Jubilee Internship: Tizzy Thursday

Thursday morning Coop woke me up at 8:00 a.m. which I anticipated by leaving my phone on near me during the night. :) It was nice to get an early start. I had some devotions and got everything clean for them. I even made tea (don’t ask me why I would serve hot tea in a 100 degree weather, but Jo’s house is FREEZING, so even when it’s 100 outside, it feels like Christmas indoors). When they arrived at 10:45 a.m., they were full of questions. I thought I was going to pull out my midterm report and show them all the work I’ve been doing, but we got on another track altogether. I did show them bulletins from all the places I’ve been (and I’ve been to some pretty cool things) between day conferences on elder abuse, parish nurse training, grief facilitator work, and even a baby mortuary. I just about lost my voice and then realized it was 12:30 p.m. already! We went to Doc Green’s for lunch and had a grand old time. It was fun taking them places they had never been. Currently, I have a fetish for Doc Green’s. It’s just really yummy, soups, salads, and sandwiches. Marcia teased Coop for being a creature of habit by getting salad and Coop teased Marcia for being a creature of habit by calling him a creature of habit. However, Coop said that he didn’t think he had ever had a salad as good as his strawberry, pineapple, caramel glazed walnut, almond, and turkey salad that he created himself. On the way out of the house, they caught a picture of my ABSOLUTELY adorable niece*, so we got to talking about baby names since their expecting another grandchild. We laughed a lot. I don’t think I’ve had so much fun in a while. We came back home and they got to meet Jo and Marylie (since she was back to put the olive oil in the nonexistent glass vials that the package man was SUPPOSED to bring sometime that day). When we first arrived, everyone was on a phone respectively, so I took them downstairs to see my room and we got to looking at my baby photo album. Now they know more about my family than almost anyone! It made the visit even more special.

*For your benefit this is my REALLY CUTE NIECE.

Then after meeting Jo briefly, we hurried off to the church. They were wowed by the main sanctuary which we rushed by on the way to Cathy’s office. I promised them a better tour after our meeting. Coop mostly drilled Cathy on her background – well I shouldn’t say he drilled her, but he asked lots of questions in a friendly manner. Then Cathy gave us a brief tour of the church including the chapel. The stain glass is gorgeous. After she left, I ran them by the “hall of pastors” a drily amusing row of solemn looking men with strange beards that gradually look happier. Seeing that it was almost 4 o’clock, I dashed up to find Amy, and dashed back down to introduce Amy and Mercy. Joan just happened (coincidence… I think not) to come by at the same moment so I got to introduce her as well. So all in all, they got to meet everyone on the pastoral care team except Mary who was with her son of course. We split up, and Amy and I zoomed off to visit, E. It was a very interesting visit. I discovered that babies and grape juice and skirts don’t go together very well. Thankfully the grape juice blended nicely with my skirt (I’m serious!). Then Jo and I sped off to visit T. in the hospital, but she had already left, so we happily went home and collapsed for 30 minutes while I tried to decide where to take Coop and Marcia. (Note: this paragraph is full of verbs like “run, dash, zoom, and hurry”. I loved every minute of the bustle. Not one bit was stressful except trying to decide where to eat for dinner)

This was a big dilemma, because of course, I had to make the decision (Jo has taken it into her hands to make me a more decisive person). Plus, I knew that Coop was probably going to take the entire bill which made me fuss about expenses (aren’t I silly?). And finally, I was really torn between Italian and Chinese… I honestly didn’t know which one I wanted more. So after some help from Marcia, I agonizedly (not an adjective) decided on P.F. Changs (Chinese bistro). It was wonderful as always and the adults (oops that’s not supposed to include me!) talked up a storm. I mostly ate food and smiled. For the record, they do have vegetarian wraps (which I noted for Nick, Arielle, and Brian’s sake). Afterward, we took some pictures by the fountain (see picture) and Coop and Marcia bid me farewell much to my chagrin. I’m hoping they are having a delightful time with their family in other Midwestern states.