Imagine reading this blog with the U2 song of with the same title as this entry in the background for ambiance.
I had got an interesting Christmas lesson, this year. Sunday, the 23rd, Christmas Eve eve, I closed the door to my apartment on the way out for a Target/coffee run with Tink, when I realized that the keys to said apartment were on the wrong side of the locked door. Of course I had a spare set of keys, which I kept on my nightstand by my bed. But they weren't doing me any good there. Wouldn't you know that right before Tink and I had left the apartment, I had picked up the keys, looked at them, a little voice inside my head saying, "You should give these to Tink. That way, if she ever needs to get into to your place, she can." Then I paused and said to myself, "Nah. I'll give them to her when we get back." As I sat on the steps leading out of my building, head in my hands, devastated, I replayed that moment over and over, trying to get my past self to put the keys into my jeans pocket. But no matter how many times I imagined it, and felt my jeans, they never appeared.
No big deal, right? Just walk to the office and have someone let me in. But the office closed at 6pm and it was after 9pm. Frantically, Tink and I jumped into her car and raced to the office. Maybe there was someone there by shear luck. We pulled up in front of the building, I hopped out and ran to the door. All the lights were off and the door was closed. The sign on the window confirmed my biggest fear--the office was closed and wouldn't open again until the day after Christmas. Some three days away. I continued to search the window in hopes for an emergency number and found one. I sped back to the car, slightly hopeful.
After back inside I dialed the number which prompted me to leave a message for any maintenance emergencies I had. I left a message and prayed afterward, desperate for a Christmas miracle. All I could do now was wait and continue to pray. After about ten minutes, the time it took for Tink and I to get from my place to hers, a lady who worked in the office called me back...from Texas...where she was celebrating Christmas with her family. She explained that the apartment complex does not provide a lock-out service. They have maintenance men on call, but they are not permitted to let anyone in to apartments. How would they know if you really lived where you said you did? But, since it was Christmas, she explained, she would call the other lady who works in the office. She just might still be in town, and might be able to let me in. She called back shortly after and told me that her attempts to reach the other woman were in vain. But she had left a message. She suggested I call a locksmith and have the locks changed, then give the office a copy of the key to the new lock when they open on Wednesday. Or just wait and hope the other lady would call me back.
The latter suggestion made me sigh inside. I had been having problems with a leaky ceiling in my living room. Gallons of nasty rain run-off had been dripping in my place, filling up buckets, for the past several weeks. I had called maintenance several times. Each time they attempted to fix the problem, it didn't make much different. The last time, a man with a thick ambiguous accent named Peter came to my place and punched "draining holes" into the ceiling. He promised to come back later, but never did. This history of response delays did not put me at ease.
At Tink's house we explained the situation to her father, hoping he would be sympathetic and let me crash there for the night. He suggested I call a locksmith, as well. So I did, reluctantly, visions of money signs and burning dollar bills dancing in my head.
I dialed a 24-hour emergency locksmith who asked me the basic questions: name, location, security level. I explained the situation and said I needed two locks picked. One to the building and another to my apartment. Unfortunately, he responded, they needed the permission from the complex owner to pick the lock to the building, which I didn't have and couldn't think of how to obtain. I was up the proverbial creek.
I ended up spending the night on the couch of Tink's brother's, which in itself wasn't so bad. The three dogs and two cats, clamoring for attention and not afraid to cuddle, whine, paw, bark, nudge, purr, meow, stomp, scratch, to get it, at 3am in house-full of people who would like a full night's sleep ended up taking me a few inches from my breaking point. Long story short, I slept 2 hours that night.
After showering at Tink's, her father suggested I call the emergency number again and leave another message. I did, this time pleading desperately, using the whole Christmas-season trump card to tug on some heart strings (so I hoped). Tink also had a suggestion: that I pray just as hard and desperately and let it go. Then we would head over the the building, catch someone coming out or going in, sneak in and call a locksmith from there. I did, and we did.
Outside of my apartment, I dialed the first of three locksmiths I had narrowed down in the phonebook. No answer. I left a message. Second locksmith gave me a quote of $125 for one lock. I declined and hung up. Before dialing the third locksmith, my phone rang. It wasn't a number I recognized, so naturally I thought it was the first locksmith returning my call.
I answered and a foreign man spoke, "Hello. I got your message. What unit are you in?"
I was confused so I gave him the name of my apartment complex.
He responded, "I know. This is maintenance man on call. What apartment?"
I was still a little confused so I told him what apartment.
"OK," he said, "I be right there in 20-30 minute."
I was still not sure what was going on. How did this locksmith know what complex I was calling from? Did he do business here often? Slowly it began to sink in. He worked for the complex. He was coming over to let me in. For free! I was relieved and overjoyed. Then that feeling was overcome with more questions. I thought he wasn't allowed to let me in. What if he didn't believe I lived here? Would he still let me in? I was now anxious. I could only wait and pray. Again.
40 minutes went by until I heard someone coming up the stairs to my apartment. My fingers were crossed as he rounded the last set of stairs and came into view. "Please let him have pity on me and let me in. Bend the rules, just this once," I prayed.
He opened the door to my floor and smiled. I knew that face. It was the face of Peter. The man who had made the holes in my leaky ceiling, and just a few days before and had never returned. His smile became wider and he exclaimed, "Hey! OK!" He recognized me, too. "You locked out? I go get key, I be right back!" he yelled, still smiling.
A flood of realizations came over me, and I felt God grinning as he watched his work come together. Had my ceiling not leaked so terribly, Peter never would have come to my apartment to fix it. Had he not come, or I had not been there that day, he would probably not have let me in. Had I listened to that voice that told me to give the extra keys to Tink, I wouldn't have been in the whole mess to start with. But maybe that's why the whole lesson had been constructed--to make me notice that little voice and to listen more closely for it. And to trust in Him more fully. As soon as I did that, at Tink's suggestion, the problem took care of itself. Or, more accurately, he took care of it. After I prayed and waited, he handled it. He moves in mysterious ways.
There's more, though. Part two coming soon.
Post Script: My once porous ceiling hasn't leaked since Peter put those holes in it, and it has rained much more since. I don't think they did anything else to fix it, either. Well, at least they didn't.
Monday, December 31
Thursday, December 20
Thursday, December 13
Tuesday, December 4
BCS Thoughts / NFL Picks (How I'm Doing)
Many sports fans across the country are getting bent out of shape about the whole BCS Championship picture. Most of them are angry because of one team’s inclusion in the BCS Title Game. And it isn’t LSU.
If you ask me, the people that are upset, most notable those in L.A., Athens, and Norman, don’t have much of an argument. USC lost to Stanford and their backup QB. Georgia lost to 6-6 South Carolina. Oklahoma lost to a horrible Colorado team. So Ohio State may have “not played anybody,” but at least they BEAT their nobodies.
So, I’ve concluded that Ohio State’s appearance in New Orleans is just as deserved as those other teams. Jimmy T and his Bucks simply did everything the BCS asked of them. Win all of your games and you’re in. The Buckeyes won all but one. USC, Georgia, and Oklahoma lost two games. So did LSU. And OSU won its conference. However weak the Big Ten was this year, it’s still a major conference. No other team in the nation can say what OSU can. That’s why there are where they are.
Some radio personalities and sports writers are thrilled at what they call a group of horrible matchups in, not only the Title Game, but the rest of the bowls. They see this as an opportunity to scratch the current system and replace it with a playoff, which is simply too difficult to put in effect. At the least, they say, we should institute a “plus one game” after the traditional bowls have concluded to determine the “real” champion. This talk is fine by me. It encourages the continued improvement of a clearly flawed system. But as for now, all I know is that we shouldn’t punish Ohio State for fulfilling the current system’s requirements.
In Response to Last Week’s Blog…
Well, everything went down as I predicted (except that West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh instead of UConn), so I’ll give it another shot. Over the next month or so, the following events will go down…
1. Tim Tebow, sporting jean shorts under his tux, will win the Heisman Trophy. As a result I will grit my teeth and throw something.
2. Hawaii will pass almost exclusively in the Sugar Bowl, but will lose to Georgia.
3. I will not watch the Orange Bowl, because the only thing interesting about VT vs. Kansas is how ungodly huge Mark Mangino is.
4. USC will kill Illinois in the Rose Bowl. Not even close.
5. If Pat White plays against Oklahoma and is 100%, look for West Virginia to edge out the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl.
6. LSU will beat Ohio State by a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to win their second national title in 5 years.
7. Shortly after celebrating winning the BCS Title Game, Les Miles will announce he is leaving LSU to become the new coach of Michigan.
Now I hope I’m wrong on number 6, I just don’t know how I like our chances against a fast SEC team. But after last year’s letdown, I’m not getting my hopes up—I’d rather be surprised.
NFL PICKS: (How I’m doing)
2 Weeks Ago: 10-6
Last Week: 9-7
Overall: 93-68
I’ll no longer post my picks, but I will post how I’m doing. It’s too tedious and I honestly don’t think anyone cares.
If you ask me, the people that are upset, most notable those in L.A., Athens, and Norman, don’t have much of an argument. USC lost to Stanford and their backup QB. Georgia lost to 6-6 South Carolina. Oklahoma lost to a horrible Colorado team. So Ohio State may have “not played anybody,” but at least they BEAT their nobodies.
So, I’ve concluded that Ohio State’s appearance in New Orleans is just as deserved as those other teams. Jimmy T and his Bucks simply did everything the BCS asked of them. Win all of your games and you’re in. The Buckeyes won all but one. USC, Georgia, and Oklahoma lost two games. So did LSU. And OSU won its conference. However weak the Big Ten was this year, it’s still a major conference. No other team in the nation can say what OSU can. That’s why there are where they are.
Some radio personalities and sports writers are thrilled at what they call a group of horrible matchups in, not only the Title Game, but the rest of the bowls. They see this as an opportunity to scratch the current system and replace it with a playoff, which is simply too difficult to put in effect. At the least, they say, we should institute a “plus one game” after the traditional bowls have concluded to determine the “real” champion. This talk is fine by me. It encourages the continued improvement of a clearly flawed system. But as for now, all I know is that we shouldn’t punish Ohio State for fulfilling the current system’s requirements.
In Response to Last Week’s Blog…
Well, everything went down as I predicted (except that West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh instead of UConn), so I’ll give it another shot. Over the next month or so, the following events will go down…
1. Tim Tebow, sporting jean shorts under his tux, will win the Heisman Trophy. As a result I will grit my teeth and throw something.
2. Hawaii will pass almost exclusively in the Sugar Bowl, but will lose to Georgia.
3. I will not watch the Orange Bowl, because the only thing interesting about VT vs. Kansas is how ungodly huge Mark Mangino is.
4. USC will kill Illinois in the Rose Bowl. Not even close.
5. If Pat White plays against Oklahoma and is 100%, look for West Virginia to edge out the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl.
6. LSU will beat Ohio State by a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to win their second national title in 5 years.
7. Shortly after celebrating winning the BCS Title Game, Les Miles will announce he is leaving LSU to become the new coach of Michigan.
Now I hope I’m wrong on number 6, I just don’t know how I like our chances against a fast SEC team. But after last year’s letdown, I’m not getting my hopes up—I’d rather be surprised.
NFL PICKS: (How I’m doing)
2 Weeks Ago: 10-6
Last Week: 9-7
Overall: 93-68
I’ll no longer post my picks, but I will post how I’m doing. It’s too tedious and I honestly don’t think anyone cares.
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