Work Thoughts

So...working at a greenhouse provides a lot of hours for pure thinking. Which can be good or bad.

But I was just thinking about how much I can struggle every day as a Christian. How I, and every Christian for that matter, is exactly like ancient Israel.

You know how while reading the old testament you want to take the Israelites and shake them up sometimes. I mean really, God leads them out of Egypt with one miracle after another and they praise and thank Him, forget Him, complain, worship other gods, God says, "that's enough" and they after chastising them they come back humbled, beaten, and once again praise God.

Life is good again.

So they go back to their wicked ways. Talk about some hard headed, stupid people!

Now go write down a summary of your walk with God in the last year and compare notes with the Israelites...you almost can't tell which is which, can you?

Aunthood here I come.

Oh yes. My dear sister Rachel gave birth this morning to Soren James.

I shall see the little blighter in 1 week.

Pictures shall follow.

Yesterday was officially my worst day at work than ever before.

I lied in my last post. Accidentally. I was not getting better from that sickness I came down with...but I did think I was that night.

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling like a train wreck. Halfway through the morning I was loading a tall metal cart with potted plants and moving them to another area.

It was in a tunnel section where nobody else was around and as I pulled the cart in I realized I had it facing the wrong way and needed to turn it around. Now, in this tunnel, there is only a cement path down the center and either side is dirt..so as I turned the cart it caught on the dirt.

My brain was not fully functioning and I remember standing next too it and calming realizing that, "the cart is about to tip" as it fell it somehow threw me on the ground and a second later I sat with a pinched finger and my foot trapped under this heavy cart with hundreds of plants in every direction.

They flew! Pots, Plants, Dirt.

I wanted to cry. Instead I picked myself up, heaved the cart off my foot, and began cleaning that horrendous mess up.

I knew I would need to tell one of my bosses...and I was trying to think how to evade that awkward convo.

When I was about halfway through Juan walked in, stopped dead in his tracks and let out a long long groan.

I began apologizing pathetically and he said, "it's okay, just clean it up."

Then I thought he was heartless for some reason (I didn't feel good, alright.) and I had to replant half of them...

The whole deal took almost 2 hours to clean up!

By the time I finished it was noon and I decided it was high time I went home for the day.

On arriving home I found out that Jay Holston, the deacon in our church had had a massive heart attack that morning and had passed away! It is still so shocking and it made me realize how trivial my problems for the day had been. That they are not the end of the world.


I stole an amazing quote from the sermon tonight at church: "God wants us to do--not just to think and feel--but to do."

A Christian's death is so bittersweet. How much we miss them. And yet, we know they are in a better place..Rejoicing.

I arrived to work today at 7:59...I hate pulling it that close.

Walking into the greenhouse I caught up to my boss, Juan. "How are, you?" he asked.

"Tolerable," I scowled. I'm usually quite cheerful in the morning and ready to go but today I woke up with a tennis ball in my throat and all achy. I hate being sick. I hate how it slows you down.

"What are we doing today?" I asked.

"Planting," Juan replied.

"What a novel idea," I said dryly. Juan didn't understand what I meant by that since he only came to the U.S. about 15 years ago and doesn't understand what a lot of phrases mean.

"What?" he asked.

And I was stupid enough to repeat it. Not feeling good usually makes any sarcasm that comes to mind twice as bitter.

At 9:00 Chuck came into work. That man is going to drive me insane. He came in doing his whole celeb wave again. He's a huge guy and he walks down the aisle partly crouched over with ludicrous look on his face waving in slow motion and yelling hi to everyone. I think he might have been attention-deprived as a child.

On Friday he was across the greenhouse from me and talking to another worker there. And out of no where he began yelping and leaping in the air...

He also has a fascination of charging at people with carts at full speed.

I was in no mood to talk to anyone until about noon when my throat began to loosen up a little. My head hurt today too...I have a huge egg on the top of it and it hurts to brush my hair. So I decided to give that up for awhile.

I remembered earlier what that was from finally. But you might not believe me. The other day we were all in my mom's room and after a while I told everyone it was time to go out.

Talitha, whose three, dove back in and hid under my mom's bed. So I went after here and the little Snippet got to the other side and escaped before I was halfway under. On coming up I forgot I had a head and smashed it into the metal bar full force.

I have regained almost all my old happy self as of now...shesh I hate being sick.

And I hate it when people complain about being sick.

This past week I received confirmation about being accepted on a missions trip to Brazil for three weeks in July.

I am the happy owner of a ticket.

I was the last person able to get in on this trip. Originally I was going to go to Nigeria but they cancelled the trip because it was too dangerous.

I am excited. And yet, nervous too. I'm flying from Atlanta to Manaus, Brazil. We'll be there for a few days and then float down the Amazon river for 2 days...then canoe for an hour to a village. The church there needs to be re-built and that is our main project.

Geez though, I have a lot to prepare for...

It is fitting that a good post should follow a bad.

Today I was really able to witness how doing the right thing isn't always the easiest...but how much more it pays off and how much better it makes you feel.

I complained in the last post about the manager at work that was talking terribly. The more I thought about it last night the more miserable it made me that I had to go back to work today and deal with it again.

After telling my parents about it they suggested talking to him about it.

I got to work a few minutes early. But nobody else was there and everything was still locked up. All my co-workers arrived and finally quarter after eight, Steve, the manager, came...he didn't know none of us had keys. Before he'd even gotten the door unlocked he said d*** it and another crude word. The realization that I had to say something was beginning to sink in.

I started cleaning up the mess I had made yesterday and he came over to talk to me about something, I forget what. I was dreading having to bring it up...my poor heart was palpitating. I let him finish and then I charged right in, "Steve, we're going to get something straight between you and I."

I doubt I'll ever see his face fall like it did again. And his arrogance changed into scared unsureness. He said dumbly after me, "we're going to get something straight between you and I?"

"Yes," I said, "Yesterday, the way you talked was awful and it really upset me. I didn't hear you say one sentence in which you did not take God's name in vain, or use some crude language. You can either change how you talk, or I'm going to leave. It was completely uncalled for and if you don't want to stop then I'm out of here."

He just stood there nodding the whole time not quite knowing what to do. Then he pulled himself together and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was offensive to you. It won't happen again."

I thanked him...and continued picking up the mess I'd made. A minute later he came back up to me and said, "but to be fair, you do want to be fair about this right?"

I nodded.

"Well, to be fair, you have to admit it is quite harsh of you to say, I mean it was an exaggeration to say that I talked that bad. I noticed yesterday that the way I talked bothered you and so I stopped."

I was flabbergasted. "I'm sorry Steve, but I was around you from morning until night and your language didn't change all day. What's your definition of bad language? Maybe yours is different then mine."

Then he told me to leave my mess alone and that he'd take care of it and that I was to go plant the begonia's. I knew he wasn't happy with me...

So I went and planted the begonia's all day and didn't hear him say one bad word. It was so refreshing.

He was fine to talk to after that when I had to. I didn't have a problem doing it. But he sure did act different towards me compared with yesterday. If he had any questions, which he didn't have a problem asking me yesterday, he went directly to Lanelle. Also, all yesterday he praised how I worked to no-end (which got really annoying) and today he didn't say one word...even when he walked by at the end of the day and was pleased with how much was accomplished he wouldn't say so.

Not that I cared...I was just so happy and relieved!

Honestly, I think he talks bad so much that he didn't realize how often he did it. I didn't feel triumphant over him for crushing his pride...I felt triumphant that I'd done the right thing.

Friday THE 13th

I don't believe I've ever had such bad luck on a day that one is suppose too.

1. I woke up 20 minutes before I had to leave to work: I had to throw together my lunch, get ready, go out to the office...and grab a cup of coffee.
2. My vehicle was really difficult to drive and a mile down I realized I had a VERY flat tire....a slow trip back to the house...jump into a different vehicle...and arrive to work 10 minutes late.
3. I get out of the vehicle with my lunch box, water bottle, and cell phone right onto a huge ice patch and fall face forward slamming my knees and knocking the air out of myself. I picked myself up and determined to make it inside that door!
4. It would be my luck to have to work the one weekend that the manager from the Minneapolis greenhouse came. Ugh. He was horrible and I'm so thankful he's not my normal boss. I didn't hear him say one sentence which didn't take God's name in vain or swear or use some crude word. I almost went bonkers. And I had to work around him for a dreadful amount of hours!
5. Chuck, who helped me load a cart, stacked them so badly that three different times they some fell off and I spilled soil all over the floor.
6. (warning: may contain inappropriate content) during lunch hour, every one left to eat and run errands...I ate my lunch there and ran to my car to grab a pack of gum. While jumping out of the car, my cell phone, which was in my back pocket, caught on the door somehow...and tore my pants! I panicked for about 3 seconds and then remembered no one was around...I grabbed my sweat jacket and tied it around my waist. And guess what...No one even noticed!
7. When I punched out of work...my time card looked funny. Somehow the machine hadn't grabbed it right after I ate lunch and hadn't recorded the last 6 hours of work. So I wrote it in by hand and hope to goodness it comes out alright.