Carla had a playdate this past snow day with a friend. “Just be warned,” Friend’s mom texted me, “We haven’t shoveled the driveway!” Neither had I, and the snow had fallen fast and furious the night before, so I could definitely relate.
I plugged Friend’s address into my navigator and drove there, very, very slowly. I’d been to Friend’s house once before, and as we got close, I noticed Friend’s dad outside shoveling the driveway, all bundled up against the cold. I felt a little panicky – like maybe he was doing it on my behalf? But I’d texted Friend’s Mom that it was no big deal, I could pause on the street and send Carla to fetch Friend from the house.
But no. He had completely shoveled the driveway. As I pulled up, he turned away from the street, getting out of the way so I could drive up the driveway to the house.
He turned and looked at me as I pulled up. His hat was pulled down so low, and his gaiter was pulled up so high, all you could see was a narrow band of flesh around his eyes. I couldn’t tell if he was smiling, and instantly fretted that he was annoyed he’d had to interrupt his work day to clear the driveway for me.
I rolled down my window. The snow and cold swirled in, fogging my glasses. “Hi! How are you?”
“Good. How are you?”
“Great! You did a great job on the driveway!” Why did I say that? He didn’t need my praise. I just felt awkward that I was the cause of the shoveling. Although, probably not everything is about me, and maybe he needed some exercise/a break from work/to shovel the driveway anyway.
He wasn’t making any moves toward the house, so I figured his wife hadn’t told him we were coming to pick up his daughter. Maybe he didn’t recognize me; I’d put on a mask because we were going to have Friend in the car with us. I pulled down my mask and smiled at him.
Still nothing. Several long seconds of nothing.
“Well, we’re just here to pick up Friend!”
That’s when he told me, in a very amused voice, that Friend lives next door.
“Haha!” I giggled in semi-hysteria, the blowing snow melting instantly on my shame-fired cheeks. “You are so bundled up, I couldn’t tell you weren’t Friend’s dad!”
I backed down the driveway. Carla was APPALLED. “That wasn’t Friend’s HOUSE, Mommy!” she said in a low, horrorstruck voice.
“Haha!” I said. “I know! Whoops! No harm done!”
Except that as I backed into the street, there was Friend’s dad, at the bottom of the very next driveway, holding a shovel and trying valiantly not to laugh at me.
So I think you and I both need a good dose of kitten, today. Don’t you agree?
Carla, as you know, likes to make friends with the neighbors for the sole purpose of getting access to their pets.
Apparently – and if I’ve told you this story before, I apologize; I did search through my blog but couldn’t find it, which, alas, doesn’t mean it isn’t there – Carla had spotted one neighbor’s kitten through the neighbor’s glass door several months ago, and had asked the neighbor about it. I swear I’ve told you this: I spent an excruciating half hour in this neighbor’s foyer once, because she’d invited Carla to come play with the kitten and I’d never met her before and that sounded pretty murdery.
She is NOT a murderer, she is a lovely woman. And she had a short work trip that would take her out of town overnight. So she asked Carla to cat sit the kitten.
I mean. Carla almost passed out from joy. This is her goal, you know. To be a pet sitter.
When it came time to pet sit, Carla lost a little bit of her nerve. She had all her instructions and a key and a code to the garage. But she was a little anxious about doing it alone, so she asked me to come with her. I had been planning to walk her to the neighbor’s house anyway – our street is positively choked with snow, and all the plows have made the sidewalks inaccessible and backing out of driveways very treacherous. So I didn’t want her to walk down the street by herself.
But then I went in – and stood respectfully in the entryway – while Carla fed and watered the kitten and played with him.
He is SO CUTE. So. Cute. And he was a little bit lonely, so he came right over to me and let me give him lots of scritches.
He purred. A LOT. And he was extremely playful, which was cause for endless delight on Carla’s part (and mine, too).
I wish I had more photos for you. But kittens are (un)surprisingly difficult to photograph, much in the way that eight-and-a-half-year-old future pet sitters are difficult to capture being still.
I have still not recovered from the Mistaken House Incident, but the kitten helps soothe the inflamed psyche.
Lololol that is totally something that would happen to me. I am constantly waving at people and calling out hi from across the street, only to realize that the person in question doesn’t know me. Literally, this happens ALL THE TIME. I try to blame the low angle of the sun, but it happens at any time of year, so I guess it’s just me. My husband hopes I will never have to pick anyone out of a police lineup because I’m pretty bad at recognizing acquaintances. Oh well! It’s better to be friendly. Even though sometimes I wave at people when I’m walking Barkley, and I have a bag of his poop in my hand, so I wave POOP at unknown people. When I die, they will talk about Friendly Poop Bag Lady In The Neighbourhood.
I’m not dying, but you know.
Speaking of which, I asked the guys if I died, would they update my blog. My son was like “if you died, I’d put actual instagram posts up for months.” Okay?
The cat sitting gig! Yay!
But the BLOG, boys! The BLOG!
I bet people think of you with extreme fondness, even if they have no idea who you are.
That’s a pretty cat.
I asked Beth if she’d post something on my blog if I predecease her and she said it wouldn’t be high on her list of things to do, but eventually yes, she’d write a guest blog post to alert you all. So that’s taken care of.
PHEW.
I make this kind of mistake, too. I think I know someone so I say “hi” or wave hello only to realize a few steps later that wasn’t who I thought it was. I’ve also had someone wave to me and I’m clueless about who it is. Later I find out it was a next door neighbor who’d put on a few pounds. Oops, on me.
I am comforted that others make similar mistakes. And I am terrible at identifying people out of context. If you are a teacher, you should be at SCHOOL, not at the grocery store, where you will become invisible to me.
Can I just say that I love BOTH of these stories? I imagine it gave both the guys a smile and a chuckle, and everyone needs that kind of fun when they are shoveling the driveway, right? (Also, it is absolutely something I would do too, and it would crack me up!)
And Carla! Being asked to cat-sit! I can imagine how I would have felt to be asked to do that at her age, and I could just feel her joy radiating through the story. What an adorable cat, and what a smart neighbor to ask Carla, who is obviously the perfect choice!
Thank goodness for the kitten! lol! Don’t feel too badly, though, this could happen to anyone. 🙂
We are pet sitting a turtle next week! This is a first for me and as you can tell I’m a little excited. Turtles are so cute. Of course the neighbors phrased it, “Does Kate want to pet sit?” haha, I didn’t even ask Kate, I’m in it for ME.
Orange kitties are so awesome! I’ve never met one who wasn’t vocal and friendly. I wish you lived nearby so Carla could pet sit for our girls.
I walk the dog with some frequency and people are always waving at me from in cars while I’m on the sidewalk. Some of our friends will honk if they see me with Hannah. I guess maybe people think that I will recognize their cars, but I don’t and so I end up waving to random vehicles a fair amount. I’m starting to wonder how many people were NOT waving at me and I waved at a stranger. (Also, when it’s warmer, men in pickup trucks – it’s always men in pickup trucks, usually older red Fords – will stop/slow down to yell out the window about how pretty/good/smart Hannah is. I never know what to do in these situations. My husband claims that they are just mildly flirting with me, but I think they are trying to figure out the level of “attack” dog Hannah might be.) I’m not even sure why I started typing all this out, but it’s too late to take it back now. If I thought about every overly familiar interaction I have had with people who I am not acquainted with, I would never be able to think about anything else. You were probably quite a delight to the neighbor!
The closest that I’ve had to this is that sometimes parents of my stepsons’ friends assume that I am their mom and call me by her name. And no we do not look alike, she’s much taller and has a different hair color. Honestly I’m just impressed that they know any name associated with the kids, since most of them are “Jason’s dad” to me.
Thanks for the kitty pix!!!
This was something I could picture happening to me. In the backseat, I could also hear both of my children being humiliated. 🙂
My youngest is a big animal lover, and she sounds a lot like your daughter.
I very much did need pictures of this kitten today.
I do remember you writing about the neighbor with the kitten! So you definitely did. The kitten is adorable! My last cat was an orange and he was the best cat–which sounds like I’m trying to knock the current cat, she’s great too, but in different ways. How nice for Carla to get to pet-sit, it’s good for the soul to hang out with a kitten. Doctors should prescribe kitten therapy to get people through the winter.
I DEFINITELY remember that post and found it for you. https://lifeofadoctorswife.wordpress.com/2021/12/12/why-am-i-the-way-that-i-am/
I know myself and can see mixing up the dads…heck, nine times out of time I can’t even identify my neighbors if I encounter them out of their element.
I’m the fall, after my daughter started attending a new (to her) school, she was invited to a classmate’s birthday party. On the appointed day, we very carefully killed time so that we wouldn’t arrive before the party’s appointed beginning time. I have speeches to my child about not arriving early. At precisely 3:30, we drove up to the house and saw the Dad leaf blowing the driveway, balloons in the mailbox, no other cars anywhere to be seen. He ushered is in, walked us around to meet his wife, find the birthday girl, etc…. And I briefly pulled my phone out of my pocket to see my calendar telling me to prepare for the birthday party, scheduled to begin at 4:00. I wanted to die.
I once saw a woman I thought I knew from work in the daycare parking lot, so I yelled “Hi! Oh my gosh! What are you doing here!” She said “uhhh picking up my daughter?” Yeah, it was the mother of another girl in my daughter’s class, who I had on a previous occasion had a lengthy discussion with. That was like a year ago and it still kills me.
I think my daughter’s friends want to come over solely to play with our cat, and that’s cool. Eventually he gets tired of the screaming hoard of 8 year olds though and runs for his life.
Oh gosh, sorry but that is hilarious. Cute kitten indeed. Glad Carla got her fix.
Oh gosh, this story just DELIGHTED me. I know it is mortifying for you (and Carla!), but there is really nothing I love more than mistaken identity stories.
That kitty is SO PRETTY. I want to snuggle him! I really, really want to get a third cat – an orange cat, too – but my mom is insistent that three cats makes me a crazy cat lady, sigh.
HAAAAA omg, this would be me! I once ran into a woman in the grocery store and thought she was Someone when she was in fact Someone Else and I said seeing Jann Arden the week-end before must have been cool and she said “that wasn’t me”. And I didn’t QUITE say oh, you’re mistaken, it definitely WAS you, but I think my face said it. Awkward is my middle name.