Epic Dumb Thing #427… The One in Front of the Mayor.

I do dumb stuff so often I’ve probably set a record. You do too? Wait, no, I assure you we are on different levels of the dumb stuff ranking pyramid. Trust me. I’m sure I have a doctorate degree in doing dumb stuff. In support of this statement, I’ll give you Exhibit A – epic dumb thing #427. It’s a doozy.

There’s a local coffee shop that I love. It’s called Pressed and it’s a beautiful combination of two of my favorite smells – coffee and books. Its clever name and friendly faces greet me weekly as I take a seat to craft a literary masterpiece. (Yea, I’m still working on it.) A couple of Wednesdays ago, I strolled in, ordered my latte and got to work. One of the baristas walked over to let me know a kids reading club would be meeting there soon and I may want to relocate to a quieter section of the coffee shop. Thanking her for the heads up, I moved up front. Perfect. AirPods in, jazz on the playlist, the smell of books in the room, coffee in hand, and now to get the juices flowing. “I’m about to write the greatest thing I’ve ever written,” I thought as I opened my laptop. 

The mayor walked in a few minutes later. Wow, I thought. This kids book club is legit. The mayor is the guest reader. I’m impressed. He sat behind me with his back to me (so you get the full picture) and soon there were at least 20 kids and their parents huddled in front of him. It was quite the crowd for this and they all had a clear view of the back of my head right behind the mayor. 

To kick things off they sang a song. It was one of those cute preschool tunes where they insert their names and go around the circle. Cute. Also, loud. I turned up the jazz on my laptop.

Next Mayor Mutz began to read. Strange, I can hear him over my jazz. He must have a very good voice, I thought, and turned up the volume on my laptop.

More reading. 

More turning up my volume so I could concentrate.

This went on for a good fifteen minutes until…

Until the owner came to my seat and tapped me on the shoulder. Surprised, I looked up at her. She looked at me with the classic “bless your heart” face and said…

“Excuse me, but I don’t think the sound is coming through your AirPods.”

Frantically I checked.

OMG.

NOPE.

IT WASN’T.

I was blaring coffee shop jazz at top volume from my laptop right behind the mayor’s head. As he was trying to do his civic duty and read to a group of impressionable young children, I was causing him to scream over a full jazz band sound. 

The scene at Pressed in Lakeland where I did a really dumb thing. REALLY DUMB.
I apologize again to the owner and to the mayor.

---

I considered packing up and racing out the door. But then I thought about all the parents staring at my back and didn’t want them to think I had been kicked out. So I sheepishly turned the sound off on my laptop and apologized profusely to the owner. I also swore I’d never listen to anything again in that coffee shop for fear of causing yet another scene. 

One of the more interesting points of this catastrophe was the fact that the owner and a barista spent precious minutes in their back room trying to turn down their own music before realizing it wasn’t them. I told you. I am the dumb stuff queen. 

Shortly after the reading was over, I packed up. Walking out I apologized for the tenth (Ok 100th) time and knew that one good thing would come of this – I had a story.

Here’s what you need to know about doing dumb stuff. Too often we make mistakes and then hide out of shame, fear, regret, etc. We all fall short at times, so you’d think we would be able to omit our shortcomings to each other without insecurity. You and I both know that most of the time that isn’t the case – that is unless you have one or two trusted friends/family members in which case you’re so very lucky! I’ve seen in my own life that often when I mess up, the enemy tries very hard to keep that thing front and center in my mind. That way I walk around with my head down and feeling bad about whatever it was. And if my head is down, guess where it isn’t? Up! Yep, shame causes us to turn away from our Heavenly Father and look down upon our shortcomings. That’s the exact time when we should be looking up – to our source. 

Scripture tells us that as believers, as children of God, our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. I read something on this the other day. Did you know that on earth, if you travel north far enough, you’ll eventually head south and vice versa. (Get out a globe and you’ll see what I mean.) But travel east and you’ll always travel east – never west. So if our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west, that’s pretty far! Don’t hang your head when you make a mistake. Lift your eyes, talk to God about it and be forgiven. With your head up, you’re also most likely to be Jesus for someone else who needs this reminder too. 

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103: 11-12

Bonus: The video below is what I recorded to show the scene that was playing out behind me while I was trying to write. Note the volume of the music which I was completely oblivious to. You can clearly hear how blasted loud it was. 🙂 #idodumbstuff #ithankGodforlovingmeanyway

P.S. If you see Mayor Mutz, let him know I owe him a coffee.