A couple of New England days

Four years ago I posted this blog about how fantastic Boston is.

Ever since, I've talked about moving there. The summer after NYC, I went to New England for two months, which rocked my world on so many levels and brought the most amazing people into my life. I cannot imagine how different things would be if I'd have stayed in Louisiana or come back to New York that summer. Truth is, though, that love for Boston was what pushed me over the edge when making decisions about where to be a summer missionary that second year. God used images I couldn't get of my brain, baseball, people, and lots of slaps in the face to send me there.

I love the history, the ocean breezes, the accents, the scent of salt water, the seagulls, the immense passion for EVERYTHING (seriously, people in New England are passionate about anything they like- which I why I fit in so well with them). I just wish folks would transfer that passion into something like, oh, I dunno, loving Jesus. I tell you if all of the New Englanders would simply fall in in love with the Lord, they'd start workin on winning the world over so fast we wouldn't know what hit us.

I really could go on for hours and hours and hours and hours and ramble and go on and on and on and on and on about how completely flabbergasted I am in how God has brought people into my life in the last seven years from Baton Rouge, Providence, Boston, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Mississippi, etc. and twisted our lives around and intertwined them in ways that completely blow my mind. I feel like, at the root of it all, is New England. It seems to anchor all these connections somehow. Like all roads lead to Worcester or something like that.

Because of the ways God has used the next region north, I have always assumed he's going to have me land there at some point, even if only for a few years. And this may be the case. I have absolutely no opposition to it WHATSOEVER. Believe me, I'd love to go to more Red Sox games.

The point of this particular post is this: I don't think I'm moving there any time soon.

This is a new revelation. And a great one. One I've been praying for.

You see, I LOVE New York in immense ways I cannot describe. I wont even bother trying. Suffice it to say, this place feels like home and always has. I know I won't be here forever, or at least, I don't plan to be, but lately, with all the transitions in my life, I've been praying that God would show me if it is time to bow out or if it is time to settle in. And the overwhelming answer is SETTLE IN.

Having had this feeling for the past few months, and particularly since my return from Chicago, have become pretty comfortable in it. THAT SAID I knew that hopping the Lucky Star to Boston for the Red Sox game was going to be testy. I could see myself getting that same feeling I always get when I arrive at South Station, where I just KNOW I have to move there. But I didn't.

Upon my arrival, I had a couple of hours before the next train to Providence, so I prayer walked around the common, Chinatown, the meeting house, Quincy market, etc. During that time I kept praying God would show me if I was supposed to be in that city, and what needs he would reveal to me there in the meantime. I prayed and prayed and prayed, but I kept thinking "I kinda wish I was still in New York, I miss it already." This was foreign to me, I'm in BOSTON Im supposed to overwhelmingly excited to be there. But I wasn't. I loved it still, and I had a great time, but even in Fenway, it was like, God was saying "I know you love it here, but it's not the time." and I was PERFECTLY okay with that.

I'm super thankful for this trip, and the time I got to spend with Maria, who is AMAZING. I'm thankful for the long walk around Providence I took this morning (I really could write a whole post about that). I'm thankful for great weather, and Fenway Park. I'm thankful for the comfy megabus ride home (so much better than the Lucky Star ride there).

Most of all, I am thankful that God confirmed what I've been suspecting all along.

I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

Back to the Grind

After a weekend in Boston, a night in Fenway Park, a flight home, a couple of days in New Orleans , a LONG DRIVE through Texas, a week in New Mexico, another LONG DRIVE through Texas, an overnight trip to Florida, and a couple more days in New Orleans, I am BACK.

I am in the BR for the homestretch, and am excited about what is to come of it all.  In less than a week, football season will be in full swing, and I will be in a day-in, day-out routine of getting up at 5am, getting home at 4, and enjoying 7th grade gifted students and all that entails.  

I'm pretty excited about this coming semester.  I found some old books from my US Colonial-1865 class, along with some history books I read for fun from that same period.  I FINALLY have my room set up, and, after numerous trips to the Apple store to drool, I got the new computer I've been dreaming of.  

This semester is going to be challenging.  In the week I've been in Baton Rouge, I've already faced some minor setbacks that lead me to believe the upcoming few months will be full of them.  I took a couple of weeks off of running when I got back into the South, and as soon as I started back, something odd happened with my foot (possibly a pulled muscle?) and I've been unable to do so since.  I think my foot is getting better, but I'm gonna stick with the bike until I know.  This has caused a "swelling" of my legs and waist to a point that I have not been familiar with for a LONG time.  

So tomorrow, it all starts, and Tuesday, I am in the classroom for good.  The future is here, and I'm pretty excited about it.  

Home Away From Home

Sunday night, I went to New York.

Bible Study was cancelled, and Mondays are pretty free, so I decided to drive the back-roads to New Haven and take the Metro-North into the city. Chelsea was kind enough to accomodate for me last minute by letting me stay on her couch, even though she already had a guest in town. I had the opportunity to have coffee and go shopping with Ema, my supervisor from last summer, at the same Starbucks where we parted ways last July. We then went to my pastor's house where my friend Ashley was housesitting. It was wonderful just sitting around the living room and catching up with two of my favorite people, and feeling so at home. Ashley and I then went to dinner at Max Brenner, and ordered the amazing tutti fruitti waffles (probably my favorite dinner in the world... if you can call it dinner). I felt like I had never left. This trip was a definite necessity. They almost convinced me to come back next week and help with the kid's program, which I willingly volunteered to do and very plausibly could have accomplished (with the help of people back home who would pay for my plane ticket back to New Orleans), but I decided it's definitely time to get back and get things settled in the BR. I will have many many more chances to help out at Graffiti in the future.

Yesterday I drove four youth up to Boston for the day. After some last minute changes of plans, we ended up having a successful day in the city. I absolutely adore Boston, and am looking forward to being there againt his weekend for debriefing (even though sadly it means I will be saying goodbye). The kids really seemed to enjoy it. I brought along someone from the church who goes to school up there to help us get around and show us some of the "insider" things in Boston, which he willingly did. It was great to see these kids enjoy things like their first subway ride, and their first taste of Indian food (mmmmm!), along with educating them in pop-culture history (two of them had never heard of Cheers!). Through this trip, God definitely showed me how things that dont necessarily go the way they were planned can still turn out to be a great experience.

While in Boston, I recieved an email telling me my student-teaching placement. I am going to be at Westdale Middle School teaching with Mrs. Davidson. From what I gathered, I think it will be the first half of US History (yay!). So walking around Boston, it was quite neat to be observing sites I was going to be teaching about in just a month or so! Though the EBR schools system's early start date may prevent me from going to New Mexico next week (I am working on getting another place to observe the first-day-of-school), I am thoroughly excited about going back at the end of August to be there full time for the next four months.

Pretty much, Wow

So this summer I have not been in "the city" much at all. Minus three days in Boston, a week in Providence, and a day-trip to my heart (aka, NY), I've spent most of my time in the suburbs, and in the country. Far cry from my normal "city girl" lifestyle, but fun and interesting nonetheless.

I am currently living in the basement room at a very cute old fashioned New England home, with a great family, in Hebron, CT. It's very different for me, but I'm loving it. We have a great youth group, and despite the fact that I'm only here for a short time, we've been having alot of fun throwing together events at the last minute to keep the kids occupied.

Last week we went to camp in Massachusetts, and I think I got just as much out of it (if not more) than my students did. We brought thirteen youth, and where I come from, that would fit into the smaller group category at camp. Because of the nature of New England, we were actually the average. There just aren't alot of Christians up here (approx. 1% of the population), and it's truly sad. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of the 444 people there, and the speaker was absolutely amazing. I hope to be a part of that camp again sometime. It is put on every year specifically for students in New England. They require a bit of a different focus than many of the typical Bible-belt camps students go to.

Over the next year of my life, I have many decisions to make. At camp I really felt like God was making some of those decisions clear to me, so I will be spending the next several months preparing to accomodate for said decisions. This is why I decided to start blogging again. I will also be student teaching, and then (hopefully) in January, being a teacher full-time, so I'm sure there will be many adventures to speak of and many prayers to request. I hope to keep up, because I have a habit of getting out of the habit...

New England Here I Come

I am officially arriving in Boston at 1:45 pm on June 1st! How exciting! I'm a hoping to grow even more this summer, after seeing all of the amazing things God can do through summer missions.

According to the missions coordinator, there is a good chance I will be working in more than Providence alone. I'm pretty excited about getting to explore New England doing the work God has laid out for me. It's going to be super interesting to see the need in an area that is often forgotten in the world of Christian outreach. It's great to go to the ends of the Earth, but we also need to remember the problems we have in our own backyard. America has many needs and I am excited to have the opportunity once again to help meet them.

I'm Moving to Boston

The Oteil Burbridge concert Wednesday night was fabulous! I think we really accomplished what we'd set out to do as a church: reach out to the community and the "unchurched" and let them know that we're here, and we love them.

Thursday was Taylor's birthday celebration, at which there was a king cake. He'd talked of wanting to try this Mardi Gras delicacy when we were discussing our "what would we eat for dessert at our last meal?" and King Cake was mine. We decided to have one shipped up here for his birthday and it was a hit! It came from Paul's Pastry in Picayune (no Gambinos or Randazzos, but still quality cake nonetheless). I spent the rest of the day organizing the registration forms from the concert, and calling all of those interested in helping us with Paint the Town. We then went to Dallas BBQ and Venieros with some of the people from a mission team who very graciously treated us all to dinner. Charlotte and I rented Fever Pitch because a.)I never get tired of it, it's become one of my favorite movies, and b.) we were getting pumped about going to BOSTON!!! Kyle joined us at about 11:30 after having gone to see Spamalot (*jealous*) with his family. We forced ourselves to go to bed so we'd wake up bright and early to get to Port Authority well ahead of on time.

Upon arriving at the bus terminal, we figured out that the walking-on right before the bus left like we did for Philadelphia was a rare experience only possible on holidays. We got there an hour early, but I was still afraid that we might not get a spot on the bus! We did though, and it left a little early! It also only took four hours as opposed to four-and-a-half as expected. Immediately into Boston, I knew I was somewhere I belonged (driving by Fenway Park and seeing it for the first time felt like walking into Tiger Stadium for the first time at the first game each year).

I'd put Boston on my list of potential cities to move to last summer, and spent a significant portion of last summer obsessing over going to Boston. I almost even gave up my NY mission trip in December to go on the Rhode Island one so I could see Boston (but God directed me otherwise). In the middle of last summer, I felt almost like God had told me to be a RedSox fan. I know this sounds strange, but all of the sudden everywhere I turned was RedSox this and RedSox that. It was unexplainable, and I became an addicted fan. I started to think that maybe it was because God had a place for me in Boston, and after FINALLY having gone to visit, I think I may have nailed it.

I was made for that city. After having only spoken to about three people, I tured to Kyle and Charlotte and was like "OMG, I LOVE these people, they get excited about everything!" at which point they looked at each other and I was like "OMG, THESE ARE MY PEOPLE" and they were like "Ya know, we were just thinking that!"

I've always wanted to live on an old harbor, and in a place where there is an MLB team (and what better one than this?) I really think I have found my city. It's rich in history, and unlike New York (who I still love, don't get me wrong), they cherish their history and preserve it, not try to modernize it as much as possible without completely erasing any trace of authenticity. The historic parts of the city were preserved exactly how they have always been, whereas here (like most cities), they leave the token important buildings and build new, modern skycrapers and such in place of all of the other things they've torn down. Even the baseball park (ahhhhh) is a good example of this. Fenway opened on April 20, 1912, and very little has changed. All of the changes that are made to the park are additions, not subtractions, and many of them are made from recycled parts of the park from other renovations and such. Here in NY, they take their most historic team, with one of the most famous stadiums in history, build a completely un-needed 1.3 BILLION dollar facility across the street, and will tear down the old one with all the memories as soon as the other one is ready.

Sad Times

So after falling absolutely in love with a new city, and realizing I was pretty much made for it, I've basically decided that if God wills it, I will be living there when I graduate. I cannot wait!

I went to Rockaway, but not to play golf on the beach

(For those who are unaware, the above is a Seinfeld reference. Kramer goes out to Rockaway and treats the shore like a driving range.)

After several weeks of discussion and planning, Gloria, her daughters, and I finally went to Rockaway beach Sunday after church.

Having been to Coney Island twice, I decided it was time to try out a new stretch of sand. Rockaway is out by JFK Airport in Queens. It's a long peninsula and there is NOTHING near it but the airport.

Riding on the A-Train out there, we crossed over the water and little islands and such, which loosely resembled crossing the Bonnet Carre, but with a few more camps. People were jetskiing and fishing and such, and nothing resembling the city could be seen.

Then you get to the peninsula, and it looks like a slightly-more-crowded Bay St. Louis of sorts (with more condos on the beach). I could definitely see how people would want to live out there. It's secluded, it's clean, and there's like, four miles of beach! The only issues is that it is not close to ANYTHING by train, so a car would be pretty much a necessity.

Gloria and her two girls, Jessica and Jasmin, were soooo much fun! We also had another guy from church, Eric, who I'd never met before, and his son Ryan. We set up a little spot on the super-crowded beach, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I actually played in the water! The temperature was great and the waves were unbelievable! I kept thinking how fun it would be to have Bethany's ocean kayak out there with me.

It was so nice to go out and relax in the sun. Sunday ended up being the perfect day for the beach. Not to hot, sunny, a nice breeze, and mild temperatured water.

Monday, I went with Ema to go deliver some stuff to a church, and on the way home, our CAB DRIVER got pulled over! Imagine that! He had crossed lanes without using his signal (who in NY does?), and he was talking on his cell phone (who in NY doesn't?). The funny thing was he lied to the cop, saying that he was not on his cell phone. The cop not only had seen him on it, but he had two witnesses in the car! So the other cop in the car hailed us a new cab, and we had to move all of our stuff out of the trunk into the other car just to drive another ten blocks or so.

Tonight is the Oteil Burbridge concert at church. He is the bass player for the Allman brothers, and is doing a free show at Graffiti to help us reach out to the neighborhood and promote Saturday's big Paint the Town project. I've got so much work to do to get ready for the show. Phone calls to make, things to set up, etc... That's pretty much what my day will consist of, and tommorrow will be making follow-up calls to remind people about Saturday.

Friday, is pretty much the most exciting day so far. I'm going to BOSTON!!!!!! I've been wanting to go there forever, and after getting back from Philly and seeing how easy it was just to go, I suggested going to Boston, since its only 30 dollars by bus. So at 7am Friday morning, we're hopping a greyhound and will be in Bo-town by 11:30! I'm sooooooo incredibly excited. I didn't think I'd actually get to go to Boston while here this summer, but we bought the tickets yesterday, so it's official!

Goal of the day- to spot this guy: