Watch what you say.

You know how when you are going away from work for a few days you are very stressed, trying to get everything done. Some responsiblities you give to others for a few days and you worry a bit about whether everything will go smoothly. But in the end, when it comes to leaving you say something to the effect..

"Well it is not like the place is going to burn down with me gone."

Or at least that is what I said leaving last week with my Wednesday Night program in the hands of volunteers. It turns out that it is still true...
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technically...

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But it doesn't mean that the fire alarm won't go off and the church needs to be evacuated. (Or should have been if they were following the guidelines I've worked to set up - but that is another story) Oh and that violent tantrum one of our poor kids through that needed a parent call didn't help the night either. Luckily I'd left a capable volunteer in charge who works as a teacher. And that the pastor was around to help subdue the child. (Yes, that's right, it was bad from what I've heard. I'm meeting with the mother tomorrow to figure out some possiblities. Poor kid - he has anxiety issues and a father in Iraq and a baby sister in the hospital.)

Anyway, I'm not sure I should be away on Wednesday's any more though. It sounds like they had a rough night.

More on my trip to Atlanta later when I am not hungry and eager to leave work!

People are so stupid

Driving home last night at 9:30 I got on the highway after 4 motorcycles (the racing type). They proceeded to speed ahead of traffic, doing wheelies, darting in an out of cars before cutting off a semi to get to an open stretch of road to do more wheelies. At this point I lost sight of them because I was only doing 70, not the 75 or 80 they were doing. Unreal. I cannot believe that people are that dumb!

Chris pointed out when I got home that I should have called 911. Honestly it did not occur to me because I was too busy swearing "You stupid kids, you'll get yourselves killed." And I'm not even sure they were kids.

Unreal.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Off to Atlanta for a few days for a conference. I may not have posting power so I'll see you all in blogland when i return. Let's hope Atlanta has enough water. I'm got this silly little habit of showering everyday!

As much as I want nice weather while I'm there I can't help but hope it rains for their sake.

Our prayers are with those who are fleeing fire too.

Seven True Things

I was tagged by my friend Kristine to reveal seven true things about me. So here you go...I hope it is not more than you wanted to know:

1. I am organizationally-challenged. Despite my best intentions I always seem to get to a point where the piles are more complicated and messy than is good. Yet, I still know where most things are.

2. Some of my more memorable nicknames include: Show-biz Liz, Lizardbreath, Tick Tock, and Mrs. Goat.

3. I am perfecting my Mom voice every week at church. By the time I have kids of my own I should be an expert. Ironically it is the High Schoolers and Confirmation students who need the Mom voice most.

4. I sort of hate telling people that I work in a church because it often is a conversation killer as people make all sorts of assumptions about Christianity and what sort of "crazy closed-minded conservatives" would work for a church. In reality I am quite liberal and concerned far more about social-justice, religious dialogue and grace, but that isn't what the average person equates with Christianity first. It is sad.

5. I still have my teddy bear that I took with me everywhere growing up. His name is Mistletoe and I confess that I still sleep with him, to that chagrin of my husband. But he serves the same purpose as sleeping with a pillow when you sleep on your side. I confess it is embarrassing but comforting and I never quite sleep as well without him. I don't take him out of the house any more though!

6. I hate travelling but love to see new places. If I could invent a Star Trek-esque transporter I would go everywhere I could.

7. I am a diet coke addict.

Oh, I'm supposed to tag seven others to do this as well. I tag: April, Kerry, Sarah, Barb, Scott, Cindy and Kristin.

Random Thursday Thoughts.

1. On Tuesday I went to cheer my 16 yr old SIL on in her swim meet. It was fun although I never know how to properly cheer for swimmers. In the first place, their heads are mostly underwater! And in the second, it is kind of a generic cheering sport. You can't yell "Defense (D - fence)" or "Block him" or "Shoot" or other things like that. I ended up yelling things like "Swim - Swim Faster! GO!," but it still seemed incomplete.

While I was there I was looking around at all the parents, there to cheer on their kids and it got me all sentimental. Who knows, in 20 years or so (sooner? who knows?) that could be me cheering for some child of mine. And what will my children want to do - athletics, music, drama, debate, all of the above? It was interesting to imagine not only having children (which I think about a lot) but to imagine having a HS child. As it is, if any child of mine turns out like my SIL is I think it will be great! I still may need to find something better than "Swim Faster" though.

2. I have been cleaning my office a bit at a time this week. I currently have a clean table and have mostly gone through the boxes that are dumped in my office by helpful church volunteers and employees. I still have the desk to finish, but I've made huge progress this week and it has helped my soul at work. I'm feeling more productive and happier at work. I am going to try to keep it up and keep myself on the right track. I figure if I do a little bit each day I can only improve. And it is a good thing that the inside is looking better since it has been gray and rainy forever it seems.

That and I've been playing my music on the Ipod more than the radio. I do like the radio but some of my favorite songs are helping too. It also probably helps that it has been a quiter week. Yay!

3. Funerals are never fun, but when you work at a church you are kind of glad when they are here because it means free lunch! Is that terrible?

4. I get to go to Argentina! I'll be heading there in March/April for a Mission trip to our day-care center was sponser down there. We are going to go to Iguazu falls as well for a little side excursion, but most of it is going to be helping in the daycare center and helping renovate some of their buildings! Our church partners with another church there and we basically fully fund a day care for low-income families down there. Many of the kids only have the one meal they are provided at the day care to eat all week. Some come from the weekend having not eaten at all! I'm really looking forward to going and working with the kids and getting to know this partnership our church has more. Now I need to work on raising the money though since the cost is higher than I can afford (hint - I can afford nothing so that isn't hard to be higher than that!). Still it is going to be cool. Here is a picture of Iguazu falls for you today from the web. I'll have real pictures when I get back in April!


5. I got my Nintendo DS and BrainAge. I tested my Brain Age last night and I got 74. The lower is supposed to be better - with 20 being the goal I think. Oops! I think I need to practice. Of course, I could blame it on the fact that the machine didn't seem to understand my WI accent when I said "scissors" in the Rock, Paper, Scissors test it had. Yeah...that must have been it! :)

I may be failing adult but I know how to use the phone!

So I just won a cool pack of prizes on KS95. I got a gift certificate to an Apple Picking farm, a Nintendo DS and Brain Age 2. Maybe I can practice and boost my brains performance and get out of my funk.

There is nothing quite like random free stuff to help cheer up an otherwise lousy day!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Failing Adult

I was a good kid....good in school, good to friends (with a few exceptions I'm sure), good to my parents (also with a few exceptions here). I was a good High School student - went to church, did good extracurriculars, didn't drink, smoke or skip. I was a good College student - did all my reading, was in tons of activities, didn't pass out drunk at parties (heck, our parties were tame by all accounts). Heck, I was practically a gunner in Seminary.

I managed to do pretty well for myself growing up, so why the heck am I failing adult? My bad habits seem to be getting worse. It is almost impossible to drag my sorry ass out of bed in the morning. I need to diet and exercise and can't seem to work up an consistent willpower. I desperately want a clean and organized home and office but get so overwhelmed each time I attempt it it never gets very far. I work hard at work but often on a deadline and can't seem to get myself on top of the piles of shit.

I've never been organized really, or much of cleaner, but it seems to be getting worse and harder and harder to catch up. I feel like if I had a summer break or something I might have a hope of catching up but things never seem to slow down.

Ugh, how do I become a functional adult? There are too many steps that I feel need to be taken and they all seem out of my reach. How do I set realistic goals so I don't give up but that I feel like I'm actually improving?

And the worst part is, I still have serious baby brain. But how can I even think about going there when I feel so ineffective at everything else?

Sorry to be a downer. I don't want to be that either, but that's what's on my mind.

Lured in by a one-in-a-million shot...and french fries!

Dear McDonalds,

I don't particularly like your food. It makes me feel guilty and just a bit sick. But the lure of monopolies and the smell of french fries brought me down as I was going to lunch today. I was going to get a nice (more healthy) bagel sandwich, but was consumed by the irrational desire to get french fries and win a cool $1,000,000. $5.44 later I had my french fries and a burger and a diet coke (because it helps balance out the crap you are eating so much!), but no $1,000,000. Curses, I was foiled again.

I'm NOT lovin' it! (Ok, so the french fries were good....)

Liz

Isn't it funny?

Isn't it funny how a miserable, crabby, sore and painful day can end and the next day is hopeful, positive and happy, despite the fact that your sore muscles are still sore and your to-do list is still there. Yay!

Happy Friday everyone!

Tuesday Tidbits!

* Hanging in there (see picture). It has been a busy few weeks around here with some emotional moments espcially at work. I'm trying hard to look at the positive and keep up with attempts at organization and progress. I think I'm doing better than the tiny frog at this point.


* I had to get two teeth filled yesterday and it was highly annoying. The drilling went fine but I find I'm quite sensitive the Novacain. It actually went up my cheek and made one of my eyes go partially numb and twitchy! The dentist says that does happen to some folks but it was quite odd.

* I had the interesting experience of having two meetings in one day last week and in one the person told me emphatically that the church has gotten so much WORSE in the last 4-5 years. I went to meeting number 2 and that person told me emphatically that the church has gotten so much BETTER in the last 4-5 years. Neither opinion was asked for specifically but volunteered. I guess it goes to show that you can't possibly please everyone.


* In other fabulous news - The Chicago Cubs, one of America's only remaining "cursed" baseball teams is back in the playoffs. I'll be watching the road to the World Series closely this month. The curse involves a goat named Billy and goes back to 1945. Wikepedia reports:

As the story goes, Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant (from Paleopyrgos, Greece[1]), who owned a nearby tavern (the now-famous Billy Goat Tavern), had two $7.20 box seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and decided to bring along his pet goat, Murphy (or Sinovia according to some references), which Sianis had restored to health when the goat had fallen off a truck and subsequently limped into his tavern. The goat wore a blanket with a sign pinned to it which read "We got Detroit's goat".[2] Sianis and the goat were allowed into Wrigley Field and even paraded about on the playing field before the game before ushers intervened and led them off the field.

After a heated argument, both Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the box seat for which he had tickets. At this point, Andy Frain (head of Wrigley Field's hired security company at the time), waved the goat's box-seat ticket in the air and proclaimed "If he eats the ticket that would solve everything."[3]. However, the goat did not. Before the game was over, Sianis and the goat were ejected from the stadium at the command of Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley due to the animal's objectionable odor. Sianis was outraged at the ejection and allegedly placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again because the Cubs organization had insulted his goat, and subsequently left the U.S. to vacation in his home in Greece.

The Cubs lost Game 4 and eventually the 1945 World Series, prompting Sianis to write to Wrigley from Greece, saying, "Who stinks now?" Since that time, the supposedly cursed Cubs have not won a National League pennant or played in a World Series – the longest pennant drought in Major League history. Sianis died in 1970. Billy Sianis's nephew Sam Sianis has been brought out on the field with a goat multiple times in attempts to break the curse: on Opening Day in 1984 and 1989 (the Cubs won the division both years), in 1994 to stop a home losing streak, and in 1998 for the wild card play-in game (which the Cubs won). [4] According to an interview with Sam Sianis, William Sianis' nephew, the Curse of the Billy Goat can only be dispelled by the Chicago Cubs organization showing a true sincere fondness for goats, sincerely allowing them into Wrigley Field because they like them, and not simply for publicity reasons.[6]

It should be interesting to watch the Cubs approach a pennant yet again. As a life-long Cubs fan I hope that we have learned to love goats in a way they deserve. Given that my husband's nickname is Goat I may have to have some sort of ceremony as the playoffs get underway! Dad if you are reading this and feel that we should drive to Chi-town and go to a playoff game we are willing!

* Some more happy sports news. The Green Bay Packers have opened the season 4-0 and are playing some great football. I'm very excited to see my favorite team starting to click!

*Also in Packer-related news: Brett Favre broke the touchdown record this week (422 TD passes now, to Marino's 420) at the game here in Minneapolis. Despite the fact that the Packers are the Vikings bitter rivals, the folks here in MN got to their feet and cheered for Brett when he broke the record. Often football seems to bring out the worst in the native Minnesotans, but in this case it brought out the best! Thanks MN!

* I spent almost all the weekend sorting and cleaning through the paperwork at our house. I finally feel like I have an organized filing system. Now I just need to keep up with it. Organized is not my natural state of being!