Wind in the Willows (pt1)

This past Wednesday our Senior Pastor, Mark had the opportunity to speak at Willow Creek Church in Chicago, well actually, Barrington, Illinois at their mid-week service. Lori and I decided that we'd make the trek over to Willow after work on Wednesday to support Mark and hear his message.

Lori and I decided to car pool to work Wednesday so she wouldn't have to drive home after we returned from Willow. It meant of course, that we couldn't have lunch together and if you read my previous "Addiction" blog you know that was going to be an issue for me, but I would just have to live without a fix.

I rec'd an email from Lori in the afternoon that one of the vocalists from our church, Kathy, wanted to ride to Willow with us and that Kathy was going to get in touch with me for the details of when we were leaving. Kathy called me shortly thereafter and advised that she was going to park under one of the lights in the parking lot at GCC (our church). Unfortunately I didnt pay close attention to all of what she said and you'll see why it was unfortunate.

I still had some manuals and things at my office at the hospital and I wanted to get them boxed up so that the hospital courier could deliver them to my new office at corporate. Around 3 o'clock I decided to venture over to the hospital, box up my stuff and then drive to GCC by 4 pm to pick up Lori and Kathy. I was certain that I had left some boxes in my hospital office from my previous office moves there but when I got there I only had one. I went rumaging around and found a couple other boxes, packed stuff up and was ready to leave. I couldn't find my car keys anywhere. I looked on the floor, on the desk, in the desk. Nothing. I rushed back down to where I had found some boxes on the 3rd floor thinking maybe I had dropped them, but again nothing. I went back up to the 4th floor and started searching the office again. I opened all the filing cabinet drawers, all the desk drawers, I got on my hands and knees and searched the floor. Still nothing. By now its 3:55 and I'm suppose to be at GCC by 4 pm. I'm starting to get a little frantic because I have no idea where the keys could have gone. Then it hits me. Could I have dropped them in one of the boxed I packed. I picked up the first box and started hurling stuff out of it, nothing. The second box, I'm digging and I hear the sound of keys. Yes! However now I've made a shambles of all that I so neatly packed. And its now 4:05. I start shoving stuff back in boxes, grab my keys and I'm out the door.

I get to GCC around 4:30 and I go to Lori's desk and shes not there. Now GCC is a pretty big place and she could be anywhere. My first thought is to start searching but I thought that could take forever. "Light bulb moment!" I decide to have her paged at the front desk. Someone called back from the page and said that Lori left with Kathy. I kid you not, my first thought was they got tired of waiting for me and left without me. I came back to my senses and just wondered where they could have gone. Not long after, Lori came in through the doors. She said she'd tried to call my cell but I didn't answer. Just my luck my cell had gone dead. Lori said that she and Kathy were waiting in Kathys car in the newest parking lot on the northside of GCC. Remember above when I said I didnt hear all of what Kathy said about meeting us a GCC. It was the north parking lot part I missed. She and Lori had been sitting out there waiting for me for 30 plus minutes I would guess.

Despite all of my set backs, some self induced and some not, we got a little later start than I'd liked but we still made it Willow in plenty of time and it was an incredible service.