You know...

if I only wrote a blog entry about one topic, I would have a better chance of coming up with a clever title. But I can't call it "The Naked Truth" when I am discussing errands on top of the shower scare, or "Love Defined" when I am discussing the ambulance I followed as well as the song on the radio. And "The Naked Truth of Multiple Errands with Loving Thoughts Chasing an Ambulance" does not work at all. So where does that leave a blogger? It leaves them with subject titles such as "Monday", "Tuesday", "Today", or "Random" and "Miscellaneous". Now you know what I go through sitting there staring at my "Title" field.

So let's start with how I managed to scare myself today. I worked at home in silence doing stuff for awhile this morning, and then I got around to getting ready for the rest of the day. I stepped out of my shower and was toweling my head when I heard a noise. I paused thinking it was a cat or something, but the next thing I heard was a man's voice in a VERY unfriendly tone. I couldn't hear the exact word, but he said the same word a couple of times and it sounded like he was creepy and right on the other side of the changing room door, which was open. I could tell it wasn't Steve, and my heart rate ratcheted up a pretty decent amount as I was standing there a little...vulnerable...and the nearest route to any protection or phones was past the open doorway where the voice had come from. Worst of all, it was now dead quiet again. As I vewy vewy qwietly (and quickly) pondered my options, suddenly there was a loud burst of music as a commercial came on. I'd hit the TV remote button on my way in, and had forgotten I'd done it because the tv takes awhile to come on, so it was still off when I stepped in the bathroom. It had turned on to some scary movie that was playing, and had managed to be a time when there was no obvious noise like music, chatter, etc. that made it clear it was TV. It was just a creepy guy talking right outside my door. And that's The Naked Truth about how I scared myself by creating my own boogie man. I'll tell you what, I was awake after that though.

It was one of those days where you just keep moving from one place and project to the next. I made up and printed more business cards, went to Staples for more supplies, went to our jacket-printing guy, went to lunch (naturally!), went to the office, went to the post office, went to the Fed Ex office. I dropped off and picked up Kaylee, took her to ballet, took her to cheer. I went to the SMA Support Supply Closet for some stuff, I went to the ice cream place as a treat for Kaylee. I returned some phone calls, sent out some emails, and did a load of laundry. I got out two birthday cards (late, but better than never), and I cleaned up cat throw-up. You know, the glamorous lives of Two Pilots and a Princess. ;)

Today was the day to see Emergency Personnel. I was on my way to the office when an ambulance whipped around me (naturally I pulled over and stopped) and headed up the road. It wasn't really going that fast, or so it seemed since I kept fairly good pace behind it. I thought that passing him might not be good though. (I'm KIDDING. Mostly.) The ambulance took the same roads I did, headed right for Glenndale. I had the amusing thought I would have told them out there-that it made me nervous because there were a whole lot of old fogeys out there...and then as it kept getting closer I thought that might not be quite so funny. Luckily it passed those I knew by, but I did what I always do and said a little prayer for whoever that ambulance was going to help. I've had a ride in one of those (against my will) and I've had a son in one of those, and they don't race around with their lights on because someone is having a good day. I've always said a little prayer as far back as I can remember, and Kaylee started doing it too. :) I also saw two fire trucks and three police officers at a home in which I could see no smoke or flames, but Something was certainly happening...

On the news this morning, they were talking about how Indiana University was hoping to avoid spending millions more in money for building new facilities by trying to create more Friday and morning class times. See, they don't have Friday or morning classes currently, because they say the kids won't go to them. SO they want to spend a bunch of money building more facilities to host all the classes they are trying to cram into Mon-Thurs. at a "reasonable" hour. My jaw dropped when I read that. The kids DON'T WANT TO GO in the morning or on Fridays?? Who does?! They won't attend the classes? Then FLUNK them! It's called "personal responsibility". They're going to have to work in the mornings and on Fridays too, if they ever grow up and get a job after school. This has got to be in the list of John Whats-his-face's "Give Me A Break" stories.

I was also in my car (I was in my car a lot today) when the song "Perhaps Love" with Placido Domingo and John Denver came on. Laugh if you must, but I sang along. "Perhaps love is like a resting place, a shelter from the storm. It exists to give you comfort, it is there to keep you warm. And in those times of trouble, when you are most alone, the memory of love will bring you home. Perhaps love is like a window, perhaps an open door. It invites you to come closer, it wants to show you more. And even if you lose yourself and don't know what to do, the memory of love will see you through. Oh, love to some is like a cloud, to some as strong as steel. For some a way of living, for some a way to feel. And some say love is holding on and some say letting go. And some say love is everything, and some say they don't know. Perhaps love is like the ocean, full of conflict, full of pain. Like a fire when it's cold outside or thunder when it rains. If I should live forever, and all my dreams come true; my memories of love will be of you." I think it's sweet, and having all that time in the car to kill, it reminded me of a few other things about love, such as a letter I've had forever that a grandmother wrote to her granddaughter who then published it in a magazine. The letter was titled "How Do You Know When It's Love?" and the grandmother went on to put so much down-to-earth wisdom in her response. I have copied it and sent it out to people who have occasionally asked me that question. One of the lines I remember that I always appreciated was "Love means only one of you can be crazy at a time." You know what, that's more true than it might look at first glance. This (in the odd meandering way my mind works) led me to ask myself what I thought love was, and my initial reaction was "love is not destructive, but constructive. It builds up and supports, it doesn't tear down." And then I thought "DUH, it was only a month ago that I wrote out what love is in a blog post already!" Nobody needs to reinvent the wheel-that wheel was invented a long time ago in I Corinthians 13. I like it enough I'll even post it again, just a month and a half after the last time I posted it, only this time in full. ;) Hope you all enjoyed your Monday, may it have been a little less crazy than mine!

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to death, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.