Unlikely Angels

People surprise me all the time.
I had only been here two weeks - had still not really figured out the subway - and was coming home kind of late after going out with Lauren. It was a subway line I didn't normally take (i.e. any line other than the 6!), so I wasn't sure which one to get on, much less which way to go! I was standing on the platform trying to figure out what to do without looking like I was trying to figure out what to do. I glanced around for someone who looked "nice" to ask which way I should go. My first pick was a woman who couldn't speak English...okay, what now - everyone else looks creepy! I made eye contact with a girl with dyed black hair, black fingernails, black clothes and a blank, sullen face - I thought to myself I definitely didn't want to talk to her - she looks scary! Her expression changed and she explained very nicely exactly how I should get where I wanted to go. I thanked her and we continued to stand together waiting for the train. When it arrived, she looked at me and motioned that this is the one we should get on. We sat across from each other, and I kept wanting to strike up a conversation but kept hesitating. When my stop came, she nodded that I should get off. I told her I appreciated her help so much. What I wanted to tell her was what an angel she had been to me on so many levels - showing me the way home, travelling with me so I wasn't alone on the subway late at night, and teaching me not to judge people so quickly by the way they look.

Another blessed meeting happened when my cell phone stopped working (remember when I got caught in Central Park in the rain...well, don't call people to tell them you're caught in the rain WHILE you're caught in the rain!) Anyway, as has happened so many times since I've been here, God provided. My speaker stopped working - no one could hear me on my phone, but I could hear them. What to do?!?! It was almost 6 pm on Saturday night! As I started to freak out, I looked up from my phone and saw I was standing directly in front of a Verizon Wireless store...open until 10 pm!! Hahaha! Amazing. I went inside and met the sweetest girl at customer service. I had to get a brand new phone, which meant I would lose all my texts and any unsaved pictures (I had a bunch of sweet texts from leaving Birmingham and arriving in New York that I didn't want to lose, and I really thought I was going to cry if my pictures were erased!) She had me forward the texts to her phone and then she sent them back to me, and then she waited for like 20 minutes while I saved all the pictures to a disk! We talked the whole time this was going on, and just while I was thinking how happy I was that I'd had to come in there because I'd gotten to meet her, she said she was so happy I was there - that I was the nicest person she'd helped all day, and she had just needed to laugh and talk with someone.

You never know when you're going to find an angel...or when you're going to be an angel to someone else!