Long, Weird Day.

Today was long.  And weird.  It was long and weird.

The morning started out bright and early, with me standing in the parking lot of the church where I work, waiting to meet other church members/pastors to go to a luncheon that I knew exactly this much about: 1) It was a luncheon.  2)  It was at a hospital.  But I was invited, and hence I went.  I was the youngest person in the room by roughly 30 years, and clashed horribly in my purple dress with all the elderly women in bright red blazers.  It turned out to be some sort of thank-you luncheon for people who had donated money to the hospital.  Not that I've ever donated money to the hospital...besides the two dollars I put into the offering basket when it came by our table.  But nonetheless, I benefited from the luncheon: watching a live musical performance by Randy Brooks, the composer of that classic Christmas hit, "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer" (and that lesser known non-hit "Percy the Puny Poinsettia"), getting lectured by a hospital janitor about the importance of hand sanitizer after failing to use a paper towel to touch the paper towel dispenser (because I've never heard anyone talk about the importance of that before), and eating a Thanksgiving-style lunch (which was actually quite tasty).

Needless to say, it was an odd morning, if generally pleasant.

I didn't get back to my apartment until almost 2:00, at which point I was completely exhausted and begrudgingly took a brief nap before commitment #2 of the day: my theology school's Christmas chapel service, at 4pm.  I say begrudgingly, because the 2:00-4:00 time period should have been spent studying, but I was so tired that I just couldn't.  Nonetheless, I went off to the Christmas service, which was very well done and very innovative...and very long.  I mean VERY long.  VERY LONG.  As in, I expected it to last an hour, and it lasted for TWO HOURS.  Two hours is a very long time when you are very tired and sitting very close to a professor you only know by sight in a completely packed pew.  But it was truly a wonderful service, and I'm glad I went.  The singing was fantastic (and Kristen, you did wonderfully on your solo) :)

Then, I drove to my friends' house for dinner, which was also a VERY long trek.  It took me over half an hour, catching every stoplight imaginable and sitting through about three rotations of each one.  My friend Rachel left campus 15 minutes later than me and somehow managed to arrive before I did.  I guess I picked a bad route.  Anyway, by the time I arrived at the house I was starting to regret my decision of going to dinner there at all, but a Dr. Pepper woke me up a bit and then I actually had a very enjoyable evening (and got a bit of studying done before everyone arrived; the house is full of seminary students, who are also cramming for the end of the semester).  Dinner was fun, and there was much laughter - a common side effect when a bunch of totally fried brains sit down at a meal together.

When I finally got back to my apartment around 9pm, I realized that, some days, studying just isn't meant to happen.  Today was one of those days: it was too full of cheesy Christmas song composers, sitting around looking pleasant in large groups of people, and other generally lengthy events.  But, I realized today that I have no completely free days before the finals/papers start tumbling down, so it will have to happen soon enough.  Hoping a good night of sleep and a relatively uneventful work day tomorrow will get me back on track!


Note: The one on the right is the composer, who performed at the hospital luncheon this morning.  Like I said...weird day.