A funny thing happened on the way to coffee...

As I so often do, when the day is growing tiresome, I went with my friends today to get a little coffee at the kiosk. So, out I went with K, K, and D. D is a man. Walk walk walk POPHISSSSSSSSSSSSSS. D pointed out that someone had flattened a tire. Ah, geez, poor whoever it is. I started walking toward the afflicted car. K, K, and D scattered. Fine. They're busy people. I walked up to the car but the skinny blonde young girl with a nosering driving the car kept driving. Slowly. She was on her cell phone. I started poking my head down into view from her passenger window, "Um, your tire is flat, I can help you." People out smoking at the nearby building entrance stared at me. Blinking. The girl was still kind of driving. I looked, shrugged, smiled, the cell phone flat tire girl ignored me, as did the smokers. So, the girl finally got out and I said, "You're tire is flat." and she said, "I'm aware of that. I need to turn this in " I said, "I can help." she said, "Can you just stand right here while I turn this in?" I did. I stood there. The smokers went inside. Meanwhile, an old friend of mine approached. "Hey!" I said. "Hey!" he said. "This young lady has a flat tire." I said. "Do you have time?" "Too change a tire? Sure!" my friend said. He proceeded to change the tire expertly. I stood in the street to avoid his being killed. It was hot, almost August. He was all sweating and dirty in his worky worky polo shirt and khakis, being a big champion. The girl, all this time, just sort of looked confused and said things like, "It's not even my car, I don't know where the spare is, Is there a hazard light? etc." When the tire was changed, I put the old tire in the trunk and we both told the girl where to get the old tire fixed/replaced. She drove away without much said. Here are my questions:
(1) Don't we help people with flat tires? Why did everyone seem to think I was so strange? K,K, and D? The smokers? She was even a girl. She had something to turn in.
(2) Why was my later friend so helpful and willing? Is it just because he thought I knew the girl? (He did.) Is it just that he and I agree about the whole tire changing helping thing? Or maybe we're both just eager to show off our skills. One of the other times I helped a stranger was a girl having trouble starting a mower. I like to show off my skills.
(3) Do I still get credit on my soul score card now that I've told everyone this story? The friend gets a ton of credit, having done the work. Does the girl's indifference/rudeness help or hurt us?
I have a strange feeling and an obsession with the event. I feel inexplicably bound to my helpful friend. The whole thing reminds me of my recent tennis experience. I asked around and all these people wanted to play tennis so I set a time and we all played. I don't play tennis. They all do. They weren't playing but they wanted to play. They needed someone to make the plan. Is helping people the same way? Am I in the role of instigator in my life? Maybe so. It sounds good to me. Jumping in when someone, say, sets up a kickball league and picking colors and cheering and helping people make things happen when I stink at kickball. Making connections between a flat tire and someone who's expert at changing tires...I could have done it but it would have taken a lot longer.

Milwaukee, WI

I've been thinking a lot about Milwaukee, WI and Laverne and Shirley and medium sized cities and the midwest and regions I've never visited and snow and moderately priced houses and leaving behind the life that I have and doing something new. I'm not sure why Milwaukee except that I have no idea what's there. I hear really good things about the twin cities and Minnesota. It's strange because you know what you know and you know what's on TV and the rest is just fog. Like Philadelphia. My 15-year-old cousin, when asked where she might like to live upon graduating from high school and moving on, would like to move to Philadelphia. To be fair, she had just come from visiting that fair city. She sang the Fresh Prince song. I joined her...I said to the cabby, 'Yo, Holmes, smell ya later.' I had just asked about New York. No, she said, she wasn't interested in living in New York. She likes Florida, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. Maybe I would like Philadelphia, I thought. How could I know? Nashville has been in Jane Magazine a lot recently. I lived there in high school and thought it was kind of a drag but every place is a drag when you're under 18. And people love Memphis. What about Little Rock, Arkansas? There's a lot of talk about Austin, Asheville, Boulder, Berkeley, Charleston, Raleigh, Portland (did you know that Portland specializes in gourmet doughnuts?). What about Phoenix? People like Birmingham. Birmingham. I think I would hate it but people like it. The housing is moderately priced. The traffic is easy. I could live near my job and have a garden and a walk-in closet. Maybe somewhere on the coast but without a beach or maybe the coast of Delaware. I liked the coast of Delaware when I was there. Maybe I should move to Rehobeth, Delaware. Maybe I would like Florida (shutter). I really don't think I would. But St. Augustine is really nice. I could move into a retirement center and drive a golf cart. I watch househunters a lot and the houses aren't like the houses where I live. It's not a shock, right? I mean different regions have different houses but it's funny. My choices are ranch and bungalow. What's 'traditional'? I don't know but it's three stories, four bedrooms, and one bathroom that's off the dining room. This particular traditional home also had a stunning view of Mt. Ranier. I can't even see stupid Stone Mountain from my house. On the other hand, I can eat Vietnamese food any day of the week and not just Indian but Southern, Northern, Eastern, Western Indian, or Udipi cuisine, which is an island off the coast of India. Or Kudrathi, which I think is actually Western India. I can have Ethiopian or Sudanese or Egyptian. I work with people from Puerto Rico and Germany and Korea and China and get practice at pronouncing names in all those languages. If I need yarn for knitting that's made of bamboo, I can find it. If I want to try any beer in the world on tap, I can. I can even get single malt scotch by the glass in one restaurant I know. I can see ET on the big screen or Harry Potter at the drive-in. My friends are here and I know how to get around and when my husband finished law school, he could come to me and still get a really good job. The following quote is on my coffee cup: "I used to think that going to the jungle made my life an adventure. However, after years of unusual work in exotic places, I realize that it is not how far off I go or how deep into the forest I walk that gives my life meaning. I see that living life fully is what makes life--anyone's life, no matter where they do or do not go--an adventure." It's Maria Fadiman who is, apparently, a Geographer, ethnobotanist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer. I'd like to be able to say the same thing...