The coming weeks
By way of a status update, since I have been so remiss in posting lately, let me tell you about the next several weeks for me.
Weekly choir rehearsals have ended for the summer, but we still sing from the loft every Sunday and lead the hymns. Next Sunday, I'll be playing my favorite Bach Sonata during worship, and I'm very excited. This will be my first time playing flute at Old Donation since joining the congregation.
In just under two weeks, I'll be moving into my own apartment. Except for six months in 1998 and 1999, I have lived my entire life with my parents or with my soon-to-be-ex. This year, I have really been asserting my independence and individuality - my unique child-of-God-ness - and it will be very good to live on my own. I've been packing and preparing, and there's still a lot of work ahead of me. But I'm pretty excited about this.
In my job, I crunch lots of data to analyze, report on, and forecast the revenue for my program. It's a complicated procedure, because there are several factors involved, and I have a blast with it. But what basically happens is around the fifth or sixth of the month, I get the monthly billing report, and the work begins. It remains very busy until about the end of the third week of the month, at which point my regular reporting is complete, and the managers are all gearing up for their monthly program management review. Then the last week of the month, I've been travelling up to our corporate headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, to help with final preparations for the PMR and then to participate in. I usually have a few days of downtime after that before the next billing report comes in, and in that time I'm working on bigger analyses and database development and stuff like that. Last month, the April and May PMRs were five weeks apart, but this month they're four weeks apart, so I'll be a little more crunched as far as time goes.
After the June PMR, I'll be heading north into Ontario to visit friends. It looks like I'll be in Ottawa for Canada Day, which is very cool. I'm very much looking forward to the change of scenery and the change of pace. I'll get back home July 6, and then that next Sunday I'll get to go on my first mentored visit as a Lay Eucharistic Visitor - taking Communion to a parishioner who can't make it to church for Sunday worship. The LEVs receive their kits at the altar as soon as the congregation has taken part in the feast, and are dismissed from the altar to take the consecrated elements to our brothers and sisters who can't physically be with us. It is an important ministry, both to let those people know that they are still part of the parish, and to remind those of us in the building on Sunday that we have parishioners out there who need our prayers, support, and visits.
And then, on Monday, July 16, I'll be having surgery to repair the torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder. It sounds like I'll be in a sling, unable to do pretty much anything, for the first two weeks. And I'll be homebound, not allowed to drive, for the first six weeks after surgery. I'll have to be taken to physical therapy after the operation, and to keep up with my exercises at home. At this morning's LEV training, I got to meet the lady who chairs the congregational care commission at Old Donation, so I'm on her list for next month already. :-) The rector has already told me about all the incredibly supportive things that the parish stands ready to do for me, and some of the ladies in the choir have clued me in that they are not going to leave me alone to face this myself. So even though it's pretty big and scary, especially in the face of my separation, I know I'm going to be well cared for. Thanks be to God!
