The Path to Spinsterhood

It was another one of those weekends where everything revolved around Church and being single. Some days I am happier about that than others. Saturday we held our second "Singles Second Saturday" activity. We had a BBQ at Steph's house, followed by some of us going down to the Nationals game. (More on why I love being a local girl and finally having a local team to love later.) We had a decent turnout, maybe 50 people or so. (Only 7 of us went down the game.) And then today, Sunday, I had church meetings from dawn till dusk. I am still harboring several frustrations when it comes to the Single Adult program actually meeting the needs of the singles. Which is my way of saying that they are not meeting the needs, let alone even identifying the needs of the singles. In Arlington Ward alone we have 160 inactive singles and yet no one is doing anything beyond "Hey why don't you kids have a potluck dinner?" I think my frustrations go a lot further than I originally realized. I think I am mostly afraid that in five or six years from now I will be one of the 160 that no one cares to go find. Every Sunday I already feel the urge to not bother with church, particularly Arlington Ward. It would be the easiest thing in the world to go inactive. No one in Arlington knows or cares that I exist, and Langley would never know that I wasn't anywhere. Slipping through the cracks is possibly the easiest thing ever to do for a single. I keep getting feedback from "the marrieds" that they seem to think the singles will all look out for each other. But the truth of the matter is, when we were in Langley there were 500 other people to be friends with. We didn't know each other there. And now we are still in a ward of 500, and we don't know each other here. Some singles left the singles ward more than happy to be a solo act in a family ward. They had no interest in the singles scene to start with. (There seems to be a disproportionate number of them that landed in Arlington.) And then there are the singles that loved being a part of something much bigger in Langley. (I was definately more the Langley type.) Either way, its easy to just disappear into the floral wallpaper and never be seen again.
In other church news, I was officially called today to be the Stake Public Affairs Director. I am looking forward to someone telling me what that means. All I know is that it requires a lot of work, and that it is unusual for someone as young as I am (and single) to be doing this job. But I'm up for the challenge. What little I know of it does sound interesting. I'm also taking off for Girls Camp next week. I get to take the 4th year girls on their high adventure. I think we are white water canoeing? and going on a massive bike ride. So for me its a lot of time on the exercise bike for the next 2 weeks.
Is there anything else going on in my life? I can't remember. Hmm... I'm going to Houston this week for a "Beretta Day" at one of our stocking partner stores. (That means lots of time standing in the heat wearing a bulletproof vest. Lots of fun, let me tell you!) I haven't been back to Houston since I high-tailed it out of there 6 years ago. I am looking forward to the steamy, muggy, heat and humidity and the cajun food. And I get to see an old friend while I am there, which I am sure will be fun.
My baby brother turns 18 this week and graduates from high school (she says with her fingers crossed). He's off to college at BYU-Idaho in less than 2 weeks. It doesn't seem possible to me that Scott is old enough to go to college. But off he goes anyway. I feel like it was just a few weeks ago that I was starting college and Scott was starting kindergarten. (He confused his teachers that year by telling them he had friends in college.) And now somehow I blinked and Scott is the one starting college, my nephew is starting kindergarten, and history repeats itself.
Now it is bedtime and I have to figure out how to lock our door tonight. We've been having trouble with our deadbolt for a while now. But usually the problem is that when we are on the outside we can't get the door to lock. And sometimes it takes a few tries to get it unlocked using a key. But today for the first time I was stuck on the inside of the house locked in! After fussing and fighting with it for 20 minutes, I finally gave in and just removed the entire lock off the door. (How many of you are impressed that a girl knew how to use a power tool and take a lock off a door? To those of you who are impressed by that, let me remind you that I am a fire fighter and know more than one way to get a door open. And no one should be impressed by a girl using tools.) So now the problem is that we have no lock on our door. I can get it back on the door, but it won't work. So we have our other "safety measures" in place, including the other locks on the door. But this was our only deadbolt. Am I insane for blogging this? Maybe. But none of you know where I live, and even if you did, it wouldn't matter as by the time you read this maintenance will have been here to put on yet another new lock for us. (and you all know i work for a gun company- so interpret "safety measures" any way you'd like.)
Have a good week!