+Keeping My Head Above Water

The title sounds a bit negative, but it’s not, really.  It’s not emotional water I’m figuratively drowning in, just volumes of work.

Yes, in the space of a couple weeks I went from summer idleness and depression to overworked beyond belief.  It was a bit touch-and-go monetarily this last month, as I got very little work over the summer, but things are now on a very firm footing.  Rather firmer than I ever expected or even perhaps desired, even. 🙂  My men’s group started praying for me to find better work, and I guess they turned the volume up… because all of a sudden I have more private students than I know what to do with.  This on top of ~30 hours a week of students from the university.

To be sure, half of these are people I already knew, rather than new customers, Juan and Alex the most prominent among them.  But what makes this new and different is that they actually want, and are willing and able to pay for, multiple hours a week.  And I have a totally new student who I’m tutoring 4+ hours a week too, who’ll probably be sticking with me all this year.

Given that I charge private students 50% more than the university pays me, my income has taken a sharp jump upward.  The downside is that between work, RCIA (yes! I’m doing it again!), and the People of Praise, I’m booked until 9 PM every day except Friday and Sunday – and I get swiped on Fridays by desperate students more often than not.  Sunday remains free only due to firm foot-stamping on my part.  🙂  But of course, Sundays are often, though not always,  eaten into by PoP meetings.

Paying bills is nice.  Not having a life – not as nice. 🙂  But it’s not forever, and at least I have a good excuse for not posting here for once!  But my laundry hates me.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, God chooses to really lay it on thick. 🙂  He’s got SUCH a sense of humor. 🙂  I don’t work before 10 AM – more foot-stamping, plus the sobering information that they do NOT want to deal with me while still waking up! – so I have time for daily Mass,  Lauds, and Adoration.  (I had plenty of time in the summer, but was so low-energy I rarely went. 🙁 )

I’ve been getting close to Chris, my head in the PoP, and his family.  His wife Collette, in particular, is an angel.  She taught me to make bread recently!  (I tease her it’s just so she can keep feeding me even when I’m not around!  I can’t visit her house, even for a moment to pick up Chris, without being fed something.)  She says she thought I would enjoy it, and she’s right.  I’ve gotten a bit into it, though I’ve been hampered by an oven that isn’t working right.  I only just today got the chance to get the landlord on it.

Collette and I also share a very recent addiction to Sudoku puzzles.  Ravenous addictions indeed!  Those things are evil!

Collette:  "After the first day, I realized I didn’t have time to get addicted to this, so I set it aside.  For two days.  I can’t wait for the morning paper."

Me:  "But you can get as many puzzles as you want free off the Internet…"

Collette:  *eyes light up with an unholy glint*

Chris:  *smacking forehead with an aggrieved cry* "Isaiah, WE USED TO BE FRIENDS!!!"  🙂

Me:  "I feel like a drug pusher."

Collette:  "You should!"

Anyway, as I was saying, God’s been getting out the megaphone lately.  Check this out.

Item 1:  I’ve been praying about my vocation lately.  In particular, I’ve been praying that God would open a door for me somewhere, somehow.

Item 2:  While walking down the street to my car past a bagel shop, two friends of mine see me and start banging on the window to get my attention:  Joan, and our mutual friend Mary, who went off and became a sister of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity – or SOLT for short. 🙂  Mary was just in town for a couple days;  she’s been back for a few weeks to visit family, and stopped by to see Joan.

Item 3:  Joan had to go to work, so Mary came with me to Mass.  We talked afterward.  Mary’s always tried to get me interested in the SOLT, but my interest in them was severely chilled when Fr. Gerald told me they don’t ordain people with any physical imperfection.  (I’m blind in one eye, as you may recall.)  I mention this to Mary.

Item 4:  Mary looks at me incredulously.  "You’re kidding, right?  We just ordained a guy in a wheelchair last year!"  Fr. Gerald must’ve gotten the SOLT mixed up with somebody else.  She went on to tell me they really make it a point to give people a shot that other orders won’t take a chance on.  They’ve even got seminarians in their seventies!  (Otherwise quite unheard of.)

Item 5:  Her encouragement was enough to get me to take a plunge:   I sent off an email to their vocation director.  I still can’t believe I did this. 🙂  Haven’t heard back yet.

Item 6:  When things like this happen, I always check the date – God being quite fond of Liturgical Twilight Zone weirdness with me.  It was the memorial of St. Martin de Porres – a Dominican saint that I’ve long had a fond relationship with.  Suspicious.  Very. 🙂  (Thanks, San Martin!)

Item 7:  There is no item seven.  I just wanted to write one.

I’m having to finish writing this on a different day – the schedule is beyond belief most days, as I said.  I’m currently drinking chamomile tea with a bit of sugar, which I’ve always liked –  it looks and tastes like liquid sunshine, very nice during winter.  But anyway.

This should maybe be a separate entry, but I’m currently rather sick of stupidity.  And by stupidity, I of course mean politics. 😛  (I took an Internet quiz a few months back.  Normally those things are just dumb, but this one really pegged me.  It was a quiz on "What Pisses You Off".  It returned a picture of the Earth from space and said, "Stupid People Piss You Off".  Yep.  That’s me. 🙂

*looks at the time* Yes, it’ll definitely have to be another entry.  But I’ll try to write in here more often.  No promises!

God continues to be very good to me…  He’s giving me power lately over temptations that I had almost given up on.  I’ve been learning to say a prayer the moment my obsessive little mind starts to latch onto things, which has been a huge help.  Thank you, Beloved.