God's Humor

i hear, "you're super patient," a LOT.

...to the point where i started saying it to myself.

...and it seems God's response to that was,
"you don't even know what Patience means".

today was a very...difficult day. i felt like God was trying to stretch my patience, the patience that i thought i had plenty of. turns out...still a long ways yet to go. sigh.

8:30am
ps3 class. usually we end by 9:30, but today we went on for longer. eh. whatever. that's ok.

11:00am
basketball. was waiting for someone to show up for a whole half hour, but it turns out that person decided not to come at all. ok. that's fine.

12:00pm
i come back home to take a shower before my 1pm class. turns out one of my aptmates (who's never at home during this time), went into the shower right before i came home. ok. fine. i'm going to play guitar meanwhile til she gets out.

12:35pm
...it turns out that she didn't even know i was waiting for her, so she takes her sweet, sweet time. i finally knock, cause i need to print out my assignments from the language lab before class, cause mi printer ran out of ink, on the bottommost floor of dwinelle, cause the ground level lab's printer is broken. i take a 10-min shower, smash whatever i need into my backpack, and run to the language lab.

1:05pm
...and so i print my two assignments out, just to find out that they each printed on half a sheet so that the font size is like, super tiny. so i try again, this time fixing the page alignments. and tada! they print out on half a sheet yet again. sigh. fine. i'm just going to turn them in.

1:07pm
i run three flights of stairs so that i won't be late to class. during class i kept staring at my weaksauce printouts, and decide to go print them out again before my next class.

2:00pm
so i run down the three flights of stairs again to the language lab to try to print my pages for a third time. and fail again. BLAH. then i run back up those three flights of stairs to turn my assignments in, and run yet another flight of stairs to my next class.

3:00pm
i leave class and run to the bus stop to catch the 51. and it freakin doesn't come. it's supposed to come every ten minutes. i hate the 51.

3:30pm
finally get on the 51. and it's like hecka packed cause everyone's been waiting to get on this bus. get off at san pablo to wait for either the 72, the 72m, or the 52L.

3:45pm
...and i wait some more, cause all three buses just decide to not come at the same time. like. what the heck. AND, i see two 51s pass by right after i get off. sigh. i stand on the corner of university and san pablo, looking down both streets for any sign of mercy. sigh.

...and i was trying to go in and out of work early so that i could make it to the tbt concert, too. by this time, i start complaining in my head, kinda irritated.

3:55pm
...and i wait some more, until i see both the 52L and the 72 come at the same time. which one should i take? the 72 seems like it's going to come quicker, but the 52L takes me straight to work. i decide to take the 52L and let the 72 pass. FINALLY. gosh.

4:00pm
i'm hungry. usually i go to mcdonalds with half an hour to spare before work starts, but i guess i'm gonna have to forgo lunch for today. sigh. i'm going to be late.

4:02pm
the bus stops one stop before mcdonalds to let off passengers. then the car behind us stupidly forgets to stop and smashes into the back of the bus. sigh. the driver gets off the bus to report the accident, and passengers get off to walk the rest of the ways home. i get off, call my first client's mom to tell her that i'm going to be late. she says ok. i run the rest of the way to work. SIGH.

4:16pm
i get to my first client's place. her mom tells me that the 3rd graders are having their STAR test this week and asks me to prep her daughter, giving me a workbook to work with. and so i do...but the kid doesn't get it. i try hard not to snap at her from my foul mood, cause it's not her fault, and it's not productive. i hold it in for the hour, getting more and more impatient that she doesn't seem to understand what the problem is asking for. she keeps talking about something else, and i keep trying to bring her back to focus. JESUS.

plus this summer is on my mind, with nic and korea and everything. i don't know how much i could raise for nic this year, and so i'm planning on tutoring double-time for my finances. so while my kid is working i turn on my laptop to try and figure out my schedule for the summer so that i could tell her mom possible tutoring dates. and today of all days, the internet doesn't work. usually i could view my google calendar even when offline, but, today of all days, it decides to change into the offline mode screen. sigh. now i can't tell her mom anything.

5:00pm
time to go to my next client. my first client's mom gets upset that i only taught her daughter for half an hour and so i tell her that i'll just take half-price. she says no it's ok and adds an extra two bucks. sigh. and then the mom gets upset when i tell her that i'm going to be away for two months. she's like "missions? again??? you can't do this to me!!" seriously???

what a day. i spend more than an hour commuting and eight bucks from missing those 15 min of tutoring just to be semi-yelled at. sigh.

...and my next client doesn't seem to help. i don't even know why five-year-olds need to be tutored. it's obvious that he doesn't want to study, that he just wants to go outside and play. younger kids are so hard to deal with. i miss my high-schoolers. sigh. but somehow i manage to keep him sitting still for an hour.

6:00pm
my third client. a lifesaver. she's the same age as the first kid, but so much more cooperative. yay. ptl.

6:55pm
i told my mom to pick me up at 6:55pm so that i could make it back to church on time. i planned on getting out a couple minutes early, but as i mention that i'm available to tutor twice next week, her parents try to figure out how much to pay me. and so i don't want to rush them, but ya know...sigh.

7:08pm
mama gives me a little talk about how she's been waiting for fifteen minutes and then drives me off to church. and i don't know if it's because it's a rainy day, but everyone seems to be driving so slow today. anyway. mama gives me sushi she's bought for me as well as a t-shirt. i heart mah mom. :)

7:14pm
i get out of the car and get MAJOR WHIPLASH. i guess the aftershock of the bus accident started kicking in. sigh. i went into church and took my seat and listened to tim be told unleash their stuff.

...and they were good, but i think i would have enjoyed it more if my neck didn't hurt so much. sigh. and i bet it's going to hurt a lot more later in the week. sigh. in this season of all times. sigh.


the rest of the night was much, much better. i went to denny's (first ihop, cause someone told joey and me the wrong location) with tbt and some of the livingwater folks and had an AMAZING time laughing the night away.

THANK GOD today ended the way it did.


God's sense of humor amuses me sometimes. i feel i might have become prideful of my patience, and it was as if God was trying to stretch me by having all these things happen one after another after another after another, as if he was saying, "how bout this? and this? and this??"

i don't think God is cruel and sadistically enjoys watching his kids suffer, but i find him as a very patient (hello!) and very gentle Father watching his children grow to look more like him through all these trials and muck. as i laugh off the night looking back on what happened today, i'm sure that he was smiling over me, too.

what an out-of-the-box God we serve. yay. :)