Painting recap

I should take a minute to discuss this past Saturday morning. I participated in Care Fest, through Wheaton Bible Church. There were about 800 of us that took a Saturday to go around and do a number of volunteer projects throughout DuPage County.

We all met at 8 a.m. for a quick warm-up meeting and then headed off to our sites. I went to Wooddale, which is near O'Hare and about 35 minutes east of my home. The spot was CareNet, a center that basically assists young women who get pregnant or are considering having an abortion. It's a very small office in a strip mall and there was basically a reception area that holds about 5 chairs and a very narrow hallway that leads to 7 or 8 small rooms. We all split into pairs and painted the hallway, the reception area, and three of the rooms. And none of the smaller rooms had windows so it got hot very quickly and the fumes were certainly noticable.

One good story. The ceiling was just high enough in the room so we could reach it, but was still high enough to where we didn't have control. All we had to climb on were these dinky stepladders with to rungs. So Vince (the guy I'm painting with) asks for a hand. We got a tall girl named Angela to do it. I held the paint tray while she painted. Now, I should say she's a tough girl. You know, she's got one of those husky midwestern voices that a lot of women out here have. My friend Rebecca had dropped in the room by this point as well.

So there are four os us and somehow this whole teasing match begins. Apparently, I said something off base because I wound up with a streak of green paint on the left side of my face. Five minutes later, I said something else and this time the paint made its way onto the right side of my face and it even hit my eyelash. So I said "That is enough!" I walked over to the painiting supplies, took a brush, gave it a nice coat of paint, walked back to the stepladder she was standing on with nowhere to go, and gave myself a green streak across my neck.

Anyway, we started at 10 were done by 2:30, includig an hour lunch break. Mom was a little upset I missed the Whittington Course garage sale, but she understood what I was doing.

After dropping Rebecca off at church, I went straight to work where I out in 4 more hours. Throw in the softball the next morning and the final result was by Sunday afternoon, I was on the couch watching a Matlock movie when midway through the 2-hour sh0w, I just fell asleep. I only missed 20 minutes, but it was still enough to make me go, "What the hell did I just miss?"

A few thoughts:

1) I don't have a problem with immigrants coming in and trying to make a better life. My ancestors did it. But at least they did it within the parameters of the law. Certain groups who I don't need to identify break in to this country at the rate of thousands a day. They don't pay taxes forcing people like me and my family to compensate for them. I rad the viewpoint of a man who I think is out of his mind, but he made some good points about this. He said either become legal citizens of this country (To me, I'd say to them at least know the Bill of Rights from Bill Clinton) or we should round them up and kick them out. I don't know if I feel quite that drastic, but I hate that these people break the law and real, natural Americans pay the consequences for it.

It feels like this. Say Gang A killed someone, but the authorities decide not to go after the gang because it would be too hard to find them. So they say forget it. Then realizing someone has to pay the penalty, they just find Gang B, round them up, and throw them in the slammer. OK, I went on a political rant. Something must be wrong here...

2) Never trust a preacher who looks 50 in the face and 30 in his hair. Or one who every time he says God has to pronounce it "God-duh" or Je-sus-uh"

3) I hope Chris Daughtry wins American Idol. If not him, then Taylor. At least there's no Carrie Underwood's this year.

4) Behind every successful man is an amazed mother-in-law.