Today in my World

The band got 4^th place Saturday night. It was a shock for all of us, especially since we had been doing so well. You just never know what the judges are looking at. However, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th places were all within one point of each other, so it was a really close competition.

As I often say, though, we had blessings in disguise. While waiting the two hours until the awards were announced, I chatted with people (yes, I babble in person too). I complemented several of the other bands and their good performance and enjoyed the look of shock on their faces that someone from another band would actually complement them. Their replies went something like this: “Really? Because we can never beat {insert name of our school}. At {insert name of competition}, they got 1^st and we got 3^rd and at {insert name of competition}, they got 2^nd and we got 3^rd.” Goodness, they knew what we placed at all the competitions? I had no idea where they placed.

Also, after the awards were announced, we heard a bunch of these comments shouted out: “We beat {insert the name of our school}.” So, even though we did not win, all the references to our reputation were just blessings in disguise.

On the way to the competition, we at the last minute decided we had enough time to stop and visit Grandpa. My uncle was at the store, so we missed him, but it was nice to get to sit and chat with Grandpa alone. We found him outside. They have set up a really nice screened-in canopy area for him to sit outside and encourage him to do so often. The weather was simply beautiful. This was the first time his Alzheimer’s was really evident to me. He knew who I was, but could not remember my name. However, I saw evidence that he still remembered lots of things too, but also so evidence that he had forgotten things. They are encouraging him to read books and try to remember what he read and he says he is struggling with that. Shoot, even I do not do that well sometimes. I wonder what I will be like at age 87! But that seems like a good exercise for his brain to me.

It made me smile to hear him still have his good-‘ol-grandpa humor about him. I said to him, “See, Grandpa, your memory is not bad, you’ve still got your whit that we all love.” He said, “Yeah, you’re about half right.” Hee hee. We went through that joke at least four times during our short chat. I’ve got a great layout idea now. We took photos, of course (when don’t I?). So I am picturing in my head the layout of us two and above him it says “whit” and above me it says “half-whit.”

At age 41, I am so unbelievably blessed to have my Grandpa. God is good to me.

Yesterday I “played hooky” from church. When the family gets back at midnight, it is really hard to wake them up to make them get ready for church the next day. It just brought back memories of many years past when I would get home at midnight, then prepare for my Sunday School class until 1 a.m., and then while my family slept, get up and go to church with little sleep, week after week. No one at church ever knew what effort and energy it took out of me to teach all those years. God knows and that is all that matters. However, there is still always a little twinge inside me that wishes I was appreciated for it. I cannot help but be human. Sigh.

Yesterday I stayed home all day and managed to get a few things done. I always feel better when I get things organized and cleaned. Of course, I think I mopped the floor three times. Those silly men just kept walking on it wet. One task was to put into my calendar a whole year of Boy Scout dates (at least one per week) and then I had to do it a second time putting them into the troop’s yahoo group calendar so everyone would get reminders. I have just been procrastinating that mundane task for so long. It took me forever and I had to push myself through it, but I feel better now knowing it is done. I got several of those tasks done yesterday and I feel better about it today having those burdens off my shoulders. I kept asking myself, “Why do I volunteer for so much?”

Well, there I go babbling again. Have you really read this far? I wonder how many people will.

So, how are you at procrastinating? Do you put off those tasks that are mundane and time consuming? Or do you do them right away and get them out of the way? I used to, but it seems as I get older, I fail more.