The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Sunday was not my day. But it ended well for a couple reasons and compared to many, I have little to complain about. But let me try anyway . . . .

I could not find the apartment of an investigator that needed a ride to Church. Stephen has early meetings so he was already at the church. I called her twice before leaving, but no one ever picked up. When I finally found the woman, she proceeded to chew me out for many things, only one of them being late. I was astounded and confused. She made claims that were not true and accused me of all kinds of craziness. I felt a lot like Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice when she tells Darcy's aunt that she can't have anything more to say to her because she has insulted everything about her (to sum up). Even though I had started out for church over a half hour early, we were incredibly late and the chorister really can't be late. She was convinced I didn't know where I was going because I could not tell her the actual address of our church building. When I got there, the missionaries came out to meet her, Stephen came out to park the car for me and all 3 of them knew in no uncertain terms that the drive had gone beyond horrible.

I took over for my pinch hitter chorister for the sacrament hymn. As I sat in church I thought about how this woman had made me feel. I realized her opinion was one opinion and she didn't have the power to make me feel so bad about myself unless I let her. Not surprisingly, she left mid-way through church to find one who would help her hire a lawyer for some legal issues she was having. Not to make this a cultural thing, but later I realized we had somewhat similar experiences with a woman in Chicago we used to pick up for church. She liked us and never insulted us directly, but there was often this undercurrent of "boy, you don't know nuthin' bout nuthin'" Which to a 70+ yr old black lady who's seen a lot in her hard life, we probably seemed like we didn't. This woman's main theme yesterday seemed to be more of "you don't know nuthin' and you ain't gonna ever know anything" and she was MALICIOUS about it.

My day perked up with a successful potluck after church. I like our ward, it grows on me more each week.
After church we were relaxing in our yard, talking over the chicken coop when Ada needed something and I got up to go inside. I stepped on a REALLY sharp pine needle and when I tried to brush it off from between my toes found it was a bee instead! Ouch that hurt. That's when I decided it was NOT my day.

But fortunately Stephen pampered my foot and the girls fought over whose pillow I should put my foot on. We had a friend over for dinner, had chocolate cake and ice cream and another friend brought over his fresh caught rainbow trout to cheer me up! How nice to have friends and family to listen and care. So really, it turned out to be a pretty good day after all.