If only I had brought my phone
by Andy Behrendt
Today was not a good day, plain and simple. And it's all pretty much because I forgot my cell phone at home this morning.
Even before I fatefully plugged in my phone to give it a little charge time this morning, things weren't going well. I just couldn't wake up. But I made it to my Pentateuch course on time, so that wasn't really a problem.
It was right after class — my one class of the day — that things got bad. I had to drive into Minneapolis to pick up the the year's first issue of the Concord, Luther Seminary's student-run journal, from our print house. I'm once again the Concord's production manager, the one holdover from last year's staff, and, with that, I volunteered to pick up the copies of the finished product so that we could distribute them after chapel this morning. Problem is, I was horribly unprepared for how hard it is to find the print house. The place is like Brigadoon.
Now, I want to admit that, for many years, I had been partial to Minneapolis over St. Paul. I had seen more of Minneapolis growing up, given that my Minnesota relatives live closer to it. But I will now go on record to say that, as of today, I officially favor St. Paul. For one, I live there. And for two, despite then-Gov. Jesse Ventura's infamous argument to David Letterman on the contrary, St. Paul's street grid makes so incredibly much more sense than that of Minneapolis. Every single time I drive into Minneapolis, I get lost somehow. Today, I got lost badly. And I didn't have my cell phone to call anyone for help.
I finally found the place, picked up our copies, and arrived at the seminary well after our planned distribution time. I felt terrible, especially since the new staff (and our contributors) did such a great job on this first issue and were surely excited to hand out appropriately. The whole process over the last two weeks was completely seamless, all until PrinterGate. (By the way, if you missed the new issue of the Concord, you should be able to download it here.)
Now comes the really pathetic tale. I spent quite awhile distributing the Concord copies where I could and managed to stick around on campus just long enough to get conned out of $20. At least I'm pretty sure I got conned out of $20, although I'm really hoping that I'm wrong. As I was walking to my car, a woman in the Gullixson Hall parking lot who said she was likewise having a terrible day asked me if I could help her fix a tire. After convincing me that the stuff my trunk's emergency kit wouldn't help, I was sympathetic/stupid enough to drive a block down to an ATM and lend her $20, the closest ATM-dispensed amount to the $13 she said she needed for repair stuff.
All the while, I had assumed this woman was a seminary student, and by the time she had told me she instead worked in the area, I was already too roped in to believing her. I was also in a hurry to pick up Tracy for lunch at our set time. Again, if I'd had my phone, I could have asked Tracy to wait or at least let her talk some sense into me. It wasn't until I had driven away that the holes in the woman's story became obvious to me. So, "Monica," I hope that you prove me wrong and that I find $21.50 (with the ATM surcharge) in my campus mailbox soon. If not, well, you suckered a seminarian pretty good, and I hope you're doing something good with the money. I also hope that I at least made Jesus happy with the benevolence and whatnot, but I get the feeling that even he is shaking his head, forehead in his hand, in the old right-hand seat.
The day didn't get much better. Tracy and I had a difficult discussion about my stupidity before finally getting to lunch, by which time we had remembered how absolutely lucky we are with financial support form my church and other gracious entities. Then, about an hour ago, my man, Derrick Turnbow, let in the run that ended up making the difference in keeping the Brewers from coming within a single game of the division-leading Cubs here in the last week of the regular season. I can't help but think that this situation also could have been avoided with a phone call, in this case to the Brewers' bullpen. Ugh. (I still love you, Turnbow.)
To at least end things on a good note, I'm glad to report that my Grandpa Don is doing well. His memory has apparently been somewhat affected by the circumstances of his fall a couple weekends back, but he's as happy and hilarious as ever (perhaps even more so), and I'm sure grateful to God that he's still with us. He and my Grandma Gladys celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in the hospital in Green Bay late last week.
And one more good thing. A first-year student at the seminary came up to me today, introduced himself and told me how much he has enjoyed my blog entries. I won't mention his name so I don't embarrass him, but I have to say: Thanks, sir, you made my day.
Even before I fatefully plugged in my phone to give it a little charge time this morning, things weren't going well. I just couldn't wake up. But I made it to my Pentateuch course on time, so that wasn't really a problem.
It was right after class — my one class of the day — that things got bad. I had to drive into Minneapolis to pick up the the year's first issue of the Concord, Luther Seminary's student-run journal, from our print house. I'm once again the Concord's production manager, the one holdover from last year's staff, and, with that, I volunteered to pick up the copies of the finished product so that we could distribute them after chapel this morning. Problem is, I was horribly unprepared for how hard it is to find the print house. The place is like Brigadoon.
Now, I want to admit that, for many years, I had been partial to Minneapolis over St. Paul. I had seen more of Minneapolis growing up, given that my Minnesota relatives live closer to it. But I will now go on record to say that, as of today, I officially favor St. Paul. For one, I live there. And for two, despite then-Gov. Jesse Ventura's infamous argument to David Letterman on the contrary, St. Paul's street grid makes so incredibly much more sense than that of Minneapolis. Every single time I drive into Minneapolis, I get lost somehow. Today, I got lost badly. And I didn't have my cell phone to call anyone for help.
I finally found the place, picked up our copies, and arrived at the seminary well after our planned distribution time. I felt terrible, especially since the new staff (and our contributors) did such a great job on this first issue and were surely excited to hand out appropriately. The whole process over the last two weeks was completely seamless, all until PrinterGate. (By the way, if you missed the new issue of the Concord, you should be able to download it here.)
Now comes the really pathetic tale. I spent quite awhile distributing the Concord copies where I could and managed to stick around on campus just long enough to get conned out of $20. At least I'm pretty sure I got conned out of $20, although I'm really hoping that I'm wrong. As I was walking to my car, a woman in the Gullixson Hall parking lot who said she was likewise having a terrible day asked me if I could help her fix a tire. After convincing me that the stuff my trunk's emergency kit wouldn't help, I was sympathetic/stupid enough to drive a block down to an ATM and lend her $20, the closest ATM-dispensed amount to the $13 she said she needed for repair stuff.
All the while, I had assumed this woman was a seminary student, and by the time she had told me she instead worked in the area, I was already too roped in to believing her. I was also in a hurry to pick up Tracy for lunch at our set time. Again, if I'd had my phone, I could have asked Tracy to wait or at least let her talk some sense into me. It wasn't until I had driven away that the holes in the woman's story became obvious to me. So, "Monica," I hope that you prove me wrong and that I find $21.50 (with the ATM surcharge) in my campus mailbox soon. If not, well, you suckered a seminarian pretty good, and I hope you're doing something good with the money. I also hope that I at least made Jesus happy with the benevolence and whatnot, but I get the feeling that even he is shaking his head, forehead in his hand, in the old right-hand seat.
The day didn't get much better. Tracy and I had a difficult discussion about my stupidity before finally getting to lunch, by which time we had remembered how absolutely lucky we are with financial support form my church and other gracious entities. Then, about an hour ago, my man, Derrick Turnbow, let in the run that ended up making the difference in keeping the Brewers from coming within a single game of the division-leading Cubs here in the last week of the regular season. I can't help but think that this situation also could have been avoided with a phone call, in this case to the Brewers' bullpen. Ugh. (I still love you, Turnbow.)
To at least end things on a good note, I'm glad to report that my Grandpa Don is doing well. His memory has apparently been somewhat affected by the circumstances of his fall a couple weekends back, but he's as happy and hilarious as ever (perhaps even more so), and I'm sure grateful to God that he's still with us. He and my Grandma Gladys celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in the hospital in Green Bay late last week.
And one more good thing. A first-year student at the seminary came up to me today, introduced himself and told me how much he has enjoyed my blog entries. I won't mention his name so I don't embarrass him, but I have to say: Thanks, sir, you made my day.
posted by Andy Behrendt at 9:53 PM
1 Comments:
I understand how a series of streets that run east-west, most of which are in numerical order, and avenues that run north-south which are in both numerical and alphabetical, depending on where you are in the city can be really confusing compared to street numbers which run in ascending order towards the river along streets and avenues which seem to be in no discernible order. Growing up in the twin cities and preferring St. Paul to Minneapolis I still must admit that Minneapolis is set up in a wiser fashion. But thats just me. I am glad you found your way back at any rate, even if you are a Brewers fan :)
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