Caffeinated Randomness : A day in the life…

Since yesterday’s post put me in a fairly random mood, I decided to do a Caffeinated Randomness post, which I haven’t done very much of recently.  To learn more, and see other people being random on a Friday, go to Andrea’s blog.  (Or go anyway, it’s worth it.)

A DAY ON THE LIFE OF SHARKBAIT:

Friday

05:00 – Wake up refreshed
05:10 – Quiet time and personal prayer.
06:00 – Attend Men’s Morning Prayer Group
07:10 – Get home.  Go for 5 mile run
07:50 – Eat healthy breakfast of yoghurt and muesli
08:00 – Go to office, work until lunch.
13:00 – Make light lunch and do afternoon devotions.
14:00 – Back to work
17:00 – Turn off computer

OKAY, that’s what it says in my diary.  Here’s how it sometimes, usually, actually goes:

05:51 – Realise hand has hit snooze button a few times
06:09 – Arrive late for prayers.  First one there.
07:15 – Arrive home. Prepare for run.
07:20 – Realise sitting to put on shoes was mistake.
07:30 – Still staring at my feet.  Must run.
07:45 – Start running.  Hear asthmatic elephants chasing me.
07:50 – Stop after 1 Mile, realise elephants are me breathing.
08:05 – Arrive back home.  Sit down to take off shoes.
09:00 – Wake up, realise still wearing running clothes.
09:30 – Arrive at office (in running clothes).
09:35 – Eat breakfast (Cold pizza and coffee)
09:45 – Do quick prayers in office.  Complain when clients interrupt.
09:50 – Check e-mails and blogs.
10:59 – Stop reading blogs. 
11:00 - Start again in case anyone has commented.
11:05 – Realise most bloggers area still asleep.  (3AM in US)
11:10 – Play solitaire and online poker. 
13:00 – Lunch time.  Peanut sandwich.
13:10 – Take a 20 minute nap.
14:30 – Get up from 20 minute nap.
17:59 – Finish work for the day.  Decide to check blogs.
20:00 – Time for supper I suppose.
20:30 – Order pizza.  (Breakfast for tomorrow)

So what about you?  Do you follow your plan for the day, or is it just as random as mine?

Caffeinated Randomness - I can't hear you.

It has been a while since I did a Caffeinated Randomness post.  Probably because my life is so purpose-filled and intentional that there is nothing random to share.

If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.  

But today's story, well it really can't go anywhere else.  Because this is just so random, you can't make this sort of thing up.  :-)
Tuesday.  I am showing my sister something on my PC, when I feel something tickle my ear.  Me left ear.  (Pay attention.  This becomes important later.)  I scratch at it, and she tells me she thinks there was a miggie flying around.  (miggie = small flying insect; fruit-fly; midge)
Well, whatever it was.  It is now in my ear.  And I can't shake it loose.

So I try to irrigate my ear with sweet oil.  Of which I have about half a tea-spoon left.  After filling and draining twice, I use up my supplies, and still feel like I have something in there.  Bother!

So I call my friend, who is a pharmacist at our local medical centre, and ask for advice.  He suggested I come in, and let one of the nursing sisters look in my ear.  Which I did.
And they found.... nothing.

I found this hard to believe, because I could still feel it, and it still hurt.  But who am I to argue with a otoscope?

 

So I went home, and slept on it.

The next morning it still hurt a little.  But I decided that might just be all the oil, so I would just leave it.  So when my ears started itching, I just used a Q-tip in the right one. 

And it broke.

That's right.  Less than twelve hours after going to the medical centre, I had something lodged in my other ear.  What are the chances of that?

I mean.... really!!!

 

So now what?  I can't go back to the sister to ask for another examination, on the other side.  And I am not going to pay a doctor to look for something that may have fallen out.

Decisions. Decisions.

 

Long story short, I got a nurse at another pharmacy to look at it, and confirm there was something stuck in there.  Then I made an appointment to see my doctor, for which I had to wait the whole day.  With a piece of cotton wedged in my ear.

Not my greatest week.

 

So after the doctor did his thing with the forceps, which took about 0.27 seconds, I got to go home with clean ears.

And on the way out I stopped at the pharmacy to show my friend my medical report.  "Foreign object in ear"  Luckily the doctor hadn't specified which ear. :-)

It's all about me.

Okay, I'll go first. Sometimes I feel frustrations as a Christian, and especially as a small group leader. There, I've said it. My dirty little secret is out. (or at least number #654; we'll work on the important ones later.)

Don't get me wrong. I love my "job". I love the fact that I get to walk alongside some of the most amazing and awesome people I know. I love the opportunity to wrestle with the word, and try to work it into a form that makes it easy to discuss and absorb. I love preparing and presenting lessons. But sometimes when I spend hours preparing for a meeting on a Wednesday, and then no-one turns up I feel a little... disappointed. When I turn down invitations to dinner and free tickets to shows so that I can be at my bible study, and wonder why I am the only one there. I sometimes feel like I don't know why I do it anymore.

Then I get a little reminder in the form of a question from on high. I'll feel like someone is saying to me "Little Fish, when I called you did I say it would be easy?"

"Uh, I guess not."

"Didn't I mention something about taking up your cross and denying yourself? I'm sure it was there, it wasn't even in the fine print."

Uh...

"So did you think this was easy? That being a leader meant you could show up each week and impress people with how smart you are?"

"Of course not. I mean... I don't know."

"You want to know why you do this? You do this because I called you, and you answered. You're no better or worse at it than anyone else, but you decided to do it. Would you like me to ask someone else?"

I guess sometimes I forget that. Being a leader in anything means sacrifices, and not just the ones we want to make. I never begrudge the time I spend preparing, because it makes me feel like I'm fulfiling my purpose. I never mind all the reading and studying. None of this feels like a sacrifice, at least not one I mind making. But we can't choose which sacrifices we want to make, that's what makes them sacrifices. We need to remember to deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily. It might be hard work, but the rewards are out of this world.

For an interesting post on denying yourself, go to Walking By Faith: caffeinated randomness:: deny yourself

Caffeinated Randomness / Link Up

Today I am linking to two different blogging prompts.  Look at me, the little multi-tasking fish.  Using both fins at once. 

As always I am being random on Friday in honour of Caffeinated Randomness at Under Grace and Over Coffee.  This week however I am doing it by sharing 10 random facts about myself as requested by Lynnette Kraft over at Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground.  Both amazing women of God - please go visit their blogs. 

1. I like the fact that I am tall because it make me feel superior;
2. I don’t like the fact that I like being tall;
3. Babies and young children love me, for no apparent reason;
4. Some of my hobbies include Calligraphy, and Origami, which I am quite good at;
5. Whenever I thought I had failed an exam, I would build castles, palaces and even villages out of paper, covering entire rooms of the house;
6. My memory is so good I often pretend not to remember things so as not to scare people;
7. I own my own business, which I operate from home;
8. I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.  (No, I didn’t, but I love Johnny cash);
9. I’m not really a fish you know. I just pretend. I’m actually allergic to seafood;
10. Since I started school, I have spent less than two years not studying anything.

Caffeinated Randomness : Bees

 

I hate bees.  Really I do. 

Now don’t give me any attitude, I have a  good reason;  I am extremely allergic to bee-stings.  I have been my whole life, since I was stung at about age 2 and my parents made the discovery.  I was stung a few times as a child, and the last time was at about 11 years old.  The swelling took three days to stop spreading, let alone go down.

That means I have spent more than a quarter of a century trying to avoid the little buggers; since I was old enough to understand the need.

But will they return the favour?  Oh, no!  They follow me.  All over.  There’s nothing scarier for me than the sound of a bee buzzing when I can’t see it.  The knowledge that the comparatively harmless little insect could decide to chase me, and then I will be in trouble.  Some of the scariest times in my life were when I was caught in a migrating swarm, and the time I nearly swallowed a bee. 

People used to tell me I was paranoid, but last year a bee chased me around a fruit orchard for nearly a minute before stinging me for no reason.  Despite the fact that there were three other guys standing perfectly still, the bee chooses to chase me.

I hate bees.  How can something so small be so nasty?

For more Caffeinated Randomness visit Andrea’s Blog.

Caffeinated Randomness : Lucille

 

 

I have a confession…  I love B.B. King.  I always have.  That man is just so cool.  I also love the fact that all his guitars are named Lucille.  The story he tells is that when he was younger, and was playing at a night club in a barn, two drunks started a fight over a woman.  In the fight, one of them kicked over a kerosene lamp, and set the barn on fire. Two people died in the fire, and yet a young King ran back into the blazing structure to rescue his $30 Gibson.  After he recovered, he discovered that the woman the two men had been fighting over was named Lucille.  He then named his first guitar Lucille, as a reminder to himself: 1) Never fight over a woman, and 2) never run into burning buildings.

 

Whatever the truth, that man can make Lucille sing!

 

When I got my first car, I decided that I would take her out on the highway, and when we hit 120 (kph obviously – mph is just crazy) I would hit the radio button, and whatever was playing, that we would name her.  Well, she didn’t have a radio, and I never got around to installing the one I bought.  So instead, I decided to name her Lucille.  I tell people she is named after Lucille Ball, or the first girl I asked on a date (also Lucille) but actually it was inspired by this video.  I just love Eddie Murphy’s smile.

 

See how many celebrities you can spot in this one.

 

 

My next car I named Nina, after Nina Simone.  Oddly enough, since I did that, none of my Bonnie Tyler CDs work in the sound system.  Seriously. 

For more Caffeinated Randomness, go to Andrea’s Blog. 

Caffeinated Randomness : Spoons

So Pete Wilson over at Without Wax did a post today called The Antitheses of Spiritual Growth , which sounds heavy, but is actually an account of how his community group (which I guess is like my cell group) played a game of "spoons" a while ago.

Let me tell you a story about the last time my cell group played spoons.

So there I was on Saturday night, minding my own business, like a good Christian boy, when some bright spark pulls out a pack of cards.
(Okay, they might have been my cards, I don't recall)

Because gambling would be wrong, (and because we were too lazy to fetch the poker chips) somebody decided we should play "Spoon" (A card game where the idea is not to be the last person without a spoon.)

So the cell group leader, youth pastor, worship leader and two lay minsters set about corrupting their flock by turning it into a drinking game. (Heathens)

The game became a little excited, including one lay minister hitting another in the face with a spoon they were fighting over. (Okay, but she had it coming!!!! That spoon was mine)

After matters had quitened down, and we were all a little more relaxed. (Some more than others) It was suggested that we all update our facebook status at 8AM on Monday to say that "xxx is a xxx spooner." in order to further shock the congregation and clergy who might hear stories of our wild weekend.

The idea being that "Sharkbait spent the weekend spooning with his cell group" might be a bit to blunt.

So the next day our statuses proclaim as follows.

The Cell Leader/Lay Minister claimed "Sharkbait is a dangerous spooner"

The Youth Pastor was a "tiny but awesome spooner"

The LayMin/Schoolteacher was "an ambitions spooner"

The other teacher was "an ambidextrious spooner"

and so forth.

Nothing like freaking out the rest of the parish leadership. :)

Caffeinated Randomness : Coffee

I likes me some good coffee I does. Not Coffey, although I loves me some of that too, but the stuff with the awesome caffeine kick, and the heaven-scent aroma.

The reason this comes to mind this morning is because it is Friday, and on Friday mornings I get up extra early. Like before the sun and all. The reason? Because I go to a men's prayer group at 6AM. Yes, we meet at 6AM. Until I joined this group a few years ago, I never knew that 5 o'clock came around twice a day. Go figure.

But I digress. After going to prayers on a Friday morning, I then used to go straight to work, usually arriving about an hour before anyone else. So I used to take the time on a Friday to brew up an extra big pot of coffee in my office. So when the rest of the office staff used to arrive at 8(ish) the entire office, and the passage leading up to it, used to smell like Blend '81, or Dawn Patrol, or one of my secret blends. I used to be very popular on a Friday morning I can tell you.

Now that I work for myself, and have an office at home, I use the time between going to prayers and the start of the day for higher motives. I go back to sleep and get another hour or so until the office opens.

I still have my coffee maker in my office, but with my own kitchen next door, I tend to neglect the good stuff in favour of the easy stuff. Saves time, saves energy. But some days I still miss the Friday mornings with the queue of secretaries at my door with their coffee mugs.