Going Batty

Today was one of those Sundays when I may have volunteered for too much. Josh and I were scheduled to do set-up/tear-down today. Basically, our church meets in a elementary school gym, so once a month we help get everything ... well, set-up and torn down obviously. Which means we have to get there at 7:30. (I'm so not a morning person. I can't believe Josh frequently has to be at work at 7:00 am). And I also volunteered to help a friend do the Preschool class today, so as soon as the gym was set up I hurried off to help set everything up for that. The class itself was pretty painless. Six kids, didn't teach, just helping keep the peace. I ALSO was trying frantically to pass out invitations I had made for a baby shower going on in a few weeks for two ladies from our small group. Then, Josh and I rushed off to another shower for that afternoon.

So, while that may all seem a good reason for the blog title, it's not the best part. Oh no, just about the time when the last of the kids were arriving, there was a bit of a ruckus on the other end of the hall. (Large hall between where the Preschool and Nursery classes meet.) I was at one end doing sign-in and looked down to see a small crowd of people and what I thought was a bird flying around. People, it was NOT a bird. It was a bat. A real, live, mouse-with-wings, BAT!

They tried to open the door and get it to fly outside, but I think by that time all the people around were making it nervous. It just kept swooping back and forth in the hall. We had closed the doors so it couldn't get to the kids, but I was still outside in case anybody else showed up to sign in.

I thought I could be mature about it. I mean really, it's just a bat. But then it flew down to my end of the hall where there were not a lot of people. Just me. Freaking out slightly. Huddled in the corner as it perched above a door across from me. I kind of lost it when it started my direction. But by that time, some of the men had taken over and were trying to catch it in a box or scare it into flying out the door (opposite direction from me), so I made my way quickly into class and tried to stop shuddering. :)

Interestingly enough, they never did catch it. It flew up out of sight and decided to stay there. They did tell the janitor but apparently he wasn't too concerned. If I was freaking out, I can picture the mass chaos of a elementary school hallway when a second-grade girl spots that thing.