Rose and Joanne {and Moby}

One morning, after moving tables and cabinets in to my new house, my friends, Jeff and Amanda, took me to Rose's Bakery for delicious breakfast burritos...it's walking-distance from my house and really, really tasty.

So, of course, that's where my friend Lisa and I went today.

We'd ordered and were sitting on the patio eating our breakfast burritos, talking.

As we talked, the restaurant became more and more crowded. At one point, a woman who was there alone {well, with her dog} asked if she could please share our table since she had a chair, but there were no open tables. We said, of course.

We continued talking. Lisa just returned from a long-awaited trip to New York City and was telling me about that and then we moved on to topics of Kenya {of course} and her previous missions experiences.

The woman interrupted. "Sorry, but what do you two do? I'm hearing talk of a lot of travel."

So we talked, briefly, about youth ministry...and then about various trips we've been on with students. Then, asked her if she'd traveled much.

As it turns out, Joanne has been all over the world. She has lived in New York, London and LA. She wrote a bucket list at 50 {she just turned 59} and has been crossing things off one-by-one. Her stories were amazing: sailing the Greek Isles, walking the Great Wall of China, working with children with special needs...she's incredible.

We talked with her for about half-hour and then exchanged phone numbers so I could get her connected with a Kenyan Safari company {also on her list}.

We left with the agreement to meet-up with her {and her dog, Moby} again sometime. I hope we really do.

So much for not talking to strangers. This totally proves McGruff the Crime Dog wrong.

It makes me want to sing "Who are the people in your neighborhood? They're the people that you meet, when you're walking down the street...they're the people that you meet each day."