Car issues and talking religion with strangers.

This is not my Mushu, but one of it's twins. Mine has bars and a silver dragon

So yesterday was my day off, and I took the oportunity to take my car to the dealership for it's annual service. Actually, for the vacation package ($85) rather than the full service (don't have the money for it rigth now, and at a starting price of $520 plus verification hologram (the hologram and it's corresponding verification I DID get) I'm gonna wait a litte. Plus it takes two days, and I only had one. My brother had to take his car too, same make, same model, same year, only two weeks "younger" than mine, and since we would be car-less in a big city, we wended our way towards our cell phone service dealer offices (we both had to change our devices) and then to a mall.

First, let me tell you how it never stops amazing me how some people seem to think that everybody's time is of no importance but theirs. There was a woman in the line that was very amusing. She was about five spots in the line before me, and before HER there were about 10 other people. She was even tinyer than me, and she kept tapping her foot, stretching her neck in order to see if the clerks were free, looking at her watch... Then suddenly, when a customer left his spot at the clerk to go to the cash register (they usually have to come back with the signed and sealed receipt and exchange it for their phone) she left the line and went to ocupy his spot! well, rather she crawled under the belt like thingies that form the lines, crossing under, over and in spite of all the other people before her, who were too stunned to see such a display of bad manners to do anything! there was a collective gasp and she looked smugly at the line... only to be told by the clerk that he was not free yet, but if she would PLEASE go back TO HER PLACE in the line, they would be very very pleased to serve her. We all smiled, all of us left behind by this midget of monumental ego. And when she became beet red and left the office huffing and puffing, we all began to clap and cheer the clerk! now was his turn to become all red, and smile a bit sheepishly. I tell you, the way some of us treat these nice clerks is embarasing. I can just imagine the ammount of people that do what that woman did, and how they have to muster their patience and be polite in the face of rudeness.

You want to know what her hurry was? well, my brother and I ran into her, leisurely shopping. There was no sale, no one was with her, and she seemed to be in no hurry to go anywhere else. The gall of some people! Well, at least I moved up one spot in the line and my new phone does not lose my contacts like the (extremely beat up, formerly owned by two other people) war phone.

Oh, and guess what happened! I was prepared to buy a very inexpensive, very fugly phone. My finances are very very bad but I needed a phone. And then I got a surprise, a major surprise. My brother asked me what phone did I like. Then I showed him the one I was going to get, and he looked at me as if I had lost my mind. "no- he said- I want to know what phone you LIKE". So I pointed to the Blackberry Bold.

Then he told me something that I did not understand, and I asked him to reapeat it. And then he repeated. "Dad gave me money to buy you the phone you want. ANY phone you want. " and then he proceded to lead me out of the cubicle so I would not know how much he was going to spend in the phone.

Talk about a shock. Now I am staring at my brand new phone, a phone I would NEVER had bought but am so glad that Dad gave to me. I was playing with it almost the whole three hours that we waited for our cars because they did not have them in the time that was initially agreed.

Which brings me to this. There was this young man sitting in a nearby table in the waiting area at the dealership. He was reading, which by itself is not very usual among the youths in Mexico. But the theme of the book! the title was "Habla un Exorcista". "An exorcist tells (his story)".

Now, I'd already read that book and another that I like even more, and the reactions from people who see the titles are almost always shock. Or disbelief. Or open judgment, and let me tell you, I see that I do not pass the judgement! Usually, they think the book is about satanism. As in, I want to worship him. BLECH! But this young man seemed to be reading it with great interest and gusto. So we (this guy, my brother and I) started talking.

And talking. And talking. Until his boss called him to his duty (ouch! sorry about that, Sergio!) But it was so nice to find someone who is more than superficially interested in religion, and to be able to speak openly, and exchange information about books and experiences, that it was one of the nicest things from that day, Blackberry included. I had happened to buy this book for my Dad :

It was to be a thank you gift, but it turns out he already had it. It figures. So I kept it for myself. The book is a book of memoirs, and so far- pardon me- it is hilarious! it is INTENTIONALLY hilarious too! this guy does not take himself even one tenth as seriously as he takes his job . He is one of the main exorcist in the Catholic Church today, and he is the writer of Svmma Daemoniaca, that in spite of it's title, is a very nice, very hope enhancing book.

But if I were to doubt if his job is hard, I only have to look at past photos of him. This easy going, funny man has aged so much in the years I've known him (yeah!!!!). His hair is completely white, despite him being 41. His health has failed as well. But he keeps on.

Whew! what a day I had! and then it was time to return home, to pick up my girls from my mother in law (I missed them so much!) And so, the day ended.