It Must be a Full Moon, Because the Freaks are Out Already!

What a day! It's been frustrating, saddening and just absurd in one way or another. Here's the sad news for anyone in music ministry at CTK: our new sound board was stolen out of the church yesterday. I don't have many details other than that the church was obviously unlocked/unsupervised when it wasn't supposed to be. How sad it is that we live in a world where even churches have to lock their doors during the middle of the day. Churches are places where people go for comfort and help. I guess these people felt that they needed more help than everyone else. It is also a sad day when people are not safe to pray alone in a church when they need to. I used to go to our Eucheristic Chapel quite a bit, but now I think twice even if I know that people are around or working. Obviously other people on the premises are not a deterrent. This isn't the first time that we have had equipment stolen or been vandalized, but it makes me just as upset. A church is a sacred space and when it is violated I think we all feel just as victimized. The good news is that to my knowledge no one has been physically harmed. At least they have some decency.

Here's the petty, frustrating part of the day: I think that I have established in previous posts that I work for a bank as well as the church. Today, I decided that I have too much money in my savings account making really crappy interest. So, I'm going to open a CD at another institution. I'm thinking that it should be a piece of cake to walk in, withdraw x dollars and be on my merry way. The bank I work for deals in a majority of high dollar accounts, so I don't blink an eye when someone has a check for $100,000.00. Well, I wasn't withdrawing $100.00 but it wasn't $100,000.00 either, so it's not a big deal. I don't know if the teller was new or what, but she asked for every security check, had to get approval from her manager, had to check with everyone in the bank (it seemed that way anyway!) before she'd complete the withdrawl. It was as if I was trying to buy the Taj Mahal! Then, she tried to give it all to me in cash! Who do you know that thinks it's a good idea to walk around with a large amount of cash if they aren't in a casino? So, I politely told the girl that I wanted a check. You'd think that I had asked her for a kidney! On top of it all, she was going to charge me $5.00 for a stupid piece of paper! It took all my will power not to pull the "I work in a bank and I know this is crap" line, but I argued all the same and got the fee waived, which also required manager approval. Of course. I know that I was probably that girl's "customer from Hell" for the day. I am just sooo irritated by bad service at banks. They do know that they make more money off of my money than they give back to me in a pitiful .25% interest rate. Geez!

Now, for the absurd: After my 25 minute check writing experience, it was finally time to come home. So, I'm in the middle lane tooling up Tropicana toward Rainbow when the car in front of me breaks and swerves. I thought, "Oh, great, an accident!" Not quite... There was a homeless (I'm assuming- she was very dirty and very tan) woman standing in the middle of the center lane of traffic going west trying to thumb a ride! Of course, I had to break and swerve as well. I had a few gestures for her as she stuck-out her thumb and yelled," I need a ride!" At first I was pissed off that the woman had disrupted my peaceful rush-hour drive home, but then my good Catholic side was worried for her welfare since she was obviously mentally ill. So, I called the Metro non-emergency line to get someone out there to take her away, since she was a danger to herself and others. So, I get the Good Citizen Award for the week, unless my bank is suspicious of me now that I've withdrawn gobs of money and is having me watched for illegal activity. Oy, vey! What a day!