Blessings

David's scheduled for outpatient surgery on his shoulder. Friday morning. He is single (read on and you'll discover why) and has no family here. His only sibling lives out of state; besides, David says his brother hates him and abuses him (verbally). His mother is in a nursing home; his father is deceased. He's lined up someone to drop him off at the hospital. I volunteered to pick him up and take him home and get him settled. Heck, I even offered to let him stay with us for the weekend. His response? "You might be mean to me." I've NEVER been mean to him, although the thought has crossed my mind. Talk about paranoid!

He's going to stay overnight with the same friend who is taking him to the hospital that morning. I asked if he were going to stay with Ernie the entire weekend. "NO!" he exclaimed. "They don't have enough food!" WHAT? David went on to say, "They don't eat much at that house. I'll starve to death."

David is more worried about what and how he's going to eat next week than he is about the surgery and subsequent recovery. If he's asked me once what I'm going to fix him to eat Friday afternoon, he's asked me 25 times. I've told him (repeatedly) that I'll fix whatever he wants or we can stop and get something. Like that's gonna happen. He NEVER eats out and only spends $50 a week at the store. He eats the same boring instant oatmeal, yogurt, and banana every day at breakfast, the same canned tuna and pbj for lunch, and chicken and brown rice for supper. No variation. I would DIE.

So today he starts again with "what are you going to fix us to eat"? I'm surprised he's worried about "us." He's not an "us" kind of guy. He's a "me" kind of guy. Anyway, I went through the same spiel for the 1,473rd time. I also told him to ask the doctor about his diet today when he went for pre-op because lots of times a surgical patient has to be on a soft or liquid diet for a day or so. The doctor told him to eat light on Friday.

I suggested soup. No, canned soup hurts his stomach. What about grilled cheese? "How do you fix it?" I told him. "I don't buy cheese." YOU DON'T BUY CHEESE? What kind of person doesn't buy cheese? I have a refrigerator FULL of cheese. What about scrambled eggs? "They hurt my stomach." By now I'm ready to punch him in the gut to show him what a REAL stomach ache feels like. Big Goober Head. I gave up. 

On the way home today I stopped at the store for a few things. I bought the ingredients to make homemade potato cheese soup. Either he'll eat that or I'll pour it over the top of his quirky head and he can eat glue.

He'd better be nice. I don't see anyone else offering to take care of him.

Our church will celebrate it's 100th anniversary in 2010 ... not that far away. Yesterday I was asked to serve on a task force for the celebration. YOO-HOO! So this morning on the way to work I was listening to "Were It Not For Grace," one of my favorite songs. And Grace happens to be the name of our church. The wheels began to grind ... incredible since it was only about 6:15 in the morning and the sleepy was barely wiped from my weary eyes.

Anyway, I was thinking, Wouldn't it be great if, for the anniversary, we could have an anthem commissioned for our church? Wonder what it would cost? Who could we get to do it? A hundred questions began running through my mind.

And so I began looking at Web sites to see what I could find. Only 2 gave prices: $1125 for a 3-minute anthem and $1000 for up to 5 minutes. Not bad. I also emailed a friend who works in our church music department to see if she could find out the going rate AND recommend a song writer. No word on that yet.

Then I called David, our minister of music, to pick his brain. His reaction was, "COOL!" Told him what I'd found about cost and that I'd emailed someone here to try to get more info. He immediately thought of 2 possible song writers. I added a 3rd possibility, and since David knows all 3 of these people, he said he'd fire off an email to get feedback. We'd need to allow 6-18 months for the piece to be written, so the time to get on it is NOW.

I'M SO EXCITED!

A quick prayer request: Dorothy, a long-time friend, emailed me this morning. Her hubby, Allen, was told this morning that his company is downsizing and today is his last day. Devastation. He's been working there not quite 2 years and prior to that was out of work for about 2 years. Had to uproot the family and move to another state to get this job. Great Christian guy, but with his health problems (skin cancer and heart attack) and age (50), he's got a couple of strong strikes against him. Pray for these dear friends and that Allen will find employment immediately.