Early Birds

I am not sure this is appropriate to do in blog etiquette, but I am going back a couple of days to recollect an event that took place on Wednesday morning-- my first official complete day on the job.

Since there is no official new employee's orientation book in the Arizona Conference, at least not that I have seen, I was dependent on people to fill me in on the nuts and bolts of the new world I had entered. I was shown many of the ins and outs of the building and some of the critical people who happened to be working that particular day. The people were very nice and warm. Amongst the things that I was told is that morning staff worship takes place at 9:00 a.m. on Mondays, and 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday through Thursday. The office is closed on Fridays-- which is kind of nice. In any case, I was given this information without being provided the keys to enter the building. I figured I would have to arrive sometime prior to 8:00 a.m., but not too early as to have to stand around waiting for someone with the keys to arrive and let us in. I went to sleep that night with that unsettling thought in mind.
The next conscious thought I have is waking up in the morning to a bright light invading the entire room as if the actual sun were parked outside our bedroom window. I remembered having set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. to ensure I would wake up with plenty of time to arrive appropriately. Alas, I took a quick glance at my watch still half blind from the supernova outside my window. My watch clearly read 7:35 p.m. Aaarrrrgh! I woke Penny up with the words, "Did you hear the alarm ring?" "I set it for 7!" "It didn't ring!" "I am going to be late!" All these words were pouring out of my mouth as I ran around the small duplex searching for the necessary items needed to be ready in 20 minutes. I couldn't afford, in my mind, to be late this morning!
I don't know how I we did it, but we were dressed and ready to go in the allotted time. We managed to arrive at the doorstep of the Arizona Conference Adventist Book Center, quite proud of our accomplishment. We smiled at each other tenderly as we both reached to open the double doors that led into the book center and then into the unmanned front office of the conference office. We tugged gently and nothing happened. We tugged a little harder to no avail. I peeked inside to see if there was life within the building. I could not understand why no one would be in the book center at 8:00 a.m. We looked at the hours of operation and they read as expected: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We were both struck with a mighty case of righteous indignation, considering the effort it took us to meet our appointment, only to discover that the employees of the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventist did not consider it important enough to arrive on time to their place of employment.
It was then, in my final act of frustration, that I looked at my watch, if for no other reason but to confirm the just nature of my ire. I read in clear numbers....6:00 a.m. Two hours early! We went home and ate a very slow and quiet breakfast.