When Good Things Happen by Accident

Last night something really wonderful happened by accident.

The weather around here had been really dicey all day, and being the smart people that they are, the administration of the St. Paul Catholic Center (The Newman Center at IU where I volunteer in the RCIA program) decided to cancel all evening programs.



The only problem being, that they announced it on the closest local television station which is in Indianapolis 65 miles away, and probably on radi. Most of the participants, being college kids don't watch television or listen to local radio, so a lot of them didn't get the message and showed up anyway because there was supposed to be a pitch in dinner. I showed up because I had been driving around town all day and the roads were passable, so I figured that there wouldn't be a problem. I don't watch the news either ( the only news I ever watch I get from this source).



Anyway, when we all arrived at the Catholic Center it was dark, and no one was there to greet us, but we finally found Fr. Bob who said that if we were willing to make do he would turn the lights on in the church so that we could procede with the tour, which was the planned activity and then we could go ahead with our pitch in dinner since we had all brought food anyway.



All in all, it turned out to be a very nice evening in which fellowship and sharing happened and community was forged, even if we weren't supposed to be there. It just goes to show that God can use any opening to create stronger community; even our own mistakes.



Pax

This is the Best Day Ever*

If any of you are familiar with Spongebob Squarepants then you have heard the above phrase which is one of his favorite sayings. He uses it often when things are going, well, not quite the way he might have liked them to go.

Today was my regular volunteer day at the Media Center at the angelbaby's school. I have been volunteering there for going on three years now and the Media specialist and I are great friends and work really well together. Somehow the last two years my regular day happens to coincide with her busiest day --meaning she has class after class of little kids coming through all day long. I found out today that last year it was just a fluke, but this year she engineered the schedule to work out that way by alerting the teachers to consider choosing Thursday as their Library day because I would be there to assist her.

Thanks a lot! It isn't that I don't like kids, it's just that I don't like kids around when I am trying to get work done. We seem to have three of the most rambunctious classes back to back this year and when I am not playing "time-out monitor" for the kids that she has had to eject from the story room for being too obnoxious to sit through the 20 minute story I am answering the same question for the fifteenth time. "No we don't have anymore Diary of Wimpy Kid books", "You have to bring back the book you checked out last week before you can get a book out this week", "You are only allowed to get one (Where's Waldo/Magazine/I Spy) book out at a time." "Do you mean to tell me that you are in third grade and you still don't know your lunch number?"

Now to be honest I didn't actually say that last one out loud but I have to admit that I did think it.

So, thanks to my wonderful "boss" we have a busy busy day filled with one group of unruly kids after another all day long and I try very hard to keep as upbeat as possible all day. I actually find that when the going gets really tough it really does help to stop and say, in my best imitation of Spongebob "This is the best day ever!" and then eat a nice piece of chocolate.

Because it would be just wrong to sniff glue or drink alcohol at school now wouldn't it?

Even so, I keep going back week after week, because as tormenting as the kids are, I really do like the Librarian, and I like the work I am doing there to help her make her Media Center something of which she can be very proud.

It also reminds me why I never was called to become an elementary school teacher. I would have either killed some poor kid or be locked up in the loony bin within a month. God is good.

Pax

Did I Volunteer to be Exhausted?

So the angelbaby wanted to attend "Power Lab VBS" at Corpus Christi this week, and recently graduated daughter volunteered to help out. I thought that I would be dropping them off at 8:30 every morning and then going back at Noon to pick them up.

Then it turned out that the Craft room needed another volunteer, and I was there, so I somehow volunteered to help out in the craft room with this amazing woman that I have gotten along with really well all week. We have come up with some pretty creative little "extra science experiments" to amaze the kids each day, and our sense of humors mesh really well so we keep each other amused in between times as well. She has given me some great insight into the Destin area, and she even gave me a Trader Vic's VIP Card that I intend to use for 50% drinks at the bar here at The Palms very often for the rest of our stay.

I have had an enormous amount of fun and I have also gotten to know some of the other women in the Parish which has been a real bonus, but what I didn't count on was how incredibly exhausted I would be every day at about 12:25. I went from almost no activity in the mornings for the past four weeks to being totally hyperactive for an entire week, and surrounded by very hyper kids too (well, surrounded is relative, this is a small parish so the VBS has about 30 kids total.)

Anyway, I am really glad that today is our last day, and I will be back to my lazy mornings next week.

This week really reminded me that back when I was DRE my very favorite job during VBS week was getting to be the person who cut the checks and sat in the office across the parking lot and made sure everything got paid for but really didn't have to do any of the real work. Now that is the way to get VBS done. Those were good times.

Pax