WOW. So much has happened since I last blogged. I don't even know if I can remember it all....
For starters, on Friday my housemate Karen ended her term of service which officially makes me the resident senior housemate; not that it comes with anything other than bragging rights. Still, it's strange to look back at the Evolving Housemates List and see all the names of the people I used to live with. In regards to the whole valley, Carl and Sarah have both been here a few more months than me.
Ok, let's just dive in to all the things that have been happening:
Women's Retreat:
It went pretty well. We had fifty-something women from each of the five counties. The author Adriana Trigiani gave a talk via Skype (and she sent me one of her books for free). Originally Shanna was going to come help, but Disaster Relief responded to the tornado devastation in Alabama and so she chose to stay down there for two weeks. Unfortunately I was unable to go because of Women's Retreat - that's the second time I've missed out on a Disaster Relief response and I'll likely not get another. But still, Women's Retreat was nice. I met some sweet ladies, got to cook lunch with the regal Jane Marotz, made some killer brownies, and took glamour shots / created a slideshow for the women.
Spring Retreat:
Last weekend was Spring Retreat, also at Camp AJ (like Women's Retreat). The theme was "revealing your vocation" although I certainly didn't get that out of it. It was really just so-so. It seemed like we had less free time than Fall Retreat; however, there were some fun activities. One afternoon we went to all these stations set up outside and did fun stuff like: blowing bubbles, drawing with chalk, hugging trees, looking high and low, sitting in rocking chairs and focusing on just "being", and watching the lake. Seem strange? Probably. It was a little weird, but fun too. It would probably make more sense if I went into all the explanations for each station, but that would take too much time. The true highlight of Spring Retreat was mattress sledding. At Fall Retreat (at Camp Shawnee) a group of us had dragged a couple of those foam camp mattresses out onto the deck and had a snuggle / nap session. Annie and I decided to recreate the effect at Camp AJ and dragged a mattress to the dock. That night we were carrying it on our heads back to the dorms when I said we should use it to slide down the monstrous hillside at camp. The dew helped tremendously, and we reached some good speeds. We attracted a small crowd who shared our enthusiasm. I don't mean to brag, but I was definitely one of the best mattress sledders. I had the run, jump, superman-onto-the-mattress thing down. Someone even brought out another mattress so we could have races. The only downside was the long, steep climb back up the hill.
Fr. Frank:
Fr. Frank is leaving his posts in Mt. Vernon, McKee, and Berea. The bishop is sending him to Winchester/Mt. Sterling and we are getting a new priest who is fresh out of the seminary. Fr. Frank said Fr. Mike is much quieter than he. Still, I'm hoping he brings an exciting new energy. Fr. Frank doesn't leave til July, so we get to have him a little longer. I have really enjoyed Fr. Frank's homilies. He's very good.
Spiders:
Our house has been infiltrated by bugs, especially spiders. Lauren found a Black Widow in her room the other day. I swear I killed two Brown Recluses last summer in my old room. And I don't think I'll ever forget the gigantic cockroach in the living room my first month here. We've brought it up at multiple house meetings, and the bug guy FINALLY came back to spray (he'd been MIA for months) so hopefully we'll be seeing less of those nasty things.
Other things that have happened:
- National Day of Prayer in London - awesome singing / music by some of our volunteers and a great sermon by a pastor from Owsley
- I stole the creepy baby picture from the McCreary house while covering Family Advocacy down there - there's been a stealing war going on between all the houses. Although McCreary has stolen back the baby picture, we still have the apple clock from Floyd and the singing fish from Jackson. I almost got away with stealing the cherished "Dana and Allen picture" from McCreary, but Mike caught me and got it back.
- Jean's Restaurant has burned down - what bad luck. They got robbed last year and now this.
- Got to go home for Brescia's graduation / BBQ fest which was nice even though the weather sucked.
Here's some more recent stuff:
Exit Luncheon:
This past week there was an exit luncheon for all the volunteers who are leaving between now and early July. I qualify at the tail end of the group. It was sad to be sitting there with all those people (I think there were at least sixteen of us) knowing that each of them would be leaving, and someday I'd be leaving too. Several people cried. I didn't, but I sort of felt like it. We all sat in a big circle with our program managers, the volunteer life managers, volunteer program staff, and fellow volunteers. Each manager presented their exiting volunteers with a certificate and could say a few words about them. I can't remember exactly what Robyn said about me - probably some standard response - but she also shared a story that I also will never forget. In fact, it's one that I blogged about very early on: the time she, Kevin, and I delivered that stove and fridge and I got us totally lost while we drove around for two hours (even crossing the county line a couple times). I guess that's the story that will always stick with her when she pictures Lynn Hardesty. I'll take it, I suppose. The only other person who got a story was Ben, and Robyn's story about him was when he tried to hitch the little kid big wheel to the back of a tractor at the cookout at her house. It was an incredibly emotion filled day and I felt more confused than ever when it was over. Part of me wanted to stay, part of me didn't think that was the best idea. I guess time will tell, but I can tell you that I am making steps to figure things out, and I know I have the whole volunteer program praying for my next steps, as they are praying for all the exiting volunteers. Kiara said something about how we take for granted the fact that we live and work in a Christian community and she's right. There is such a sense of acceptance and support here and I hate to think about leaving it. In some ways, I feel I can be more myself here with my friends than I might have been in years.
Seth's Game:
My friend Seth from the Jackson House plays on his church's softball team. They have games most Friday nights at Lake Reba in Richmond, but this past Friday was the first time I've gotten to see him play. A large group came, since it's one of his last games (he's leaving in a week!) There were pom-poms and messages written on chests, colorful signs and shameless screaming. I think we embarrassed him a little, but it was all out of love, and several regular fans complimented our cheerleading skills. Even though they lost, it was still a good time.
Out East:
Me, my housemates Ana and Megan, and Mt Vernon House volunteers Sarah and Lauren (a short-termer) went out east Saturday morning. We hung out at Floyd House and went cliff jumping at Pickel Fork. I chickened out, but some of our group participated. We met some other fellow cliff jumpers and were reprimanded by the water patrol (since it is actually illegal to cliff jump). We also saw a huge snake swimming through the water (this is after people had already jumped in). We got to eat at Pig in a Poke that night and meet some people who were visiting one of the volunteers.
On Sunday our west-side group drove all the way to Louisa for Mass so we could meet Fr. Beiting. Although Fr. Beiting didn't say Mass, he was still there and we got to shake hands with him, talk with him, and take a picture. For those that don't know, Fr. Beiting is the founder of the Christian Appalachian Project. He took quite an interest when I told him I was from western Kentucky and that I'd gone to school in Owensboro. He said he used to street preach all down the Ohio many years ago (anyone out there remember that?). As we talked I thought about how crazy it was that my whole life (literally, we all eat-sleep-breathe CAP here) at the moment was based upon the crazy hopes and dreams of this old man with bushy white eyebrows standing before me. It was quite a capstone experience to finally meet the man behind the legend.
Later that day we drove to Miguels Pizza at Red River Gorge and met up with a former volunteer - Rachel (who went to the Avett Bros concert). It was awesome to see her again because she's so sweet and nice. She's now working at a camp in Indiana where they do educational outdoor programming for school kids during the year and camp during the summer. She brought a bunch of friends from the camp with her. It's a lot like CAP in the sense that they all live together and work together. Several of her friends were from different countries which was so cool. There were some guys from the Phillippines, one from Thailand, one from Seattle, a girl from Japan, and lots of other places. One guy, Andrew, was from England. I struck up a conversation with him and told him how much I loved London and wanted to go back and see the rest of England. He's from Norfolk and told me about all the different places I should go see (the only ones I remember off the top of my head were Bath and Oxford - so check those out, Mom and Dad!) He said Liverpool is "the Detroit of England" (Would you agree, Dori?) and that Brighton is "a big place for homosexuals" (What do you think about that, Cam? haha) Then he said that if I ever come to Norfolk I can stay at his place. So now I have places to stay in England, Australia, New York, and California - if I can ever get some money together to get to those places! Don't think I've forgotten your promises, travel friends! And if you ever find yourselves in Kentucky, you always have a place to stay here.
We are now back home and I am quite tired from all the driving around we did. Tomorrow there is a BBQ at Camp AJ with all the west-side houses. I look forward to it, but am happy to just be lazy tonight after the busy weekend I've had.
