*Anyone know what song the post title is from? Hint: it’s from my “heavy metal” youth…

I feel like I have been dealing with this basement thing for far too long. I’ve been completely exhausted and was totally shocked to find some energy last night to finally make sure there was no water in the tubs with my Christmas decorations (there wasn’t) and tonight to move stuff around to make room for the rug to come back from drying on the trampoline (yes, you read that right!) at my dear friend’s house and for the new dryer to arrive. Yes, the dryer is dead. The repairman came and charged my $70 to tell me that. And would have charged me another $275 to fix it. So instead, a new one is on it’s way. I need to talk to the guys about getting some pallets or something to put it and the washer up on…and perhaps the freezer…in case of a future such event. Though, happily, the new sump is working well. I tested it by dumping water from the dehumidifier in it tonight when I was cleaning the last of the ruined stuff out and moving things around.

Now here I am, catching up on my bloglines and blog, and thinking of a million things I need to do this weekend, including my organizing project and some work I brought home. I completely lost all sensibility this afternoon and forgot several things I had said I would complete. I think I am just terribly tired and burned out at this point – oh, and on that, I sadly cancelled my June workcamp trip. I decided that I really needed that vacation time to relax and recharge. As much as I love workcamp (and am still going with the youth later in the summer), I just can’t do two whole weeks. I was in tears when I got off the phone with them, though they were so understanding and kind and said this would not affect my ability to serve with them again in the future. I was just sad because I really wanted to do it but my job is just very demanding and the thought of no days off after July through the end of the year made me very upset.

Well, I should get myself to bed. This weekend has many projects on tap:

*Get new tires
*Organize the bedroom closet
*Catch up on work projects
*Go to the library
*Do the church bulletins and inserts
*Prepare for Sunday school
*Get the carpet back and put back in place before the dryer comes
*Shampoo the carpets where the firemen’s sooty boots trod
*Organize my scrapbooking stuff
*and if time, finish last year’s workcamp scrapbook so I can show the kids at church!
*Watch two movies I have had FOREVER from Netflix
*Finish my current book and renew another
*Stock up on supplies for an upcoming trip
*SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!! which is where I am headed right now. G’night!

Tammy over at Family Doin’s was kind enough to let me partake of a random meme today – exactly what I need to get back in the bloggy swing!

1) If you could suddenly be transported into an old movie (as in 1965 or earlier) which movie would that be and why?

I would have to say It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s one of my very favorite films of all time. I would love to be there in the end, one of the people dumping my money into the fund to help George and seeing the joy on his face, knowing that so many love and care for him.

2)You’re given plane tickets and told that you can pick any place to fly to. The catch is that you have to go completely by yourself and stay a month. Where’s your destination?

I would fly to Maine and spend the month traveling up the coast, visiting lighthouses, reading and reflecting on the power of the sea and the beauty of God’s creation.

3)Name one favorite childhood friend…and a memory to go with it.

Jess was my best friend. We met when we were eight years old and I remember it very clearly – she came over to my friend Michelle’s house (she lived just around the corner) to see if we wanted to play. She and her brother (who just had a baby girl, by the way – congratulations, Matt & Skye!!!!!!!!!!!!!) had gum and they didn’t share – and I decided then and there that I didn’t like her. Thereby once again proving that my first impressions are generally always wrong!

4)Speaking of childhood, is there something special you have hung on to from this time…a toy… a stuffed animal…special book? If so, why is this item special to you?

My Huggie Bear. I’ve had him for 28 years. He is well-loved and worn, patches of fur rubbed off and holes in him, but he was a gift from my dad (I don’t recall if it was birthday or Christmas) and I have always loved and slept with him snuggled tightly with me.

And last but not least…
5)You have just been informed that a Duke and his wife from a foreign country that you’ve barely heard of are visiting the United States and have picked your house at random to stop in for tea. They will be arriving in fifteen minutes.

What are the first five things you frantically do:

Vacuum!
And try to get the cat hair off the furniture, which is no easy task.
Swish & swipe the bathroom and put out clean towels.
Frantically come up with a snack that would go with tea (and not be too common so as to offend said Duke)
Put the kettle on!!

That was fun! If you’d like to play, I’ll be happy to think up some random questions for you – just leave me a note in the comments!

I am left stunned and not understanding after hearing of this tragedy. Magazineman and his family just welcomed a new baby girl last week and now this. Please keep this family in your prayers.

I am completely exhausted. It was another busy week at work and my evenings have been consumed with basement issues. The washer works but the dryer appears to have bitten the dust. This makes me rather upset, because my renter’s insurance doesn’t cover flooding caused by water “that has hit the ground and come in the house that way” – yes, seriously, that is what I was told. I am going to try to get a repairman out here to look at it but my thought is the motor is burned out. I don’t really have the funds to buy a new appliance right now and am not sure what my landlord will do, if anything. I guess I’ll wait to see what the repairman’s verdict is before fretting over this.

This week has really shown me that people do truly care about me and even crazy things like this. And that means so much to me! Three of my girlfriends from church came over Tuesday to help take stuff out and rangle the sopping carpet up off the ground. I can’t even begin to say how much I appreciated that. I was totally at a loss as to what to do or where to begin. To a degree, I still am – there is still much to do down there – but I am so much further than I was then.

Then came last night’s adventure. I knew I needed gas but I had to take the car to be inspected and was late for work. I rushed to the dealer, got a loaner and headed out to work. Afterwards, I needed to pick the car up, run home and then meet my girlfriend and her kids at Chuck E. Cheese for her daughter’s birthday. I was very very low on gas, so I drove out of my way to gas station I knew to be the least expensive in the area. There were lines everywhere. I pulled in to the pump…and the fuel door would not open. I pulled the latch about 40 times. I tried wedging my credit card in the door and pulling the latch. A nice guy tried pulling on it while I pulled the lever.

Nada.

I was embarassed and frustrated and knew the others in line were frustrated with me, so I got back in the car and took off, praying I could make it to Chuck E. Cheese and my friend could help.

I made it. We partied with Chuck E. for a bit and then we loaded the kids up and searched the minivan for tools. Luckily, we found some needle-nose pliers. I wedged them in the door and she held it and pulled while I pulled the lever.

Success at last!!!!!!!!!! I drove quickly to the gas station with the fuel door flapping in the wind and filled up.

I did close it, however…so we’ll see if it works next time!

Always an adventure, my life is.

Apparently, it burned out from all the work it was doing over the past two days. And our basement filled with 8 inches of water. And my neighbor could not find my cell phone number (I was at a meeting)…so I missed the whole thing – including the fire department coming, the heater apparently arcing, and the water being sucked out. My landlord’s wife called right after our meeting finished and left me a message on my cell phone and I was in a complete panic. Stuff is stuff but I was primarily concerned with the cats and making sure they were ok and still in the house (I hate it when people come in without my knowledge and I can’t account for them) and church stuff being damaged or ruined.

I flew home (literally) and immediately was relieved to find Norman and Ramona – terrified but ok. Nellie of course was nowhere to be found but I knew she would not ever leave the house. My neighbor came in and told me the whole story and I am thankful now that I wasn’t here. I think I would have been even more panicked to have the firemen come and tell me to leave the house because of the heater arcing and the chance of fire. This way, all was resolved (except for the mess in the basement and trying to figure out what is a loss) before I even got here. Boy, does God know me! And I know that everything happened the way it did for this reason.

I was also so glad that my friend Scott came over and brought me their dehumidifier and a heater to start trying to dry things out. I think that will work well – and we’ll see what can be salvaged and what can’t. Again, though, it’s just stuff.

Now I must do my taxes quickly, take care of some other things, and get to bed.

With all the has been going on as of late, I think it’s time to refocus. I’ve seen this over at Overwhelmed with Joy (and she found it at Brady’s Bunch).

1. The memorial yesterday. It reminded me that I am very blessed and have been blessed to work with some truly amazing people in the healthcare field, people who simply desire to improve patient care. It’s easy to get mired in the politics of business and such, but I always need to bring my focus back to why I do what I do…and this is it.

2. The baseball game was postponed. I really was looking forward to it but I knew my fibro would not stand for me sitting in the cold rain for any length of time today. And boy, is it raining! I ran errands after church and was completely and utterly soaked. I had to change clothes when I got home and actually towel off and blow dry my hair! Which brings me to my next gratitude…

3. My sump pump. In the four years I’ve lived here, I’d hear it turn on now and again but today it has run absolutely non-stop. And I just checked – no flooding. Yay, sump pump!

4. Even though I knew the weekend would be crazy, I chose to go to the scrapbook class on Friday. It was really very neat what she demonstrated but I’m not sure how I’ll incorporate it yet. The best part was that my dear friend Nan ended up coming at the last minute and it is always so nice to spend time with her. I need to figure out how to do that more often, with more regularity. We have known each other since we were five years old and I am so thankful we are still friends after all this time.

5. I’ve been working on my finances and over the past few weeks, have put some things in place to free up a little extra. Not much, but I hope at least it will help me not be in such dire financial straits each month…and maybe get a new pair of shoes or suit for work some time in the near future.

6. Time to nap today. I don’t get nearly enough sleep during the week and haven’t had the luxury of sleeping in on a weekend for some time, so it was nice to snooze this afternoon…thought I did sleep way to long and ended up not getting anything else done. The traditional Sunday afternoon nap is always a double-edged sword for me! : )

And another weekend draws to a close.

Yesterday was a long day. The memorial service was wonderful – many old friends telling stories, laughing, and sharing memories with those gathered. I’m glad that we went. What stuck me most, and saddened me most, was when his daughter said that the one thing that made her most angry in this time was that he had spent his life working against the very demon that in the end took his life – cancer. It is a terrible irony, a terrible injustice. He was only 69.

There is something to be said for being so insanely busy you cannot think straight or remember what you were doing 2 minutes before, let alone two days ago. At least the week flies by. But by the time I get home and eat dinner, my only desire is to get into my bed.

This weekend will be a hectic one. Tomorrow I have a client meeting in the afternoon and then am going to a scrapbooking class. It’s called Word Art, which is fairly intriguing for the likes of me!

The medical director from my old job passed away last week and K and I are going to go to his memorial service Saturday. It is at a wel-regarded social club and I am not yet sure at all what to expect.

On Sunday I am teaching Sunday school and then am supposed to go to my first major league baseball game. Well, that’s not entirely true – I once saw the Brewers in Milwaukee but I’ve never seen our local team, even having lived within a short commute of their playing field all my life. I’m really excited but apparently we are to get a Nor’easter???????????????????? I don’t know what will happen then. I’m not terribly keen on sitting out in the freezing rain for a few hours. I guess if the game gets called, we could use our tickets whenever they reschedule for…but if it is Monday, I’m out. We have a pastoral search meeting and I cannot certainly miss that for a baseball game…no matter how much I’d like to go. 😦

I can’t begin to thank you enough for your nice comments on my previous post. Things have been very hectic at work this week and I haven’t had any time to check in until tonight…and it was so nice to find those encouraging comments!

I am feeling a little bit better than I did then but there are some areas in my life that I really need to just give up to the Lord and stop fretting and stressing over. Tonight I caught a little bit of an interview that Anderson Cooper was doing with Sanjay Gupta on CNN about his new book, Chasing Life. I missed the beginning but from what I understood, the book examines some people in different geographic locations who live longer than others and ideas as to why this is. Dr. Gupta said that people in a certain area were predominantly seventh day adventists who strictly obey the sabbath. He joked that he sometimes thinks rest is found in changing activities – for instance, going from a neurosurgery to being on CNN (in his case!)

This really struck me, though I am not entirely sure why. Maybe it is partially because I know I have not been taking care of myself lately. I am allowing stress to get a stranglehold on me in a major part of my life and I am not sure how to rectify the situation…or if it even can be rectified. I am staying up late reading, because that is my escape and my stress relief and I enjoy it but then I pay the price when the alarm goes off (or the cat frantically jumps on me). I’m eating ridiculous things and eating all the time with little or no regard. (I am happy to say my menu planning has been going well, however, and for once I cannot say that I am completely and utterly not exercising – I quit the Y on Saturday (finally) but bought a pilates ball and have been doing some of the exercises the trainer had shown me.)

I know I have to give this thing up to God and just try to do my best to make it through. I have to pray too that he will help me to manage the day to day of it until things improve…

He is risen indeed!

I want to post something inspirational this evening but I am really just not feeling it. I had a good weekend and a lovely lunch today over at Nancy and Jerry’s house (thank you!!) but now I am just feeling blue and I haven’t a clue why. I am desiring that some things be different, and trying to figure out how to make them so. I know, this is a recurring theme with me…but I need to be honest about it, and so it comes out here.