Patience

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I didn't have much today for my work friend. I talked to her yesterday and knew she was going through a hard time but I didn't think much of her reasons for having a hard time. This morning when I was getting ready to get in the shower my phone rang and it was her. I didn't answer it because I figured she was having a crisis and I didn't have time to listen to her. When I was driving to work I called her back and sure enough, she was crying. She was crying because today was supposed to be her court date to get the divorce from her husband and it had been continued. She was crying because he had offered her a settlement she didn't want to take. She was crying because she wanted to talk to the man she has sworn she will not talk to again. I had no patience for her. At one point I told her that neither she nor her husband had a leg to stand on in this divorce. That neither one of them were in the right and she needed to deal with the consequences of her actions. She didn't say much, just sniffled. I also reminded her she had told me that when she and her husband were in counseling it hadn't worked because she had decided that her marriage was dead and didn't try. I told her that if she had repented of her sin THEN and given God a chance to work in her marriage, who knew what might have happened? She mentioned her children and tried to make something out of her youngest's dream the night before--the child had dreamed that their house had burned down. She was trying to make a big deal out of the dream. My response? It means absolutely nothing! Except that your children are being affected by your emotional state and the way you and your husband are treating each other and she's having bad dreams. Deal with it. That was the tip of the iceberg of what I told her.

I suppose I gave her both barrels. After I was through I said to her, "I guess you'll be calling me again the next time you're upset."

I'm caught between the lab and the IT world again. Sigh. The IT world isn't responding to lab problems with hardware and networking issues in a timely fashion. I had to hound them last week to handle a problem with an instrument pc, I even called the head honcho IT person to have someone assigned to it. Even after that, we had a two day delay on turning out test results to the submitters. Unacceptable. The lab administrators have lost their patience with the IT folks and especially the management level. They asked me for all the information I had on trouble orders and how things weren't handled appropriately, so I gave it to them. They plan on going to their boss next week and presenting it to him so that he can deal with the problem.

Unfortunately I'M in an IT position and if the head honcho IT man gets blind sided with this issue, he's going to ask me about it. Why didn't I tell him they were so upset?? I can see it now. The thing is that I've had three different meetings with him to talk about this very thing and nothing has changed. So I called M today (my direct supervisor's supervisor) and told her what was going on. I'm giving her the same paper work I gave the lab administrators so she can prepare the HHIT man. Sigh. After I've given both sides the same information, I don't think I can do any more. Dear God, save me from politics.

And my new eating plan has not been a success this week. I am struggling with how to make it work for me with my crazy schedule. I am running between two offices and trying to eat four or five times during the day is NOT convenient. If I miss one of my small meals because I'm in a meeting, then I'm ravenous and ready to eat whatever gets in my way first. I'm always in meetings! In running between two offices during the day--where do I keep the food? Do I drag a cooler around with me, pull out some chicken and fruit and start chowing down while I'm in a meeting? The frustrating thing is that I think this could work if I can get the schedule down. It's pissing me off and I'm having to fight the feelings that I shouldn't even try to do this right now. Not to mention the fact that my hormones are kicking in and I'm about to have to fight MEL off, too. Can't have her running around loose these days, too many people might get hurt.

And I can't help but remember what Curt told me last Friday when I was telling him what my life was like and the lessons I'm learning about trusting people's motives. I told him I'd decided I just wanted to stay in my lab and be the little LIMS director because the lab folks were more trustworthy than those I've run into outside the lab. He told me what I just said was very dangerous. Because in his experience, when God put him in situations like mine, it typically led to a change in life. God has a way of getting us ready for things before they happen.

Even though I don't like the idea, I'm beginning to agree with Curt. As far as what He might be training me for only He knows, but dang it! I hope it's not something that requires a lot of patience. If it is, then I'm going to be in training for a long time.