Eclectic Waters

Archive for December, 2009

I moved into an office yesterday and today was my first full day in it. It has a door. It has three four walls and a large window in the one overlooking the Customer Service department. I have left cubicle life. The life of a grey fuzzy wall staring at me from behind my computer. The life of hearing every movement of the people next to me is over. The life of being frightened by the binging of our call monitoring screen is over (ok so its not so bad), but that life is now over.

My office has a bookshelf and shelves above my desk. It also has a bulletin board on one side so I can tack pictures and my favorite quotes up. The rules of cubicle dictated that all personal items had to be limited to a small corner stand. Now there are no rules, within reason that is. This means I can buy a large picture or two for my spacious walls. I can put picture frames on the bookshelf and I can use the full width of the bulletin board. I now have a small home within Turning Point. A space to make my own. A quiet room to think, do my reporting and to brainstorm better ways to serve and equip my team.

I love my co-workers and team! When I talk about them, I tear up. When I tell them how much I appreciate them, I tear up. They make my heart smile and I am blessed to have the honor of leading and serving them! I am blessed to have a job that uses my strengths and where my work goes toward spreading God’s truth, transforming lives. It’s amazing! I couldn’t have picked a better job for myself.

So… the office all to myself is definitely a new experience. Even as a teacher, I had to share my classrooms. Along with the office comes the awareness of the greater responsibilities and expectations being placed on me at work. These last weeks I have felt slightly overwhelmed and am tired by the time 3:30 p.m. rolls around. But I’m glad for the challenge and am excited to see how I will grow through the challenges, make mistakes, and grow some more.

Sunday morning, after a hot shower, I stood over the kitchen sink cutting my bagel in half. It was a cheese bagel. My favorite. I stand over the sink so that I don’t have to wipe up the crumbs from the counter or floor (my roommate is slightly particular about crumbs being left on the surfaces of our kitchen).

Thinking I had the jagged knife firmly thrust through the thick part of the bagel, I exerted the usual amount of effort required to saw the bagel into two halves. Unfortunately, the knife was in the thin upper part of the bagel and when I exerted the normal amount of effort, it broke free and rammed itself into the fleshy part of my hand.

SHIT!

I dropped the knife and bagel into the sink and clamped my other hand over the cut. Hurrying towards the bathroom I proceeded to carefully remove my hand and press a waded stack of toilet paper to the wound. UGH! It looks deep. I wonder if I need stiches. Thinking about whether or not I needed stiches as well as seeing the blood, I began to feel light headed. Am I really going to throw up?

Yes.

After flushing the toilet, I put the lid down and sat on it. This sucks. I’m not getting stitches. With that decided, I scrimmaged through my roommates cabinet. I had seen her take out a band-aid last week and I didn’t have any. Covering the cut with two band-aids, I decided the band-aids were not good enough and began to look for something to hold my hand still and closed because if I opened my hand, the cut would open.

I did not find anything and so I did what any well trained missionary kid will do. I made something.

This something was made of toilet paper wrapped around my hand and packing tape and… well… it was ugly. It looked like a shiny toilet paper cast – which it was. My hand looked like an extra for a scene from the Mummy – which is was not.

I went to church with this contraption on my hand, although when I walked in I was careful to position my sweater over it. Halfway through the service, I carefully slid the ill made cast off, shaking my head. Why did I think I needed this? This is the ugliest thing I have ever seen and it obviously was doing nothing since it slid off so easily. What was I thinking? That was a stupid idea.

Then I laughed. Deanne, you’re silly. Slightly overdramatic.

Yes, but at least I’m creative, I countered back.

True.

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The adventure ended when I met Rachael at Walmart, bought band-aids and butterfly closures and had her secure the cut together.

It is now healing and no longer hurts.

So, I think I’m going to try something new. This year, or for as long as it lasts – I’m going to blog about the different adventures I have.

My definition of adventure:

1. New experiences (i.e. things I have never done or tried before)

2. ALIVE experiences (those times that make you feel alive)

3. Surprises (good or bad)