Oh, it's Monday....

Student 1: Came to talk to me in-person to warn me that he may be having to have a cardiac catheterization this week, and that he was in the hospital all weekend. So his paper will be late. I told him it was okay (he is a diligent student, trying to work full time and finish up, and he's not a snowflake, AND I didn't want to add to his stress right now). I hope he's okay.

Student 2: "I forgot my paper at home can I bring it Wednesday?" Ugh. This is someone who has come and griped at me about stuff, the latest being "Why won't you give me more time on the exams" (Answer: Because our campus' attorney's current interpretation of ADA suggests I could be violating Federal law if I do so without an official accommodation.) So I have another paper to grade late, for no good reason. I figured it wasn't worth the heartache of the student's complaints and continued pressing of me to accept it to tell them "No, you can't turn it in late." I did say: "I may not be able to return it right away," which is actually important, because they have a second paper on this topic due later and I like for people to learn from their mistakes.

(And I just realized I have a giant pile of grading to do later this week. Ugh)

Also, I have to rethink how I pack lunch. Most days, it's right after working out, and I'm not hungry, so I'm all "Oh, a little cup of yogurt and an apple and a few crackers should be fine" but then after teaching for three hours or so, I'm ravenous, and I get my lunch out of the fridge and feel vaguely disappointed. Even though I was the one who packed it and should well know what's in it.

Also, neither of the scheduled Elders showed up yesterday, so I had to do it alone (normally we have two at the table), and everything felt off and disorganized because I wasn't expecting to have to do it. And here's the thing: I'm sure no one noticed me fumbling around (like, having to run up after the first hymn to do the Call to Worship because I was anticipating us to sing the full hymn and the leader chose - without telling us - to only do the first 2 verses), but I noticed. I guess I have to learn to let that kind of thing go a little better, and anyway, if someone had criticized me, it would have been a pretty shabby thing, seeing as I was a last-minute fill-in. But oh, I get tired of that. I get tired of people not showing up and not letting anyone know. This isn't the first time I've had to fill in but it was the first time I was the ONLY one there to. (There are six of us, but one has iffy health and another has a career that some weeks takes him out of town, and he had already told me he wouldn't be there so I didn't schedule him....) Sometimes I get tired of being the one that I know everyone is counting on to pick up the slack.  It's my nature to be responsible but sometimes I get the sense that there are people who maybe lean on that just a little bit too much, who just expect I will be the George who does it.

(And yes, this brings up the broom on the roof issue AGAIN. It is still there. I can't get up there to get it myself, I don't have a tall enough ladder and I'm afraid of falling. I had asked 2 separate people (one has since left the church, one has moved away) for help, both said, "yeah, yeah, I'll come out and do it" and neither did. And in my worst and most selfish moods, I stomp around thinking about how I'm always there to help people, but when I need help, it's that everyone scrams like the Little Red Hen's lazy animal friends....

I really should just hire someone to get that darn broom down, but whom do you hire for that? Many general handymen won't do roofs because of the risk. Maybe I need to borrow a pickup truck and then borrow the big ladder from church and just try to do it myself, and if I fall off and break my leg, well, then, people will HAVE to help me do stuff....People sometimes get on my case when they find out I did some risky or difficult task by myself, but my experience has been that at least 70% of the time when I ask for help, the person goes, "yeah, yeah, sure" and then never shows up.)