All The Time (My Weekend)

I didn't feel too well on Friday so I called in sick. That night I managed to squeeze out one good hour of sleep, after a gazillion sneezing fits. By Saturday I was running a fever and felt like crap the whole day. Today I no longer have a fever, but I generally feel pretty crappy, my right ear is clogged up, and I've been hocking loogies non-stop for the past couple of hours.

So, did I spend the weekend in bed and resting? Of course not. I was at Evergreen's Mens Retreat. In Forest Falls. Which, if you didn't know, is a far distance from Westside.

I don't use the word "hellacious" often. Maybe because it might not be an actual word. But the drive from Westside to Forest Falls was hellacious. I left at 4pm, thinking 3 hours would be a decent estimate of time, figuring in traffic. Wrong. It took me 5 hours. FIVE HOURS. From the moment I stepped onto the 10 E at Bundy, traffic did not let up. Even past the 15. In fact, traffic was slowest at Redlands. F'n REDLANDS. You know, you could do a lot in five hours. You can go to San Diego and back. You can go to the Bay Area. Or you can go to Forest Falls.

So the "hellacious" drive, coupled with being ill, left me a horrible state of mind for the weekend. My defenses were down. I was tired all the time. All group sharing times were frequently interrupted by my sniffles. I felt bad. In fact I didn't know what I was even doing there. I didn't know what to expect. The first night was all sorts of awkwardness.

But thankfully, the retreat did not include male bonding games like Tug-Of-War and Capture The Flag. There was, however, a lot of personal time. A LOT. And in the beginning, I wasn't up for it. My mind was elsewhere. But by Sunday, as I was sitting in the quiet, with only the birds to keep my company, God did speak to me. What He said is for another post for another day. But I will say that He kicked my ass.

So now I'm recovering. In more ways than one.

God is good. All the time. And all the time, God is good.