Some Things Take Patience

I am always amused when people find out that I am a quilter and then decide that must mean I am patient. I am the least patient person I know with little tolerance for standing in a line or waiting for service. But sometimes one needs to be patient and it is wise to know when to wait and when to get antsy. I have been working on the current large project for about 18 months now and don't seem to be making that much progress toward completing it, but with my quilt making I know that every single stitch I take advances my work. So quilting, even slow quilting, satisfies the impatient person in me since I can see progress each day even if no one else can.

The other kind of waiting that I am reasonably good at is the kind over which I have absolutely no control. My husband and I had to go to the local Social Security office to request new cards earlier this week. I don't even remember when the last time I had a physical SS card was but I do remember that it was destroyed by washing. Still, it wasn't a big deal since I never had to show it largely because I am more or less retired. But Pennsylvania requires the physical card to change our driver's licenses from Utah ones so we had to go make that application. Not at all sure what Social Security has to do with a driver's license, especially when the new applicant did not need to take any kind of written exam showing knowledge of traffic rules, but what are you going to do?

Like most SS offices this one had a crowded waiting room with an electronic message board announcing the waiting list numbers. The numbers moved achingly slowly, a fact of life that distressed many people in the room. People were getting angry, people were needing potty breaks, people were yelling at the security officer claiming that their number had been skipped, people were going outside for smoke breaks. None of those actions helped the people committing them but they did tend to help others. If you got up to smoke a cigarette and your number was called, you had to go back to the beginning to get a new number. This helped everyone behind you, moving them forward without the time needed to process the smoker's request. Everyone's nerves were getting frazzled so even a little bit of progress was a positive step. My husband was far more antsy than I, but he also weathered the wait better than many of those in the small room. It took two and a half hours but we did finally get to one of the windows and got several separate items taken care of though we still have to wait for the physical cards to be mailed.