The Problem with Divided Attentions

I am in a rotten mood, frankly, because I had a lousy evening and it is all my own fault.

I am the Young Women's president, as you probably know, and while there are lots of reasons I love the calling (most of them are between the ages of 12 and 18!), it is leadership, and I frankly can't stand leadership callings. (Would 'loathe" be too strong a word, do you think?) I am a teacher, born and bred, and would rather teach anything, anywhere than be in any presidency. Period. (Especially president where it ALL ultimately begins and ends with me.) But alas, the Lord keeps having other plans for me, and this calling is by far the toughest, busiest calling I have ever had! Coincidentally, it is also happens to the absolute toughest, busiest time in my life - apart from my calling - with kids ranging from teenagers to preschool (who all really NEED me, by the way!) I am still trying to understand why the Lord thought now was a good time for me to do this. (ohh. murmur murmur. Please indulge me. I'm having a bad night, OK?)

Anyway, Wednesday was our New Beginnings, and like I am the day of any such big YW event, I was running around like headless chicken trying to get everything done on time - there are always so many last minute details that require my attention (and always something I forget!) Somehow, however I did get most of it done, though I didn't get a shower or dinner before rushing off to the church. But at some point in the midst of this mad dash to get it all done, I vaguely remember getting a phone call from Dennis. He said something about tickets to a game Friday. My end of the conversation: "Cool (disinterested because I was wondering if there were cups in the closet)... Naw, go ahead and take one of the boys (as I was trying to locate some tape and straight pins)... yep, sounds fun for you guys (putting some last minute touches of sparkly blue spray paint on something)...OK-love-ya-bye (as I gathered a pile of tiaras and easels and tossed then into the box.) Ten minutes later I had no memory of my hubby ever calling.

Well, New Beginnings came and went. (How is it that an event that takes hours and days of preparations can all be over in just over an hour?) I think it was all a great success. (But there is NEVER rest for the weary! YW stuff seems to stack up! There is always some other big thing barreling down the chute at me, seems like. (Can you say "road shows"?)

Today was Friday. Dennis rushed home from work early, grabbed my oldest child who was selected to go with Dad to the game ("oh, that's right, the game!" thought I), and they were off...

And so was I. Off to get other kids from school, off to take the twins to their book club. Off to pick up Nate from play practice. (Off and running. Always off and running.) Then suddenly my brakes start grinding and smelling and I have to run my car to the shop even though I have NO gas, only to be told that they were about to close, and they couldn't help me and their only advise was to NOT drive my car in this condition for the sakes of my family members' lives. (Gee, thanks for the help.) Then I came home to find Nathan wandering around the cul-de-sac freaked out because Caleb and Luke had snuck out through the garage and run off, and it was getting dark! After a very stressful 10 minutes looking over fences expecting to see two dark masses on the bottom of every pool, the little hooligans were finally located hiding in a neighbor's backyard. They were apparently playing hide and seek! Nobody was counting!!! I then spent the rest of the evening using sundry techniques (some of which I am not proud) to get my kids to clean out the filthy car and then turn their attentions to their hurricane disaster level bedrooms. Such was my evening.

But the worst part of the evening was the information I obtained when I called Dennis to report about the car trouble, and lost and found children, and the break out of World War III. He said they were in downtown LA which really confused me because in my mind he was in Anaheim at the Angels game. Dennis pretty regularly gets tickets to Angels games and since I have NO desire to sit through any baseball game, ever, and he knows that, he usually take turns taking the boys. I guess when he called me on Wednesday all I had heard was "blah, blah, free tickets, blah blah game."

Turns out they were awesome tickets - center, 5th row back, value $275 each - to the Lakers game at the Staples Center! They weren't just some tickets someone didn't want, they were a BONUS awarded to Dennis from one of his insurance companies!!! A big deal!

I had no idea.

Somehow I had missed all of this! How on earth did I miss this information? He swore he had called me SO excited and told me all about it and couldn't wait to bring me, and I had turned him down with a "Naw." Poor Dennis. Poor me. The thing is that I would have totally loved going to a Lakers game! I am so mad at myself for not registering any of this when he called that crazy day.

So, due entirely to my divided attentions, I am home with a broken car, no dinner, a dirty house and a houseful of uncooperative children, and he is calling periodically to tell be how awesome the seats are, and how great the action is, and just what famous and cool people are sitting within spitting distance all around them - thus making my rotten evening even worse.

And it is all my fault.

I am apparently not very good at dividing my attentions between my calling and my family.

Woe is me!

Goodnight.