Sick kids and Bible study

Well, I haven't been to my Bible study in two weeks. The week before last Bronte was really sick. High fever, crabby, lethargic, weepy...you know, the way I feel every day. So, I decided not to send her to school (don't act like this was a no brainer!! I went to Bronte's classroom to help one day and this little boy kept wiping his nose on his sleeve, over and over and over. I was sitting on the floor reading books with the kids and he came over and sat in my lap. I'm not kidding you when I say that he had a high enough fever that I could feel the heat from his little body the second his butt touched my lap. I said, "You feel kind of warm sweetie. How do you feel?" and he replied, "Well, I had a fever this morning, but my mom gave me Tylenol and told me to go to school." What do you know...this kid sits next to Bronte and the next day she gets sick.) and I skipped my Bible Study. It made me kind of sad because I was all ready to go and discuss 2 verses in the book of Romans for 2 hours. I'm not kidding. The entire lesson was about 2 lines out of the book of Romans.
Last week I was all ready to walk out the door and the phone rang. The caller i.d. said it was my other daughter, Brenna's, school so I picked it up. Of course it was the nurse who told me that Brenna had a rash on one side of her face. Although I secretly thought they were over-reacting by making me come and get her (because she was just itchy for goodness sake...so what??) I did go pick her up. Once I saw her though, I immediately called the pediatrician. It looked like I had dipped the right side of her face in red paint. All I had to do was paint the other side of her face white and she would have looked like a Wisconsin college student at a Badgers game. However, since she felt ok and I needed to go pick up the lesson for this week's Bible study I headed to the church to pick it up. So, I went up to the desk and told them I couldn't stay for the study today because of a sick child so could I please have next week's lesson. The uptight lady behind the desk queried, "Do you mean this week's lesson?" I said, "No. I already did this week's lesson but I can't stay so I need the one for next week." She said, "Oh. Well we call the lesson for next Thursday "this week's lesson", so do you want this week's lesson?"
What the...? Who cares what I called it, she knew what I meant...why didn't she just give it to me? Being the smart ass that I am I said, "So do you call the lesson we are doing today "last week's lesson"?" And she said, "No. That's today's lesson." Remembering that Brenna was still scratching in the car, I let it go. I had to sign a paper to get the lesson and once I had it in my hands the woman said, "Now, don't look at it until you are out of the building."
What? Why?
So I asked her, "Why?" and she told me it was because they didn't want anyone to see this week's lesson in advance. I was going to ask her why but I just couldn't take it anymore so I left. The funny thing is, if anyone was really curious about what was going to happen next...all they would have to do is read the rest of the book of Romans, right? I mean, Romans is near the end of the Bible, so all the good stuff had already happened; creation, the Ten Commandments, the big flood, plagues, birth-life-death-resurrection of Jesus. There wasn't a lot of suspense in Romans, so I didn't really see the point in keeping "this week's" lesson a big secret. So, of course I turned away, opened the lesson and starting reading it while muttering, "That Paul..." and shaking my head.
Just kidding. I just left. On the way out I saw someone in my discussion group. I stopped her and asked her if she would let everyone know that I had to go take Brenna to the doctor because she had a rash on her face. Do you know what this woman said? She said, "Oh. So I guess you need someone to take attendance then, right? Too bad you have to miss ANOTHER week." Does that seem like a weird response to you? She didn't ask about Brenna or anything. She just lamented the fact that I was going to miss another week of taking their stupid attendance.

Strangely enough, this stupid little incident just might be the straw that breaks my back. This week's lesson is only on a couple of verses from Romans too, and I just don't think I can discuss them for 2 hours with women who are more concerned with my secretarial duties than my poor daughter who had creeping crud.
I think I will go this week, however, because I just got a new t-shirt that says "Reggae is Vile". I just wonder what they will make of that!