Crowded Upstairs

I'm trapped at the church -- literally, this time, as opposed to the metaphorical trapping which some people view as my daily life.

When I came this morning, I was forced to use a slightly circuitous route because they were repaving part of Howertown Road (the street on which the church sits). Being ever so slightly genre savvy, I thought it was a good idea to put my car in the church lot rather than parking on the street, as I often do, because I sensed that leaving it on the street would be an invitation to trouble.

While I was congratulating myself on outwitting my scriptwriter, Jeff the sexton walked into my office, complaining about what a labyrinth it was for him to get to the church, and how he ultimately had to park in our rear lot, which mostly exists for the teachers in the day care. He only arrived about half an hour after I did, but in that short a time, they managed to block off the entire street. I can't get my car out of the lot; I'm not even sure I can walk over to it.

Fortunately, Pastor can still get out to do his thing, so he promised to pick up the printer ink from Staples that I very much need in order to do my job. And equally fortunately, the ink I currently have was enough for me to print the things that absolutely needed to be printed today. My volunteers are doing the bulletins this afternoon instead of tomorrow, because of a schedule conflict, but I was able to print the main bulletins and am copying them now.

This punny, linky entry has been brought to you by my addiction to TV Tropes.

Ah, April Fool's Day. Interestingly, I am up to almost nothing this year. Maybe I've finally outgrown the event.

Nah. Not likely. Moving on.

It's not quite as delightful to me as last year's unbelievable prank by IGN, where they spent three months making a fake trailer for a Legend of Zelda movie that doesn't exist. However, this does tickle my fancy considerably. Konami has produced a trailer for a fake game in the Metal Gear Solid series, starring a very aged Col. Campbell. It's extremely well done, so if your connection is strong enough, you might want to check it out: http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/movie/april_fool/index_j.html

Of course, the big prank for me is the fact that Easter is a week and a half away. *cringe* I have so much to do and such a headache to do it with. Ostensibly, I will not be around tonight because of Bible study; however, if this headache doesn't clear off, I may be staying home.

To conclude, a meme ripped off of a few of you. I refuse to tag anyone, though; if you want to do it, feel free.

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and randomly tag 10 people (including me). Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real; nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Laura
2. A boy's name: Lewis
3. A girl's name: Lisa
4. An occupation: lumberjack
5. A colour: light blue
6. Something you wear: locket
7. A food: limes
8. Something found in the bathroom: lotion
9. A name of a place: Lebanon
10. A reason for being late: low on gas
11. Something you shout: "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU"
12. A movie title: Labyrinth
13. Something you drink: lemonade
14. A musical group: Los Lonely Boys
15. An animal: leopard
16. A street name: Lexington Avenue
17. A type of car: Lamborghini
18. Something scary: "Love Story" by Taylor Swift (I despise that song)
19. A four-letter word: love
20. Ice cream flavour: lemon meringue pie (yes, I'm serious, it's only available for part of the year but damn is it awesome)

So it's unquestionably Monday, as evidenced by the steaming piles of crap that awaited me when I reached the office. Notes in my bin that have nothing to do with my job, or that blame me for things which aren't my fault. Twelve million documents to be copied. A voice mail message from Crazy Bell Lady (surprisingly civil for her, but still). A phone that won't stop ringing.

And a printer which leaked ink all over my desk.

My first instinct was to do what I do best, which is panic and feel overwhelmed. After a few minutes, however, I took a breath and decided instead to start putting my new methodology into practice, to see how it goes. ( This is that thing I vaguely referenced a week or so ago that I haven't discussed since. )

One copier broke and the other ran out of ink. People were in and out all day long, dropping off eggs for the egg hunt. The phone wouldn't stop ringing, usually people wanting the number for the day care. Pastor attempted to use the key to HIS office to unlock the door to MY office, which was standing open a few inches at the time. (Bless him.)

But it all came together at the last minute. The second copier didn't run out of ink until the technician arrived to fix the first one, so I was still able to get everything done. Two extra volunteers arrived and helped throw the bulletins together. I only left the office an hour later than usual, which -- all things considered -- was pretty good. Really, this was the best Holy Week I've had yet in my time as secretary. Yes, it was crazy and stressful and exhausting, but at least I didn't want to kill anyone before it was over.

Last night I got almost ten full hours of solid sleep; totally slept through Kevin leaving for work this morning. Spent the entire afternoon wrangling my magazine article into something readable, so by the time I was finished it was too late to go to church even if I didn't have a throbbing headache. That may be partly pressure-related, though, because it's supposed to start snowing overnight. My shift at the mountain will almost certainly be canceled, which is unfortunate but will at least let me get some other things done. (Like washing dishes. Oh, the thrills I will have.) I'm invited to attend a potluck supper for the volunteers on April 4th, which I may just indeed do.

As a final note, I want to wish a belated happy birthday to the ever-fantastic kytyn, whose natal day was March 19th. I was too wound up in Holy Week to remember to say so, but I did at least remember to buy a card.

I forgot to mail it, but I remembered to buy it. It's a start.

First of all, I have no words for this: http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

Just click it, seriously, it's staggering.

Moving on, my day today was painful -- although not nearly as much so as it might have been. The angels were looking out for me this morning.

Simplex Grinnell is the name of the alarm company which owns and maintains the church's fire and burglar alarm system. Once a year, they send technicians out to bother me inspect our equipment and make sure that everything is working at top efficiency. Today was that day. This disrupts my workload to some extent, because I have to run around the building with them and let them into locked rooms and suchlike so they can test all the smoke detectors. I got most of my usual Friday work accomplished yesterday, which is really impressive when you consider that a) I was sick and b) I forgot they were coming.

Well, the final part of the inspection required them to have access to the church's "attic." This is the part of the building where the fire of 1979 took place; you can see scorch marks on the walls. It's the area over the sanctuary (main church) and is part of the building that very few of the congregation has ever seen. I'm in that little company. In order for them to access the smoke detectors in the 'attic,' I had to take them up to the balcony and unlock the door to the storage room. From there, one has to climb a set of rickety narrow steps that always make me think of Quasimodo, and then open an old heavy trapdoor in the ceiling. The technician, who has done our inspections many times before, went up alone but was having trouble finding the light switch. So I started up after him.

The trapdoor, which had nothing to hold it open, accidentally fell closed.

Had I gone one step higher, I would undoubtedly have had a massive concussion. As it was, I was showered with dust and dirt and soot, and I twisted rapidly around and downward to avoid any potential collision with the door. The poor technician yanked it open in horror; I think he thought I'd been killed. The door weighs fifty pounds, easily.

I avoided the major injury, but I was absolutely filthy until I got home to shower, and my back has been throbbing ever since. I think I turned too hard when I was ducking the door. I'll be all right after I've slept on it, but in the meantime, ouch.

The police chief will be coming over sometime either today or tomorrow to listen to CBL's voice mail. It's not particularly harassing by itself, but it goes to establish pattern. More than anything, I hate how much this bothers me. I hear her voice and boom, my blood pressure is up. I would recognize her voice anywhere for that reason.

We're in a winter storm watch. Assuming the weather comes to pass as they predict, it will start rain-snowing sometime tomorrow morning and continue throughout the entire day and overnight into Wednesday. Layers upon layers of rain, snow, freezing rain, ice, and sleet. FUN! I told Pastor that if it's really nasty on Wednesday morning, I'm going to take the day off. Except for paid vacations and funerals, I've taken off all of two days since I started working here, so he has no problem with this.

Am distracting myself from CBL's villainy by working on The Secretary Project. She should be flattered, she got her own entry.

It's lunchtime and I think I smell grilled cheese. I hope I do, anyway, because I've been craving it. Which may be a sign that I play Sims more than is healthy...

Those of you who knew my grandfather may find this article interesting.

I wrote another game walkthrough and it was accepted by GameFAQs.com -- maybe I'll win another $50 gift certificate like I did when I wrote the Sherlock Holmes one.

SOMEONE is upstairs and making a lot of racket, and I'm sort of scared to go see who it is. (ETA: It's okay, it's just the organist.)

Quote is from the episode of Bonanza I caught this morning. I'm not sure why I like Bonanza and Gunsmoke so much, but I do.

Okay. Really long day, so I'm cut-tagging this post. However, I REALLY HOPE YOU'LL READ IT because what happened today was, in my opinion, the single coolest thing to happen all year. To me, that is. ( Read more... )

This is going to sound a little funny. But I have a request (yeah....again), and it actually doesn't require much effort from any of you. I'd be the one doing the work. ( Read more... )

I am hungry.

I am trying to figure out how to be out of the office when Annoying Older Lady shows up.

I have a headache and I've been here for less than an hour.

To the fifty thousand people who have asked me this question, NO, I am not participating in NaNoWriMo. My reasons are most assuredly trivial and nothing more than pathetic excuses.

To do this week:

- send out lector assignments to this month's lectors
- typing up the minutes from the council meeting last week
- typing up the minutes from the most recent child care committee meeting
- buy a pie for the funeral luncheon tomorrow for our organist's father-in-law
- remember where I put my sister Lisa's birthday present and wrap it for Sunday
- attempt to recruit a few sponsors for the Angel 34 walk on Saturday (anyone? Bueller?)
- find out whether or not I'm supposed to make bulletins for this funeral tomorrow, since as usual no one's told me a damn thing
- make bulletins for the funeral tomorrow
- mail the newsletter
- look at my newest assignment from my magazine editor friend and see about getting it finished
- meeting tonight of my mother's service/social committee
- print up shut-in lists for said committee meeting
- knowing my mother, take minutes at the meeting and type them
- print and assemble the five million bulletins for All Saints' Sunday
- learn to stop writing that day as All Stains' Sunday or All Satins' Sunday
- order ink for the copy machine

And there are probably other things that should be on that list which I've completely forgotten. Also, I have three weeks and two days to get my house absolutely spotless for the arrival of our family members on Thanksgiving.