It probably could have gone better

I think my problems started when I woke to my alarm with a start, with a deep fear in my stomach that I was supposed to have written a sermon for today. I lay there, gripping my pillow, eyes wide with fear. Then I realized that I wasn't preaching, so I tried to go back to sleep for a bit. But that wasn't successful.

Well, I guess I could say that they started before that. I had this long, graphic dream about going to the dentist. Now, many of you know I'm not a fan of the dentist. And the dentist has, historically, not been a fan of me. In fact, in grade school I actually had one refuse to see me anymore. Yeah, so that's kind of my deal with the dentist. But I had a dream about it which involved a lot of drilling and a lot of time spent in the dentist chair and all sorts of yummy goodness.

But enough about that. Over at church, the first service didn't go so badly. I managed to do all of my responsibilities well. But, in between the services, I was in the kitchen talking with the group of confirmation kids that were in charge of coffee hour. As I was talking to a couple of the parents, I leaned forward against the counter, only to notice a couple of minutes later that I was leaning against a wet towel. I moved backward, looked down, and saw a large wet spot on the front of my pants, in an especially inconvenient area. So I had to walk around like that for a while.

Then, when we were getting ready for the next service, I put my robe on. Now, the way you put my robe on is you slip it on like a coat or a jacket, and then there are snaps on the shoulders that hold it in place. Then, near the waist there is a string on each side so you can tie the robe and help it stay in place that way, too. As I was tying the strings, one pulled completely off of the robe. Luckily, with the shoulder snaps and then also with the cincture (rope belt) that I wear, it managed to stay in place. But it was an inconvenience.

As I was getting ready to set up communion, during the service, I thought I should use some hand sanitizer. So I stepped off into the sacristy (room right off of the altar area) and took a squirt of hand sanitizer. Only it didn't shoot down, as it should, instead it arced upward, spraying my sleeve and then the front of my robe. Luckily, it's almost all completely alcohol and so it evaporates quickly, but I still had to go out and preside over communion with a large wet blotch on the front of my robe. I'm fairly certain no one really noticed, but I certainly knew it was there.

Overall, despite these small snafus, I think things went well. The Gospel was proclaimed, sins were announced as forgiven, 5th graders participated in their first communion, a baby was baptized, and I had a chocolate cupcake. God was, is and always will be Good.

So I'm going to enjoy a nice relaxing afternoon. I hope you do, as well.