Monday's nights of dottiness

A bunch of blog posts started and nothing has made it past the edit stage...so we're going a little dotty tonight.

• Last weekend I was in Napa for work.  A big conference for the District.  It was lovely and beautiful and I would like to go back when I'm not working.  I met, roughly, 500 people including Rita Moreno (wow!) and it was good.  This introvert, however, has been seriously over-stimulated.
• I drove back home and immediately went to my 2nd job because, well, I'm heading to Joplin, Missouri this Saturday to do tornado relief work there again and we had a fundraiser dinner last night.  I had left work last Tuesday and we had 60 raffle items.  By the time the raffle started yesterday we had 117.  It was a little busy yesterday but good!  We raised $3400 for the trip.
• I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about a step that I need to take to make something official and I've got to say, finding gracious words to say when one is seriously pissed off is tough.
• The one of the local papers has a column about driving and roads and all that stuff.  This morning, as I was catching up on the column, I read for the millionth time someone make a comment about how ugly Prius' are and just have to say this...who cares?  Why does it matter how "pretty" a car is?   Why is this a bone of contention?  What does this actually matter in the world?  I don't get it.
• I read a lot of blogs and one of the bloggers I read posted something today that makes me wonder if he read my mind...we haven't even met, so that would be a strange thing.  You can read the blog here.  Really, I wonder if he knows the same person I know and the situation that has been distracting and frustrating me lately.  I know a wolf in sheep's clothing.
• Did I tell you I leave on Saturday for a week in Joplin?  With 27 students and 13 other adults?  Yeah.  I really didn't expect to go to Joplin again and yet, God is a little nutty like that.
• Last year just before the Joplin trip, the drivers seat in my car decided it didn't want to remain in the vertical position but rather preferred to remain in the back seat.  This year there is a strong coolant smell wafting throughout the cabin.  Yes, it's a convertible and yes the weather has been beautiful, but really?
• I'm watching one of those real housewives thing while typing this and judging a whole bunch of people.  Me thinks it's time to shut this down and go to sleep!

Goooooooood niiiigghhtt.

Tragedy in a small city

Tomorrow there will be a funeral processional made up of 200 police and other vehicles that drives some 30 miles from one small city to a larger city.  In that processional will be the families of two police officers from the small city who were just doing there jobs, a week ago Tuesday, and lost their lives in the process.  This small city was in the national headlines.  It's quite something to see your small city's name on the national headlines for something so devastating and incomprehensible.

The funeral procession will head over the big hill at the tail end of commute time, driving slowly in one lane, while the other is kept clear, thus blocking traffic for about an hour.  I am planning on getting up extra early tomorrow to take the earlier bus to work in anticipation of more congestion on the bus and on the roads.  My small sacrifice of a few more minutes of sleep is nothing in comparison to the sacrifice of lives made in the line of duty...or families who have been violently ripped apart.

It is expected that 6,000 law enforcement officers from around the country will be in attendance at the memorial service.  The state Governor will be there along with a recent American Idol Alumni that hails from Small City.  Small City has a newly created arena that can hold 4,000 people, which is where the memorial service was supposed to be held...but then larger city talked with small city and an arena that can seat up to 15,000 people was procured...30 miles away over the big hill.  They expect the arena to be full.

Now, one would think that small city would be amazed at the outpouring of respect and care being shown to the fallen officers and their families and be supportive of the move to the larger city, even though that means a drive for them and that the memorial service isn't in "their" town and yet...and yet...and yet.

Today, I'm praying for two families.  One who watched their mom and partner walk out the door going to her job as usual and another who said goodbye to their dad and husband like a normal day never knowing that would be the last hug, the last kiss, the last smile...

I'm praying for the families, pondering those who choose to put themselves in harms way for the good of the community and the inability humans have at times to see beyond themselves and what works for or pleases them as individuals.

Sometimes we really need to get over ourselves.