A Bird Premonition and My New Pea Coat

One exciting bit of news: I finished reading Genesis yesterday! Not exciting that it’s over, of course. The stories were quite enthralling. I’m just excited because I’m right on track and ready to start Exodus tonight. Reading on Tuesday and Thursday mornings is difficult because I have early classes on those days, so I am resigned to do my Bible reading at night. Still in Matthew. I think I’d like to start reading the whole Matthew chapter instead of breaking it up into a two part series like the plan suggests. I think I would get more out of it if I read a larger chunk per sitting.

One not-so-exciting bit of news: (Beware of the really lame pity-party story that is about to follow.) A bird pooped on my brand new red pea coat on Saturday afternoon as I was walking to my car. I knew it was going to happen too. What an exciting premonition, huh?

Here’s a little bit of background. I have the longest arms ever. Probably not as long as you’re thinking, but my arms are long; I guess this comes with being close to six feet tall. Anyway for a couple of years now I have been admiring the sophisticated-looking pea coats of my peers. The black pea coats, the khaki ones, the white ones…man, they come in all sorts of colors. But don’t think I haven’t been searching for my own during all this time. Each winter I’ve gone from store to store (the stores within my budget of course–Kohl’s, Target, and the like) and tried on their assortment of pea coats, but sadly could never find one that was long enough for my orangutan arms.

…until a few weeks ago when I came across a store called Body Central that carries pea coats that I could actually wear! I gladly put down my $30 for the jacket. Quite cheap, if I do say so myself. I would have preferred black, but they were pretty much all sold out, and besides, the red looked snazzy on me. Only two red coats in my size were left, and one had some major problems like ripped seams and holes and stuff. I don’t even know why it was on the rack.

Well, I’ve been wearing my pea coat quite a bit lately. I bought some impractical but matching red shoes with a gift card from Christmas, so I thought I was all set. Now I have a button that is threatening to detach itself from the pea coat at any moment (no, I am not a seamstress), and a nasty smell on the sleeve that won’t go away with soap.

Like I already mentioned, I was walking to my car, and I heard a bird overhead. I seriously don’t know what gave me this idea, but I honestly did think to myself, ‘I bet that bird is gonna poop on me.’ Maybe it was because I was a little dressed up–I had curled my hair and put on my beautiful new silver necklace and was wearing my new dainty red ballerina flats. In other words, I was thinking of Murphy’s Law.

I don’t know what took me so long, but the next morning when I was about to put on the pea coat (again) to wear to church, I noticed something really yucky looking on my sleeve near the wrist. Didn’t take me long to realize that my new beloved pea coat had been defiled by that nasty bird that had flown over my head the evening before. I took some soap to it immediately, febreezed it, and thought everything was fine, but that was just wishful thinking on my part.

I hate that I have such a sensitive sense of smell. It is far more a curse than a blessing because our environment is smellier than it is pleasantly-scented, in my opinion. As I sat in church, the smell of my sleeve soon wafted to my nose. How repulsive, right?  

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

My prized pea coat is now laying in my closet until I can make it to the dry cleaner. It really isn’t so important to me anymore. There are much better treasures out there.