Looking up

I haven't blogged in a while. Thursday night I opted not to because I was having the worst night ever:

-- Everything was fine until I got home from work. I checked my mail, and I'd gotten my electric bill. I opened it to see the damage, and it wasn't bad. It was about what I'd expected. I looked at the due date. It said "Payment Due: IMMEDIATELY." What? I looked at the top of the letter. It said "CUTOFF NOTICE." The bill said that my payment was past due, and my service would be interrupted if I didn't pay my bill by Sept. 22. I had never received my bill to begin with. So I called the electric company to resolve the situation. I was on hold for quite some time.

-- I had called the electric company as I was getting out of my car to head into my apartment. When I got to my door, there was a note on it saying I'd missed UPS coming by to deliver a package. Since I had just ordered my service flag for K the day before, I figured it was a package K had told me he sent, but I wasn't sure.

-- I entered my apartment and noticed it smelled faintly of bug spray. I had forgotten to leave a note on the door telling them not to spray because they make you pull everything out of all your cabinets in your kitchen and bathroom -- huge inconvenience. And I have a small pet, which they want either confined to one room or out of the apartment -- huge inconvenience. So I didn't know if the people had sprayed in my apartment or if I was just smelling the spray from everyone else's. I had to hope that they had seen Noodle and that none of my cabinets were emptied, said "Screw this!" and left. Or that they hadn't contaminated my countertops and such by spraying anyway wherever they could.

-- While I was (still) on hold, I watched Grey's Anatomy, which I've decided is a pretty depressing show. Someone always dies. I mean, the show takes place in a freakin' hospital! So I'm sitting on my couch bawling at a TV show.

-- I had picked my brother up from the airport on Tuesday, so he was back in OK, and he would be leaving soon to head to North Carolina and become a NASCAR superstar. I wanted to go see him over the weekend, but he had plans Saturday night and Sunday. My dad had plans Saturday night, too, which meant my family would be busy a large portion of the weekend. Saturday would be spent at my dad's store watching the OU game. My dad would be working while it was on, and my brother and I would be playing catchup with every customer who came in because they haven't seen us in so long (it's a real family store).

-- As Grey's Anatomy was ending, my mom called. I was telling her about how I felt like I should go to OK but didn't want to drive. She then said the one thing I knew she'd say but that always manages to piss me off because it annoys me when she says it: "Why don't you come see me?"Yeeeeeeeeah, 'cause that would solve the whole not wanting to drive part. Then, in our conversation, my mom asks me about my dad and whether or not he lives with his girlfriend. So now she knows that. Geez, it's not like they're both virgins or something.

-- Jeremy called me and said he wasn't going to the gym that night. I was kind of relieved, but at the same time, kind of sad because it meant I'd be staying by myself at my apartment, which gets kind of lonely. But I didn't feel like going to the gym, either.

-- I started getting that stupid girl feeling where you're depressed and kinda lonely, but you don't know why you're feeling depressed, which makes you frustrated because it doesn't make sense. I didn't know if I was PMSing or what. It was one of those days that I would normally just call K and unload, and just doing that always made me feel better. I just wanted to hear his voice, and I really wanted a hug. Of course, that made me miss him more.

-- I got in my car and left to go mail my electric bill. On my way, I listened to my new Fray CD. It's a good, relaxing CD, but I don't recommend listening to it the first time when you're feeling sad. With my frustration and then the CD, pretty soon I was bawling as I was driving. I wasn't even a block away from my apartment. I stopped off at the ATM because I needed cash to pay for parking the next day. I went to the post office, dropped off my bill and went home. As soon as I went to get out of my car, I realized I'd gotten my card and receipt, but had left my $20 in the ATM. I was so upset and distracted I hadn't even realized. I had just treated it like I was pumping gas. (I do that a lot more than I visit the ATM.) I jumped back in my car and drove like a mad woman to the bank again. I was praying the whole time that God would show me my night wasn't so bad by miraculously leaving my $20 there. When I pulled up to the ATM, there was a car in front of me at it. I wanted to jump out of my car and say, "Was there $20 in there when you pulled up, because that was mine!" The car was only there a minute, and then it left. My $20 was gone. I withdrew another $20, made sure to get the card, cash and receipt, and went back home.

-- When I got home, I noticed that Noodle had knocked over the cup I'd left on my coffee table. Luckily, it was pretty empty, but there had been ice in it that had melted a bit, and it was just another thing to add to a list of greatness that night. I had left drinks there before, and he hadn't knocked them over.

So all those things together made for a pretty crappy evening. I talked to ER, who I managed to get in touch with finally after I was leaving the ATM the second time. She offered to meet me or even come all the way to my apartment for ice cream or a sleepover or anything to make me feel better. The thought itself (and the fact that she listened to me unload) made me feel better.

I went to bed early that night. The package the next day was my flag. Still exciting, but not as much as K's package.

Anyway, I wound up going to OK last weekend. I'm glad I went. All the things I was worried about or dreading wound up taking care of themselves. I think God was really looking out for me after Thursday because of how crazy everything worked itself out. It really is the only solution.

Saturday was a nice day spent watching the game. It was really a good game. The first half was scary, and the second half was awesome -- until the last 3 minutes, when the Pac 10 refs, who were officiating, decided to hand Oregon the win. It sucked that we lost because the refs made calls that were clearly bad calls. They reviewed both and didn't overturn them. Earlier in the game, OU had scored, but the guy had barely stepped out of bounds on his run to score. Barely or not, he was out of bounds. I was glad that the play was reviewed and overturned because that way, no one could say, "Yeah, well, you guys only won because of that touchdown where the guy went out of bounds. Ya'll got lucky/Oregon got screwed there." I said I didn't want a tainted win.
So what does Oregon get? Two calls at the end that put them one point ahead of us. All three ABC commentators -- one of whom was an Oregon alum -- all said that not reversing it was a terrible call. It sucks that we lost that way.

Then, today was a nice day. I woke up, and it was raining! I went to church with my dad and his girlfriend. At the beginning of church, the preacher asked if anyone knew someone overseas. No one moved. I raised my hand. The woman in front of me raised hers. The preacher, who is a close family friend and has met K a couple times, called us up front. He had us each light candles and say the name of the person we lit the candle for and where he or she was serving. Then, we prayed for all the troops overseas. It was really neat.

What made it even cooler is that my dad's girlfriend had told me more about my friend Cody, who I went to high school with and who was injured in Iraq a couple weeks ago. She said that Cody's dad had come in my dad's store (where she works, too) one day when the preacher was in. Cody's dad said that he had a bad feeling about where Cody was going, and he wanted the preacher to pray for Cody. The preacher just had Cody's dad sit down with him at a table in the store, and they both prayed for Cody. The next day, Cody's dad came in and said that night he and the preacher prayed, Cody's unit had been hit, and Cody was the only survivor. After that, the preacher started a prayer chain.

So I thought that was especially neat that today, the preacher called us up and had us say the names of the soldiers. My dad said the preacher had been starting church up with prayers for the troops, but this was the first time he had people go up and light a candle for individual soldiers. I hope that the preacher's prayer -- and the prayer of the entire congregation -- gives K the same guardian angels it gave Cody.