water to wine and other miracles

I’ve had such a day today that I consider a couple miracles had happened.

My work week started out like any other, except for an email from my boss telling me to get rid of close to 90 aging files. As a reminder, my job is to analyze and verify applications for an insurance company. Specific details of my job aren’t necessary, all you need to know is that I work on production which means I have a quota to fill.

55 files a week is what they ask of us. I don’t consider myself an overachiever, but if I can do more, I will. And most of the time I do. I like to earn my right to slack off at the end of the week. Work hard now, play harder later.

The majority of the files I work on, I complete within 24-48 hours. Sometimes I need some info faxed into me, and that might take a week or two. I’m supposed to follow up on these faxes or phone calls every few days so I can get the file done ASAP… but as I just said, I’m a bit of a slacker, I admit it, I have no shame.

Well, some of these files had gone un-followed-up for not just a few weeks, but a few months. This is not good. So this week I devoted time to these old files to get rid of them. I figured some non-stop calls to all the places I needed to talk to would fix the problem. Well, it didn’t. It took me 2 1/2 days to get through about 75% of the list, and by Wednesday morning, the time when I usually have 30 or more, I had a mere 11. I also had a few frustrating phone calls that dampered my morale so I wasn’t feeling too chipper.

Fortunately, God has blessed me with awesome friends. Sometimes all it takes is a someone being silly or a warm genuine smile to flip the world back on the right side. And that’s what happened. I went back to work with a new attitude and new plan of attack. To wrap up this story, when I left, I had my 55 files done completely, plus a little extra (we get time off for meetings or files we had to cancel, so consider my actual number to be 58 or 59).

Happy as a kid on the last day of school, I rushed off to choir rehearsal. I didn’t really want to go to rehearsal, but I did want to get out of the house. And I’m glad I went, as I usually am. I think it’s just me being lazy and not wanting to drive.

Afterwards, I was just ready to call it a day and get home. I tried enjoying the ride by cranking the volume to enjoy some newer music. I stopped at a light behind about two to three cars. The light turned green, we all started to move and then the car in front of me stopped short. I also tried to break as quickly as I could, but it wasn’t quick enough. I was too close. BUMP. Facepalm. I can’t say crash, and tap is too light. But still, I felt it. The lady I hit felt it. I waited to see what she was going to do first. Then I knew I had to get out of the car once I saw her hazard lights go on. After another facepalm, I followed suit and then got out of the car.

Oh yeah, it was raining too.

So we made sure no one was hurt. She suggested we exchange information: name, number, license, insurance, blah blah blah. Honestly, I wasn’t really sure if that’s what was supposed to happen when she asked me if that’s what we were supposed to do. I just agreed.

The whole transaction took about 20 minutes. Did I mention it was raining?

The lady I hit was a Christian. I consider this a miracle in a way because I could have hit someone who was crazy. And you know what I mean. Some people reading this might be one of those crazy people. And if the truth is told, there are some Christians that aren’t the nicest people either. Hypocrites. Anyway, this was a kind gentle lady. A bit shaken, understandably so, and I kept apologizing since technically I’d be considered the one at fault. She told me the car in front of her had some issues that made her stop short. As interested as I was, I just wanted to get out of the rain, So I really don’t remember what she said. I was getting wetter and colder the longer we stood out there. And I’m not one for making a scene out on a busy street like we were on, parked in the middle of the road like we were.

It turned friendliest by the end. I invited her to my church and explained that’s where I had been coming from. She even shook my hand after I told her I was the pastor’s son. This bit of information seems to benefit me when I was wee and just a preacher’s kid. Well, benefits at church functions. It got me better seats, better snacks, like a pseudo-V.I.P. It’s pretty good. I wasn’t and still don’t expect special treatment this time. I’m human like everyone else. The miracle is that no one got hurt and this little incident was a lot more peaceful than any alternative.

And another miracle within itself is my parents celebrating their 26th anniversary. Yes, some people still believe in staying with the same person for more than two years (ahem, Usher…)

So this was a longer post than usual, I’m just making up for not blogging all week. At least now you know why: hard at work getting the job done… and crashing into other people’s cars.