IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!

I said that I would not be writing for couple of days because I was spending them with a friend.  We had a nice time, but after a long drive on Sunday, we were both tired Monday.  (That is when you really notice your age.)  I did not stay up to blog but I did make it to church for the prayer time. 

I had forgotten about it, but the other lady in the building who joined the church rang my bell outside first.  I did not answer because if I am not expecting anyone and do not know who is ringing the bell I will not let them in.  Often people ring the wrong door bells as our names are not very clear on the door now and kids or Jehovah’s Witnesses may just right every bell and expect that maybe at least one person will respond.

Anyway, since she is in the building, she had a key and came up and knocked on my door.  Then, after checking that it was her I answered.  She said First Lady had asked her to come over to check up on me since I missed service on Sunday.  When I assured her that I was well, she asked if I was going over for prayer which was about to start, so I got myself over there.

I told First Lady and Pastor that I appreciate them being concerned enough to check up on me.  Since my relatives are a great distance away and we do not see each other or communicate much, the church family will be closer and more helpful to me if I need assistance, or just to have someone to talk to.  I will need to see what kind of schedule the woman in my building has and maybe we can get together for a one on one Bible study.

I don’t have much to write about today.  I did not go down to the Cultural Center early for the movie because I had to watch one last DVD I needed to return today.  I had already renewed them as long as I was allowed to, so I watched Life As A House this morning.  It was a very moving picture classified as a comedy but it only had sone funny bits in it.  The story was not funny, and the end was sad but positive.

I did got downtown for the RC chorus rehearsal.  We are singing the usual variety of songs, from classical opera, a madrigal, a couple of humorous songs, a sea shanty and an old favorite.  For anyone who may be reading this blog, (although it does not appear to be generating readers), I may not be making entires for the next couple of days.  I will be spending them with a friend, and although I plan to take my netbook because I want to show him some things on it, I probably will not blog.  But, since he gets tired and goes to bed earlier than I do, maybe I will do an entry then.

This morning I went to the journal writing group and shared my blog about my new pet, (not the poem).  I would have shared the Tweeter Tweet for Me poem with Brown Bag Poets, but the Improv group was meeting at a time that overlapped the poetry, so four of us were not there at the poetry meeting today, myself and the three who began the Improv group and are part of Brown Bag Poets.

We had fun today and I even got into it a couple of times on an exercise where we were to be parts of a machine and make motions and gestures.  One person started and then more of us came up and added to it.  For a Silly Goose machine, I made wing flapping motions like the Chicken Dance with my elbows bent and I honked.

I did not volunteer for later skits which required talking.  One was two movie reviewers discussing a movie, which three others had to act out when they called for the clip to be shown.  The first group responded to the movie that was given but not to the comments of the reviewers about what scene was being shown.  They were quick to come back with “That was the wrong clip.”

Another one was that one word was given to start and each person added one word to it and they went back and forth several times.  Some did word associations and then they would get to others who tried to make sentences.  That is an interesting way to find out more about how the people think, which would be useful to the formation of a performing Improv group like the leader hopes to have develop.

Today I woke up very early for me, about 5:50.  I could not go back to sleep because I had a cough and a stuffed nose and my mind was going in circles.  I decided I had best do the journal writing then to clear my mind and save time, because i knew I had a full day of activities scheduled.

I went downtown and signed up for the continuation of The Supreme Court and the Constitution, but I did not feel like going in late and did not have much money with me and I needed to pay for the Tai Chi class too.  So, I just sat and chatted with another lady who was also taking part in the Goodman writing workshop and had been in it the first time they did the program, along with me.  We had two other people from the first group who are going through it again too.  Of the new people, two I know from writing groups, and one from our plays, so there are only a couple of people I don’t know at all.  We have more story tellers this time and that is what Tess wants to emphasize so that works out well.  In our first group, we concentrated more on the writing and just read what we wrote for the program at the end.  This time she wants us to make the presentations of our works more dramatic.

After that ended, I got a little lunch and went to Tai Chi.  I found it a little easier to follow this time and the instructor went through a whole set of movements that the more advanced students had learned.  She told those of us who were new to Tai Chi that we could drop out and watch whenever we wanted, but all of us tried to keep up as well as we could.  She was impressed.

I came home and listened to a Christian music CD and part of Michael Savage, (I missed the first part of his show).  Then it was time to go across the street for Bible study and choir rehearsal.

Today the only thing on my schedule was the bi-weekly writing group, so I stayed home in the morning listening to gospel music and watching Tweeter listen to it and chirp sometimes.  He is especially curious when I sing or clap my hands and move to the music.  I saw a video of a parrot who bobbed his head in time to music and even picked up his feet like he was dancing.  I think a parakeet could do that too, but Tweeter hasn’t made such efforts yet.  He also does not respond to me calling his voice yet either, even though I almost always call he name when I hear him tweet, or chirp.  I shared the poem I wrote about him with the group today.  They all liked it.

While I was at the Cultural Center, I saw on their sign that a dance video program was going to be a 6:00 PM, so after I got something to eat I decided to come back and stay for that.  I did not know that the movie actually would not start until 7:00 PM or I may have changed my mind.  At 6:00  they were having a reception.  There was cheese and crackers, snack mix,cookies, grapes, apple cider and bottled water.  I ate cheese and crackers and cookies and had the cider.  That woke me up, because as I was sitting in the Publishers Gallery trying to read while I waited for the time to pass, I was beginning to fall asleep.  The videos were interesting.  I am glad there was a description of them in the programs because they were telling stories, but I would not have been able to understand the stories without the descriptions. They were rather strange with special camera effects and some were done to new age music.  I say that what is being called dance today is more acrobatics and this was definately like that.

There was nothing on my schedule for today except a prayer time at church tonight, so I did a large load of laundry.  I will still have another large load to catch up on. 

Pastor had said last night that we would do another neighborhood walk tonight since the weather was so warm yesterday, but tonight it was foggy and cooler, so we went inside to pray.  I came out late when they were praying outside and when I got across the street I did not see them.  Pastor was unlocking the front door and I asked where everyone went so quickly because one time I caught up with them on the walk and I expected to do so tonight, but he said they decided to hold the prayer inside so no one would be catching a cold and blaming it on him.

While we were all praying individually, he walked around and prayed for each of us and anointed us with oil.  He also prayed for the people of the community.  When our prayers stopped, he shared a Bible passage with us and we held hands, shared prayer requests and closed in prayer.

Today was the Lord’s Day, (or once again I am really writing about yesterday now).  Most of it was spent in church.  Our Sunday school lesson was about marriage but First Lady, who was teaching it made it applicable to single women by reminding us that we are married to Christ.

Pastor preached about God restoring our dreams and visions and many people came up for prayer.  The kitchen is open again, so I ate at church and then came home for a rest.  What was our 4:00 PM service is now at 7:00 PM on the second and last Sunday of the month, so pastor had a chance to go home and take a nap today.

At the evening service, two of the boys in the church wanted to sing for us.  First one sang by himself and then the other boy sang with him.  The second boy quit after one song but the first boy wanted to singer another song and a third boy sang part of it with him.

We had testimonies and the choir sang two songs. We then had two ministers from the church give sermonettes.  The first man is our youth director.  He was very boisterous and worked up a serious sweat.  The second, who is the pastor’s son, was much quieter, (unlike his father) and said he only gets wet hands when he is nervous.  Both gave fine inspiring messages.  The first was about brushing off the residue of sin in our lives that hinder our walk with the Lord.  The second was about how Jesus who created us also bought us back from Satan so we are “Twice the Lord’s.”  He told how when the Israelites were slaves their nearest kinsman could redeem them and Jesus did that for us.

This morning (yesterday morning to be technical about it) I did not get to the Morning Glory worship service of the council meeting.  I did, however get there for the first seminar and lunch with a continuation of the same subject after lunch like yesterday.  Then there was another general session and a dinner.  There was a long time between the 4:00 PM dinner and the 6:00 PM business meeting.  I went outside and sat there enjoying the nice sunshine and mild weather for awhile.  The trees are turning red now and looked so pretty, but as usual here in the city the leaves are falling as soon as they change so we don’t have long to appreciate them.

Our services were really good today.  I especially liked the afternoon speaker.  He talked about how God does not always tell us why He wants us to do things He asks us to do because, we are not ready to understand them, but we are expected to obey in faith.  He will tell us only as much as we need to know at each step.  It is okay to admit that we don’t know the what, where, when, why and how’s of what God calls us to do as long as we do what we do know.

Well, I did use my bus card after all.  I received no response to my call about whether the bus was going and at what time, so I took buses myself.  When I got there no one else from our church was there and I was early.  The brochure said it started at 10 AM but they sad it was a misprint and they started at 11.  That was fine for me.  I did not miss any of it except that I went to register a the beginning of the Morning Glory worship.  I was back before the minister spoke though.  All I missed was a lot of noise as people praised God in their own way.

I was there for the entire day.  Lunch and dinner are included in the registration.  The General worship services were very good and I went to a seminar on The End Times, which was continued after lunch.  The beliefs the speaker and the Pentecostal church espoused conflict with a book I have been reading, which I am more inclined to believe, but the handouts he had were interesting and explained a lot of things most Christians are confused about.

I went to the business meeting of the Singles ministry after dinner.  That was when I was told by someone that the pastor’s daughter was there.  I had not seen any of our people at dinner even and I thought I would find them there.  During the Singles business meeting there was a General Business meeting which Pastor went to and his daughter, another woman from church and I waited for it to end.  Our session with the Singles ended earlier. 

Pastor’s wife came later for the final worship service and she drove me home.  It was about 10:30 when I got home.  I went online for awhile but before I knew it, it was after 12 AM.  I had not done the blog entry but I was extremely tired so I just went to bed.  That is why I am doing this entry now.  I will be going to the council again today and spending the day there again, so my next entry will probably be tomorrow.

Oh, did I mention that I wrote a poem about Tweeter?  I did it with the melody of the song “Willow Weep for Me” in my mind.  This is a special honor for Tweeter, because none of my other birds had poems written for or about them and the ones I wrote for and about my cats were done when they were ill or after one died.

Today was the opening of the three-day District Council that my church belongs to and I had forgotten to pay attention to that.  The play was occupying all of my time and attention last week and I did not go to church because of it either.  Pastor saw my yesterday and said he missed me on Sunday and that he was going to come and see the play and I should have reminded him, but he did not remind me of the council meeting.

I went downtown in the afternoon to take the Tai Chi class, had something to eat and came home.  A little before 7PM I got my Bible and went downstairs to go to church.  It was locked with no lights on and I wondered if I had mistaken my days.  I came up and looked at the calendar and saw that it was Wednesday.  I went back down but realized that no one was coming and came back up again, (I got my exercise today).  I then realized that they must have been having a service at another church tonight and I didn’t hear them announce it Sunday.  I then looked for a bulletin with a monthly schedule.  I found the one with the District Council schedule and noticed that it began today.  I would have gone if I had remembered.

I just bought a 3 day bus card too because I was anticipating going to the writing groups and chorus this week.  Now, however I will attend the rest of these sessions and probably ride the church van to and from there.  I can go by public transportation but I would need to take three buses.  I don’t mind in the morning so much, but I would not come home alone that way.  I could go out there by buses and use the bus card and jut get a ride back but when I did that at the last council meeting, which was closer, I had a hard time finding our people there.  If I go with them, we can stay together better.