A Furlough Nightmare

I hate being startled awake by a nightmare.  You know, the kind where you wake up, heart pounding, palms sweaty?  This morning I was shocked awake by my first 'furlough nightmare' (hopefully not the first of many!).

In my dream, we had just recently arrived back home and it was our first trip to church.  It was awful.  Somehow, in my lack of practice in owning and dealing with a car, I left the car unlocked in the church parking lot, with the keys inside, and it was stolen, along with everything we owned (which was in the back of course).  Then, while I was trying to grasp that reality, the church service started.  It was then that I discovered that one of my kids somehow made it to church still wearing their pajamas.  And another would not sit quiet and was talking in her loudest voice during the sermon.  And somehow, my brand new hair cut would only stand straight up-- no amount of water would make it lie down.  And I had forgotten to put on any makeup.  And in a few moments, the service would end and we'd be trying to visit with friends and people who support us and we hadn't seen in 4 years or more.  Yeah, definitely a nightmare!

You may laugh, but in many ways, furlough (coming home for a time after being away for years) can be really stressful!  Here, we're used to not much selection, and there aren't high standards for how we look.  I mean, when your only choices for new clothes are whatever the grandparents might toss into a package, or something from one of two second-hand clothing stores in the only 'town' about 15 minutes down the road (that, not having a vehicle I only get to maybe twice a year), well, shopping doesn't happen much!  After I woke up from my dream, I remember thinking, "I'll just have to plan a quick trip to Walmart right away to pick out some makeup."  But then, the more I thought about it, I almost had a panic attack.  I mean, aren't there like four whole aisles of makeup, with like a dozen different brands to choose from?  Ok, I take it back.  I may show up make-up free to church that first Sunday after all!

And, having been away for four years, I have no idea of what's in style these days or not.  Well, aside from friends who have recently returned from their furloughs with tales about how neon is currently very popular.  Seriously people?  Neon??  Well, there still are a few more months to go... maybe everyone will have gotten that one out of their system by the time we get back. :)  But, really, the thought of walking into a big store and being overwhelmed by the selection (and the prices!) and trying to walk out of it with decent clothing for my family feels like a nightmare in and of itself!  In only a slightly joking way, I've had friends say that they just look for whatever is on the manequin and just get that, since they know at least that looks ok!  That's sounding better and better!  So if any of you out there want to help me out in that department with tips or whatever, I would be more than grateful! :)

Hopefully I won't have too many more 'furlough nightmares'!  But it is reality that as much as we are anticipating our upcoming furlough, there are a lot of ways its going to be both hard and stressful.  So, please, have grace on all of us, especially if you see us standing frozen, staring dazedly and confused at some aisle in Walmart or the grocery store, staring at the selection of like 50 different brands of cereal and trying to figure out which one to buy!