| It started off when my family came in town Friday morning.
We were recovering chairs to go in the kitchen and refinishing a cabinet to go
in the dining room. I also showed my sister around UNT, because she's
considering going here for vocal jazz. Then Saturday my family went to visit my
grandma, but I had to stay because I had a crazy certification test that
afternoon. I won’t comment on how I did, I’ll only say I’m sure glad it’s over!
My family came back into town on Sunday afternoon, and my
sister spent the night with me Sunday night (they were leaving Monday morning),
the night of the really big storm. My house got struck by lightning at about 3
in the morning. It didn't burn or anything, but it knocked out all of the
power. Soon after everywhere had power but the bedrooms and the plugs in our
upstairs living room. In the morning, my parents came by to get my sister and
some stuff my mom had stored at my house, and they messed with the breaker
enough to get power back to the plugs upstairs and two of our four bedrooms
(Lacie and Carissa’s). Missy’s and mine still didn't work. I called the city,
they came by and said there was nothing they could do (it wasn't a problem
they're responsible for), and so the landlord sent an electrician out. He
restored power to everything, but the garage door and the A/C still didn't
work. The A/C didn't get fixed until late yesterday morning, and the garage
door still isn't working. Also, the storm knocked out most of the electronics
in my room. Both of my computer monitors, my printer, my alarm clock, my tv and
my dvd/vcr are all dead. Also, the video card that I had the monitors plugged
into was fried.
Monday I had to get up early to work on stuff with my
parents, and I had work at 10. I worked until 4 with a half an hour break, and
gave a tour from 2-4. Then I rushed home to my hot house, changed clothes,
shoved a granola bar down my throat and rushed to a job interview at 5. Then
after that, I came home to our hot house and read for Biblestudy that was at
7:30. I hate doing stuff at the last minute like that, but it was the first
opportunity I’d had to get to it. On the way home from Biblestudy, I ran by
walmart to get a new surge protector, still hoping that it had just fried the
surge protectors, not the equipment. It didn't (they still don't work). I worked most of the day on Tuesday, and then went to best
buy to get a new computer monitor and two surge protectors. I'm not keeping the
one from walmart, because it's not near as good as the ones from best buy, and
I want the $75,000 guarantee on all electronics plugged into the surge
protectors I bought. I've done some research, and I'm in the process of
contacting Belkin, the company that made the two surge protectors that were
fried, and seeing if I can make good on the $10,000 guarantee on their
protectors. I also went to Lowe's to look at the wood and things my mom chose
to double check it would work for the bookshelves she's making me. Mostly I
just wanted an excuse to be out of the house. Tuesday evening I went to Summer
Life and then spent the night with Rachel, because my house was so ridiculously
hot and I didn't want to shower or sleep there. Unfortunately, I also didn't
get any homework done while I was with her, and missed a deadline I didn't know
existed. With everything over the weekend and then the storm, I completely lost
track of my class, and didn't realize I had a module due at midnight on Tuesday
until I was at work on Wednesday. Luckily, my adjunct professor was merciful
and let me turn it in by midnight tonight.
Wednesday I worked 9 to 4, but was able to come home for an
hour at lunch and also go home for a couple of minutes after work. At this
point, I was living out of my car, but I soon decided it was cool enough that
day that with the windows open it would be possible to sleep at home that
night. I also made a doctor's appointment while I was at work, and spent some
time on the phone with the maintenance guy for our house. At 4:30 I met with a
girl in my class to decide on a topic for our group project that's due at the
end of the semester. It was slow going at first, but finally I came up with an
idea we both liked, and after fleshing it out a bit, we were finished. I left
by 7 and came home. It was so hot that I had a hard time motivating myself to
do anything, and at that point I didn’t know I had an extension yet. I ended up
just chatting with my roommates and listening to a book on tape for the rest of
the night. I also prayed it wouldn’t rain, because I didn’t want to close my
window!
Thursday I worked until 2 and then came home. I looked
through everything for class and figured out a game plan. The air conditioning
was finally fixed... it should have been fixed Wednesday, but we were waiting
on a part to come in. I read for my Thursday night biblestudy and started on
some homework stuff. I also cleaned up my room, which had become very cluttered
and messy from all that's been going on, and hooked up my new monitor and was
finally able to use my computer. Then on my way to biblestudy, I was sideswiped
by a girl when I was driving down carroll. She didn't stop, but I tailed her
long enough to get her information. Then I stopped on the side of the road,
called a friend who's in biblestudy to tell her I would be late, called my dad,
and then called the police. I waited awhile for the police to come, and getting
the report done took awhile. I think the most frustrating thing is the fact
that I was late, and the fact that there wasn't a lot they could do. Luckily,
when I was finished with biblestudy, I had a voicemail saying that they'd found
the girl and that I can pick up the police report on monday. Last night I
didn't feel like doing anything, after everything that's happened, so I just
went to bed (rather than doing homework, as planned).
This morning I had a doctor's appointment, because I've been
feeling dizzy, lightheaded, tired all the time, yawning all the time, ears
ringing and hurting and itching, etc. for a month now. They took blood to rule
out thyroid stuff, but had to stick me 3 times because blood wasn't flowing
into the tubes. The third time they tried a butterfly needle, and it worked. I
also started feeling lightheaded while they were doing that, but I don't think
it was because of the blood, because I've never had that reaction to it before.
I didn't have work today and I don’t have work tomorrow either, which is good,
considering the amount of homework I have to do. I went to the library this
afternoon to work on my assignment that was due at 4, and ended up rear-ending
someone on the way, because the idiot in front of them decided to turn suddenly
(also on Carroll), and not use their blinker. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t
damage my car, despite my plastic bumper, but it did dent the lady’s van’s rear
bumper. She was ok and let things go… which was a blessing. At that point I
really couldn’t have handled anything else. I was hysterical inside my car for
about 10 minutes (it’s the only time I really remember actually choking on my
sobs), but then recovered long enough to get to the library and finish my
assignment. Afterward, I took a nap. My brain couldn’t handle anything else
without a rest. Then I rode my bike for a little while, made dinner and visited
with Missy and Andrew. Since then, I’ve gotten everything done for module 2, so
that’s 2 things out of the way for this weekend… and 2 to go – one due Sunday
by noon and the other due Wednesday by 4.
My dad's working on getting the videocard on my computer
working, because the resolution on the new monitor is horrible, and it's not
because of the monitor, it's something wrong with my computer. We're hoping
it's something that will be easily fixed.
Through all of this, though, I've been able to have some
good conversations with my roommates, and I feel totally at peace with them
right now (which has not been a common feeling for me lately). Some of the
things we've been talking about in both of my biblestudies have really helped
me get through this. Mostly it's just letting go. Shifting my attitude from
demanding my rights and my convenience, and instead, considering others' point
of view and needs. I've been praying a lot for a good attitude, and so far God
has been so gracious. We talked about humility last night at my study, and it's
definitely something I need to work on!
It's been really tough, but it seems like the things that
have been hit are my time, my pride, sleep, and "stuff" - in other
words, all of the things I've either been taking for granted, or been putting
too much importance on. Sleep often becomes a top priority, and it's definitely
something I've had less of in the past week. My pride's been hit so many times
this week it's not even funny. My time has definitely not been spent how I'd
have liked it to have been this week. My stuff... well a lot of things are
either damaged or broken completely. And in return, even though I've had more
stress, and I've felt I'm hurtling through this week at a breakneck speed, I've
had to give control over all of it (time, pride, stuff, sleep, relationships,
future, school, work, etc) to God, knowing that I'll go crazy if I try to
manage it all myself, and that I'll just continue to make a mess of things.
I've also had to exercise more self-control. And, most importantly, God has
strengthened my relationship with my roommates (or at least given me more
opportunities to talk to them), and he's made me be ok with things that
bothered me before that weren't really that big of a deal. I guess this week
has been all about flexibility, trust, peace, grace, and compassion. |
