Ups and downs, mostly downs.

Just a warning for the reader as they begin... I'm grumpy. Read on and find out why.

The most challenging of the PITAs that I am facing this week is that a 16 year old on meth stole my wife's car on Friday night. It was at my in-laws, and he took it right out of their driveway. There were apparently a herd of them, and they thrashed the heck out of my car to the point that it's now undrivable. The police found the car within three hours of my in-laws reporting it stolen (perhaps my first good experience with police). We still don't know the extent to which he or they will be held responsible, the extent to which our insurance will work for us (doesn't the very term "agent" imply that they work on our behalf? I think reality demands that we quit calling them "agents.") In the mean time, my in-laws are without a car that they were expecting for the short term, and we are without a car that we were expecting to use for the long term. We have no idea right now what the next few days or weeks will hold with regard to transportation acquisition, but it's going to be a PITA either way.

The second major challenge is that I am in the final class for my degree, a one week short course on systematic theology. It's like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. I haven't read enough, and the professor is one of the most difficult that the university has to offer.

The third major PITA this week is that I'm a hockey player playing golf today. I am good at my job, and I am 100% not interested in team sports. It's a challenge to be good at something, or even remotely invested in something, for which you have no passion. So far I've functioned well, but I'm beginning to feel the burden of a job I don't like. If I can pull this off, both personally and professionally, if I can succeed at something that I hate, there is nothing in the corporate world that I can't legitimately aspire to. If I care.

In the midst of all of this, I have taken a very scary step back toward church work. I have expressed interest in two major league church jobs. In comes the anxiety of whether or not I am competent, whether or not I want to go back to church work ,whether I'm competent or not, and whether I would or should even take that kind of job if it were offered.

The sole bright point, being consistently challenged by the aforementioned PITAs, is that last Wednesday was mine and Shana's ninth anniversary. We dropped the kids off at the in-laws, spent some time alone together, and in general had a very good time. We came back from the experience with a stronger connection that we have had in a while. Just in time for the @#$% to hit the fan, I guess.

*Exit Grumpy Rant Mode*