When I woke up this morning, the warmth and coziness of my bed seemed more welcoming than usual. Content, I lay underneath heavily layered sheets and quilts, gazing at the dimly lit room and praying through my day before getting up.
Somehow, in the midst of throwing off my covers, standing to my feet, and walking across the room to my dresser I remembered they were calling for some snow overnight - possibly enough to warrant a 2 hour delay or even a cancellation at the college. With as much gusto as one can muster in their waking moments, I flew to my laptop and turned it on.
Poor thing. It's almost 5 years old and slower than dirt. (Mac owners don't be hating or laughing here.) In the ten minutes or so that it takes a 5-year-old Toshiba Satellite to wake up, I waited patiently, sipping water and trying not to wake up. If there was a delay, or a cancellation, my bed and I would be reunited and it would feel so good.
In patient anticipation, I opened my browser and typed in the school's web address into the search bar. Any delay or cancellation would be posted there. Without getting my hopes up, I stared at the page, watching element after element appear as the site continued to load.
There it was.... NEWS.... I gazed for a moment at the sight, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.... There was nothing. No cancellation. No delay. I refreshed the page. Still nothing.
Oh well, I guess God wants me at work today, right?
Now 15 minutes behind in my morning ritual, I headed back to my dresser to put my contacts in. First the right, then the left. Blink, blink, blink. As I looked around at my blurry room, it was obvious that something wasn't right. Great! Somehow my right contact hadn't made it into my eye after all. I searched the floor, the dresser, the floor again, and the dresser again before giving up the efforts. I don't have time for this.
Now 20 minutes behind I popped in a brand new contact and immediately saw the missing one sitting naked on my dresser, next to the contacts case. Grrrr. How did I miss that? Frustrated, I threw the old one away. It would have lasted another couple weeks at least, but it was too late for that.
I grabbed my stuff and headed for the shower. By the time I got out I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat and head out the door. That would give me a good 20 minutes to clean off my car and get to work (about 10 minutes away). If the car wasn't too covered or too icy, I would even be able to stop and pick up a coffee on my way to work.
Motivated, despite the lack of a delay or cancellation and the contact lens mishap, I bundled up and headed outside. After setting my stuff down on the passenger seat and grabbing my snow scraper tool, I started the car to get the heat and the defrost going. A couple swishes of the wipers to clean off the windshield and I was ready to tackle the rest of the car.
With an air of cheer in the damp winter morning I pressed the unlock button and closed the door. Racing around the car, I managed to clear the couple inches of heavy snow in under 5 minutes, spurred on by the anticipation of a hot cup of coffee joining me to kick off my work day. Satisfied, I took a step back to admire my work before climbing into the car with just enough time to stop for that liquid wonder and make it to work on time.
That is, I would have had just enough time..... if my car wasn't locked....
My heart sank. There were my keys - just a few feet from me, just dangling in the ignition - but I was helpless to do anything. For good measure, I tried every door and peered 2 or 3 times through the windows to confirm and reconfirm that the doors were in fact locked. The realization that it was only 7:45 in the morning and that my friend happened to have my only spare set of keys with him on campus hit me like a punch in the gut.
Reluctantly, but with no other choice, I called him. I knew I would be waking him up, but I also prayed that he didn't have his cell on alarm only mode or something. Ring, ring, ring. Mixed emotions. I don't want to wake you up, but please answer... The alternative was letting my car just sit and run for who knows how long and being ridiculously late to work. Ring, ring, ring.
"Hello....?"
"Hi.... can I ask you to do me a really big favor.....?"
Our 3-minute conversation felt much longer. He was on his way, but I felt like an absolute moron. Not only that, but I just felt awful that he had to wake up and drive through the icky weather just to push a magic button on a key ring and unlock my car.
At this point, it started to rain/sleet. Perfect. Just perfect. I spent the next 15 minutes or so fighting back tears and continually scraping the windows of my car, where the morning's precipitation was beginning to stick and freeze. I hate winter... Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! A few times I ran into the garage, just to warm up my frozen fingers. From there I could keep an eye out for my friend.
In such circumstances, 15 minutes can feel like a lifetime, but before long, in a somewhat anticlimactic manner, my hero showed up, pushed the magic little unlock button, and I was able to get into my car.
Words can't really describe all that I was feeling at the moment. Sure I was embarrassed, but mostly I just felt stupid and felt absolutely awful that I had to wake him up. When he came I just wanted to run and give him the biggest hug and thank him a-million-and-one times, but somehow it didn't seem appropriate at 8:00 in the morning. I thanked him, he smiled, we said a few things that I don't even remember now, and then he headed back to campus, with me not far behind.
So, not exactly the way I wanted to start my morning, or my February for that matter, but that's what I got. It would be so easy to let this ruin my day, but I think by this point I'm pretty much over it. Stuff happens, you move on.
Although I can't really think of any purpose for going through all that in one morning, I smile, knowing that God causes all things to work together for my good - for making me more like Christ.
Besides, with a morning like that behind me, the rest of my February is looking pretty fantastic already! =DLabels: every day life