You never know when a high school drafting class comes out handy

One of the things I love about my job is the variety and different things I get to do.

This past Sunday I preached a message on Jonah. (Will post later on that.)

The next day I made a volunteer staffing chart that’s five feet long by 4 feet high. (Will post later on that too.)

And today I made construction plans for converting the front of the church into a castle, as well as set designs for the stage. I took a high school drafting class, which I really enjoyed. I never thought it would have any practical application to a future job! (Though I did consider studying architecture at one point.) Over the years I have done some set and facility design which has kept my skills someone in working order, but I like to study drawings to see what architects do!

Our church (University Covenant Church) is doing Breakaway, our Vacation Bible School/Summer Day Camp. We are using Bayside Church’s program, Breakaway to the Royal Kingdom, which they did last year. Bayside’s folks have been incredibly supportive and helpful! Plus, it’s fun talking with my old buds since I used to work there!

Bayside is a huge church so we have had to scale back what we are doing in comparison to how they did it. We want the same feel of high energy, fun and an experience kids will remember for a long time. We’re going bigger, wider and deeper than in previous years, and very excited about the upcoming event!

Fortunately we have paper architectural plans, which my assistant scanned for me. I placed the jpg into Illustrator and started drawing by hand.

Then I took a picture from Bayside and scaled it down and drew on top of that for a template, but later changed dimensions and details.

Finishing touch was all the dimensioning. This is where a CAD program would be handy but I have only a drawing program so it was all done by hand.

Finished result:

I used to know how to use patterns but it’s been years since I’ve used them and didn’t have time to look it up so just drew all the bricks since it was easier!!!

Then onto the stage. First had to draw the stage itself, then drew the set. The program is interesting in that there are 5 days of drama and 4 of the 5 days have a different set!

First day: castle.

Now the problem is once this castle gets built, we can’t just haul it off the stage. So we had to figure out how to work around that limitation.

Second day: town.

We are going to throw grass skirting over the castle to make it a thatch roof, then use butcher paper to make the facade to cover the castle underneath. I’m not crazy about the thatch on the gate so that might get reworked. Still have to dimension this out…

Still working on the next two. Got one mostly done in time for a meeting tonight with our decor people. They seemed up to the challenge! I’m excited!

So far it’s coming out to about 2 hours per drawing… Will post the rest later!

When non-campers go camping

Our family has not been camping in years. But we decided to do something fun and interesting and went with our friends the Looneys and Nielsens. The funny thing is that our family has only gone camping once or twice, many many years ago. Neither of the other families has ever gone camping as a family (though people did go camping individually, many years ago.). The only expert camper that came along was my sister Corrie! Her blog is much more detailed and has many cute pictures of my nephew!

So here’s a quick summary of our trip…

Albert, being an advance planning guy, loaded everything into our van the night before. When Corrie arrived at our house at the designated time, the rest of the family was sitting around computerizing while I was upstairs finishing up my packing (which I only finished in time because my conscientious husband encouraged me to pack!). We went to the Nielsens and helped them finish up their camping. They had a big lump of blue tarp and object on top of their van.

Albert, the engineer, was recruited to help by creating a windbreak by putting a sheet of vinyl in the front and tucking it under so the wind would not get caught under the blue tarp. To my great amusement, the vinyl turned out to be an old 40 Days of Purpose banner that was in Glen’s garage. This is what happens with a Communication Director goes camping. Here’s a picture of the white banner…

We all caravaned up. We had 2 walkie talkies between the 4 cars. The first car (us) and last car (Nielsens) had the walkie talkies. Unfortunately, at times the distance was too great for the radios to work. Oops. And then it was a bit ironic we were leading as we had never been there before and had no idea where to go, but the Nielsens had been there many times and they were in the last car. Ah well, I suppose that is logic that is beyond my understanding.

In the end we radioed them to switch so they could lead, as I almost turned us off the wrong exit! So they led and we all made a number of U-turns as well since it was very confusing and not clear where to go when we got there!

We stayed at Camp Richardson at Lake Tahoe. Highly recommend the place — clean, nice place nearby lots of stuff! (Like civilization — we went to Raley’s and Kmart many times! I forgot ketchup, mustard, onions, tomato, relish, cooking oil, etc. etc. Too late I realized when I got there that when it says “hamburgers” on the menu, not only must one bring the meat and buns but also all the fixings. Oops again.)

My sister the Expert Camper had her tent up and running in no time. She was a brave soul coming camping without a husband and with only her baby! I would’ve dissolved into a puddle of tears in that situation! I’m a camping wimp.

Albert and Daniel did all the tent setup. Nice to have a strong teenage son now who can help his dad. And nice to have an engineer husband who knows what he’s doing!

While everyone was busy setting up, my job was Chief Cute Nephew Carrier, a job I was more than happy to take on. He now raises his arms for me to hold him and when I pick him up he puts his head on my shoulder. Awwww!!!! Auntie is like putty in his hands. I got to use Corrie’s cool baby carrier too.

While I was walking around cooing at my little nephew, everyone was busy at work setting up, even the kids. Here’s Jackson busy at work setting up the Looney tent.

Steven got LOTS of attention. Here’s Daniel with his younger cousin. (Notice the hotdog and hamburger buns in the back… minus any fixings!)

And the two other dads in the group…one of which is wearing a very pink shirt (which he got for Father’s Day).

Plus an impromptu flying session…

Dinner turned out fine. Lots of food. An experiment with a Dutch Oven to make brownies — all charred on the sides but pretty good in the middle! Then off to bed. Most of us are late night owls. Going to bed at 10 pm just seemed wrong! No one got hardly any sleep. Too noisy, too cold, too hard, you name it. But boy do we have great friends. Even in sleep deprivation mode everyone was quite congenial! (But we went to Kmart later and got mattresses, sleeping bags, etc.) The morning was relaxing… breakfast, sitting around in chairs reading.

Karen is always so thoughtful and she brought an entire bucketful of crafts for the kids! The girls made custom bags.

The finished masterpieces were useful! The girls used them to tote stuff around.

Then we took a walk looking for an elusive fishing spot. Lots of walking. Over the river, er, stream, and through the woods (and beach)… no luck. But we did find a really cute location with historical looking structures! Can’t remember what it was called but The Place With No Name sure was a cute little area!

Plus, there was a gorgeous flowering tree there. Well, gorgeous to me. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When Albert saw the tree, he said, “Allergies.”

Finally we arrived at the creek. (Rainbow Creek or something like that?) The girls crossed the creek, slipped and fell in!

But in the end, a local told us to go to Sawmill Creek, which was a WONDERFUL place for the kids to learn how to fish! Glen, being the experienced fisher, helped the kids get set up.

And soon all the adults were helping the kids.

Or the kids helped each other!

Pretty soon the kids were reeling in fish after fish!

So we had yummy cooked trout for dinner. The second dessert experiment, peach cobbler, turned out a winner! It really helps to follow directions…

End of day 2. It ended up being an eventful evening because a bear went through our camp! Stacy saw its back end. She heard its heavy breathing as it went by their tent and slurping sounds as it licked chocolate off our log. The rest of us were lying in our sleeping bags trying to ignore our neighbors clanging pots and pans and shining lights to scare off the bear.

Day 3 morning was fun because there was an impromptu jam session started by Keith as he played the guitar. Albert started playing blues on the harmonica. Asian blues harmonica player… just doesn’t sound right but he sure does a good job!

Then they made me play drums on the water jug using spatulas. Glen picked up a bottle and the kids joined in. Soon Karen belted out impromptu lyrics.

Keith’s our worship leader, Albert plays bass and I play drums and keys, so we said “This is what musicians do when they don’t have instruments.” Then we switched things around and Gracie used the harmonica, Albert picked up the pepper shaker and started shaking it like maracas, and little Megan used a salt shaker. Guess we were a bit heavy on the percussion!

It was a very relaxing morning!

Then it was back to fishing! While we were fishing, Albert and Daniel went mountain biking.

Megan read a book til she started fishing and discovered she loved it!

She caught 7 fish! (But kept only 5 and let the other 2 swim away.)

Little Megan was the cutest fisher of all!

An interesting discovery… my favorite part was holding the wriggling slimy fish while trying to get the hook off and then stringing it on the chain to put back into the pond! Go figure, since I neither like getting wet or dirty. But those fish sure were fascinating! In the end the kids caught 20 fish!

And we saw one ladybug.

We tried cooking the trout different ways: buttered, smoked, and squeezed with orange juice. It was all delicious.

Everyone ate with great gusto.

Well I didn’t post too many pictures of Steven, because Corrie had so many in her post, but here’s a cute one. Gracie was fascinated by Steven and was his primary babysitter. Steven was fascinated by pinecones and tossed them around like baseballs.

We were supposed to stay an extra night but due to everyone having sleep problems, we packed up around 6 and headed home. The extra day was good though… the last day was the best and most fun! I was thankful to be with friends and enjoy the beautiful outdoors of God’s creation!

We caravaned back home. This time one of the walkie talkies got accidentally packed, so no more walkie talkies for us! But no one got lost and we all got home and instantly hit the showers and did loads of laundry. Now we have all this leftover food to eat… and stuff to unpack… such is life post-camping! At least we all got a good night’s sleep finally!

Efficient packing system

This is our fifth move in three years. You would think by now we would be a family packing machine. But alas, such is not the case. I still hate packing. It still takes forever. And it still makes me feel very, very tired.

We are moving tomorrow (Saturday). But due to a busy work schedule, I was not able to start packing until Tuesday! I packed three boxes in the evening.

At this rate, we were not going to get anywhere. Wednesday: 6 boxes all day. Got distracted, did some work, started organizing, got way off track. 6 boxes all day was not working.

So Albert and I went on a date in the evening and made a plan. This plan worked GREAT and between yesterday and today we packed some 70 boxes and now our whole house is pretty much packed!

So here is our system:

First we have a couple locations for items:

• A place where new, flat boxes are so they can easily be taped up.
• A place where we throw small, soft items (bags, purses, jackets, blankets) that can be used for stuffing in odd spaces.
• A place where packed boxes are stored.
• A “do not move” place where we put stuff we wanted to keep around (to clean the house after everyone is done). We used a bookshelf and empty cupboard to put these items.

1. Albert or Daniel tape up empty boxes.

2. I load up boxes with items.

3. As I load up, I call out the items to Megan, who is at the computer typing in the items into a spreadsheet in Google Docs. We use Google Docs so anyone in the family can access the document from any computer. It is a two column spreadsheet. First column is number of the box. Second column is everything in the box.

4. When box is full, I write the box number on all three corners (top, and both sides). This is a sign the box is done.I did use a system. Box number first. Wrote a “*” if it meant we need to unpack it immediately. (When we unload, all these boxes will go in one location.) Then a letter or two for boxes that need to go to specific rooms (”K” for kitchen). Box could look like “3* – K.” (We added letters before our number for other coding, but this is a simplified explanation.)

5. Albert or Daniel tape it up and move it out to the garage.

This system works for us because:

1. It keeps everyone busy. Everyone is doing something. One crew is packing/labeling, the other is making boxes or moving them in or out.

2. We are all working on one room at once. It goes very quickly this way.

3. It adds more energy because we do not feel like we are working alone.

4. We have a detailed list of everything packed. The beauty of Google Docs is we can do a search for an item and know immediately where it is!

Every once in a while there is a lag so we just take a short break before hitting the other boxes.

It also helped in some rooms to open all the cabinet or closet doors that still had stuff in them and then close them as we cleared out the items. This helped us know we were done in those locations and was a feeling of accomplishment as the doors were closed!

End result: packed the entire house in 4 days, start to finish, including my working full time Tuesday and Albert working part time Wednesday.

Off to bed… tomorrow our friends come to help us clear out the house!

Using Apple Pages for visual learners

This past week I took a 5-day history class.

Yes, it was educational. Yes, I learned a lot. Yes it was required for my ministry licensing.

There were just a few minor problems:

1. I don’t like to study.

2. I don’t really care for history too much.

3. I have a terrible memory for faces, names, dates and events.

4. I have a problem with sitting still for long periods of time.

5. I have a tendency to space out and daydream.

All this adds to a HUGE challenge in making it through a week-long history class.

The class was very traditional in teaching method, i.e. lecture, some with PowerPoint, some with a whiteboard. It was a class for auditory learners.

Unfortunately I am not a big auditory learner. My main learning style is visual. In fact, my learning styles are

1. Visual

2. Kinesthetic

3. Auditory

So after a day of diligently typing notes and trying to stay engaged and squirming in my seat, I suddenly had an inspiration.

I opened up a demo copy of Apple Pages, clicked on the “Newsletter” template, and started taking notes directly in the newsletter template. Every time a new topic came up, I would make a new block or move information into another block on my template page.

Each day I used a different template file—just for variety.

I have a subscription to photos.com so I would download some legally-licensed photos to my document.

So in the end, this is how my notes from the class looked like.

It was a snap. I just opened up the program and started using it. Apple is very intuitive in its software. Okay, so I do know how to use Indesign and Pagemaker so I might have had a little bit of advantage in knowing how to layout pages, but it was VERY easy to pick up and if you have used Word, you can use Pages. (And I confess it does help to be able to type quickly!)

In fact, all these pages were created during the class. I didn’t have to go back afterwards and retype stuff or change information. It was so easy to use I was able to complete all these pages by the end of the class! And now I actually remember what we talked about!

So though in a sense this is a plug for Apple Pages, more so it is a plug for exploring different ways to stay engaged when you are in an environment that doesn’t fit your learning style. I am also motivated by learning new things, so I was able to kill two birds with one stone: learning about history, but also learning how to use new software. Plus I got to be creative, which made it fun!

So now for my final projects… making a history video… and creating a history curriculum that will utilize the different learning styles.

Overcoming procrastination and lack of motivation

Procrastinators have a really hard time getting ahead of the ball and getting work done… sometimes even just getting something done on time is tough!

I had an interesting lesson that I learned this week in how to better be motivated to get something done.

Now, usually I am quite a motivated person. I have no problem having a long list of things to do and plowing through them.

But in this case, I had hit a wall. I have a history class I need to take that has tons of homework beforehand. I have to read 3 books, take 4 quizzes, do online presentations, discussion board posts, etc.

To add to the challenge, history is not my strong point. Particularly when it involves reading an 830-page book (of which 145 pages are footnotes, fortunately!), and reading and studying it with detail — the quizzes are closed book. (Fortunately you can retake them, but even retaking is tough with the questions asked!)

First try: read the sections. Took the quiz. Couldn’t even get past the first 5 questions because I couldn’t recall a thing. Conclusion: need to take another look at how I am studying. Comprehension was nearly zero.

Second try: read the pages slowly and write little notes on the side of the margin. This was so slow the pace was like a snail. My friend had made a reading schedule for me. I got like one-quarter of the assignment for the day done. The next day, I got two pages done. Fell further behind. The next day I was even further behind.

All the usual incentives didn’t work, as:

1. The book is 50 years old and the language was hard to understand. Some sample words: obscurantist, auto-didact, suasion, itineration, pillory, and sacerdotalism… and that’s just a very small sampling.
2. I’m terrible at numbers. Just reading about how many people registered for which school in what year made my eyes glaze over.
3. Text was dry. I like funny stuff. Not funny at all. I wrote funny notes on the margins to spice things up, but this only went so far. Still had to read a lot of names, dates, locations, and hard words.
4. There were far more interesting things to do, like spend time with family, talk with friends or coworkers, or attend meetings! (Yes, I am strange. I like meetings.)

Also the usual methods that get me in gear didn’t work either:

• A friend checking in on me to see how I was doing and giving me an appropriate lecture if I fell behind. Usually works great. Not this time.
• Going off site. Helped some but not super productive.
• Switching locations. The sofa was way too comfortable (fell asleep). The office was too distracting, the coffee shop was good but still not good enough, my desk was too noisey.
• Looking at the schedule and seeing how far behind I was… usually kicks me in gear. This time I just felt paralyzed.
• Friends cheering for me. Nope, didn’t work.
• Rewarding myself. No reward seemed great enough to put myself through this torture.

But, people were praying for me and the Lord answered!

The answer came in the form of a conversation I was having with someone as we discussed how sometimes people are not motivated at all by achieving a number goal (for example, raising attendance by 20% by next quarter).

I remembered an article a friend had sent me that talked about how people are motivated by different types of goals. Some people are motivated by performance goals — hit a number, achieve a milestone. Others are motivated by learning goals — they are more interested in learning how to do something, and in the meantime, they hit the performance goals, but that’s not what motivates them. (I will read more about this and blog in the future.)

Anyway, the end result was that I realized that this system was not working for me because it was not tapping into any of my natural motivations. Reading a certain number of pages a day doesn’t inspire me as numbers are not big for me.

So as I thought, I realized that I needed to think about what motivated and got me moving. And as a result, I came to some conclusions.

• I am a visual person. “Read to page 330″ is not at all helpful. I need a sticky note to stick out so I can see how thick the pages are until I get to page 330.
• I like color. I can’t just use a regular sticky note. It’s gotta be something that’s got color to it. (I found some colorful sticky notes a company had sent me for free.)
• I like to stretch and challenge my abilities. I am also somewhat ADD. I found that as I wrote a short note about one paragraph, if I read ahead to the second paragraph, I actually understood the second paragraph better because I was doing two things at the same time. (I am not sure exactly how this works, but I think it is because my mind goes too fast so that when I read I start to space out. Having one part of my mind write forces the other part of my mind to concentrate on what I am reading.) It was a challenge trying to write and read something else at the same time!
• I like short term wins. Waiting until 100 pages to mark “done” on my chart is not rewarding enough. I need to chart progress. Every time I took a break, I wrote down what page I was on so I could get the thrill of seeing the numbers go up. (I confess, I really did feel thrilled when each number was bigger than the last one!)
• I need a physical way of pacing myself. As I read the page, I would run my finger down the side of the page. The challenge was to keep my finger at a steady pace instead of stopping.
• I am somewhat of a wiggler. If I bounced my legs up and down while reading, it helped me focus better and not feel so restless.

It worked! In one day I read all the readings for that day, the next day, and part of the next!

Here’s a picture of the sticky note coming out of the book. Nothing fancy, but a little sticky note does wonders!

I finished tonight…two days ahead of schedule! And all the quizzes were passed… the last 2 on the first try!

This was a great lesson, one that I can apply any time I feel like procrastinating or feel a lack of motivation. What inspires, drives, and motivates me? Tap into those items and it will make the task go much faster!

Now onto the next book…

another birthday celebration

Today was Glen’s birthday. We decided to surprise him by stopping by impromptu after dinner.

Fortunately, his daughter Hannah was over so she helped us plot how to time it. She texted us after they left the restaurant and when they got home. We immediately hopped into the car and drove over.

Glen answered the door and we sang happy birthday to him.

Then we gave him his gift. It was in a flowery pink bag with bright pink paper, in honor of his pink camera. (He often tells me my designs are too frou-frou, so I wanted to give him something really girly for his birthday.)

We gave him a gag gift of 3 water bottles and an orange (private joke). There was a real gift in there but he had to dig around for it.

His family gave him very nice gifts!

Karen and Gracie made a really delicious berry pie. It was sooo yummy!

Father and daughter blew out the candles and we had ice cream and hung out a little before heading home. It was fun to surprise Glen for his birthday!

birthday celebration

Friday was my birthday! It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had!

The day kicked off with a phone call from my friend Rob wishing me happy birthday and we decided to all get together for dinner that evening because there were no plans for the day.

The my sister Corrie stopped by with my cute little nephew!

I could not ask for a better present — he gave me many hugs! Awww! Melt, melt!

It was such a joy playing with him!

The afternoon was quite busy with errands and running around and getting stuff done. I was quite productive.

In the evening, our family and Corrie went out to Sacramento to meet our friend Rob and his girlfriend Tonya. We had Vietnamese Pho noodles and it was totally delicious! We haven’t found a good place since we moved from Fremont and I must say this place fit the bill.

The bowls were huge though! Daniel looked like he was eating from a basin!

It was great to see Rob and meet Tonya. They spoiled me — balloons and two birthday cards and a gift! wow!

Then things got a little strange. Rob said that they had to leave in 5 minutes to go see a show. I instantly knew he was lying.

When I went to the bathroom and came back, they had suddenly disappeared. Then I knew something was up. That was very strange.

Then as we drove home, I noticed Albert was texting in the car. He NEVER texts.

As we got to the house, Albert said he had to take the garbage in. Corrie said she had to use our bathroom. Megan held the door open for me while I opened it.

I opened the door… and there was a hand on the light switch in our house! Turns out it was Glen.

He flicked the lights on and everyone said, “Surprise!” I was not totally surprised that there were people in the house. What I was surprised at was how many people were there! I was totally blown away! I thought maybe one or two families, but Albert invited a bunch of people!

Albert came in and said, “Yes, I am vindicated!” because for the first time he planned a party for me! This was a huge accomplishment as Albert 1) doesn’t like big events and 2) doesn’t like planning events and 3) managed to keep this secret from me for three weeks!

Now that I look back it is really quite amazing how oblivious I was as the family was sneaking around the house hiding things from me. Megan apparently almost let something slip but I had no clue. Daniel forgot something at home and came back and made an excuse but I didn’t think anything of it. Glen and Corrie helped plan and sounded appropriately sympathetic when I said we didn’t have anything planned for my birthday… and then went off laughing.

I was amazed and quite impressed!

Lots of people helped put candles in the cake.

It was the first time I have ever had candles sticking out the side of the cake. Of course I couldn’t blow it out in one try.

Of course we are a Chinese family. How to remove trick candles that won’t blow out? With chopsticks, of course!

The theme was American Idol so guests could perform if they wanted to. I was so honored! Daniel’s piano teacher came just to perform a duet with him! We all tried to crowd into Megan’s little bedroom where the piano resides and enjoyed a duet of Beethoven’s 5th symphony.

Megan and friends did a dance routine they learned off Japanese anime. It was GREAT!

Albert and Daniel gave a fencing demonstration. People stood out in the patio and watched because there was no room in the house. Lighting was dismal though. They couldn’t see what they were doing and didn’t know if they hit each other!

I loved how people just hung out and talked until about 11 pm. It was a really wonderful birthday and I thank God for my loving family and friends who made the day very special!

Lazy way to take notes

Just posted a blog about my new lazy way to take notes at meetings…

Tea time

Yesterday was my birthday. It was an awesome birthday! Lots of wishes from family and friends plus dinner with family and friends and then a surprise party! I will post more about it later as I am waiting for some pictures to come through.

Today my sister Corrie and I celebrated by going out to tea. This was a momentous occasion with lots of firsts:

• First time Corrie ever went out to tea at a tea place.
• First time Corrie and I have ever gone out the two of us only.
• First time I have ever accidentally locked my keys in the car. (At least, first time that I recall! Knowing my memory, it probably was not the first time!)

We went to Treasured Teatime in Sacramento. First time we had been there too!

Besides the little mishap of my accidentally leaving the keys in the car and getting them locked in (fortunately Corrie has AAA so she was able to call them!), it was a great afternoon! It was actually quite a bit amusing as both Corrie and I like photography and so every time something interested popped up we would both start snapping pictures.

The place was very cute — lots of pink and flowers and lace and frou frou stuff. Neither Corrie nor I are really girly girls and felt a bit under dressed as all the other women around seemed to be wearing dresses and nice clothes and some had hats on. But I said to Corrie, “Well, it’s my birthday so I don’t feel like dressing up!” and so we felt comfortable being ourselves and had a great time!

It is a very quaint and cute place. We got a little table for two.

We each got to pick which tea we wanted (I went for the Peach Lift — very delicious!) and then our own cup. Corrie went for a blue Egyptian looking one that looked like it had little heiroglyphics.

My cup was quite different. Pink dainty little flowers. When I make frou-frou graphics at church they get shot down, so I must enjoy the pastel colors elsewhere.

The teas had little strainers to pour the tea through so they could catch the leaves. We had to be shown how to use these as we had never used this particular kind before.

The meal started out with a delicious vegetable Soup.

Then came out a very large tray of food! Here’s a picture I snapped of Corrie using my phone to take pictures of the food.

There was all sorts of yummy stuff on the menu.

I didn’t catch all of them exactly but here are a few things I got from the website that I tried to match up with the picture.

Cranberry Albacore Tea Sandwich
Calla Lily Sandwich
Sliced Egg & Dill Sandwich
English Cucumber & Earl Grey Chutney Sandwich

Ham & Cheese Tea Loaf
Almond Caramel Tart
Turtle Muffin
Seasonal Fruit & Savory Appetizer (strawberry and cheddar cheese)
The Perfect Lemon Tart

White Chocolate Scone
Blueberry Lime Scone

Not pictured:
Yummy dessert with some kind of rum and whipped cream
Lemon Curd and Devonshire Cream

We were totally stuffed! It was all quite delicious. Service was good and the ladies were very nice and helpful. The only point of improvement was I thought the meal could do with more savory. It was heavy on the sweets and by the end I was a little big sugared out. I loved the little finger sandwiches and wanted more of those. But by and large everything was really delicious.

Corrie and I talked about life and family and church and funny stories had such a good time we talked about doing this every year as a tradition! It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday!

When an absent-minded person has a speaking engagement

Saturday I spoke at Bayside of Central Roseville’s women’s event.

I knew I had to be at the community center by 8:30 am, so I packed up what I could the night before. I made myself a list of what to pack up on Saturday. Then, because I hadn’t been feeling well all day, I went to bed early.

Saturday morning I got up and, being a forgetful person, forgot to look at my list, picked up everything and headed blissfully out the door.

It wasn’t until half an hour later of driving, as I almost reached Roseville, that suddenly I realized I forgot my AVI/DVI convertor, which allows me to plug my Mac computer into a video projector. I was horrified as my presentation is heavily dependent upon PowerPoint because there are a lot of pictures and examples.

Thus the adventure began:

• Exited and called my husband. He was already heading out of town to the Bay Area.
• Tried to surf my phone to find out when Fry’s opened. Thought if I don’t speak til 9:20, maybe there is time for me to go buy a convertor. No luck. Couldn’t find it online.
• Called a friend to ask for help finding the time Fry’s opens.
• Just then the event coordinator called me to say that a Little League game had been scheduled that morning so parking was crazy. She asked me if I needed anything. I said an AVI/DVI convertor. A lady nearby overheard her and said they already had the cable.
• I happily proceeded to the facility… until I was suddenly horrified to realize I had forgotten my power cable!
• Calculating mentally my quickly depleting battery, I was trying to figure out if my laptop would last powering a video projector all morning.
• Answer was no.
• Panic started to set in.
• Arrived at the community center. Found a parking space.
• Went to set up my laptop and they gave me the cable. It was an AVI to AVI cable. Not the right cable.
• Back to not the right cable AND no power cord. Panic started setting in again.
• Suddenly remembered I was by Bayside of Granite Bay, where I used to work.
• Called up my friend Trent, who does tech there. He was the first person I thought of who had the same laptop as me.
• Yay! Trent picked up the phone and said he could lend it to me and would stop by!
• Tried to set up what I could. Event started.
• Coordinator came over and asked if I had handouts.
• Looked around. No handouts. I had left them at home.
• Trent arrived just a few minutes before I went up to speak. I connected everything.
• Video projector didn’t work. Couldn’t get it to work though I checked all the connections and pushed all the buttons.
• Gave up and took down their video projector and brought mine. (The one thing I did right — bring my projector just in case!)
• The projector worked fine! Yay!
• Gave my presentation. Had to improvise on the fly as I had to cut out a part that was handout-dependent. Was a bit unnerving to have everyone staring at me the whole time as I am used to people writing and scribbling much of the time.
• Between the memory loss, scrambling for solutions, fixing technical problems, not having handouts and improvising my talk on the fly, I was in a pretty frazzled state!
• However, God provided, gave me peace (I don’t think they knew how stressed I really was!), and I hope the talk was helpful. In any case, I got to meet some really great people there!

After the talk, I went by Bayside to drop off the borrowed items to Trent. While I was there, the phone rang.

It was the coordinator: “Did you leave your jacket here?”

I did.

So this is the story of my life…people think I am organized but in reality it’s a coping mechanism so I can survive my natural state of absent-mindedness.

One of the topics I was teaching on? How forgetful people can be more organized.

I speak from experience.