Doesn't life have a way of sneaking up on us and giving us agida? Like this discovery of mine this morning as I was putting supplies away under the bathroom sink. AND this looks like it has been going on for a while. There is UNrepairable damage to the chip board base. It is all crumbly and swollen. Water does that. Water creeps in and does a LOT of damage. It has corroded the piping. Actually rotted it away. WOW! How does water do that?
Some days it feels as though I am in over my head. Some days it is like, leave me alone, I don't want to do anything. Some days I wish that the day would just disappear and come back as tomorrow. Maybe because my Spanish essay is due this evening?
... it must be worship. So where WAS everyone this beautiful, sunny, Sunday morning? There were a total of thirty people there today -- and that is counting clergy, choir, altar party and organist.
Something has happened to our feeling about church attendance. I attend because the community worship rounds out my private worship of the week. It confirms my connection with God through this community of worship. Not so with others, I guess.
We had one young person today. Our new acolyte in training. So where were all the others? The streets are cleared of snow. The temperatures are well above freezing. What's going on?
Obviously there are other needs, of which I am not aware.
Too long have I been dilly dallying with this assignment. Four weeks ago our Spanish teacher announced that one, no more English, only Spanish; two, that in three weeks we would have written an essay in Spanish to be read in class; and three, there would be a test on verb tenses the week after that.
Well, the first of these didn't happen, at least for me. I have a very limited Spanish vocabulary, am just catching on to the verb tense thing, and I don't seem to be able to hear what I do know. Thankfully, the others are very patient with me and with a lot of coaching and a lot of praise and encouragement from our instructor, I struggle through the oral stuff. My pronunciation is good, I just can't recall vocabulary quickly.
And the essay? Really, what a difficult thing. I did one sentence, then another, then another. Okay, that's a paragraph. Then I made the mistake of Googling 'essay' and found that there is actually a formal essay format. Five parts. There is NO WAY this essay of mine is going to have five parts. I am going to be lucky to construct three.
I'm not even going to have three if I just don't get at it......................
Friday is my only scheduled eight to five work day -- Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, all day Friday. This is a doctors' office. We work with the 'public.' That means people. Many people. Nutty people. Cranky people. People hurting and frantic and worried and sometimes not rational. A LOT of the time not rational.
It is trying to maintain civility when being bombarded with negativity -- from the outside and sometimes from the inside. Friday's can be nuts. Going in with a positive attitude is helpful. sometimes that isn't enough. Sometimes it is.
Five o'clock does come. The doors are locked. The lights go out. We go home.
