MN Musings--2: The Funny Incident

My cousin Kay, the main organizer of the retreat, had fixed up a small Sunday school room for me with a fat air mattress and plenty of blankets. Showers were in the restrooms by the kitchen.

I don't know exactly how many women slept at the church, but it was a lot. Down hallways and in classrooms I saw piles of sleeping bags and duffel bags and pillows.

Thursday night I slept fine. Friday night was a different story. A twittering like distant birds kept waking me up. I'd doze off, wake up, and doze off again. As the night wore on the twittering was accompanied by louder voices and footsteps. For a number of reasons I was pretty sure it was a flock of teenaged girls.

Finally at 3:30 I thought, you know, I have to give a talk in the morning and if that were my daughters I would just go ask them to be quiet.

So I left my dark room and stumbled down the hall in my awful pajamas and with my hair all over the place, down to where the door stood open and light shone out. Squinting, I stuck my head around the door and beheld a group of probably seven pj'd girls looking absolutely horrified. With round eyes and shaking hands they exclaimed, "We're sorry!!" "Oh, we're just so sorry!"

I am told I asked them sweetly to be a bit quieter, and then I went back to bed and slept blissfully.

The next morning it seemed there were teenage girls giving me nervous and guilty looks but since I hadn't had my contacts in the night before and the girls were all ready for bed, there's no way I could have identified them in the light of day. One came over to me and very sincerely apologized. I assured her it was ok.

After the retreat I rode to Mom and Dad's with some of the Grove City ladies. The next morning after church a young lady named Renee asked me nervously if I slept better last night than the night before. I said, "Oh my, were you in that group?"
She exclaimed, "Yes! Oh we just felt so bad! We had no idea there was anyone else down that hall."

I also assured her it was fine.

I have chuckled over this many times since--those horrified round-eyed girls. It must have been very disconcerting to not only find out you had kept someone awake, but that it was the speaker lady herself. Even if the speaker lady herself had frowzy graying hair and dreadful flannel pajamas.