Abundant Blessings... Mini Bothers...

My Mini Bother:

Hello, I'm back again despite a sore neck. I can't figure out if the new soreness/tiredness is because I moved so much stuff last week (my aunt and myself) or if it's because I re-arranged my work space at work to place the monitor and keyboard on a higher part of the desk. I need to find out, because whatever it is, when I get home at night my neck wants to do anything but sit in front of a computer monitor some more... and I love blogging! So I need a cure, pronto!
Evening is my only time to blog, so my neck must co-operate!

Blessing One:

My friend Vernita gave me a delayed gift this morning after we walked for a half hour. I love it beyond words; wish I had found it to give to HER and others! It's a daily devotional calendar in full color and has a passage from the Bible each day. I read all the way through it at lunch and thought, "I will start today and memorize each passage that appears.

Today's passage is from the Book of Job: "As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils... I will not deny my integrity." To the uninitiated, Job sounds like one arrogant dude, doesn't he? Not so. Job was a good guy whom God allowed Satan to wreak havoc with for a season in order to show Satan that Job would not deny God no matter what happened to him. He lost his prosperity, his family, and his health during the test but refused to curse God -- although he sometimes cursed his own birth and his rotten "luck"! Three friends came at first to commiserate with him, but after a week of wailing, sackcloth and ashes they undertook to educate Job on where he must have gone astray in order for God to have forsaken him the way He had. They went through the list of common sins and missteps and temptations that many people succumb to, but Job assured them that he had fallen victim to none of them and that his integrity was still intact -- hence this quote from the Bible.

The end of the Job story is --- hey, if you don't know it, I'm not going to tell you about it! Go get the Bible and read it for yourself. Heavens, that's what any devoted child of God would suggest. The Bible is a treasure trove. Dive in!

Blessing Two:

This afternoon I was creating my third-ever Production Sheet at On-Hold Concepts (http://www.onholdconcepts.com/) which meant I was F O C U S E D!!! I had to be to get it right so that I don't cost my company money -- and I had to do it all within one hour... not a lot of time when there are 20 on-hold programs to place on the production sheet (including all the written copy, a.k.a. scripts for the voice artists to rehearse this evening) and when other clients keep calling in to finalize their programs. Thank God (and I mean that!) I wasn't frantic in the least -- I was simply FOCUSED, because without focus I would have created utter chaos...

Marlene came into my office and smiled, "Congratulations!" Still focused, I looked up briefly, startled, and asked her, "What for?"thinking perhaps she had just found out about my STAR TREK gig in Las Vegas in August. But that wasn't it. She said, "Read your email!"

So I briefly (and I mean briefly!) opened up Outlook and found out that I had won a luxury weekend at an Ocean Shores resort from the owners of On-Hold because employees had been asked to do some research they had requested and I had come up with the best (or most) ideas after researching the topic.

So there I was, trying my darndest to create an error-free document (and hallelujah! I did it, too!). Every few minutes someone else would read their email and come in to proclaim, "Congratulations!" "Thanks!" (Now, where was I?)

One of the bosses came in grinning and said, "Congratulations! Why aren't you dancing? This isn't like you! You're usually so energetic!"

I told her, "If I focus on that right now, I will cost you a mint! I will dance later. Okay?"

I think they were a little disappointed that I didn't whoop and holler and carry on like a banshee. (It's so unlike me not to, you see, over any good thing that happens at On-Hold!)

By the time the production sheet was finished, and I actually read all the way through the congratulatory email, everyone was back at their desks, it was the end of the day, and whooping and hollering would have given them all heart attacks, so I decided to send an email instead: "Thanks! Congrats to the runners-up..."

Sometimes I think I am out of step with the whole world! I'm always focused on the thing at hand even when I should take my focus off it and dance while people are dancing!

I never will get the socialization thing down pat... My shyness and desire NOT to be pointed out or made a fuss over trips me up every single time.

And Vegas is coming up... More notoriety. If I were a drinking woman, this would put me in my cups!

Oh, God, have mercy on this wallflower in Vegas, who cannot even look up from her task when people are wishing her well...

And now, I owe an email to Bobbie Bobstein and I WILL write it before my head hits the pillow tonight... I wrote one to her about ten days ago that was at least an hour in the making -- answering one of her terrific emails -- but cyberspace gobbled it up and sent it into oblivion just as I was hitting, "Send."

I cannot tell you how that frustrated me. It takes time to write the perfect hour-long email....