The The proud and the profoundness

Today I had the best time in the world. I want to tell you so if you are considering taking a job as a church chick you will read this and say, “Yes, brother. That is the job for ME”. First of all, we didn’t start our week with Monday. We started it with Tuesday and I am telling you that it made the whole day special. New. I saw unexpected faces at the front desk. I was psyched for the Monday crew, and was greeted with the Tuesday crew. That was unexpected and delightful. I love the Monday crew, don’t get me wrong. I love the whole crew, but just the shift in expectation gave an air of serendipity to the whole day.

I got to pick up my work buddy and bring her in for staff meeting. She had surgery last week and wasn’t supposed to be driving yet, so I picked her up in the convertible and we breezed our way into work to start my week. I say my week, because she won’t be back til next week.

We had a chicken feed staff meeting. Not too much to scratch about, and so we shook our feathers and chatted over this and that and I tell you readers, it is the rare occasion that allows us to do that. Chit chat creates bonds, you know. It is important. Not gossip this and that, mind you, but chitter and chatter among friends. It was so refreshing.

I took my recuperating friend to lunch. She was such a good sport today, just coming along wherever to do whatever. We decided to pick up lunch and take it to my oldest daughter’s new work place. I haven’t seen her new digs and the time seemed right.

While we were in the drive through, I got a call from work. I was right in the middle of ordering, so I said, “Can you hold on ? One minute.” I put the phone in my lap while we organized our lunch choices.

Then we ordered. The waitress was having a full moon day and finally released her inner frustrations by saying over the intercom, “Oh for heaven’s sake, Geese Louise” I figured she wasn’t scheduled for today and they called her in at the last minute and the last thing she wanted to do was work the window. I was sad in my heart for her because there are days for all of us that we just don’t want to work the window, aren’t there?

Well, we ordered, pulled up and waited. Then something very subtly suspicious happened. I heard a little voice. I thought it might be inside my head, and I looked over at my passenger to see if she was noticing it, but she didn’t seem to, so I tried to ignore it. I began evaluating the voice. It sounded vaguely familiar and had a rather urgent tone to it. I could tell this even though the volume was muted.

I thought I heard my name- “Melanie, Melanie, Melanie, I, I’m still here !" is what it sounded like. Then-

OMG! I looked down and saw my phone face down in my lap. “AH I forgot!!” I picked up the phone and apologized profusely. My passenger was laughing so hard I felt like I was sitting in a Jiffy pop pan. We were laughing, she from finding it funny that I would forget a phone and be not the least bit alarmed at hearing a fairy, far away voice while sitting in the car -and me, from utter embarrassment. The window chick was not the least bit amused. I know this because I never saw her teeth. Her lips were so pursed they were pocketbooked shut. AND she shorted us an order of onion rings. I hope she fared better through the day.

Anyway, we went to my darling daughter’s work place and parked in handicap because my partner was, indeed handicapped for the day. She worried that we would be towed, and I said we parked here because we needed to and I even left a sticky note on my dash that said “surgery.” I am not one to take handicap spots for granted, but my friend was tired and by some luck, she had not burst her stitches with our laughing outburst at the drive through. I figured if I got towed in the 20 minutes we’d be there, it would be worth watching.

We had a tour of the workplace, and I loved seeing my oldest in her professional mode. She does that well. There is a tone in her voice that is smooth and clean and it is a gift she wears well. I get to see her all around that persona, but rarely do I get to experience that side of her. She also seemed very much at home in her new job so I was proud. I was proud to find the place. I was proud to see the laminated labels she made for her office door, I was proud of how she organized the supply cabinet. I was just plain proud. She took us to see her own “Biz” copy machine which is really a Pro75Workplace Xerox. Big Big Big time. We may try to get Biz and Pro75 together sometime. Her Pro75 can email, and Biz accepts orders via computer, so they may have some other duplicated interests, we’ll see.

Anyway, she introduced us to each area with a little side comment.

"Here is the man across the hall’s office.. I don’t know his real name because everyone calls him porkchop. "

“Here is the meeting room…. The Pro 75 is just on the other side of that frosted window….”

“This is Mr. Jones’ office. He’s 4 feet tall, try not to look down on him”

Okay, she could have said, “Don’t look at his wandering eye”, or “ Do NOT notice that he has 6 legs.” My friend and I immediately fell apart with silent giggles. How can you set us up like this? How can we NOT notice ?? Well, we were a mess. I was glad Mr. Jones was not in, because I would not have known what to look at when we met him.

If her voice had not been so smooth, it would not have been nearly as funny. It was like my mind accepted the professional tone, and then I actually absorbed the content of her comment and my mind was filled with a picture of a tiny person, much like the tiny voice that has summoned my attention at the drive through.

My daughter was glad to be rid of us, I’m sure. I had fun visiting her.


After that, my boss sent me on errands and what a day for it. I drove with my top down and got what we needed without too much fuss.

I didn’t really get anything done inside today, but my heart was well fed with reminders of why I like this job so much. The variety and the connections make it a great place to be.

When I returned, I had an assistance person to help, and we went back and forth over a new issue. Gas. Car gas. I realized later that this will probably come up more often now. It isn’t enough that electricity and other utilities call for our help, but now gasoline can be added to the critical list.

Another daughter called to tell me that she is a great time manager because she went to school today and learned 4 weeks’ math in 2 hours. Oh, parenting is such an adventure. I mean, what are we to say to comments that are delivered with such excitement? “ Wow, that’s great honey, you’re a fast learner” tagged along with, “ So, just think how much you’d have learned in the 4 weeks you were catching up to., probably a whole year’s worth or something?” I’m just glad she is working hard now.

Man oh Man, I wore lots of hats today.

And now, it is time to go home.