For the next seven days, I can't mock Elsie W.

Good evening!

Most of you remember how I have chronicled and will soon be publishing an account of my time working with the infamous Elsie W.  Well, one of the things I mocked was the fact that this woman showed up to work not once, but TWICE with her pants on inside out and backwards and countless times with her top inappropriately buttoned or the like.

Well, I have to abstain from mocking her for this very thing for the next seven days.

Why?

Because today I went to church with my sweater on inside out.

Yep, my favorite argyle button up cardigan, I wore it inside out and did not realize it until the bell rang and I was sitting in the pew looking all prayerful and it occurred to me that my buttons seemed to be on the inside of my sweater.  Horrified, I leaned over and said to my husband, "Do I have a tag on the outside of my collar?"

His response was to internally laugh so hard, he shook the pew...and got the young mother behind us laughing.

Peaches merely said, "Gold stars, Mom."

It is common courtesy in our church that if you must leave during the service you do so during a hymn so that it's less distracting.  We're Lutheran...we sing hymns every six minutes.  BUT, on this day...on THIS DAY of inside out sweater shame...the first hymn was not sung until 30 minutes into the service.  Which means the young mother behind us was nicely amused for 30 minutes.

At the opening chords of the hymn I dashed out to make a quick change.

Later, the younger mother told me she wished I hadn't changed.  She wanted to turn her top inside out in support of my fashion statement.

One should note she's a bit smaller than I am.  If I wore her sweater size, I wouldn't mind my tag sticking out either.

My Sunday School kids noted the sweater, which they told me in class later in the morning.  "Why didn't you say something?"  I asked them.

"You were sitting too far away!"  They all said.

I get it.  If I, as a middle school kid, had randomly shouted to a teacher than her clothes were on inside out,  my mother would have broken a wooden spoon over me at home.  So I'm sure, even though we're in an age where kids thing wooden spoons are for nothing more sinister than mixing liquid Jell-o, they still fear talking out loud in church.

So there it is.  For the next seven days I have to not think about how silly Elsie W was for wearing her pants inside out.

To paraphrase Jesus, "Let she whose sweater is not inside out cast the first snarky comment."