Now that she's back in the atmosphere...

Well, I'm back. And boy, what a trip...

It was an adventure. I relaxed. I ran around. Had some nice late night talks curled up at the kitchen table with a mug of tea. Had some crazy days spent hurrying here and there, never staying in the same place for more than a couple hours. I hung out with old friends, feeling like family. I met crazy awesome new people. I spent about 50 hours of my life on a train and am now pretty familiar with Amtrak...there and back I had a lay over in Chicago, and so was privileged to roam around the beautiful Windy City with 3 amazing dudes.

I left with little expectations, hoping to maybe just quiet my soul, listen to God, and visit my friends...and if God happened to nudge me in any direction, that would be awesome too.
I returned with a lot to think about.
While I was there opportunities arose. Internships came up. Chances to shadow at salons. As well as missions opportunities.

And ever since I got back a feeling has been growing in me...something that's always been there that now is spreading. I've never really been able to describe it, and it's frustrating. But the other night I was having a conversation with one of my best friends. One of those conversations that fall under the "If I don't get out of here soon I'll be stuck here for the rest of my life, that I don't know what I'm doing with anyways" category...I'm sure you have those all the time...

We talked about jobs. We talked about monotonous life. We talked about restlessness...We talked about senioritis.


Finally I tried to put this feeling that I had into words and it came out like this:

"...Do you ever get that feeling like...let's see if I can describe it - 

like, you were made for something more? That growing up, finishing school and getting a job and routine just wasn't what was intended for you? That you were created, not for something mundane and monotonous, but for something truly breathtaking and extraordinary? Cause...that seems to be how I feel. And like that desire for the extraordinary is trying to claw it's way out...like it's suffocating at the thought of never getting to see the sun...or maybe I just have to much of an imagination...?"

So...yep. That's where I'm at right now...perhaps this was a nudge in a direction...guess we'll see. 

The Bean*

*(I have now seen The Bean, one of Chicago's great works of modern architecture I am told...but secretly I'm pretty sure it's an idol to the Americans love of coffee...see for yourself. ;) )

country roads take me home...

My tool belt. Sad not to be filled with nails, carrying a hammer, and roofing knife, and worn on a roof.

Wednesday evening. Pizza Hut. Fairmont 2009

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfi3SSJPG9Y&feature=related












"Country roads, take me home to the place I belong, West Virginia! Mountain Momma, take me home, country roads."

Yuppers, it's that time of year again. Yesterday morning I got up at 5:00 in the am and escorted my dad and brother to the PCM parking lot where we met with the 50 other members of the group who were going on this annual missions trip to good ole' Fairmont West Virginia.


What makes this year different than the other 6? Well...





July 2004, a small group of people consisting of about 12-14 youths, arranged themselves into a circular shape on the front porch of the parsonage of PCM (when it was still on Spruce(?) st.) getting ready to head to Camp Mar-Mac. We were one of the smallest groups going to Fairmont, dwarfed by the size of Stony Point(a group who's gone down every year, the same week we have). I was 11, probably about 75-80ish lbs., and barely 5 ft. tall. I'd only been in the group for about five or so months, so I was relatively green to the group, and new to the idea of being away from my family for a whole week. I remember being homesick, I remember being exhausted. I remember waking up at 4:00 am on Wednesday morning and making biscuits, and thinking it was awesome to be up so early, and I remember sitting on the T.V. remote 5 out of 10 hrs of the trip there and never being able to live it down - even though everyone from that 'era' is no longer in the group. I came home the next Saturday having experienced something that would keep me going back again, and again.



July 2005, I went back, now categorized as a "repeat offender", this time not worried so much about home, or projects, or being a tiny squirt. This year, God was continuing a work in my heart he had stirred up last year. A servant's heart. I came home again, sad it was over and SO ready for next year.





July 2006, this was the year I had the pleasure of introducing my little bro, Oli, to the group. He came on the trip and I found that having a family member with me made a world of difference. Like having a small piece of home with you. :)





July 2007, I had the privilege of adding my dad to the Fairmont family, as well as my best friend Bella. At this point in time we had developed a core group of Fairmonteers who formed the backbone of the Youth Group itself. Our group had grown in age, experience, and numbers, now having a friendly rivalry with Stony Point, we had gotten used to sharing the "stomping grounds" with them.





July 2008, "The people from CONNECTICUT are coming!!!" we're back again, but to nowhere any of us were familiar with.

Enter camp Dayspring.

For years we had all been hearing Pastor Kenny and the other MTW leaders talk about this camp that, someday, would house all the MTW Fairmont staff and teams, instead of Mar-Mac, the 4-H camp we had been staying at for the past four years. Now, it was finally time for us all to "move in", or so to speak. God had blessed us with a new campsite, and leaders who wanted to give the teams a camp to call their own.


We had also been blessed with keeping the same "stomping grounds" as far as work sites were concerned. We were holding a VBS in the same church now as when we first came five years earlier. Our relationships with these kids, as well as the home owners, weren't just growing anymore, they were beginning to blossom. The relationships we had with each other as a group had grown stronger as well, each year seeming more like a family.


On our drive home, the car driving in front of us ran over a freshly hit dear, splattering the contents of its stomach across our windshield and bringing an aweful stench in through our air vents. That was when I broke out the remainder of the Febreze I had brought with me and all was well...short of gagging till our abs hurt.





July 2009, 5:45 am, the driver's and their vans meet in the parking lot. 15 minutes later the group starts to arrive. Bella appears, somehow awake and alive after arrivng home, back in the U.S.A, after a mission trip to Costa Rica with Merge, her church's youth group, just a couple hours earlier. We travel to Fairmont, this time as high school graduates. In an awkward place of leadership, not a youth, not an 'adult', but given specific jobs and heavier responsibilities.





This year was the most emotionally draining out of all my adventures to this wild, and wonderful state. I don't know if 2009 was filled with more drama than before, or if I was simply just more aware of it this time. As always, there was the newbie drama, rumor drama, project drama...the usual...yet somehow amplified. At one point in the week a kitten, that was hanging around one of the work sites, was found behind the kitchen, smuggled by a group of girls who seemed to think the poor thing was being malnourished, and homeless.


Some really good relationships became stressed to the breaking point( a 3-is-very-crowded sort of thing), and friendships questioned as something more...


Of course living in a cabin full of girls on all different levels of emotional soundness was drama in and of itself, but that is all part of the experience.


But of all the memories I have with me from this trip, I wouldn't choose to get rid of any of them. Waking up to John Linville playing the bugle, and Sherry singing the 'good morning' song at 6:15, standing in line to shake Kenny's hand on your way to breakfast, eating mysterious, squishy objects they tell you are sandwiches ("Today we have: Peanut Butter, and ... MEAT!"),


playing ultimate frisbee in a field of mud, making a quick exit off of roofs in the middle of thunderstorms, worshipping in a tent with 200 other believers being lead by a man with an acoustic guitar and a heart for God - perhaps accompanied by a dude on the bongos - debrief meetings filled with group and individual highs and lows, and finally falling asleep, curled up in a sleeping bag, with notes from a friends guitar drifting through the air as the guys squeeze in a last song on the porch across the way before being ushered to bed themselves by John Linville playing taps on his bugle. (and of course a cabin corner smelling strongly of Febreze...after last year's incident, you really expect me to not bring any?)





July 2010, I wake up at 5:00 along with my dad and brother. I drive separately with my little sister in our Carola's back seat, following my dad and brother (in our van), into the PCM parking lot. A few minutes later, Oli rushed for the back seat of another van with the rest of his friends and passengers. I ran after him, shocked that he didn't say goodbye. His van left early, and the rest of us cirlced up for a quick prayer for our team's travels.


"Amen."


Everyone rushed to their assigned cars. I rushed after my dad, yelling the same things I did at Oliver. "Aren't you going to say goodbye?" They all must've been to caught up and excited... I got a hug and kiss from my daddy, then he ran to the van. In less than a minute the Fairmont caravan was loaded up and peeling out of the parking lot.


I stood there a moment later with two other families who had seen their kids off. Two of these people were friends of mine who had gone previous years and stayed behind this time.





"So this is what everyone does once we've left the lot..." I murmured. They all chuckled in response. We all lingered a few more minutes, but soon I had to leave. School, the reason I wasn't en route to West Virginia that very moment, was waiting. It finally set in. I wasn't going to fairmont this year. At least I have Bella - who didn't get back from Costa Rica until Sunday early a.m. - and Louise.





Some how, I will cope this week. Though my body remains here, in the state of Connecticut, my mind will be wandering the mountains and valleys of WVa. with my team, my friends...my family. Part of me...isn't here, but it gets back Saturday...


So, I'm not going this year. But there is a reason. God has a plan, and a purpose. Always. I believe this week He is going to use me for something here, at home. I believe this week He will do great thing, accomplish much, and bring glory to His name in Fairmont, through the servants He chose to send on this mission.

But from where I'm standing, I'll be counting down the days till Fairmont...2011. (That's right baby ;) There is NO WAY I'm putting myself through this misery next year...God willing.)

"the algebra had a devil for a sidekick eeeeeeeeee..." Wait...what did you say?

While I was doing hair on Sunday - for my very first paying client ;), we kinda make it a "party" - there was a discussion on misunderstandings.

Have you ever been in the car with someone, both singing along with the song flowing through the speakers, when you sing one thing and they sing another? You both look at each other and maybe an eyebrow is raised and confused looks are shared.

"What did you say?" they ask. "You've stolen my horse." you reply, "Why? what did you say?" "You're rollin' the course...." they say. *silent pause* You both laugh and continue singing. Eventually one of you looks up the real lyrics and another good laugh is shared over how very wrong you both were.

Well, we were all curious about misunderstood lyrics and actually found a good web site - http://www.kistthisguy.com - with maybe the top 20+ misunderstood lyrics, along with what they're supposed to be. Caveat: this is a slightly sketchy sight, hilarious yes, but a little sketch. but I think you'll enjoy what you find. Some of my top favorites were:

Bohemian Rhapsody:

The algebra has a devil for a sidekick eeeeeeeeee....

Real Lyric
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me...

Losing My Religion - REM

Let's pee in the corner, Let's pee in the spotlight.

Real Lyric
That's me in the corner, That's me in the spotlight.

To late to apologize - one republic

It's too late to order fries

Real Lyric

It's too late to 'pologize

Summersong - The Decemberists

My girl, linen and curls, lips all parted like a fraggle unfurled.

Real Lyric
My girl, linen and curls, lips parting like a flag all unfurled

Dancing Queen - ABBA

See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen
Real Lyric
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen

Oh Canada - the national anthem

Oh Canada, we stand on cars and freeze...
Real Lyric
Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee...

anyways, these were just a few that gave us all a good chuckle. :D