing in the foyer at church, just chatting. All of the sudden, out of the blue, and completely without warning (I think this might be a little too dramatic for this blog), a white minivan pulls up under the overhead awning thingy. Actually, I'm not sure if it's called an awning. Is it a parapet? A canopy? I'm not sure. It's the little thingy people drive under when unloading their kids.
And sure enough, one of my friends hops out of the car and starts going through the difficult process of unloading her kids. She has four of them, one of which is still a baby, and the oldest is about 6. So my friends and I were watching her, talking about how great she is with all her kids. We talked about how cute her kids are. We talked about how much we love her family.
Then, after about 3 minutes of watching this awesome mommy unload her four kids from the van, I was struck with a brilliant idea. "Maybe we should go out there and help her."
By the time I've thought of this, the mom entered the church with four kids in tow. It's not that I didn't want to be helpful, but for some reason, it just occurred to me to be helpul...a little too late.
I kinda sorta redeemed myself by watching her kids while she went to park the van, but *shrug*, I blew it.
Things like this happen to me all the time--probably because I'm not as considerate as I might be. I'm not sure if that's a symptom of the social awkwardness, or if it's just a symptom of good ol' fashioned human stupidity.
There are times when my roommate starts bringing in armloads of groceries. After her third trip, I get the bright idea to help her, just in time for her to say, "Oh, that was the last load." I offer to help the lead teacher in the preschool classroom where I teach, as she is cutting out stacks of construction paper butterflies. I ask her just as she is cutting the last one.
It just doesn't occur to me to help until it's too late. Maybe I need to be more like this one ultra observant and considerate roommate I had in college, who would hand me one of her post-it notes or pencils before I was able to grab one of my own from my desk. Wait...no...she was really annoying, actually. Helpful, but annoyingly so.
But it's my own fault I got that roommate, because after a less than satisfactory experience with a roommate who was extremely inconsiderate, I spent the summer praying: "Dear Lord, please give me a considerate roommate. That's all I want. I just want her to be considerate."
God does have a sense of humor.
I got a roommate. I got a considerate roommate. She was so considerate it drove me nuts. One night I remember shouting at her, "Why do you have to be so stinkin' considerate all the time?"
She thought I was crazy, and maybe I am.
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