When I woke up, I stared at my phone. Do I check my e-mail, Facebook, etc. like every other morning or do I give it a day off. What if it turns out like yesterday that I find out about something going on at work or with a friend that needs my immediate attention? Then I reminded myself that if someone needs me, they will call or message me, not post it on their Facebook status. After thoroughly thinking through every possible angle of this quandry for all of 30 seconds, I picked up my phone and started through the routine. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was needed and I wasn't going to get that call or message. As I read message after message, I realized that my prayers were needed immediately. Near the top of the page, a friend in Japan posted that he and his family were all safe. Another friend posted that her son who had just left for his duty station in Japan was accounted for, as well as all other U.S. military personnel. Then I read about the largest earthquake Japan had ever experienced. It reminded me of the morning I turned on the morning news like any other morning but what I saw took me to my knees. 9/11. The biggest difference between the two experiences is the delivery. Instead of watching the news footage, videos and photos taken by everyday people rolled across the computer. Isn't technology amazing? I'm so thankful for the ability to choose whether to know at a moment's notice what is going on.
First thing every morning I grab my phone from the nightstand and check to see what's going on in the world. E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, I check them all to see what happened while I was getting my beauty sleep. Sometimes I see that someone commented on a post, but usually I just browse through my group updates and delete lots of e-mail. Today there was a post on my employer's Facebook page, which is a rarity. I work on Thursdays at a local municipality, mostly doing their water billing, but performing other tasks as needed (like creating their Facebook page). The post, entered by a council member at 4:30 this morning, was short and sweet: City water is shut down due to a leak. Ugghhh...really? On the one day that I work. Actually, I worked last Monday to cover for another worker and the water was shut down due to a leak. It was chaos. I was the only person in the office and people went crazy. "I paid my bill, why is my water off?" "I know I'm late, can you turn my water on? I will pay the bill on Friday." "Why didn't you call and tell me my water was being shut off? I was getting ready tot ake a shower. By the way, my water bill is high, can someone take a look at my meter today?" "I just moved into town and need my water turned on. Today." The good thing last week was that I didn't know it was happening until I got to work. I had a relaxing morning with my family like any other day. Today, I got to think about it all morning as I rush to get ready and on my way to work. As a matter of fact, I started my work day at home, calling the media to alert them of the situation and fielding phone calls from the office. Tomorrow, I'm going to start my day with the Good Book rather than Facebook.
