Life has had many blessings since my last post. Work has been going very well. I'm not having to juggle 2 jobs, which was a relief since that would have taken up a good chunk of my time in addition to the hours of work I have been doing. The variety of the work is nice, and I've seen some pretty cool stuff. But I'll get to that more later.
About a week and a half ago, God blessed me with a visit to my second home: Catholic Familyland. 3 members of my adopted family of last summer were visiting that week, and 2 others are working there, so I decided that I really wanted to go visit. God was so good to me and allowed this to work out perfectly! We got there in the middle of the day, and I got to see my sister and 2 of her (and my) friends. Then I embarked on a journey to find my "brothers and sisters". :) It was so good to see them! It kept seeming so surreal on the way there that I was actually going to physically be with these people after we've only been able to talk over Skype and letters and phone calls for almost a year. Being with them was amazing! It felt like nothing had changed in our friendship with each other, and anything that had changed had become even better! I practically tackle-hugged a few people when I saw them. Haha! It was such a blessing, not only to be with my friends, but also to get to spend some time in the Lord's presence in Queen of Angels Chapel.
This is probably my favorite chapel in the whole world. When I sit in this chapel, I have so much peace. It feels like my soul is at home. While this is true for anywhere that I can be in the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, I think this place is so special to me because this is where I really started to truly know the Lord for Who He is and meet Him in the depths of my heart. Other experiences at Familyland compounded that, but I think the beginning was here.
I was so blessed to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with my "sisters" here after taking a walk with them in the rain and talking about life. After the Chaplet, we just sat there for a while. As I sat there gazing upon the glory of God, Christ gave me a few beautiful revelations about what He is calling me to do, and what that is going to require of me.
I also got to go to Benediction with Patrick, Jenny, and Sarah (and Maura was there, too, but I didn't know till afterwards). We also went to dinner with my sister, and Dad surprised us by suggesting we stay for the Rosary, so I got to be with my friends even longer and close up the visit with prayer and loving goodbyes.
The 4th of July was another blessed day. I didn't have to work, so it was great to have some family time. We started off the day with Mass, and enjoyed the afternoon together. I watched my first episode of Dr. Who (we are starting with the season from 2005, and, while it's not been extremely fantastic, it's been enough to keep me interested). Dinner was delicious! And we all went to watch the fireworks together, played some Mad Gab, and played with sparklers in the driveway.
My birthday was a few days after the 4th, and was on a day that I didn't have work: another blessing. I got to start the day off with Mass, and went to see Despicable Me 2 with my brothers and sisters. The movie was really cute and clever, and I thought it was very good for a sequel. :) My mom picked out some really nice clothes for me as a gift from my Grandma, and I got one of my favorite movies, and an itunes card to get some music. Dinner was fantastic, and dessert was great. :)
Now that that is pretty much summed up, I'll get to the subject of the title. Here are 10 things that I have learned while working in a school supplies warehouse filling boxes. Enjoy! (This is meant to be funny.)
1. Play food has gotten a lot more fancy and sophisticated since I was a kid. Instead of looking vaguely like the food it is supposed to resemble (for example, a purely yellow banana), it looks very realistic, like this: Fancy Play Food
2. I have discovered a really neat toy: sand rainbow blocks. Shimmering-Water-Blocks.jpg When I found these on the shelf for an order, I was like: "Wow, these are cool. I want these!"
3. You can tell when it is an art teacher making an order based on a few factors: they order lots of paint brushes, or canvases, or paint, or posters with quotes about painting. A drawing teacher orders lots of sketch pads, pencils, etc.
4. Ordering 75 calculators is a good indication that you are a math teacher. And takes 3 of the really large sandwich bags to carry and contain.
5. Some boxes just like to keep coming back to you even when there's nothing for you to put in them. When it's been to your station 4 times, it's time to force it to move on. Carry it past the scanner and let it go.
6. You may have to turn the baby dolls' heads back to their correct position, since some people think it's terribly funny to contort the baby so that it's head is completely turned around. Feminine instinct kicks in and you just have to help those poor babies.
7. Muggy day, plus warehouse with no air conditioning, plus busy workday and working machinery is not a good combination; but there's not much you can do about it, so drink lots of water. Sitting at lunch (well, technically dinner) with some co-workers, we thought it would be a great idea for the company to hire people to go along the line and spritz people with water and fan them to keep them cool. Sounds like a fun job! Hey, you'd get to squirt people in the face. "Oh, sorry, I did not see you there. *spray* Or there." -Mr. Gru, Despicable Me 2
8. You get to meet one old school buddies when you work in a warehouse that supplies them: the counting bears! pattern blocks, mega blocks, play-doh, the list goes on.
9. Teachers like to order pencils that say: "[Insert grade] graders are the best!" Which leads you to wonder...they can't all be the best, so...where does that leave us?
10. Other teachers like to order pencils for every season/holiday of the year, including the 4th of July it would seem. But...seeing as the 4th of July is in the summer....I'm confused. ;)
Well, I hope that was somewhat entertaining. Have a great day, everyone! God bless!
"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance ; to seek Him, the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement." -St. Augustine of Hippo
