Yesterday I slept till almost noon then took a bus to Fairhaven. )I stopped by Avellino before boarding the bus for the barista special of the day: a grande brown sugar cinnamon latte for $2.50!) It was my first day exploring Fairhaven completely on my own. I went in almost every shop, browsing boutiques of clothes and shoes and vintage finds. There were more cafes, wine shops, kitchen shops, garden shops, some alehouses. I ended the Fairhaven excursion in Fairhaven with a stop into Archers, where I enjoyed a Fuller’s ESB on tap and the Salmon Jap Chipotle spread for the happy hour price of $8 and some change. I caught up with friends on the phone, enjoying my beer until my phone almost died. It was wonderful!
When I got back downtown, on bus #2 of the day, I came back to Avellino’s for their delicious caramel iced Americano, made with real house-made caramel. Delicious. Spent more time talking to dear friends until my phone did, in fact, give up on me. I walked up to the Ving! Playhouse with Emily Nelson and Amy to watch Paige’s modern dance show, and it was absolutely wonderful. It was hot like a country church revival in August. I kept thinking that it was like being in prayer. Like worship. It was an hour and half of celebrating the body, dance, the human spirit. We really are beautiful creatures. I felt my whole body relaxing as the show moved on. It was like a massage, and I didn’t want to do anything when it was over.
So I didn’t. I came home and ate thai food and had a glass of wine. It was lovely.
The afternoon hours today find me at Avellino, again, for free flavor Friday. Ginger snaps and air conditioning. This place is a little like Greyfriar’s too. It’s definitely brighter, in all regards, but with the tables outside and the regulars and deliciousness… It feels more and more like home here everyday. I do miss Chattanooga, and I wish so much that I could fly home for the weekend just to see friends’ faces, but it’s good to be here too. TGIF, right?
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
pictures!
New, short hair cut
My unfinished bicycle, sweet.
Lettered Streets Coffeehouse, close to my house
A goat going for a walk on a leash in my neighborhood... random
Camping Friday night
Camping Saturday
A cool mural next to The Hub bicycle shop
At Boulevard Park
At Avellino Coffeehouse
It's Tuesday
at 2:09pm, 5:09 in Chattanooga.
I miss friends at home. I'm very ok, but I have a genuine longing to see familiar faces. Bellingham is wonderful, but I feel the tension between wanting to be 100% here and knowing my obligations to keep in contact with family and friends. I feel an obligation to call people probably more than they expect, but I almost feel like I've failed before I've even started because I always should have called yesterday. So family, friends, new friends reading this... please know that even if I fail to call you, that means things are great. That means that I'm busy and meeting people and building relationships with people here. I'm exploring and keeping busy. It does not mean that I don't think about you. I do. A lot. But if I called everyone I was thinking of, when I was thinking of them at all, I'd be on the phone all day, and I wouldn't be living. So be patient please. We will talk. I'm sure of it, but for now I'm trying to create my own space here as much as possible.
In other news in Bellingham, I had a delicious Indian dinner with my co-INNtern Emily Nelson last night. Yum! I made a new friend named Earl, a friend of the family's. I totally thought he was 31 or 32. Nope. He's 23, and I didn't find that out until after hanging out and eating frozen yogurt and trying to make 30-year-old conversation. Oops. I have not hung out with the INNterns much since I moved in with the host family. I'm just a little farther away now. We're going to be spending close to 27/7 together soon enough though. I'm babysitting Milan and Chase tonight for the fam so they can go out of town. I think we'll take a bike ride to dinner somewhere fun so as to not mess up the house. I know I would spend most of the night cleaning up after them! Tomorrow I'm going to have coffee with Lindsay senior-staff-but-oh-so-young Anderson, and Thursday night go see Paige in a ballet with Emily. Good times here... minus the 90 degree weather. 100 tomorrow! Very un-Bellingham weather I'm told.
Anyway, I've posted some pictures on my facebook, but I'll repost them...
I miss friends at home. I'm very ok, but I have a genuine longing to see familiar faces. Bellingham is wonderful, but I feel the tension between wanting to be 100% here and knowing my obligations to keep in contact with family and friends. I feel an obligation to call people probably more than they expect, but I almost feel like I've failed before I've even started because I always should have called yesterday. So family, friends, new friends reading this... please know that even if I fail to call you, that means things are great. That means that I'm busy and meeting people and building relationships with people here. I'm exploring and keeping busy. It does not mean that I don't think about you. I do. A lot. But if I called everyone I was thinking of, when I was thinking of them at all, I'd be on the phone all day, and I wouldn't be living. So be patient please. We will talk. I'm sure of it, but for now I'm trying to create my own space here as much as possible.
In other news in Bellingham, I had a delicious Indian dinner with my co-INNtern Emily Nelson last night. Yum! I made a new friend named Earl, a friend of the family's. I totally thought he was 31 or 32. Nope. He's 23, and I didn't find that out until after hanging out and eating frozen yogurt and trying to make 30-year-old conversation. Oops. I have not hung out with the INNterns much since I moved in with the host family. I'm just a little farther away now. We're going to be spending close to 27/7 together soon enough though. I'm babysitting Milan and Chase tonight for the fam so they can go out of town. I think we'll take a bike ride to dinner somewhere fun so as to not mess up the house. I know I would spend most of the night cleaning up after them! Tomorrow I'm going to have coffee with Lindsay senior-staff-but-oh-so-young Anderson, and Thursday night go see Paige in a ballet with Emily. Good times here... minus the 90 degree weather. 100 tomorrow! Very un-Bellingham weather I'm told.
Anyway, I've posted some pictures on my facebook, but I'll repost them...
Friday, July 24, 2009
I'm finally here.
After months of planning, waiting, stalling, rushing, crying, laughing, etc. I'm finally here. Hello, Bellingham, Washington.
I've been here for one week and one day now. It's not home, but it's comfortable. It's beautiful, and the weather is awesome. I'm living with my host family, Dave and Kelli Gauthier, and their two kids Milan, 7, and Chase, 4 and 1/2. It's a great house with a garden full of wonderful things, and a neighborhood overflowing with kids. I'm close to downtown and the office, which is nice, and biking has been generally pleasant.
I'm frequenting some pretty cool local spots like the Lettered Streets Coffeehouse, Avellino coffeehouse, Boundary Bay restaurant and brewery, Everyday Music, the lakes, and we're going camping this weekend toward Mt. Baker. The bay is key to the feel of this place. There's usually a breeze, and there's something about the view that reminds me of the Walnut St. bridge in Chattanooga. It's not the same at all, but it's that feeling at sunset of "Wow, I live in a really beautiful place."
There will be pictures to come, I hope. I shouldn't have waited so long to write since I arrived because now there seems to be too much to say. I hate sweeping generalizations about things. I will say this though, very specifically...
There could be a thousand reasons for my being drawn to this place. There could be another thousand reasons for which I'm actually here. I do know that a person only lives once, and although I will miss the times shared with dear friends at home, this is a season for other things, and I mean to live every moment as something to be treasured. I may never know for which moment I was made to come alive in here, perhaps like never before, but I have a feeling that moment will come again and again and be many.
Here's to Bellingham...
I've been here for one week and one day now. It's not home, but it's comfortable. It's beautiful, and the weather is awesome. I'm living with my host family, Dave and Kelli Gauthier, and their two kids Milan, 7, and Chase, 4 and 1/2. It's a great house with a garden full of wonderful things, and a neighborhood overflowing with kids. I'm close to downtown and the office, which is nice, and biking has been generally pleasant.
I'm frequenting some pretty cool local spots like the Lettered Streets Coffeehouse, Avellino coffeehouse, Boundary Bay restaurant and brewery, Everyday Music, the lakes, and we're going camping this weekend toward Mt. Baker. The bay is key to the feel of this place. There's usually a breeze, and there's something about the view that reminds me of the Walnut St. bridge in Chattanooga. It's not the same at all, but it's that feeling at sunset of "Wow, I live in a really beautiful place."
There will be pictures to come, I hope. I shouldn't have waited so long to write since I arrived because now there seems to be too much to say. I hate sweeping generalizations about things. I will say this though, very specifically...
There could be a thousand reasons for my being drawn to this place. There could be another thousand reasons for which I'm actually here. I do know that a person only lives once, and although I will miss the times shared with dear friends at home, this is a season for other things, and I mean to live every moment as something to be treasured. I may never know for which moment I was made to come alive in here, perhaps like never before, but I have a feeling that moment will come again and again and be many.
Here's to Bellingham...
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Home is hard.
I'm sitting at the edge of one week with coffee and a quiche at Elk River Coffee in Fayetteville, TN. In two days I'll be back in Chattanooga to say some goodbyes and have one last weekend of memories. In the window here where I sit, I'm facing my mom's new apartment right off of the town square. It sits above a cosmetic store, an J. Paul's Insurance, an investment company and a thrift store. It's a new Fayetteville for me, a new home, a new not-home. As much as I want to embrace this place as my roots and the place of rest for my heart, I'm struggling to want to be here very much. It's lonely for me here, especially with my sister on vacation. She'll be back tomorrow, but then I leave on Friday for Chattanooga again. I've enjoyed seeing my great aunt and talking with my grandpa, but home itself is hard.
I must not be meant for this place.
I'm also fighting my Washington feelings right now. I am excited to be going, and I know it's going to be an adventure and a time to grow and learn and live. I know that the Lord will be with me in the place that I've been guided to. He may stand back and be silent, or he may be very vocal about what I'm doing. Maybe he trusts me to make my own decisions and not to expect him to think for me. Of course I want and crave his direction, but he still leaves me in control of my life, surrendering my will to his, but really I'm still the one living out my existence. (These musing may be loaded and may require further processing.) I just worry that I will feel alone. I'm going to miss my life in Chattanooga. I know that life goes on with or without me, and I worry about being forgotten. Sharing moments with my best friends is not an option for the next year of my life.
It's my turn to go out on my own I guess. Megan has her music, Laurren is a kick-ass professional, D-Haines is doing Nashville, Alan is too old to pin down to one thing or another that he's done that has meant something. He's done a lot. Ann is going to grad school, Drew has moved and come back as has Sarah. Rachel... she's definately lived. Danielle works it in Chattanooga. Me? I've lived too. But what's my thing? I guess school was, but school is over. It's time for me to go on and go out. I may miss Chattanooga with a bleeding heart, but I need to go and see and do and learn to love more and other people. I don't think God is content for me to only love some. And to be frank, I could be better at loving the people I already love too. Maybe that's what this year is: a lesson in loving... among other things.
There's only so much I can process at a time when my two subjects are 2,000 some odd miles apart. Here's to one week. Here's to Tennessee. Here's to you that I love. Here's to a new iPhone, rain gear, and a sic road bike...
I must not be meant for this place.
I'm also fighting my Washington feelings right now. I am excited to be going, and I know it's going to be an adventure and a time to grow and learn and live. I know that the Lord will be with me in the place that I've been guided to. He may stand back and be silent, or he may be very vocal about what I'm doing. Maybe he trusts me to make my own decisions and not to expect him to think for me. Of course I want and crave his direction, but he still leaves me in control of my life, surrendering my will to his, but really I'm still the one living out my existence. (These musing may be loaded and may require further processing.) I just worry that I will feel alone. I'm going to miss my life in Chattanooga. I know that life goes on with or without me, and I worry about being forgotten. Sharing moments with my best friends is not an option for the next year of my life.
It's my turn to go out on my own I guess. Megan has her music, Laurren is a kick-ass professional, D-Haines is doing Nashville, Alan is too old to pin down to one thing or another that he's done that has meant something. He's done a lot. Ann is going to grad school, Drew has moved and come back as has Sarah. Rachel... she's definately lived. Danielle works it in Chattanooga. Me? I've lived too. But what's my thing? I guess school was, but school is over. It's time for me to go on and go out. I may miss Chattanooga with a bleeding heart, but I need to go and see and do and learn to love more and other people. I don't think God is content for me to only love some. And to be frank, I could be better at loving the people I already love too. Maybe that's what this year is: a lesson in loving... among other things.
There's only so much I can process at a time when my two subjects are 2,000 some odd miles apart. Here's to one week. Here's to Tennessee. Here's to you that I love. Here's to a new iPhone, rain gear, and a sic road bike...
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