wherein Liz has a long and trying day
Mar. 25th, 2012 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingThis past week has basically been the week where everybody at work got sick and/or discovered sudden unexpected schedule clashes, and therefore we traded shifts back and forth like hot potatos. In other words, I was out sick Monday and PB covered half my shift, BW was sick all week and only about 2/3 present every time he was on the clock, PB had a sudden schedule conflict on Friday and I covered his entire shift, MS was out sick on Friday and we just worked short-handed, MS was still out sick today so PB came in two hours early and I came in three hours early, and now PB and I have swapped our respective 4-9pm shifts for Monday and Wednesday next week, so I should theoretically have tomorrow off... unless it turns out that he gave himself an eye infection by sleeping with his contacts in and then scratching his cornea when taking them out only half-awake, in which case I will be working 4-9pm tomorrow after all.
*headdesk*
Anyway, I also taught RE this morning, which made today one of the horrible days where I am basically away from home for twelve hours straight and busy doing stuff for all of them. I got a twenty minute gap between church and work during which I basically sat around and went "Aaaaaaaaah" to myself trying to destress, and I got a half hour lunch break around 3pm during which I took a nap on the main desk out back, but it was an awful lot of gogogo.
The RE lesson today was about John Murray, who is not much known outside of UU circles, but who was one of the first Universalist ministers in America. His story goes as follows: he was a minister in Britain until his wife and son died, he got kicked out of his position for preaching Universalist beliefs, and on top of all that was temporarily thrown in debtors prison. So he decided to sail for America and start over doing something completely different in a place without all the bad memories.
He headed for New York... except the ship he was on got blown off course and ran aground in southern New Jersey. Oops.
While stranded, John Murray met a local farmer named Thomas Potter, who had built a church on his land and was, essentially, waiting for god to send a Universalist minister to preach there. He was sure that John Murray was his answer.
John Murray disagreed, but eventually Potter talked him into agreeing to preach that Sunday if the wind had not changed and let the ship work free and head to New York.
The wind did not change.
And so John Murray ended up as a minister again. End of story. (Not the end of his life, obviously -- later on he moved to New England and was for a while an army chaplain during the Revolutionary War, but this is the main fairytale incident for which he is remembered.)
Anyway, our lesson was therefore about two things: hospitality and wind. For the first aspect, we had a guest from the membership committee come visit and talk about ways the congregation tries to make newcomers feel welcome. For the second, we made windsocks out of empty salt canisters, crepe streamers, construction paper, and string. (Also involved: glue, markers, stickers, masking tape, scissors, and a hole-punch. I would like to inform the world at large that punching holes in cardboard salt canisters that also have a layer of construction paper glued around them is a bitch and a half.)
We were still trying to finish up when parents began appearing to collect their kids. We did not even dream of getting to the other activity, which involved making a finger-painted WELCOME sign to hang over the classroom door (and then take as a gift when the kids visit a local soup kitchen in a couple weeks). Apparently we have to do that next week, no matter what parts of next week's lesson we have to toss aside in the process. *sigh*
Also, just to make everything that extra little bit of deliciously awful, I got my period today and the cramps were the worst I have had in at least a year and a half. For two hours, I literally felt like my uterus was turning itself inside out and trying to bodily shove itself out of my body, mashing my intestines into knots as it inched its way down. Advil did nothing. And right around when PB left for the evening, I simultaneously got hit by what felt like the precursor to passing out, which left me sitting on a stepstool behind the cash register with my eyes closed, breathing as slow and deep as I could, and hoping to god a customer did not walk into the store and require me to stand because I wasn't sure my knees would hold me.
But the day is over and I survived!
...
Tomorrow is, I think, for slogging through my federal and state income taxes. Which, miracle of miracles, should actually be an improvement.
*headdesk*
Anyway, I also taught RE this morning, which made today one of the horrible days where I am basically away from home for twelve hours straight and busy doing stuff for all of them. I got a twenty minute gap between church and work during which I basically sat around and went "Aaaaaaaaah" to myself trying to destress, and I got a half hour lunch break around 3pm during which I took a nap on the main desk out back, but it was an awful lot of gogogo.
The RE lesson today was about John Murray, who is not much known outside of UU circles, but who was one of the first Universalist ministers in America. His story goes as follows: he was a minister in Britain until his wife and son died, he got kicked out of his position for preaching Universalist beliefs, and on top of all that was temporarily thrown in debtors prison. So he decided to sail for America and start over doing something completely different in a place without all the bad memories.
He headed for New York... except the ship he was on got blown off course and ran aground in southern New Jersey. Oops.
While stranded, John Murray met a local farmer named Thomas Potter, who had built a church on his land and was, essentially, waiting for god to send a Universalist minister to preach there. He was sure that John Murray was his answer.
John Murray disagreed, but eventually Potter talked him into agreeing to preach that Sunday if the wind had not changed and let the ship work free and head to New York.
The wind did not change.
And so John Murray ended up as a minister again. End of story. (Not the end of his life, obviously -- later on he moved to New England and was for a while an army chaplain during the Revolutionary War, but this is the main fairytale incident for which he is remembered.)
Anyway, our lesson was therefore about two things: hospitality and wind. For the first aspect, we had a guest from the membership committee come visit and talk about ways the congregation tries to make newcomers feel welcome. For the second, we made windsocks out of empty salt canisters, crepe streamers, construction paper, and string. (Also involved: glue, markers, stickers, masking tape, scissors, and a hole-punch. I would like to inform the world at large that punching holes in cardboard salt canisters that also have a layer of construction paper glued around them is a bitch and a half.)
We were still trying to finish up when parents began appearing to collect their kids. We did not even dream of getting to the other activity, which involved making a finger-painted WELCOME sign to hang over the classroom door (and then take as a gift when the kids visit a local soup kitchen in a couple weeks). Apparently we have to do that next week, no matter what parts of next week's lesson we have to toss aside in the process. *sigh*
Also, just to make everything that extra little bit of deliciously awful, I got my period today and the cramps were the worst I have had in at least a year and a half. For two hours, I literally felt like my uterus was turning itself inside out and trying to bodily shove itself out of my body, mashing my intestines into knots as it inched its way down. Advil did nothing. And right around when PB left for the evening, I simultaneously got hit by what felt like the precursor to passing out, which left me sitting on a stepstool behind the cash register with my eyes closed, breathing as slow and deep as I could, and hoping to god a customer did not walk into the store and require me to stand because I wasn't sure my knees would hold me.
But the day is over and I survived!
...
Tomorrow is, I think, for slogging through my federal and state income taxes. Which, miracle of miracles, should actually be an improvement.
