Hopeful Hearts Ministry

And when I say through “MY” eyes I am giving YOU authoritative license to replace “MY” with whatever descriptive noun you’d like to insert…just as long as I don’t hear what you’re thinking. 😉

For Instance, at this moment I’d really like to write:  The ICRS Experience Through the Eyes of a Neurotic Lonely Author Who Feels Like She is a Kindergartener Entering Class for the First Time.  I don’t have friends.  I don’t know how to read.  I want to hide behind my mom’s skirt and run.  The only thing worse about this REAL scenario is that I’m nearing 40…and I have to go into this acting as if I know exactly what I’m doing.

I’ll give you the breakdown as I go through this day:

4am:  Woke up to a stomach in knots.  Heart pounding.  What if my books didn’t arrive?  What if my Fed Ex of all of my things to go in the booth didn’t arrive?  What if I get there and all I hear is “Oh, she must be one of those authors…”  (For a better explanation into this thought, here is a statement made by a real traditional publisher:  “…While Exposed sold pretty well for a basically self-published book…”  Yeah, I get defensive….sold ‘pretty well’?  Humph… you bet it did so just imagine what more I could do…

But I regress… Tina and Diane I’m sure are shaking their heads right now. 😉  Hey, this is what a blog is all about, a front row view into the rambling tortured mind of a self-absorbed tortured wannabe real author. 😉 Pfsh…forget about it…I know who I am and what I can do…’they’ just don’t know what ‘they’re missing! …..(Fake it till you make it. I wonder, once you ‘make it’ how do you know you aren’t ‘faking it’? 😀 )

6:37am – COOLEST GOD MOMENT HAPPENED! I arrived at the airport only to find that there was a LONG LINE for baggage check that literally snaked through five rows and then was nearly out the door of the terminal. I had one hour to get through that line, through security and to a different terminal for my gate. I was nearly in panic mode when a porter walked right up to me and said:

“Where you going young lady?”

“St. Louis, MO.”

He smiled, “For a tip I’ll get your bagged checked and you’ll be on your way right now.”

He didn’t have to say it twice. “I got your tip no problem.”

I was done in five minutes, through the shortest security line (because he told me the secret of where to go) and I am sitting with at least 25 minutes wait time sipping on Smoothie King. Thank you God! 😉 (FYI, if traveling and going to IAH’s ‘C’ Terminal, go to the far right the porters are hiding over there, you’ll be done in seconds!)

10:34am – Landed at 9:04 and immediately received a text from my cousin that my Uncle Garnet passed away. I knew it was coming but it doesn’t lessen the pain of the loss. He was a quiet warrior and I loved him. Immediately I was figuring out what to do to get home and then I received another text telling me the funeral is Friday. Praise God again, thank you! Amidst my ugly cry (because once I got Neal on the phone I couldn’t help it), I saw a sweet older woman staring at the last few bags passing by her on the claim belt. I’d seen her earlier when I got off the flight and she asked me how to get to baggage claim. Years of (what I’m assuming hard work and care) had taken a toll in her and she walked at a snails pace.

Wiping my tears away I went up to her and asked if she needed help. She pointed to the bags, one small and one rather large, as they made the loop around again. I grabbed them for her and then realized there was NO way she could handle these bags alone so I took my mangled bag and her big bag and went in search of a taxi.