Today was a typical Monday morning.

The morning arrived sooner than I thought it should.

It was hard to get up and get going. I'm trying a new routine.....get up, execise, shower, dress, breakfast, fix brown bag lunch and off to work.

I haven't exactly gotten it down to a science yet, so there are many opportunities for the routine to break down. These breakdowns are normally followed by eyerolling, sighs, and "I'll wait for you in the car ."

The ride to work is usually very quiet, followed by more sighs and more eye rolling and occasionally an explanation of "the importance of being punctual!"

Today was even more strained as my computer crashed and no manner of CPR would revive it.

In addition to the usual backlog of work I found the gym full of donations, and no place to work or even space to walk and a group of volunteers coming in tomorrow . The gym is a cold place to work ( similar to a meat locker) and it seemed like even the dust bunnies had had dust bunnies over the week-end. My desire to "straighten it up" again totally left me and I was having a "poor me" momment!

Being totally overwhelmed by the task I did what every red blooded American girl would do. I cried! Later I picked up the phone and called my neighbor Beckie who volunteers at the mission and begged her to come help me restore order in the gym. To my amazement and to her credit she happily agreed to help ( and I didn't even have to agree to give her a kidney ).

The afternoon was wonderful! The task got done, we laughted, teased, found some most unusual items, cleaned, sorted clothing, cleared table tops, swept, moved out boxes and now I am totally ready for the volunteers tomorrow morning. The gym is now a prepared place...a place where there is a job to do and ample room to complete it.

"Mr. Wonderful" was able to resurrect another computer and even his mood is better tonight. There are still some sighs and eye rolling and even a sugguestion that maybe I might want to get up a "little earlier tomorrow morning" but all in all we have survived another miserable Monday morning .

What did I learn from this experience?

1. No matter how much planning you've done, systems do break down.
2. Sometimes a good cry is just what you need.
3. A good friend can change the dynamics of the whole day.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up"
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10