I once was lost but now I'm found!

Sometimes the best-laid plans go South. Friday morning was one of those times for me! Let me back up a little bit. I had been out of the office most of the week. I had Microsoft Excel training two days and I has court another day. Friday I had a committee meeting in Montgomery at the Office of Prosecution Services for the Alabama District Attorneys Association. Even though I have been to that building each of the last five years for the same meeting, I thought I better print out driving directions, just in case. The only problem was that I was in court all day Thursday and I didn’t have time to print out directions. Thursday’s court deserves its own blog entry later!

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry, the boys and I were up rather late Thursday. Friday morning, David and I awakened extremely early, around four o’clock. After he took a shower he asked me if he could play a GM career mode baseball game on his Xbox. I asked him if he thought he could stay awake and alert in school if I let him play the game. Of course he said that he could. I decided to say “yes”. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I laid there by him as he played. His game was over by about five so he and I played a college football game on Xbox. I was winning halfway through the third quarter when we had to quit in order to get ready for school and work.

Matt woke up on the wrong side of the bed! Usually he is really good in the morning, but not on this day. Because of that we were running late (which is very unusual). I got them to school at 8:00. Then I had to high tail it to Montgomery.

I had enough time to make it to my 10:30 meeting in Montgomery as long as I drove 70-75 mph and didn’t run into any trouble. Actually, if I didn’t get lost, I would have been at least 15 minutes early. That didn’t happen! My first mistake was attempting to forward voice mail messages to my workers as I was driving into Montgomery. I passed the exit to I-85, and went about 7 or 8 miles out of the way before I made it back up to I-85. Then I had a brain cramp. Instead of looking for Perry Street, I looked for Perry Hill Road. I have had meetings on Perry Hill Road too, but I soon realized I was in the wrong place. Then my mind went blank. Yes, I am getting old! I went further east through Montgomery for several miles until I realized that I was going the wrong way. I had to turn around at AUM. By this point I was completely confused and had absolutely no clue where Perry Street was located. I had already attempted to call one of the other committee members on his cell phone, to no avail. It was 10:45 and I was about to give up!

I actually decided that if I was anything over 30 minutes late before I found the place, I would just have to drive home with my embarrassed tail between my legs. I commenced to praying! Actually I had prayed some already but now I got more serious about it. I said, “Lord, there is no way I will find this place unless you take me straight to it. Help me listen to you, somehow, for guidance. Please help my lack of faith.” I really didn’t believe I would find it on time.

At times like this you may be tempted to think, “I could just go home and take leave for the day.” Then you think how wrong that would be. Besides that, I already left my colleague a voice mail regarding my problem. I decided that if I found the place I would hold my head up, laugh at myself, and not worry about what others may think any longer. Lo and behold, I saw an exit, and I thought that it might be the correct exit. Then as I went down the ramp I saw the sign for Perry Street South! I knew where I was. I made it to the meeting 25 minutes late. No one was mad! No one ridiculed me. I just caught myself up to speed and contributed a lot in the meeting. It was great. This meeting was about selecting statewide award winners for our professional association. One of my colleagues said something about nominating me for one of the awards. Of course, I rejected that notion as a member of the awards committee, but that made my day. It made me feel better about myself after I had been beating myself up about getting lost and being late.

Thank you Lord for getting me there!

After the meeting, we had an outstanding lunch at a place I highly recommend. I will mention that in my next entry!