"Cell Phone in the Refrigerator" Days

Yesterday was a "cell phone in the refrigerator" day. A "CPIR" day is one of those days where you get so many things going on that you forget what you need to do or get distracted from one important thing by another urgent or important thing.  For example, I am on my way to chapel and I get into a conversation, then I see something that needs my attention. When I am done with that, I forget that I was on my way to chapel and go back to my office to work on something else. Then I happen to glance at my calendar and see that it is Tuesday and I have missed half of a chapel I really wanted to attend. So I rush over and at least get to hear the message. This happened this past Tuesday so maybe it is a "CPIR" week. Yesterday I overslept, forgot appointments, started at least 3 emails and then forgot to finish them etc etc. To top it off I went down to Rev and Tax to renew my Driver's License (which I forgot to do on my birthday) and they were closed for renovations. Yikes!

The reason that I call these "cell phone in the refrigerator days" is an incident that happened a couple weeks ago. Normally, when I come in to the PIU office in the morning I am carrying my computer bag and my lunch. Usually the first thing I do is stick my lunch in the refrigerator and then get myself set up for the day in the office. That morning I noticed that, after my set up routine, my lunch was sitting on my desk. I thought I had already put it into the refrigerator but, not thinking too much about it, I got up and put my lunch into the fridge. A little while later Joyce came in and said she had been trying to call me on my cell all morning and was wondering why I wasn't answering.  I said that I didn't hear it ring and I was sure my cell was turned on. When I reached into my pocket it wasn't there. We looked all over my office, the school and the car for that phone and would have gone home to look for it unless someone just happened to ask me why there was a cell phone that looked like mine sitting in the refrigerator. How it got out my pocket into the fridge I will never know.

I suppose now that I am officially "old" a case could be made for some degeneration of the brain. I prefer to think that it is so many things going on that my brain just "misfiles" a few things. CPIR days often involve a lot of administrative things that I would rather not do, but need to be done. However, the good side of these CPIR days is that the "distractions" often involve visitors to our campus, ministry opportunities with students and, yesterday, two long good talks with staff members that were very encouraging to me and I hope to them too. I suppose I could use these CPIR weeks as an excuse for why I haven't posted lately - My plan is to get caught up this week - but probably they are just a normal part of ministry.