I'm Anti-ing the Next Hurricane

Let me preface this with I know little to nothing about hurricanes. From what I've understood, they are tornadoes on water. Tornadoes, now that I know about. I lived in the middle of Tornado Alley in Oklahoma for eight years so those I understand. They don't bother me much. I know what to do, how to prepare, what to tie down, etc. But hurricanes are a different story.

Saturday rolled around and people from New Orleans were evacuating. Since New Orleans is below sea level, people were really concerned about flooding. Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods, my friends were buying stuff and "stocking up." I wasn't sure why they were going to all that trouble if it was only going to affect New Orleans. Once again my naivete knows no bounds.

Sunday comes. I go to church and help out with powerpoint. It's a program that flashes on the wall so people can see the words of a song on a screen instead of bending over hymnals. I love doing it because its service and I think we are all called to serve. But that's another story for a different day. There were 15 people at church. Ok, so maybe I'm being dramatic, but really it was slim pickins'.

Then I head to Sunday School. Its notable that sunday school was chock full of people; it was great. We talked about the Trinity. God being three in one. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It was a spinoff of the service. We finish and then I head home. Usually people go to lunch, but I duck out this time. I'm not really feeling too well at this point. I'm not in a lot of pain, but I can feel it coming. Its on the edges of my mind, tickling my nerve endings. I chock it up to the stress of the past few days. Nicole, my fabulous roomie, comes home and says she's going to go stay with her mother because she's all by herself. In the meantime, the Ring is cancelled. Which means I've got the night off. I serve in the same way sunday nights as I do in the morning. But I get to be a little more creative at the Ring. I'm allowed to pick the backgrounds and videos. I love it! Once again, it goes back to that whole service thing. Anyways, back to my story...

It's around 6pm sunday night. Nicole had left a while back because of the traffic to go stay with her mom. I'd been told to expect power failure and don't drive anywhere. Ok, no problem. I'll be here at home in case something happens. By this time, my head is killing me. I can barely stand up it hurts so bad. You know those headaches you get where your eyes throb with the ebb and flow of the waves of pain in your head? Yep, that was me. So here was my dilemma. Do I take something or just try and lie still and hope and pray it will go away? (On a sidenote, I am the cheapest drunk you will ever meet. No, I've never been drunk, but if I've got a headache, just looking at a tylenol will make me feel better. It's pathetic.)

Let's recap. Katrina is blowing in. I'm alone. My head is knocking me off my feet. If I take something, I will not be able to drive anywhere if something happens. If I don't take something, I just might pass out from the pain. And passing out is not fun. The lack of oxygen kills so many brain cells, and I've passed out too much in my lifetime already. I've got a theory that my IQ has been affected because of it.

I take two tylenol around 6:30pm. Fall asleep in the fetal position and wake up at midnight. Toss and turn and moan and groan for a while. Fall back asleep in the fetal position. Wake up, move to the bathroom and fall asleep on the floor in the fetal position. I'd moved to the bathroom because I thought I was going to blow chunks. Which probably wouldn't have happened because I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch sunday afternoon. But give me a break, I was kind of out of it. Anyways, around 7am, wake up because the power flicks off and the security alarm goes off. So I turn that off, kind of in a daze because the alarm doesn't help my head at all. And then once again collapse into my bed barely noticing that it sounds like a tornado is right outside my window. 10am comes and I'm conscious enough to notice that the power has really gone out this time and I need more medicine, so I wobble down the stairs and find more tylenol and a couch. Katie, in the meantime, had called and sent me a text message seeing if I needed anything. I tell her no, I'd thought about coming over, but I'm too overmedicated to drive at this point. Ann and Nathan drop by out of nowhere to check on me. Which was so nice by the way. Ann tells me later on that I looked like I was dead. I believe it. I seriously felt like shinolah. So Katie comes to pick me up and I go to Katie and Anns where they feed me some soup and I once again pass out. A few hours later, I ask Katie to bring me home so I can see if everything is alright. It is, the power is back on, so I sleep in my own bed monday night. But this time, not in the fetal position...

So that was my first time with a hurricane. May I never go through another one. At least not alone anyways. I'm off to sleep again, my head is starting to throb again....

Church Politics Make Me Nauseous

Tonight I went to my first church business meeting. The ironic thing is that I was really excited about it. The community I'm involved in, the Ring, was going to be affected one way or the other with the way the voting went, so I went to show my support.

Here's how I thought tonight would go. I'd go to church, hear a message, and then have a meeting afterwards. During the meeting, I thought that a friend of mine, Josh, would talk a little bit about the future of the Ring to the rest of the church, have everybody vote, and then everyone would high-five each other and we'd all hold hands and skip out of the church. One big happy family.

I'm pathetically naive.

Not about the vote, that went fine. Without a hitch. What sucked was after the vote. There was a time for any other motions to come before the church. A man walks up and asks if "Mr. White" can finish out his study on Ezekiel. This is my first business meeting and I think, man, that's a little weird, to ask about some guy being able to finish out his bible study. The reaction from the crowd was even more weird. They asked how long he would take to finish it. Wait a sec. Huh? Since when do we (church body) decide how long a study should be? When did we get that responsibility? Aren't we as the body supposed to be led, not lead? Sorry, I'm digressing. So the vote passes and Mr. White gets up there. He says, "I'm not sure how much time I've got." People speak out and tell him to be finished by 7pm. Its around 6:45pm at this point. So this man starts talking. From what I've heard tonight, he is following God's call. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which side (that's right, I said side) you're on, that call seems to be calling out the church body itself as a whole as to what's going wrong. He's not pulling any punches. And apparently has made some enemies in the process. Because every two minutes he would look at his watch to make sure he was keeping to the proscribed time. My heart broke a little each time he glanced at his watch. I just wanted to stand up and yell, it's ok to speak God's truth!! Sometimes reproach is a necessary tool. God's word even tells us how to go about it the right way. So he finishes his message in his allotted time. I'm heartsick at this point, but it gets worse. After everything is over, there are two men in front of me who are whispering to each other. They are very intense and have a malicious air about them. One of them is whispering behind his styrofoam cup into the other man's ear. That's when I wanted to throw up. How does a church get like this? I don't understand it. I just want to throw something and sob at the same time. The Bride should not be acting like this. We should not look like the world. And from my perception of this evening, that's what I saw in my church tonight. A whole lotta world, and not a lotta God.

God's Drum Kit...

It all started when I tried to take a nap. Sundays are chock full of stuff and I love every minute of it, but I try to catch a few winks between 2ish and 3:58 because I need to be up at the church for 4. I'm dragging once 9pm rolls around if I've not gotten my cat nap. Which probably means I'm old, but I'm in denial. So I go have lunch at Cane's, wishing the whole time they had gravy instead of Cane's sauce to dip my chicken strips into, but I digress. Then I head home and snuggle into my bed. Ok, the way my room is set up, I've got my bed running parallel to the windows. I like to see the moon and stars before I hit the hay. Anyways, there was a thunderstorm rolling in. A really strong thunderstorm. When the thunder rolled, so did the house. It was amazing. It reminded me of that verse (Luke 19:37-40) about the rocks crying out if we ever stopped with our worship. I never did get my nap, but I got some great me and God time. It was the coolest thing to just lay there and listen to the sound of the rain coming before I could see it and to feel the rumbling as the ground shook with the thunder. I'd like to think it was God's version of a drum kit. That's what it sounded like to me anyways. I should probably insert the fact here that I know nothing about music, so the fact that I just used the term "drum kit" may make it sound like I do, but really I know squat. I just like to use hip buzz words to make it appear like I'm cool. Like hip, and cool, and jet.....

A Rat at my Door

Yesterday, I came home from work and noticed something odd.

There was a ginormous dead rat by my AC unit!! So I poked it with my toe hoping that it was just taking a nap. Nope. No such luck. It's dead.

Yes, God has blessed me in the fact that He made me a capable, intelligent, beautiful, funny female. However, no where in that description does the term rat carcass picker-upper appear. So there is still a dead rat right outside my front door. I just can't pick it up. Logic tells me to just not look at it, just scoop it up and trash it. But I can't. The mere thought of picking it up by its 8 foot long tail has me gagging. And since it rained yesterday, the fur is matted and there are creatures starting to eat on it. And I'm pretty sure it's starting to smell.

Ewww......

What's Fun About Baton Rouge?

Alright, Ya'll.

In case we've never met, I drive around a lot with my job. Statewide, not really Baton Rouge. In fact, I was in Lake Charles today and I'll be in New Orleans friday. I've been in BR for a wee bit over two years. I know where the libraries, malls, and movie theaters are, but that's the extent of my knowledge of BR.

So, what's fun to do in the big BR?

And for all of you who are going to tell me LSU games are fun, I almost believe you. But not enough to actively pursue tickets to them.