| My New Calling: Pity Date | September 7, 2005 |
OK, so now I really, really feel bad for not posting for so long. But I have a good excuse: I’ve been busy! That’s right, BUSY. It feels nice to have something to do. No, I don’t have a job yet (a couple of interviews coming up - cross your fingers!), but I have a calling, on the Compassionate Service Committee.
And I have another calling: Ward Pity Date.
First, the calling. I find the structure of Relief Society very interesting, because we are geared towards meeting the temporal and spiritual needs of the entire ward, and yet we are a gender-exclusive auxiliary. So, RS requires the participation of a great many sisters, more than I would have thought initially. There are commitees for Enrichment, Compassionate Service, Visiting Teaching, and on and on. And, quite frankly, I found all of it pretty silly until the Sunday before last, when the Bishop took me aside and extended a calling. At first, I was crushed — this is not the cushy limelight calling I used to have. But I’m enjoying it thus far, even though it’s a lot of work and a lot of time. I like helping other people out; it’s a welcome change from my circle of self-obsession that Steve Evans railed on me about (sorry Steve 
)
Second, the pity date. Unfortunately, when the Bishop called me into his office to extend the calling, he also extended another calling: setting me up with a guy in the ward. He’s a new guy, Brian (as ever, names are changed to protect the innocent), who works at KPMG and seems to be on the up-and-up. Anyways, the Bishop thought that since Brian was new in town, maybe I could show him around and give him the grand tour. In other words, this was a thinly veiled setup. Is it unethical for the Bishop to set people up on dates? I felt like I couldn’t say no because it was the Bishop, my local priesthood leader, asking me to do it. The date was last Saturday. I took Brian to Grimaldi’s Pizza in Brooklyn, then we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to Chinatown for ice cream. It was a really beautiful night, and even though I’ve done that walk before, it was still fun. Brian tried to hold my hand on the bridge — cheeky monkey!
So there you have it, folks. Our Church seems to provide us with ample opportunities to serve each other, and I’ve been given a couple of interesting ones in the past couple of weeks. I guess I have not been completely abandoned after all.
9 Comments
Sweet! You don’t sound as stoked as you should be, Jenn. KPMG? Hand-holding? You could play this right and never have to work a day for the rest of your life. That’s what my mom did, and it worked for her. By the way, Wilfried over at T&S posted a story about getting set up by church leaders. It’s a good read.
Greg, we’ll just have to wait and see. It was a fun date, but I don’t like the idea of being set up.
Um, so, Jenn, you didnt say whether or not you let this cheeky monkey hold your hand or not. Enquiring minds want to know!
Back when I was single I had well-intentioned people trying to set me up (I “married late”), including the Bishop. I always politely told them I had a strict policy of “NO BLIND DATES” that was never deviated from, EVAR! And that was that. Worked for me.
Good luck on the job hunt.
Thanks Kurt.
…and yes, I held his hand for awhile. He was a nice guy.
Hey, Jenn, I just want to say that it sounds like you planned a nice evening for Brian. I really respect that and since you don’t even know him that was really thoughtful of you. No wonder he tried to hold your hand. Can you blame him?
Does this mean that you’ve un-slumped yourself? If so, that’s wonderful.
I’m just really curious, was that guy cute at all? Did you find him attractive at all? He must have thought you were cute if he tried to hold your hand. Hmmm…
Do any of you guys from New York know somebody named Christopher Gailbraith? I may have spelled it wrong. He gave my daughter a blessing when we were in New York in April and I’ve never been able to find him since.
I do actually know Christopher Galbraith, he’s my husband! I was outside the hospital when he gave your daughter a blessing. How is she doing? I hope all is well. Would you me to give him a message?
[…] Jennketeers, some of you may remember Brian, the object of a pity date the Bishop foisted on me a few weeks ago. Well, Brian has stuck. I wouldn’t say that I love him or anything, but he has stuck. That’s about the best adjective I can use. Brian is something of a weirdo, you see; he is studying sociology at NYU and has really strong feelings about social justice and a myriad (new word!) of causes. Needless to say, Brian hates my new job at Altria. Brian reminds me of Ned Isakoff. […]
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