My Crazy Week

RAMBLE ALERT!

I'm not good at dealing with stress. Usually I just wait till I have to deal with something, and then I deal with it. I don't really work at being, preventative, despite what you may think. Anyway. Here's my story of stress this week. I was definitely in the high 9's (out of 10) at some points during the week.

WEEK OF ANXIETY BEGINS:
Sunday night I was asked to conduct the bookstudy on wednesday - that's 3 days notice. Unfortunately Sunday night I was already involved and busy, so I couldn't actually study then. Monday after work, and the gym, I went pretty much straight to bed. Tuesday night...I forget what happened, but I didn't get to/neglected to study. Oh, yeah! It was super hot, and I couldn't concentrate, so I watched a movie. So all I had was Wednesday DURING work to study. And I couldn't concentrate at work, though, either, because everyone was playing games, and since I'm really good at procrastination, I figured I'd keep it "up to par" by practicing it. (I know I just lost everyone's sympathy, but it gets worse.) So I finally got started working on it, and worked on it till the very last minute. I worked up an introduction to the chapter and a few opening comments, and once things got rolling, they went pretty well. Almost 100% participation!

MORE ANXIETY:
This is not the end of things. I was asked last week to write up a demonstration for the English District Convention. Saturday we were supposed to present it to the brothers and see what advice they had for us, and to see if it was going in the right direction. But the brother I'm doing it with was away on his honeymoon until Wednesday, and, what is more, he wasn't even asked to do it until Thursday night. I had my meeting Thursday night, and we had to wait for one of the brothers who was going over the questions for baptism. We got home late, so I didn't start working on the part until late friday night.

We met at the Kingdom Hall on Saturday, and started practicing at 1:00pm. The brother whose talk it is liked it, and had us cut it down a bit to fit into the alloted time. So at 3:15 we were to meet up to go to the Bronx to present the demo. But, when we go outside, I realize I left my keys at home(*see footnote), and wouldn't be able to drive! But neither could Jesse! We had to run to my place (opposite direction from the meeting place) then back to the KH where my car was, then to the meeting spot. We practiced as we drove, and when we got to the bronx, the brothers were just finishing with the group before us.

We got on stage, showed them our demo, got our counsel, and drove all the way home. We went all the way to the BRONX for 10 minutes worth of work, lol. When we finally got home, we made a few changes to shorten it up, and fit the brothers' direction. Phew, that was over, and it went pretty well, I guess.

YET EVEN MORE STRESS:
When I finally got home from that whole deal, I started searching for my watchtowers. One in English, the other in Spanish. After a pretty extensive search, I found that I was lacking my Spanish copy! GREAT! So I start calling Matt and Jesse T, but they are hanging out together, and with other friends, and I can't get a hold of them. :( So, I do stuff to keep me from stressing, and end up just txting Matt. Then I went to take a shower. I get a txt from Matt saying I can use his, so I stayed up to meet him and get it from him. That way I wouldn't have to wake him in the early in the morning.

So I fell asleep around 2:30am...So I got up at 6:00am to start studying. First in English, then in Spanish. But 3 paragraphs in, and I get tired of studying, so I take a short break. Got back to studying, got changed for the meeting, but I never finished studying it. I didn't get to finish studying the rest. I tried to finish the very last paragraphs at the Kingdom Hall during the public talk, but I still didn't finish.

Then it was time for me to go up there and do my thing. Well...Jehovah's thing. I prayed. I got up there. I prayed. I read the first 2 paragraphs in my head to practice, then I prayed. Then I read them aloud. Then prayed, and read ahead for the next paragraph. Then I read aloud. Then prayed. (so on and so forth, until I finally was off the platform). Last 2 paragraphs were KILLER...but Jehovah helped me through. My grandparents and my parents came. They were proud. :) Good times. Now I need a break.

FOOTNOTE
*leaving my keys at home... We were out in service all morning. It was raining, so we decided to do a study with this unbaptized publisher in our group (totally conveniente for us, not so much for him, hahah). Well, we get to the house and it's POURING. Harder than before, so I ran to the door with the umbrella and keys, and opened up the front door so they wouldn't have to run so far to get inside. Then I started straightening out the place. I had some crap out on the table I had to clean up. So I was totally distracted. Turns out I left my keys in the door like a chump. *shrug*