Delusioned

When you are proud of yourself because you finally remembered to change your husband’s “Santa Baby” ringtone a week into March.

For the last 3 and a half months (at least) every time that my husband called my cell phone, Santa Baby rang out, my officemates got tired of it I’m sure, but they are a good lot and never complained. Each time since the beginning of January that he called, I would grab the phone and answer as fast as I could. One, because it disrupts those around me, and two, I was embarrassed because this dance encouraging melody belted out and we are clearly out of the Christmas season. Each time, as it began to ring, I would think to myself, “I have got to change that ringtone; I’ll do that as soon as I get off the phone.” Each time, I would pick up the phone, get up from my desk and walk into the hall to continue the conversation. We would have our conversation and talk about a few different things including his brother who has been in the hospital, my dad who is having ongoing health issues, our plans for the evening, if I had to work late, what’s for dinner, options for the weekend, end with an I love you and see you later, and I would hang up and walk back to my desk wanting to get back on task, and again… forget to change the ringtone.

So Thursday, I was walking to another office with some notices for a hearing and I thought, I have a minute, and there aren’t a bunch of people around to annoy, I’m going to stand here for a minute and change Michael’s ringtone. I didn’t have anything downloaded to assign for the ringtone so I just went to the factory ringtones in my phone and listened to a couple on the list and finally opted to add one of the digitized melodies that started out loud instead of building as it rang. I felt pretty good about finally remembering to do that and I went on about my day at work and didn’t give it another thought.

Friday, I left work at 2:30, ran to Sally’s Beauty Supply to get some hair products, and then drove across town to meet Michael who had to come to Jefferson City to take care of some banking business. It has been very cold and snowy for months here in mid-Missouri. We had five snows before November was over and it has been a cold and snowy winter ever since. We even had snow last weekend. When I walked across the parking lot at Sally’s I was reminded of something- the temperature was in the low 40s, but the wind wasn’t blowing and that bright sphere in the sky was shining on my back, and I could actually feel heat. I love winter, all season’s really, but this feeling of heat on my back made me downright giddy! Immediately my mind went to all things summer and it was a lovely thought full of lightweight clothes, sandals and golden skin.

I pulled into the bank parking lot and parked next to Michael’s truck, and spent the next 10 minutes watching an enlightening video on Youtube, titled, “What’s in my bag?” When Michael came out, we discussed dinner and decided to make a Wal-Mart run after dinner and he asked if I would mind stopping at a couple of car lots on the way to dinner. So our plan was made and since we both had our vehicles, and were all the way across town from where we would need to be to head back home, I told him that he could lead to go to the car lots and then I would lead to go to dinner since he hadn’t been to the restaurant before. So he pulled into traffic and I had to wait so I lost him right off the bat, but I knew where he was going so I headed that way.

Traffic was starting to pick up, it was now close to 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. Immediately after I got moving, there was a semi broken down in the right lane with a wrecker in front of it, traffic was merging into the left lane and had come to a standstill. I finally got moving again and made a left turn to go down the Boulevard to the car lots. I got stopped at a light. All of the sudden I could hear a distant melody. It was a happy tune and I suppose because of my summer thoughts an hour earlier, my very first thought, “Ice cream truck!” The light had changed now, but I looked as far as I could quickly down the cross roads and then into my rearview mirror. I craned my head back and forth and searched to cars around me for the familiar white van with a decal of frozen treats on the side. I never saw it but was jerked back to reality as the car in front of me stepped on their brakes. The music stopped and I thought, hmm… I must have just missed it.

By this time, I got to the car dealership and pulled in, Michael was walking back to his truck and motioned that he wanted to go to the lot next door. I nodded and let him lead again as I circled around and got in behind him. We pulled in and he got out, I waited a minute before I got out to see if he was going to just look at one truck or walk around a bit. I reached into my purse and pulled out my phone to check emails from work.

“Missed call from Michael.”

That’s weird.

Sometimes, things are just not what they seem.

Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” John 13:7