One of those days...

Not to vent (but actually, yeah, to vent) do you guys ever get tired of having to learn new lessons in life, or to relearn lessons? I mean, sometimes don't you wish you already knew it all so that you could skip over the embarrassments or the hard days that took you toward further enlightenment and knowledge?
For example (Staten Island readers already know this story) the organ...I've been asked to play the organ a few times in church, and it's gone okay. Not so for this story. I was asked to play for Stake Conference, and I said yes. Ryan and I showed up with 10 mins to spare before the adult meeting on Saturday started. Traffic was bad, and we hadn't given ourselves enough time. Anyway, I play prelude on the top set of keys (they're more quiet), and it sounds fine, but I didn't have time to test the bottem set of keys (the main keys that play loud). When the time comes to play the first hymn, I just hope it sounds okay and begin playing. All of the sudden there's a brass section going off with bells in the background. Embarrassed, I stop playing, switch the settings, and try again--worse. This time I stop and apologize, saying "I've never played on this before!" (sad, just sad!) and try the third time. I know I should say it worked this time, but no, it didn't. It was bad enough that I had to play on the top keys as loud as they would play through out the whole meeting....! At the end the stake president's wife comes to help me out to avoid the same experience for the stake conference meeting in the morning. Luckily, it worked out the next day.
I wish this was the end of the story, but it's not. This last Sunday I was asked to play again for church (you would think they would learn). We're attending in a different building while our church goes under construction, so once again I was facing a new organ. I played through out the meeting feeling like something's off. I noticed everyone was singing funny, and I realized it was because the organ was playing higher than usual. There's a dial off to the side you can turn to lower the notes, but it was at "0", meaning it was at the normal position. Not wanting to make a bigger mess of things, I left it hoping no one noticed. Nope. Out of luck with that wish. The stake president happened to be visiting (I don't know what I did wrong to deserve this), and he being musically inclined, stepped up to the pulpit near the end of the meeting and asked me to go to the organ. I was planning on refusing, but somehow ended up playing middle C while another luckier soul played middle C on the piano. Of course the notes were off, and the Stake President went on to point out that the organ was off the entire meeting....He supposedly had a spiritual point to make, but I don't think it was very good, at least not good enough to make up for calling me out.
As I sat pretending like I wasn't embarrassed, I was trying to figure out why this happened to me. I mean, this happening once is funny, but twice! That's bordering on just plain sad. Then the thought came to me that I didn't prepare for it. I didn't put any effort in making sure things were ready before showing up to play, so why would I expect things to go smoothly? I think that's how a lot of things happen in life. We expect the best outcome, put in a half hearted effort, and then get upset when things don't go our way. These experiences have reminded me that I am responsible for how my life will play out. Of course bumps come along the way, and some things we can't change or predict, but how we react, learn, and plan ultimately decides where we will stand when all is said and done. So, I guess due to my lack of preparing I ended up embarrassed, but due to my newly acquired humility I was able to learn a lesson.

On a side note, our big Josh is officially walking! He's been taking steps between Ryan and I for a while, but now he walks walks, if that makes sense. Yay for baby Josh! Ryan, if you would kindly post the video of his first official walk, I'd appreciate it...