A Job and a Cat

I sit here with my coffee cup this morning, waiting for the lovely, sparkly river of caffeine to work its way through my entire bloodstream. Yes, it's 10:30 on Thursday morning, and yes, I've only been up for about an hour, but hey, I'm not a morning person! I mean, I am when I have to be, but if I don't have to be, I am not up. I've already brought up the issue with God over the fact that he didn't make me in the way that seems most acceptable to the rest of the world, but our conversations usually go something like this. Actually, I have a one-sided conversation with God that goes something like this:

The alarm goes off: 
Me: "Good morning, God." (Blink, blink, blink. It's an effort to even think these words.)
"I hate my alarm clock."
"I wish you had made me a morning person."
"You seem to want everyone to be a morning person."
"Why didn't you make me a morning person?"
"But, you didn't make me that way."
"Good morning anyway."

Anyway, the purpose of my post this late morning is not to once again regal you with stories of my morning adventures or expound upon my seeming laziness. The purpose of this blog post is to first of all apologize for not having written in over a week! Where has the time gone? Well, several things have transpired.

First of all, I got a job working at Piggly Wiggly as a cashier. This is a job that I held ten years ago at the Randolph Piggly Wiggly, and when a member of my church heard that I was looking for a little cash flow while I wait for a full-time pastoral job, she told me that the Piggly Wiggly here in town was hiring. I applied, and I have never been so grateful for a job in my life. First, Randy hired me even though he repeatedly told me that I was "over-qualified." That may be true Randy, but my qualifications don't negate the fact that I could really use the money. Second, it's a job that gets me out in the community for several hours every week, and I get to talk to people ALL DAY LONG. Huzzah! It has been far too long since I've been able to feed my inner extrovert. It's hard being in a community with no real friends. I currently work about 20 hours a week. So come on down to the Pig and say hello!

Second, I got a cat. I finally prevailed upon my parents to at least let me move forward with this one area of my life, and they agreed. I was going to wait until I got a church before I brought a pet into the picture, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen anytime soon. So, even though my mom is allergic to cats, and she doesn't really like them either, my parents both agreed that I could get one. I already knew that Trisha Kok had some kittens, so we went to her house, and I picked out the cutest little black and white 9-week-old boy kitten you've ever seen. I picked him because Trisha said he would be the more mild-mannered of the three brothers, but once we got him home, we discovered that this is not the case! He plays constantly. I have all my toys from the last time I had a cat in a basket in the TV room, and Shimei loves to go to the toy box and pull out the toys. I think he likes taking them out of the box more than he likes playing with them! This blog has taken me an eternity to write because Shimei keeps on jumping up on my lap, meowing, wanting to be held. My legs look like a pincushion. I can't wait until his Softpaws come in. But Shimei's personality is why I named him as I did. You can read the story of Shimei from the Bible here. I realize it's not a very flattering portrayal of Shimei, but this story does show God's faithfulness to David, and for that reason, I like it. Sometimes our faith in God doesn't look so pretty and wrapped-up-in-a-box anyway.

That's all I've got for today, my friends. I have to do some more sending out of church profiles (I haven't done any all week yet), this afternoon I work at the nursing home store, and Dad just came in asking what we're having for supper.