Family Fun Day #3

We had our 3rd family fun day on Wednesday. We decided to head to the circle at orange and just walk around through the antique stores and the town, and then have lunch at Garrett's favorite Ruby's, the one at the train station.We wandered a little bit. We met this guy. He asked us for directions and after we told him how to get where he wanted to go the conversation went like this:

Him: I'm hurtin'.
Me: What?
Him: I'm hurting.
Me: Why? What's wrong?
(He kind of tips his head down, and by the look of his lips tightening, I could tell he was starting to cry. He had sunglasses on, so I couldn't see his eyes.)
Him: I was in the Marines and I've buried a lot of friends.
Me: I'm so sorry...are you still in the Marines?
Him: No, I'm out now, but you never really get out.
Me: Thank you for your service.
Him: I'm riding cross country now for all my buddies.
Me: That's pretty amazing.
Him: You keep loving and taking care of your beautiful babies.
Me: I will. Thank you. Good luck.
Him: God bless.

It was really random. Paul said he was a little caught of guard because of how forward he was by just telling us he was hurting. But he also said that my response of "What?" and "Why? What's wrong?" was so immediate and frank that he just let me take it from there. I like talking to strangers, and I love hearing peoples stories. I'm always so curious when I'm people watching and I see people crying or yelling or laughing, but I can't tell what the situation is, I always want to talk to them or try and get close enough to figure it out on my own. Just a couple days ago I pretended like I was looking for my keys in my purse for a really long time near the exit at Target because there was a lady on the phone having a yelling match with her credit card company about why her card wouldn't work and I just wanted to listen.

Anyway, here's the marine, leaving us for his next stop.We walked around some more. I bought some overpriced cupcake liners at my favorite party store. And on our way back to the car, I told Paul I wanted to run into a cute little baby boutique that I can never afford anything at. Turns out they are going out of business and everything was on super sale. I got 12 clothing items, 2 dozen hangers, 6 sleepers, a pair of shoes, that little toy station thing, and the table that the bag is on, all for 40 bucks!After lunch, Garrett ran around outside the train station, and both kids slept all the way home. Perfect.And after Lulu's nap, she tried out her new toy. So far its been well worth the $12 investment.