Well, dear friends, I have had another busy week but then the world is full of busy people so I am certainly not alone. As usual this week has yielded some lessons and some interesting discoveries. I'm a lifetime learner. Or so it seems...
This week I overdrew our bank account on a grand scale. Balancing checkbooks is just so deferrable until your bank account has numbers in red with a little minus sign to the left of the figure shown. This checkbook crisis seems ironic given the fact that I have an MBA hanging up on my office wall. It really is mine. And yes, even with that MBA hanging up on the wall, I sometimes let the balancing my checkbook thing fall by the wayside. Shocking, isn't it?
I had quite a surprise this week when I discovered that a client had blogged about me. Not in a bad way but just in regard to an event at which I gave a presentation. It was nice to know that I was worth a blog mention and I was happy to learn that this client was a blogger. You never know these days who is happily blogging away in their free time. I’m a big believer in the value of blogging. Obviously, I'm not alone.
I got the best Easter basket ever this past weekend. Thanks to my daughter, I finally got my favorite Easter chocolates and some other nifty things like this book:
Yes, this was the year of the cool Easter basket at our house. My husband still slipped a few candy bars into my basket. He can't seem to bypass the Almond Joys and Mound Bars because he knows I do like them. Will the man never learn – pecan eggs and those little chocolate and coconut nests with the jelly bean eggs - that's what I want at Easter. I didn’t give him a big Easter basket but I did buy him some of those solar garden lights that look like rocks. The man loves solar lighting and solar lighting that looks like garden rocks – so much better than chocolate. He immediately ran outside and starting working the rock lights into the garden layout. He got jelly beans and licorice too. The man likes jelly beans and licorice. What can I say. I aim to please.
Here’s a weird work phenomenon that has been plaguing me lately. I keep calendaring a day for working on all my admin paperwork. That stuff takes time. When you get behind life is hell. I am behind. Way behind. So I put BOOK NO APPTS on my calendar and block out a day as busy. I have done this for the last two weeks – one day a week for administrative tasks. Ask me if I got an admin work done. One report? Just one? No. No. No. Why? Because there are emergency requests that sprout up like weeds on a pristine suburban lawn. Suddenly I am focusing on critical projects that I had no expectation of entertaining. My day is gone before the projects are even done. Now I have projects to finish up PLUS I have the admin work.
A piece of advice for the hapless worker, if a man with a big coffee can that jingles comes into your workplace and tells you that he is a preacher and he is trying to earn money for charity – well, maybe he is and maybe he isn’t. Whether you chose to think the best and give or not, you’d better prepare yourself for some sort of dissertation or discussion in which you will find yourself bound to listen or participate.
Preacher man – just a word of advice or perhaps a few more than that now that you have turned up and solicited for funds at the litle shopping center down the road from my house. First off, you are not supposed to be going into places of business to ask for money – that is called solicitation and is frowned upon by most business establishments. Second – when some kid gives you money when they hardly have any to give, don’t go on about your religious quandaries after you get the cash and throw it in your can of donations. This kid did not give you money so that you would launch into the reasons that you are a Catholic who became a Pentecostal because you had some issues with church teachings. They were trying to help runaway kids who need help from the charity for which you said you were collecting. The kid does not want to hear the details of your adult religious angst. They are at work. They can't be having uncomfortable conversations with you just because you want to drag them into said discussion. They are hoping you will take the donation they really can't afford to give you and go on your way without further ado. They were trying to do something virtuous. Don't make them regret it.
And by the way, what kind of person, after they get their donation, asks some beautiful slender girl if she is pregnant? I couldn't believe my ears. That is just what this guy did. If it were me, I would have asked him for my donation back again. Here's the deal, sir - comments like that will crush a young girl's spirit and encourage her to consider developing an eating disorder. Not one female on earth will appreciate that question unless they are wheeling her into the delivery room. It is especially annoying to hear that come out of your mouth when you yourself look a bit on the pregnant side. Use your head, my dear fellow. One thing is for sure - that girl's not going to be converting to the Pentacostal faith anytime soon.
My confused evangelical friend – you must know when the conversation is finished. You are not the only one who needs to learn this lesson. We are all guilty of going on when we should be heading off. Nevertheless, witnessing this interaction really frustrated me. I had to work on keeping my mouth shut. But I did. After all, I have to follow my own advice sometimes.
Think your good deeds through or they may not be good deeds at all. That was my takeaway from witnessing this interaction.
On another note, one of my best friends got divorced this week. I was sorry about that. However, I predict that there will be a rather higher than imagined probability that he will marry his newly ex-ed spouse again - eventually. First, he’ll have to figure out what to do with the chick he got engaged to while he was separated.
Is she nice – the new chick? I don’t really know. I didn’t have the energy to deal with the new woman when the old woman was still married to my friend. It’s all just too exhausting. I just yell at my friend once in awhile about not rushing into things and leave it at that. Mothers do that sometimes – it’s a form of maternal caring that is almost always seriously annoying to those on the receiving end. Sometime I just can’t restrain myself from providing a little motherly admonition to those I care about. That’s what earplugs, stubborn natures, and the dropped cell phone call were made for – avoiding the admonition and the general annoyance of bossy friends and family.
As one might guess, the new chick is rather eager to get hitched now that the ex has been official ex-ed. It may not be as done a deal as she imagines, however. Life is just not like that and she is the rebound relationship whether anyone is willing to admit it or not.
I appreciate my friend’s adventurous nature and his bravado, however. I don’t get to watch soaps anymore and I don’t have to. I have the real thing just a phone call away and it’s daytime Emmy material. He is my favorite soap opera and that’s saying something as I am very discerning in regard to such things. Don’t tell me you don’t have a friend or family member like this. They play an important and necessary role in our lives – if only for the therefore-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I effect they provide us. Don’t be smug. They are probably saying the same thing about us. The therefore-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I effect has a broad application.
Such is life on Suburban Island.
And how was your week?
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