It Starts.
// August 31st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
Today was special. That’s really the only way I can put it. Special in all the connotations you would expect. It was both special in an “I’m going to remember this day for the rest of my life because it was so meaningful” way and an “I can’t believe everything got that complicated and that ridiculous and became that much of a headache” way.
I woke up early enough to finish packing, or so I thought. As it turned out, I woke up early enough to wash my face, brush my teeth, contemplate packing, head to Northtown instead, and head to the Red Lion to drop off support letters for Brian’s family. I then ran into his grandma and a couple of elderly ladies that became interested in hearing my story and then had stories of their own to tell about my beloved Pastor Jon (apparently he was quite the crackup back in the day at camps. Actually, he still is). I got to church in time to actually breathe for the first time in days, while passing out a few letters and trying to soak in the moments.
Every part of church today was incredible, from the time of worship, to the prayers, to Pastor Gary Modine’s incredible message on Mt. 7:24-27 and the power of building your life intentionally. Pastor Jon took the time at the conclusion of worship to have everyone pray for Mike, Gabi, and myself, and I was surprised not to have any inappropriate laying on of hands (ahem, Jared at GC). He also orchestrated an offering for us, which was a wonderful blessing.
After church, the chaos began. Brain came over to help me panic-pack. This included filling two queen-size sheets with clothing and various other items, then filling my jeep and his taurus to the brim, then dropping all of that off in a swirling tornado-like vortex known as the Goodwill parking lot. We were ninja-fast. When we got back to my apartment, we ended up packing several boxes with random stuff I wanted to store at his house, shoving them into his car, and then realizing that he was almost late for work and had to go. We also sold some furniture and a set of golf clubs while moving them out to the jeep, then packed it with a table, 4 chairs, 2 large whiteboards, a bookshelf, a giant dufflebag, a backpack, a large tupperware container, a small end-table, and various items I always keep in the jeep. I hauled that all over to Ashley’s mom’s fiancee’s house for their garage sale, but I’m just now realizing I forgot to tell Miles I wouldn’t be putting it all in his garage sale. Ummm….oops?
All of that was done while juggling calls and texts from I don’t know how many people, but more than I wanted to deal with. The blessing of the day came from the guy moving into my apartment. He told me to just leave anything in there I didn’t want to deal with; that he would either keep it or throw it out. That saved me one extra trip and probably at least 45 minutes.
I finally headed off to the yard sale house around 4:15, when we were hoping to leave town by 4. Oops again. After dropping off stuff there and being persuaded to write letters, we packed the jetta and set off on separate sets of errands. I had to cash out my change, which took no time at all. After that, I went to the Wakefield house and chatted with Mama and Papa Wakefield while Steve-o was ignoring our calls and texts. He had something to give me before I left town, so I had to wait a good 10+ minutes for him to show up. Then it was off to the church to sell an ipod I found, then off to Pastor Don’s place to reconvene with Brian and Ashley, as well as to sell my jeep and all the random stuff in it. Guess who couldn’t find the title? That would be me. Don’s a chill guy, so he said not to worry about it and that we’d figure it out as soon as we could. This was a blessing. After spending a few minutes chatting with Don, we headed to meet up with Fawn and her Brian at Starbucks. They’re always entertaining and it was good to see them again.
We finally hit the road around 5:15. After much deliberation and several coin flips, we decided to go on I-90, despite knowledge of an RV fire. We were informed that the fire had already been cleaned up, so we decided it was probably clear and we wouldn’t hit the traffic too badly, if at all. (Note: Brian did not agree. He made multiple protestations for taking White/Chinook Pass, then made even more declarations of the famous words: “I told you so.”) Needless to say, we hit the traffic. We hit a stop and go backup of about 30 miles, with another 20 miles of “what the crap are you doing? GO GO GO PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, GO.” We were having quite a good time of it, despite the stress normally associated with traffic and a manual transmission (not that any of us has difficulty driving one, but it still requires slightly more attention and focus in heavy traffic). Ashley and I would periodically jump out to walk next to the car, eventually making Brian pop the trunk so we could grab the ipods. Then we jammed out to some ridiculous 80′s dance music while Ashley and I were hanging out of the car with our doors wide open. Eventually, we decided on a Chinese Fire Drill (For the uninformed: The Driver yells “Chinese Fire Drill,” then everyone in the vehicle has to jump out, run around the car one full rotation, then get back in a different seat). I ended up in the driver’s seat and stayed there for the rest of the trip, while I had Brian handle all of my texting and Ashley handling dj responsibilities. It ended up being a very long trip, but Brian and I had a great discussion on pentacostal doctrine.
We finally arrived here in there apartment in Covington, and now I’m going to try to fall asleep on a leather couch when I’ve been sweating all day. I’ve never felt more ready to embrace the stickiness around me. Bring on this week; I can handle anything with God on my side.