A Pastoral Lunchtime Chat

Ok. Instead of blogging directly on my blog site (www.kayleahdee.blogspot.com), I’ll attempt to do this via Microsoft Word 2007 edition on my laptop and later copy this onto my site! Now, Today, I guess you could say I am recovering from some a case of introvertedness from yesterday’s installation of our new pastor at my church.  I personally felt a bit like a wreck!  It’s not that no one would talk to me (only two people did, only to compliment on how well the bell & sanctuary choirs were during the service), I just felt a bit lonely. On Valentine’s Day night, I will admit that I fought back some tears (TWICE!!) after seeing a whole lot of XOXO’s on facebook. I posted a comment on my church’s page that I had never had a close significant other in all my 42 years of living. Would I ever find a mate? Marriage? Kids? Well, I did receive some comments on that posting the next morning. One person wondered why I haven’t come up with an answer to the first question I was asked in one of my first jobs since moving to Rockford in the summer 1999, “You left Milwaukee for THIS??!!” He said that God had made move here for a reason. Whatever that reason was  between Him and me. Still waiting, by the way….

Today I got to spend the afternoon with my pastor. I told him about this buffet-style restaurant on the corner of Harlem & Alpine called the Golden Chopsticks. Sounds like a name of a book, doesn’t it?  I think my pastor had gotten full after one plateful! I had found the place in January while doing a little shopping for Mariah’s,.. uh, equipment.  We did have a wonderful feast and talked about his beloved St. Louis Cardinals and my beloved Milwaukee Brewers. I mentioned to him about my shyness, and he said there was nothing wrong with having a shy side. I even got to tell him about why I thought time was life’s true enemy. Think “Turn Turn, Turn”, the classic 60’s song by The Byrds. There is always a time for everything. The pastor had a baseball moment come to his head and I had reminded him that I had watched religiously Ken Burns’ wonderful BASEBALL mini-series on PBS, which aired almost 20 years ago. Talk about TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE!!! Everybody’s going to have memories from years past, right? When you think about them over the years, you realize just how much older we have gotten!  Speaking of time, we spent nearly two hours chatting away about our lives...and the food! I may have wondered some loathing things about St.Louis in the past, but I know Milwaukee’s in the same ballpark: two baseball-crazy Midwest cities that is in need of a shot in the arm. I admit I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my pastor. I definitely know I had my fill after my fifth glass of raspberry iced tea. So good!!!

Earlier this year I mentioned a quote found on the message in a fortune cookie, which was given at the time the bill arrives. Today, I got another one I’ll recite here. Pastor Ivan read his first. Figured he could use that as a sermon one day, right? You’ll have to ask him what it said. He went first, of course. Now it was my time to read my fortune inside of my cookie. I first read it and actually sighed for a second. The fortune read: “You have a natural grace and great consideration of others”. Pastor Ivan agreed with that. Guess my fellow church mates who respond to my facebook comments know me better than myself. I told him that they must be seeing me in a view I’ve never seen before. I wasn’t afraid to actually look my pastor IN THE EYES and say this. One of those things that I might not pay attention to that could gain some rapport as a member of Spring Creek United Church of Christ and as a human being, no matter what gender I am! I know (somewhere in) the Bible mentions about not hardening your heart when the Spirit comes. It was definitely open while chatting with my pastor over lunch on this day. 

Special thanks to my pastor for helping me get my grocery shopping done. I am also happy that my tax refund was in my p.o. box waiting for me today, even though President’s Day is a national holiday. While I know how I am planning to use this, I did remind myself of the self-embarrassment of spending Christmas 2011 inside a cell with 12 other men due to not paying on that particular traffic ticket from 2010. Something about Scott’s Law. I knew I had the chance  last year to make a serious dent in that, but I was spending  more  time concentrating on getting Hutchins World Travel more exposure. My refund may not be as must as last year’s, however I still do have a chance to make a payment on this in the morning. It’s part of this print-out I have on my wall about happy living: Practice a DO IT NOW habit. This way I could hopefully have this thing FINALLY PAID OFF by year’s end…or sooner.

One last thing…while shopping, I did see some kids asking their mom in the cereal aisle right after grabbing a bag of Malt-O-Meal Cocoa Puffs knock-off. They had the craving for one of those high-sugar cereals that they could devour like wolves and quite possibly become obese. Their mom mentioned she was getting some Cheerios for the kids, who immediately voiced their disapproval within an earshot of me. One heartbeat later, I turned around to the kids and said, “I like Cheerios!” No comment from the peanut gallery.