Gondoliers and spiders

I've been so busy with helping to put together a mother's day dinner for our church singles group that I've not been able to write much. It's an Italian dinner theme and I get to be the gondolier, among other things. No joke. I've got the hat, pants, shirt and pole already. Should be fun.

I'm learning a few things from this experience, though. It is very, very tough to work with controlling people. I'm no push-over, but I pick my battles. I'm no control freak. I'm learning why I don't get along with control freaks, i.e. machinists (machine shop guys), litigators, some engineers and so on.

I'm also learning what service is. That's right, I've always tended to stay away from volunteering too much. Time to change that. In every organization there seems to be a core group of people that get things done. I want to be one of those for a change. The whole church thing changes the paradigm a bit, though: the emphasis is on serving others not for your own recognition, but for the glory of God. Not everyone seems to buy into the idea wholeheartedly, though. I'm watching and learning a lot about my fellow parishioners---good and bad. And that's good.
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I inherited my sister's old room, the one that was always full of those long-legged spiders that hang out along the corners of the room. She didn't like to kill them since they really didn't do anything. She called them her "friends" and let them be. When I moved in I cleaned the room and got rid of the spiders. That didn't last long. They're back in force and now they're my friends too. I like them just where they are and I won't be chasing them away anytime soon.

Why? Because I'm deathly afraid of mosquitoes, their favorite food. I'm exaggerating a bit, but truth is I cannot sleep in the same room with a buzzing mosquito. As a kid I always seemed to get bit on my elbows and knuckles, as if wrinkly skin were a magnet for those flying beasts. Now I don't seem to get bit so much, but they still keep me up...unless I can't hear them. Even if I know he's still out there, as soon as I put on a pair of ear plugs I'm golden. I guess it's like riding in one of those glass elevators. So long as you close your eyes, nothing can hurt you.