Back to Work Eve

Yes, I'm posting again, already. It seems that when I most should NOT post--is exactly when I want to do it! Same with going to church. First, I was looking forward to it, but as the time drew closer this morning, I started to dread going. For one thing, the songs we sing in the first church (traditional church) sometimes make me cry if I'm at all in a sad mood. So I knew for a fact that at least one of the songs was going to make me cry, so I didn't really want to go. It's embarrassing.

The lesson was on forgiveness. The christian station I listened to in the car was also about forgiveness. I liked that both took a more reasonable approach to it, though. Romans 12:17-19 about just trying to live in peace and not try to take revenge. The radio lesson gave an example of two warring churchgoers who agreed to disagree. They didn't hang out together any more, nor go to the same activities, but didn't speak badly of each other or plot revenge. Much more realistic, and a good thing for me to remember for tomorrow when BZ returns from vacation!

After attending the first church I made a quick stop to buy a Sunday newspaper and went over the bridge to the second church. It was pouring rain, which was bad for the vacationers and tourists but wonderful for the poor, dried out lawns and gardens! They are having family-style services for the summer, so it was much shorter than their normal service. Many people were missing, gone for a visit or on vacation.

Since it wasn't too late (normally I'm done with church well after 1:00) after church I stopped at my Mom's apartment and we went out for lunch. She was not expecting me, thinking I was gone for the weekend. I explained why I had come back so early without getting into the being really depressed part of it. I loaned her the brand new Harry Potter book that the kids had gotten for me. Mom is a fast reader, she'll have it done by tomorrow, if she hasn't finished it already, and it's a thick book. I haven't even opened it yet but will read it when she's done.

Do you have the newest HP book yet? Do you like the series? Hope your weekend ended up very nicely!

Friday the 13th

Yeah, I know that today is actually Sunday the 15th, but I forgot to say something during the Friday post. July 13th is my ex's birthday. My son's father was born on a Friday the 13th. Guess that should have told me something right there! But he always said that Friday the 13th was a lucky day for him: so we were married on a Friday the 13th, during my lunch hour! Pretty weird, huh?

Well, we thought it was sort of cool. My co-workers (at that time) did too. I called my best friend at work and told her that I was going to be a little late back from lunch-I was getting married! She got all excited and told everyone else. So when I finally returned from my lunch hour/wedding, they had a huge celebration with food and drink and even decorations for me at work! They must have worked fast on it, since I wasn't gone THAT long! I think...

This last Friday ended with the doctor appointment. Except it didn't end there: I have to go back for blood work, back for a mammogram and a colonoscopy. Happy happy joy joy. The good news is that my blood pressure is fine and everything else seemed OK; which is good to know.

Today was another Open House, so Saturday was spent Extreme Cleaning--when I wasn't with my Mom. I also weeded and hoed the garden and got more compliments on it from passerbys. The neighbor 80-year-old lady talked with me for quite a while. In fact I was a bit worried that I wasn't going to get done with the weeding/hoeing by the time I had to leave to get my Mom. Then the neighbor left for about 5 minutes, returned and started telling me some of the same stories. She's very sweet but it was lucky for me and and Mom that she was quicker the second time she stopped to talk!

Today I went to the first church and then the second one. Church #2 had a BBQ after, so that mercifully took up some of the time that I had to be away from my house (for the Open House). After that I drove around a bit, somewhat out of sorts but at least not hungry, and then went grocery shopping and went home.

I haven't heard a thing about the Open House. Wonder if anyone came? The real estate agent is a great guy but his company doesn't advertise well at all. Unless they just happened to be driving by, most people wouldn't even know about the Open House. My contract with them expires in two days. After that, I'm going with a larger real estate company that splashes its offerings across the newspapers. It's a shame but I do need to sell my house.

Hope your weekend has been a very fun one!

Two truths and a lie--at church

When I went out to get my daily newspaper this morning, I was admiring my front flower/herb garden. It's a small raised bed and everytime I'm out working on it, I get lots of compliments from passerbys, like, "That's a beautiful little garden!" which totally gratify my heart. Of course when those people are walking right by me, they probably feel they have to say something. But I choose to think they really are admiring my little garden. I think it's pretty, too, if I may be permitted to brag! Even the sage is blooming, although I did lose my treasured rosemary plant. I had been bringing it in every winter and planting it again in the spring. Early this spring it was not doing well indoors but the temperature was too cold to put it outside yet. The herbs always do much better outside, when the weather has warmed up. I was saying to it "Hang on there, little plant. Spring is almost here!" But the poor thing didn't make it, nor my hot pepper plant which was about four years old. My cold house isn't a great environment for plants, indoors.

And the lawn needs mowing again. I noticed that my neighbors are paying some high school boys to mow their lawn (and their lawn isn't nearly as large as mine). Wish I could afford to do that, but it's quite expensive. The neighbors pay around $40 per time and my lawn would be even more than that. Oh well. It's good exercise at least and a heat stroke at most. The problem is figuring out how to get it mowed after work. I have another open house coming up and need the lawn all mowed and edged before then. Not to mention the garden weeded and house all cleaned up. Hard to get that stuff done when I am gone all day at work and not home much in the evening, either.

Last night I met with SLA right after work as she desperately wanted to talk with me. She's going on a date with a man she met at her work and wanted to run his "specs" by me to see what I thought. After we talked for about two hours, she went on her date and I went to the "woman's night out" at church.

I was about ten minutes late and they had already started as it was awkward coming in with my covered dish past everyone already there, lined up for food. Most the women already had their food by the time my dish got put out and I was afraid my Rhubarb Cake would go untouched. I'm always anxious about stuff like that, feel domestically challenged compared to most women. Also, there was no room to sit by the people I knew. First I thought, "Well good, I can meet new people!" and everyone was friendly and all but I still much rather would have sat with the couple of women I already know. It would have been lots more fun.

The night out was sort of odd to me in that we didn't pray or do anything churchy. Perhaps the others wanted to get away from all of that and just hang out with each other but I would have welcomed it. We played a pictionary type of game which I was not good at, too slow to guess, someone always beat me. But I did seem to be quite decent at drawing stuff so people could guess it right away. Then we played that old icebreaker, "Two truths and a lie" in which we had to write down two truths and a lie on a small card and the others in our team would try to guess which was the lie. I'm being too critical of a mere game, but I found that a rather odd game to play at church! Maybe it was just me, I always think about things too much.

And my cake got used up, pretty much. But not in the way I would have liked. They had a game in which blindfolded people had to put makeup on another woman, then they switched and the blindfolded one had to feed the other one. Guess what they used to feed the victims? Yes, my rhubarb cake. It made quite the mess and looked very gross. Two of the woman who were force-fed my cake did say that it was good. Oh well. The cake was the perfect consistency for that game and there was still about a fourth of it left before it got stuffed into people's mouths.

Anyway, here are my two truths and a lie:
1. I have driven to Central America.
2. I have worked for the police department.
3. I grew up on a strawberry farm.

Guess which is the lie? Wanna play--and list YOUR two truths and a lie, and see how well your blogger friends know you!?