Today has been a day of "falling apart" all around. Actually, I think it's been a slow culmination of things that simply rose to an apex today. As soon as I unclocked my door this morning, what seems like half of the posters on my wall were slumping against the base board. Not to be deterred, I simply collected them then proceeded on with my day. Poster's have been rovolting from their posts since the beginning of the year. During math, I was instructing from my copy of the students' workbooks when pages started making a slow descent to the carpet. What could I do, but collect them -- "they're tear out pages anyway," I muttered to myself. During Bible, it was my planning that fell apart. As soon as I gave them their choice for their practical application activity, pandemonium waved across the classroom. I couldn't collect their attention for a good ten minutes, I'm sure.
I was glad for the brief walk home. Surely my purse couldn't fall into peices or my shoes lose their soles in one short block! Ah, safely in the gate -- good news. It is then that i decided to try to call my mom (for the fiftieth time in 24 hours). Last night, my cell was dropping calls left and right. My only guesses were that a) the phone was not charged up enough to let my conversations last long enough, b) that I had really poor reception in my room, or c) that my mom has some strange block on Mexican phone numbers (which I don't think she does). I was tired last night, so I just resigned myself to try this afternoon.
On my first attempt, there was a strange pause between rings, then a very fast Spanish diatribe on the other end of the line. Surely my mom's employer hadn't hired an angry Mexican as their new receptionist. A second attemt yielded a 32 second conversation with my mother -- not exactly what I was looking for. I checked the bars on my screen, then decided that maybe if I went up to the roof, it would be a different story. Results? A 47 second conversation. AAAGGGHHHH!!! "Okay, calm down," I thought, "I'll just email her." I went back downstairs, flipped up my laptop screen...darkness. "Breath deeply, Holly." I've dealt with this issue before. I reset my computer, waited for it to reboot, and was finally up and running again.
To my relief, my friend Lori called just then to invite me to go to the local art supply store. YEA! I grabbed my bag, made sure I had some change for the bus, and met her at our gate. She really helped me out, choosing the right kinds of brushes, grabbing paint spreaders... Then we stopped off at the fabric store so I could get some ribbon to hang my postcards in my room, and swung into a department store so she could get a new wallet. My only problem came when it was time to board the bus back home. I had stuffed my paints and pencils, and even my sketch pad into my messenger bag. Holding on to two shrink wrapped canvases whilst trying to keep my oversized sunglasses on my head and simultaneously hanging on for dear life in the aisle of a Mexican bus though; that's a delicate dance. I was losing control. I nearly knocked my knee right through the canvases several times, and cannot count the many times I utttered "perdon" to the poor lady that had the misfortune to be sitting next to my disorderly spectacle.
Fortunately, I was able to sit down for a second before arriving at our stop. Lori was able to get off in plenty of time (she only had a new wallet, remember?), but oafish me couldn't collect my things in time, and had to yell, "OH, OH!" to get the driver to stop again. I was so glad to just be a couple of blocks from home.
Now here I sit, recalling my strange day. There was a lot that went wrong, but even so, what an incredible gift from God today was! I'm ever thankful that in the midst of chaos, that He still watches over and cares for us so intimately. I simply cannot imagine what my day might have been like if God were not for me. THANK YOU, LORD!!
Currently bubble-wrapping myself for my own and others' protection,
Holly
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