Rants and Raves

Dear Gas Station Company,

I know you are just trying to protect me, really, I do, but the thing is...I'm a pretty cautious person when it comes to my credit cards, debit cards, account info, etc. So really, thanks but no thanks for adding this additional question during the coldest month of the year because no I don't want to enter my 5-digit zip code and then press enter, I just want a tank of gas! And preferably for under $2.00/gallon.

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Abby Jane

But for the grace of God, right? :)

Recently, I've been subject to a few different personality tests. It's part of this training curriculum I am going through in order to present them as teaching tools for various women's ministries. They say (I'm not really sure who they is) that it's helpful to know your co-workers personality types, love languages, birth order, etc. because it will give you a better understanding of who they are. So here's what I have so far:

Human Relations Tool (I scored somewhere between Oprah and Dr. Phil)
41 to 50 points: Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical and always interesting- someone who is constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding- someone who will always cheer them up and help them out. Your friendships are close and long lasting because of your loyalty to those you trust.

Sparky Sanguine or The Otter
Characteristics: The Talker, active, people-oriented, enthusiastic, cheerful, optimistic, sociable, fun-loving, demonstrative, spontaneous, and expressive
Weaknesses: easily distracted, undiscipled, procrastinates, restless, exaggerates, loud/brassy, and scatterbrained

I think now would be the time to add that often times, many people are a mix of a couple different personality types, but one of them is a little more prominent than the other. My other highest score was choleric...
Characteristics: strong-willed, independent, practical, productive, decisive, and leader
Weaknesses: cold and unemotional, self-sufficient, domineering, unforgiving, sarcastic, angry, and cruel

Birth Order
Lastborns are usually friendly, easygoing, and creative. Research shows that you're more observant and that you have more diverse interests than your older siblings. You also take more risks, like to travel more, and are more liberal. You're the first to embrace new theories and you love challenging the status quo.

Younger Sisters
Younger sisters of sisters are driven, ambitious, and creative dynamos. You're the most feminine and flirtatious of girls. Nothing can stand in your way when you have a goal. But you often get distracted by whatever crosses your path — whether it's a new career, a new man, or a new interest. And let's face it, you have many interests, more than you can handle at times!

Now, back to what I was doing before I decided to procrastinate and blog :)

Confessions of a Single, Careerless 23 Year-Old

One of the things I miss most about college is I was daily surrounded by people just like me: unattached, crazy fun, and extremely passionate people who had no clue what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives but certain they were going to change the world.

I need to move to a younger city.

If I hear the phrase "well, all of us here are married...except for Abby" one more time, I just might scream.

Adventures of the Flood Part 2

So today after coming in for staff meeting and the senior's luncheon (don't ask), we began the task of clean up. The good news about the whole thing is the pipe that burst was actually clean water, so in other words our carpets just got a really, really good cleaning. :) However, about 70% of stuff we use for children's ministry is stored or comes in cardboard boxes, which turns out are not all that durable when sitting in 2 inches of water for a few hours. I also wasn't aware that the water had gone into our supply closet.

But here's the good news.

Maybe part of this is the blessing of attending a multi-generational church (which I really do believe is a blessing), but we have this one particular sista who cannot, and I mean, cannot throw a single thing away. (Rumor has it she has two houses...she only lives in one.) She grew up and lived through the depression, and given our current economic status, I'm sure she's shakin' in her boots again, so an empty cardboard box is like gold to her if you know what I'm saying. She just so happens to stuff our supply closet (and file cabinets, and any empty storage spaces, and our extra supply room...you get the idea) with things from her home she thinks we could use in children's ministry. Some of it, we can use...most of it, we can't. Now, don't get me wrong, she's a servant, but we also cannot throw out anything without her knowing...we have to do it on a day we know the dumpster is getting picked up or else she might see it! She even asks me if she can empty my trash can somedays so she can recycle the scrap paper from it.

All of that to say, today we got to clean out the supply closet...and we got to throw things away...what other option did we have? They were "water damaged"...or at least most of it :)

How was your Sunday morning?

Okay, okay, so maybe my last post was a little bitter and complain-ey, but I really can't help it...I'm living in a snowglobe up here! And now I will share what happened today as more of a humorous story rather than a complain-ey one, although I'm not looking forward to clean up tomorrow!

So this morning was a typical Sunday morning when I'm not "in charge." The director and I switch off each Sunday for which one of us has to be in around 8:30am and is in charge for the morning schedule and pretty much the "go to" person. So, theoretically, today I had minimal responsibilities. Around 8:40am, she called and left me a voicemail that said she "needed to tell me a couple things." Well, normally what she has to tell me involves people not being able to show up, her having to switch a few room assignments, etc. Since I tend to be a last minute person, I normally don't let that information bother me and just care to deal with it when I show up. So, after I got out of the shower and saw that she had called again, I figured I should return the call. After playing phone tag, she asked "where are you?" I told her I was just getting ready, as usual, and I'd be in a little bit before 10am. And then she said, "well, the reason why I was calling is because the entire children's center is flooded. A pipe burst in the library, and our office is flooded, the main kid's worship room, the nurseries, and a couple other classrooms." Ha!

Fortunately, it only managed to ruin one shelf of books out of probably 15-18 shelves in the library. I believe the damage will be minimal (we are still hoping my computer tower, which was on the floor, will live), but the clean up process was not! We had about 10 of our trustees working all morning with squeegees, wet vacs, fans, etc. while also trying to lay out all the damaged library books to dry. Our job was to relocate all of the classrooms up to the third level of our church, making about 15 trips up and down three flights of stairs carrying a variety of items from tables and kid-size chairs to glue sticks and scissors! Not to mention someone had turned the heat on high upstairs and had left it on a little too long...so arriving in a 90 degree classroom after carrying things up three flights of stairs was not too much fun!

I came home, ate lunch, and took a two hour nap.

Talk about a crazy Sunday morning! I should never again complain about normal Sunday mornings downstairs...they will probably never top this morning!