Ugh, only Wednesday

Big weather change overnight - it was in the 70s yesterday, this morning it was in the upper 20s. I have a slight headache, probably related to this.

I have a field lab scheduled today - rescheduled from last week, when it was just too wet. I'm still taking it even though it's going to be cold and windy. I can suck it up for an hour and I expect the students will too. (An hour is about all the time we have in the field; it takes a good 25 minutes to get to the field site and the lab is 1 hour and 50 minutes long, which is really too short, but my other option is to have a longer lab but less lecture time and cover less material, and most of my labs are short. So changing up the schedule would mean an entire reworking of the labs.

I don't know. I don't have the energy to contemplate that at the moment. Having more time to do better field labs would be nice, but the disruption the change would cause and the amount of lead-time I'd need to change everything just isn't something I can contemplate right now.

I also have Elder's Meeting and Board Meeting tonight. Currently, these are fraught for me - we're small, we don't have really enough people to do everything, we don't bring in enough in donations, we don't have a permanent pastor and the student pastor who's been serving us for these couple years graduates in December, and if he gets a permanent position somewhere he won't be able to serve us any more. I don't know. Maybe I worry about this too much but I really don't want to contemplate "where will I go if we shut down?"

I also would so, so, so like to give up being Head Elder, I'm not doing a very good job at it because I'm too busy otherwise, but I don't see anyone else being willing to pick it up (and the people who would are already as busy as I am). Mainly what I do is schedule who serves (and then fret Sunday morning if one or both aren't there at the start of church). This is one of the things I do because I know it needs to be done and not because I love doing it.

I also have to bake two pans of brownies tonight; it's our CWF's turn to feed the college students at the Wesley Center. (There are three campus Christian groups: Baptist Student Ministry, Campus Church of Christ, and Wesley Center. Most of the other denominations, even including the Catholics, work through the Wesley Center, that's just been kind of traditional). I have the mixes and everything. I had planned on doing it yesterday but I forgot until after I did my workout in the afternoon and then I was just like "Forget it, I'm too tired, I'll do it tomorrow." I don't have much time today but I will have to MAKE time. 

I'm trying to look forward to Thanksgiving, and later, Christmas, but there's so much to do between now and then. And I was thinking this morning about "when will I make time to decorate for Christmas" immediately followed by "but if I'm doing the dance-aerobics work out (in my livingroom, which is where the dvd player is), I can't set up the little tree in its usual spot, because all the vibration from me bouncing around and doing the little jumps with my too-heavy body will knock stuff off of it" and then I thought Maybe I WON'T decorate this year and that made me all sad.

I don't know, still. I suppose there's somewhere else I could set up the tree in the living room (the room where I spend most of my waking hours) if I think about it a little but I'm just at that point where my problem-solving creativity is at a low ebb.

(And yes, I'm still going to get the new skiier, but it's complicated. Oh, is it complicated. I called the company (after doing an utterly useless online chat with another 'that's not my department' person) and talked to someone in Returns who actually knew what was going on. The thing is either going to be shipped out on the 15th or the 21st. Which means it might come while I'm out of town for Thanksgiving. She offered to cancel the order for me but if I did that and reordered when I got back.....well, it would be another round of Out Of Stock Currently and probably delivery would be while I'm gone for CHRISTMAS.

So I'm going to watch the tracking information when I get it, and I'm wracking my brains to think of someone sufficiently able-bodied to wrangle an 85 pound or so skiier and maybe, I don't know, put it in my garage or something (which would mean leaving the garage-door opener with them). It would have to be someone who is in town and for whom I would feel it wasn't too much of an imposition to ask them to drive up to my house. I have a colleague who could probably do it but he lives out of town and I just don't want to ask.

Or I just leave it on the porch for a couple days and hope it doesn't rain and that the local criminals don't steal it or use it to realize I'm not home and break in. I don't know. Sometimes I hate how hard the logistics of my life are. Or I call UPS and ask them if they can store it at the depot in Hugo and then desperately try to find a 2 hour plus slot when I can drive over there (Hugo is like an hour away) and pick it up.

I SUPPOSE I could see if the campus Print Shop would take delivery of it for me and I pick it up from them; that might be the easiest option. They'd be closed a couple days around Thanksgiving but UPS would know that and not take the thing out for delivery then. )

EVERYTHING feels complicated right now. This is one of those days when I wonder at children wanting so desperately to grow up; being a grown-up seems to have very little to recommend it right now.