"On an ordinary Sunday..."

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the title of this post is a lyric from a song, first from Sunday in the Park with George, and later used in a homage in Tick, Tick... BOOM! Both very good scores.

Anyway, today was Sunday. It was probably the first (or among the first) official, regular Sundays at church since I came home (when I wasn't out of town, or entertaining visitors at home, or whatev), and it was... interesting. I was very proud of myself for getting up and getting ready in plenty of time (especially after getting myself to bed at a decent hour last night), but church itself was kind of a struggle. It was so nice for once to be able to just be able to go to church and sit and listen and partake of the Sacrament enjoy the Spirit that is there, rather than going to hours of meetings, worrying about who's going to come to church and who isn't, getting everything ready, playing the organ while simultaneously preparing to translate the entire meeting, etc. It's nice to just GO to church and actually do what you normally do at church. I even pulled out my sketbchbook for the first time since I came home and did some drawings (mostly of Asian people, oh boy), and Elise even handed over several postcards that she had planned on sending me. THOSE would have been nice to read back in Appleton (though they were still nice to read here). I did have some hard times in the following classes (seemingly irrelevant and unimportant conversation that had little if anything to do with Jesus Christ), but someone in the ward mentioned that they had driven past our house on the way to church and reported that my car, like one of theirs, which I had parked innocently on the street, had been subject to mindless vandalism over the night. When we came home, I saw that her report was definitely true. The front passenger side window was pointlessly smashed by some local hooligans (I guess there has been some vandalism problems in the neighborhood recently... Park in the garage, they say... Well, I guess I could have parked it more in the light, you never know). JUST WHAT I NEED, I thought. I guess if my car HAD rolled down the hill yesterday, it wouldn't have had its window broken (only everything else, ha ha). Anyway, I couldn't really take much more of anything else, so I decided to end it all by falling into the merciful semi-consciousness of guilt-free, hours-long, Sunday afternoon napping. I woke up just in time to read a little and then head to the mission-prep class I had been invited to attend. It was really interesting as well. It has been several years since I actually attended a class like that. Even in a group of about 9 kids, you still have all kinds. I could already get a glimpse of what kind of missionary each would be. I guess I still have some of that spirit of discernment lingering from the last twenty-four months. Anyway, it was fun to report on the mission and tell them perhaps what I wished people had told me about the mission experience before I left. They're probably going to be prepared as they'll ever be when the time comes. It was actually a pretty good time, and I stayed until it was over. Then, driving home, I remembered that Elise and Jeff were having their announcement photo shoot in the park, so I took that route home. I sat with Mom, Dad and Cortnie for a while, while Matt and Travie took pictures of the young people in love (who are "very seldom hungry"!) and Jackson entertained himself by throwing sticks and rocks into the stream. Elise said I had a "growth coming out of my ear", which was, of course, my headphones (hey, I only had one ear bud in, I was totally aware of what was going on and being said around me... It's just like having a soundtrack to my life! I have a lot of music to catch up on).

So yes, it was a pretty interesting Sabbath. Maybe this was a boring post to read. Maybe you lost interest halfway through. That's totally fine. I'm just sad that my car is minus one window. It's so expensive to fix and keep up. Darn those ancient foreign cars! But at least it's relatively in one piece. Count your blessings, right?

P.S. I don't know HOW my car was even put into neutral yesterday. I mean, if I was going to shift out of drive, why into neutral? Could it have rolled in drive? I guess it could. It's hard to remember because the guide that holds the stick in place is loose, so I can't quite recall what gear it was in. I just wish I had turned the tires into the curb so it would have been stopped by that. Oh, whatever. Peace out.