Weekend Wonderment & Somewhat Spiritual Anvils pt1
I had a pretty awesome, if anvilicious weekend.
And hopefully things are on the upswing mental health issues wise *crosses fingers and toes* But, as I yammered on about in a post last Friday, I made a last minute decision to attend an anti-bullying workshop at the UU Church in Lynchburg. Lynchburg is about an hour’s drive away from me, and while I’ve gone there to the mall and such many times, I’d never been to the part of Lynchburg where the church was. So I tried to make sure and get a good head start (which was hard, because this workshop started at 9:00 in the morning- so I had to be out the door by 7:30… and I’d stayed up way too late the night before yammering online about SPN… I’m that sad!)
But I had directions from Mapquest and most of the trip was a pretty straight shot down the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is just awesome this time of year. A lot of the trees are getting bare, but there’s still enough color that it’s like driving through a box of Crayolas. And driving in the early morning hours made it all particularly gorgemous with the way the sunlight was hitting the mountains. So, I’m already feeling pretty good and positive about this, even though I’m going somewhere I’ve never gone before to hang out with people I’ve never met- heh.
I make it into Lynchburg with a good half hour to spare and again, I’ve never been to this part of Lynchburg so I was kind of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the city. It reminded me of certain parts of Richmond (where I’m originally from) and there was this big fountain shooting water up out of the James River, which was really cool! So, I’m still in a pretty good frame of mind. All I gotta do is find this Church.
I have the directions in my hand and it tells me to go right on one street and if I get to this other street, I’ve gone too far. Well, to the right, is nothing but a tiny little alley way- no church. Hmmm… Mapquest, would you dare mislead me? So I think maybe I just drove down too far on one of the other streets and try to turn around. Lynchburg- cool as it is with its big fountain on the James is also about as congested and convoluted as Richmond can be in some areas. So, I’m trying to turn myself back to where I started, but there are so many one way streets and everything’s very confusing. I keep feeling that if I can just get out and be on foot I could find this place much easier… but there’s no parking to be found! There is a big parking garage, but of course you have to pay and I have no cash… D’oh! I start thinking I need to ask directions, but I guess it’s early enough in the morning still that there aren’t too many folks out and about. As I’m going round and round in circles it’s getting closer and closer to 9:00. It suddenly occurs to me that I’m just not going to find this place in time and even if I do find it, where will I park?
It felt so odd to me because I was so sure that I was being led to come here- and now I’m here but cannot find where I’m supposed to be. After driving further away just trying to find someone I can ask directions from, I have no luck at all. Everywhere I went to ask directions, the doors were locked. At this point it’s only two minutes to 9:00 so I give up. Luckily, I didn’t have yet another panic attack or meltdown over it, but it just felt very odd and disappointing. I really thought I was being called in a way to go to this thing this day. So I decide, well, I’m not going to make a trip for nothing, I’ll just go to the mall and maybe call my friend Holly who lives an hour away in Amelia to come join me. Now all I need to do is figure out how to get out of the city and on the road that’ll either take me to the mall or else towards Amelia.
I pull over on the side of the road where according to the Map the Church SHOULD be and get my phone out to call Holly. I see a man walking towards a building out of the corner of my eye and decide I will ask him for directions on how to get out of the city. And I turn my head to see the man is walking… INTO THE FREAKIN’ UNITARIAN CHURCH!!!!- D’oh to infinity and beyond! It was right there… all along!... ON THE LEFT! Yeah, Mapquest mislead me by saying it was on the right, but if I’d just turned my head! OY to the Vey!
So I get out and go up to the man and before I can say a word he’s all “Oh, hello. Are you here for the anti-bullying workshop?” And I say, “Sir, I don’t know you… but can I please give you a hug?” I was so relieved to finally be in the right place and exactly at the right time. And as it turns out, where I had pulled over, it was ok to park right there. It was a 1 hour spot, but that only applies on the weekdays. Saturdays are freebie parking days along that road… so … I mean… how anvilicious can it get? Right when I gave up, I find my way.
And I have had such an experience so many times in my life, it’s not funny. So many times when I’ve struggled and struggled and fought and fought and right at the moment where I’m like “Ok. I’m just done!” BOOM, it all falls together perfectly. So yeah, that little voice telling me I was meant to be here, now was apparently giving more of a shout than a whisper.
So, I go in, and even though I’m the last one in, I am on time and everyone there is actually pretty impressed at how far I drove so early in the morning. Hey, I’m just amazed to be there at all. So it all feels good and right. And I will have more to say on the workshop itself later, which was an amazing experience in and of itself. But now I need to get some work done and also try and catch up on my flist which I neglected over the weekend… sorry guys!
Also, Ti Anna, if you're reading this, I know you're deeply disappointed in me for driving down that road twenty times and never looking to the left... as much as we are always annoying the rest of our friends by harmonizing on that Beyonce song "To the left, to the left... everything you own in a box to the left!" Yes, deeply my bad there!
More to come...