Too Efficient

I finally figured out one thing that my boss and I have in common.

We're both too efficient.

I have been accused of being too efficient particularly when I was in grad school, when I would write an assigned paper which the prof would later change in some way and I'd have to redo it. That frustrated me to no end.

Shortly before our early Mass, the associate who was presiding came to the back of the church looking for his alb which he thought he must have carried to the back without realizing it. His search turned up nothing. Suddenly the pastor appeared, and the associate inquired, "Have you seen my alb?"

The pastor said, "I saw an alb on the counter in the sacristy. I hung it up."

As the associate walked to the front of the church again, grumbling under his breath, I laughed at the pastor. A little too efficient. A little too tidy.

Later in the day, I had left my coat in the sacristy while I attended Mass. When Mass ended, I returned to the sacristy and couldn't find my coat -- I soon discovered someone had hung it up in the closet. That act had the pastor's fingerprints all over it. He seems to have a "thing" about not hanging up clothing!

Later still, I asked the pastor about whether he had a key to unlock the piano in the hall since the caretaker had locked it for protection, and I had been unable to find a duplicate key in the house. My youth choir needed access to it, if not that day, then definitely in a couple of weeks. The pastor started taking the top and front of the piano apart (!) and I encouraged him just to leave it; we would get by without it as we had in the past for this week.

A few minutes later, when I had left to do other things, he came back to me smiling and said he had opened the piano. I asked, "Oh, you found the key?"

He said, "No, screwdrivers can do great things."

I thought with some horror about the poor piano being attacked with a sharp instrument.

He's too efficient, definitely. Being too efficient can prove to be a bad thing, not to mention a frustrating thing for other people.