A Day in Charlotte

I'm in Charlotte for a few days. It's Presidents' Day, meaning the banks are closed. I'm back to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule at work, so this means I'm off tomorrow too. So with a four-day weekend to play with, I figured it would be a good opportunity to visit Andy and Chrissy.

Today is really my only full day in Charlotte and, if I may, I'd like to take you through a little bit of that day.

Of course I took advantage of the day off and slept as late as possible. Since Andy is a youth minister, his work schedule is somewhat flexible. On the other hand, Chrissy leaves for her commute uptown around 6:30AM. Once Andy and I had both woken up, we sat down to catch the end of D2: The Mighty Ducks. That's the one where they play in the Junior Goodwill Games. I love watching movies. But I have to say, I like watching them with people like Andy a lot better. It's so easy to make fun of things, pick out inconsistencies, and laugh hysterically all throughout.

He left for the church around 10:30 (nice, right?) and I decided to start on some laundry. Sidebar: always take advantage of an opportunity to laundry if friends will allow it. Andy had told me to come by the church to hang out after awhile, so around lunchtime I headed over to Forest Hills Church where Andy is the youth minister in charge of the sixth grade (at least I think that's his job). In case you were wondering, I got lunch from the slowest Burger King in North Carolina on the way over there.

I made my way up to Andy's office and met a few of his co-workers hovering outside his door. Introductions were made, but to be honest, I don't remember any names. I was also introduced to one of the fun sides of being part of a large youth ministry staff at a large church. Every Monday, they get together in that very hallway and have a race. Beginning at Andy's office door, they take turns running down the stairs, through the hallway on the first floor, up the stairs at the opposite end of the hall, and back to the office to complete the circle. They do this individually and are timed from start to finish. I was invited to participate, but I declined. I'm not on staff. Also I tend to shy away from running for fun.

When it was Andy's turn to run, I sold him short. I feel a little guilty about that. While some of the others who went before him were making the trip in just under 30 seconds, I guessed Andy would go at a minute flat. For a moment there I forgot his nickname on our college flag football team was "Deep Threat." He made it in less that 28 seconds, which tied him for the best time thus far. I'm not telling the best part though. When Andy got up to his hallway, he was losing control of his movement. I was sitting inside his office and saw him fly by the door, then immediately heard a THUD. The others said he slid about ten feet, nearly hitting the door to the stairs. Their fear was that he had broken his neck. I got out to the hall in time to see Andy's arms raised in triumph.

He suffered from a bruised and scraped up knee, some carpet burn to his eyebrow and forehead, and a very sore back. The exertion of running so hard and fast caused him to get sick not long after his race. But I will say, I was very impressed by his performance.

I stuck around after eating and helped him to clear out a storage closet. I'm not sure how he would have gotten any of that done had I not been there. With his back hurting as bad as it was, heavy lifting seemed to be out of the question. So I spent the better part of the afternoon moving things around the church with Andy. And that's really not as bad as it sounds. Manual labor goes by pretty quickly when you're able to laugh and quote movies with a friend.

I'm not sure that there are any plans for the evening. I think Chrissy mentioned something about sloppy joes for dinner, so I do have that to look forward to.