enduring ike

Moving back to Houston seemed like a good idea at the time. And then there was Ike. "Hey...glad you're back...have a hurricane!" Some welcome home!

Actually, Ike's biggest impact to me so far has been a lot of inconveniences.

Some people have been without power for a couple of days now. I haven't.

Some people have trees in their roof. I don't.

Some people don't even have a roof (or a house) anymore. I do.

And on, and on...

So, when I'm sitting here in my air conditioning watching the Astros play the Cubbies in Milwaukee (weird!), I really have nothing to complain about. And I'm not. Not on the outside.

In fact, I have wept for people I've seen on the news that have lost everything. And I'm praying for the people around Houston who are growing weary of the heat (without a/c at home) and on, and on...

But on the inside I still have little frustrations about not being able to move into my new apartment this weekend to start settling in properly. Or shop for stuff for my new place. Or start to reconnect with friends. And on and on...

How ugly does pride and selfishness have to get before you do everything it takes to rid yourself of it?

desert life

Here in the desert, at what I've started calling "adult camp" (I can't bear to call it a resort for some reason, and it feels like more than that anyway), when I'm not lounging by the pool, wandering around in a robe, or getting a spa treatment...I've been doing some other things I keep wanting to do but never doing.

Today I spent some time with horses, and will be heading out on a trail ride tomorrow.

I have also taken a couple of very abbreviated photography 101 type classes. My vocabulary now includes the words (and a meager understanding) of such things as ISO setting, aperture, and f-stop. Baby steps...

These are the two best images of the 150ish shots I took. God bless the man who invented digital cameras!


I got this blurry shot during a thunderstorm-laden sunset walk. Apparently it's hard to capture lightening...and I only did it with a blurry shot, but still am happy with the photo.




On a stroll around the resort...this was my attempt at stop-action and short depth of field. Meh...better than what I'd have been able to do before, but still nowhere near fabulous.



Despite the mediocre quality, I had a BLAST.

I think I might have convinced myself that it's worth the first level of investment for a digital SLR. I don't know that I really want to carry one around with me for tourism, but the idea of grabbing my camera and going out to shoot some images for relaxation and a little more creativity in my life is REALLY appealing.

vacation: an under-rated activity

I miss London, but I'm sufficiently distracted for now!

Maybe it's because I don't do it enough...but totally switching off and enjoying more than just a long weekend away is SUCH a refreshing break. I'm not quite halfway through my holiday, and I'm already settled in nicely.

It's going to be really hard to get back to real work again.

last day at the office

wow. that was hard.

the movers

They came...they packed...they loaded up their truck with all my stuff. It took less than 2 hours.

Now it's really official: I *have* to leave...all my stuff is gone!

Tomorrow the cleaners are coming...you're pretty much required to hire professional cleaners before check-out with your landlord...and for what I'm paying them, I'd hope that not even a CSI could find any traces of me or my dirt in this place when they're done!

more lasts and sorting mania

Today was my last:

• full day in the office
• work-out with Jacky (my e-ville trainer)
• night to prepare and eat dinner in my own flat

It's finally all starting to feel real!

Sadly, I didn't get started on all the sorting I need to do tonight quite as early as I'd hoped.

See, I almost forgot to pack up my office (yeah, it's all going away tomorrow as well), so I didn't leave the office until 8:30 (after the aforementioned session with my e-ville trainer).

The movers are coming at 9:00am.

After the commute home and a little dinner, I started sorting out my junk at 9:30pm...less than 12 hours before the movers come to take away everything I own in this country.

However, thanks to a few key executive decisions, I finished all sorting needed tonight by 11:57pm.

I rock.

no surprises here

I've left most of the hard work of packing until the last minute. This will come as no surprise to those who know me well.

The sad part is that I actually don't have to do much packing. For one thing, the movers won't let me pack...because if they don't do it, they won't insure my shipment. No complaints here!

So really all I have to do is SORT. One pile for the movers, one pile for my suitcases, and one pile for the charity shop down the street.

Why is this so hard? Well...a few things conspire against me.

1. I'm very definitely a get-lost-in-the-details sort about this kind of thing. When I clean my flat, I start in one room and make a little progress, but when I pick up the watch I left on the sofa and take it to my bedroom where it belongs, I end up doing some cleaning in there...and eventually I somehow end up getting lost in the gratifying work of cleaning the grout between bathroom tiles with an old toothbrush. And so it goes.
   
   
2. I'm a perfectionist. See note above regarding toothbrushes and bathroom grout. There are countless hours of my life I've dedicated in similar attention to the minutiae that I'll never get back.
   
   
3. I'm the queen of procrastination. If it were an Olympic sport, I'd have multiple gold medals.

So, knowing myself as well as I do...I figure waiting until the last minute may still demonstrate an awful tendency to procrastinate, but at least I won't have spent my last two or three weeks in England thinking about things like whether or not I'm ever going to wear that pink sweater again.

I have enjoyed my last few weeks in the Big Smoke, and I'm confident I'll have PLENTY of down time Stateside to sort out my world.

But I am starting to think I've left it all just a bit TOO late now...!

rollin' out

Today is the first day of all my "lasts". It's my last full Sunday in London. This time next week, I'll be halfway between Heathrow and Houston.

On my way to meet a few friends for lunch and an afternoon of goodbyes, I saw this beast pulling out of the bus stop across the street.

It was one of those moments that made me sad I don't carry my camera with me at all times...this fuzzy one is from my mobile.

The other guy who stopped to take a photo told me it's a city bus that was all over the streets of London until the early 1950s.

So, that was a first for me, but a last as well, I'm sure.

finally sorted

For those of you who have been asking repeatedly only to get a fairly vague response from me...let the record reflect that I have finally booked my flight home. I will be returning to God's country West of the Atlantic (aka Texas) on Sunday, August 17th.

(God's country East of the Atlantic is aka Scotland.)

It still doesn't completely feel like I'm 12 days away from leaving this small island, but I'm not in a mad dash for Heathrow, so that's fine by me.

It's still very bittersweet, but mostly sweet.

winchester

Saturday I took a short little trip south to Winchester. I tried to be sparing with photos, but couldn't resist a few quintessential shots of this quaint but buzzing little English town.

Cathedral? Check.
University? Check.
A river runs through it? Check.
High-profile public boys' school? Check.
Major historical significance? Check.

It's not really a huge list by any account, but somehow it feels like there's lots going on in this little corner of England...

I put a few pictures here, and a little history lesson below.

The history lesson:

• The very large statue in the pictures is of King Alfred. He was all about justice and order, and took a lot of direction from Exodus. Much of the current legal system is based on his foundations.
  
  
• The 'high profile boys' school' (Winchester College) is on par with the likes of Eton (which, interestingly, is modeled after Winchester).
  
  
• Turns out the founder of Winchester College, William Wykeham, also founded New College at Oxford in 1379. Funny name for one of the oldest colleges in Oxford, eh? Apparently, New College's original remit was to receive the boys who passed through Winchester and to support them during their university studies. Handy.
  

Don't feel guilty if you couldn't care less about the history. It's hard to care if you don't experience it...but since I have a friend who went to New College, I had an extra little bit of "oh, that's very interesting" sort of thing going on.

it's all about marketing: example #219

"The Husband Creche"
I'm sure the beer in this pub isn't markedly different or better than the pub 2 doors down, but I'd stop here - even though I don't have a husband to drop off - just because of the sense of humor demonstrated with their sidewalk sign.

And I know plenty of people who would do the same.

Brilliant.

happy birthday daniel jacob!

How can you NOT totally fall in love with this little man?! I can't wait to see him in August! I hope he saved me some cake.

it's a small world after all

This morning, an American in London (yes, that would be me) had Welsh cakes for breakfast with Canadian maple syrup, eaten off a plate made in China (and with a fork made in China).

The weird thing is that I don't actually think this marriage of at least 5 cultures is really all that noteworthy...which is the part that feels noteworthy.

i might need to go to confession

I can't deny it. I'm jealous. A co-worker is marrying a rugby player next year, and because of her fiance's connections with the rugby world, she ends up at events where she often manages to get pictures like this one:

This my friend Clodagh and her "friend" Mike Catt. Mike was on the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning England squad...WORLD CUP, people! And he still plays for the London Irish squad.

I know I have recently pointed people to my friend Tara Leigh's blog, and I really don't want to negate the stuff she's writing there...and I know you're not going to believe me, but honestly it's not that he's beautiful. I mean, I'm not gonna deny that he's not hard on the eyes, but it really isn't about that.

It's that I actually really love the game. It's the only English sport I really fancy at all...and love it (don't panic people) more than baseball, perhaps. And what I wouldn't give to be all buddy-buddy with people in the rugby world, especially when I hear that guys like Mike are actually really nice and down to earth.

Seriously, why am I NEVER the girl who has these kinds of connections? I think it's God's way of reminding me that I care just a little too much. GRR!

warming up for the countdown

The writing has been on the wall for a few months, but I've finally uttered a potential date for finishing my assignment in London with the people who can make it happen.

August will definitely be my last month here, and I'm aiming for a last day in the office during the 2nd or 3rd week of the month. There are a few things I'd really like to see finished by then...but as I'm trying to manage a decent vacation before hitting the ground running in Houston in September, I'll be working hard to keep it to mid-August.

Suddenly I'm tempted to think about things like apartments and neighborhoods I like in Houston...cars, the price of gasoline, the HEAT (oh, the heat.) in Houston, and where in the world I want to go for some R&R before leaving this small island and rejoining the world of baseball lovers and 24-hour everything.

But actually I don't want to think about those things any more than I have to...I want to savor every last drop of England that I have left to enjoy. So as always...I seek to find the balance.

Actually...I seek tension, I think. I need to find a way to happily hold my excitement over going back to my homeland in tension with all that I have to live for right here and right now. Living in the moment and living in the future seem to be two desires that pull in opposite directions. Planning requires you to live in the future a little bit...but oh how easily I let the future consume me...and I forget to hold the line in tension by keeping a good deal of my attention on today.

Here's to tension! It can be good for you sometimes.

i don't get it

The spell check feature in Blogger recognizes the word "blogger" as legitimate (which is handy), but doesn't recognize "bloggers" (which isn't).

in the weeds

I have felt like I've been "in the weeds" at work since the day I landed in the UK. I tend to feel that way about keeping in touch with friends near and far as well. And, as all haphazard bloggers do, I feel the same about keeping this record a current and accurate reflection of record-worthy stuff.

So, in typical "catch-up" fashion, I offer a few bits and pieces:

I have been reminded yet again this week that I have very funny, wise and deep friends...which I count as a huge blessing. Amen.

I miss my best friend tremendously. Grr. And I hate that her little man is almost a year old and I've only seen him twice. Double grr.

Louie made a point of saying "thank you" to me. Honoured.

"Summer" is a relative term.

Dr. Pepper can bring joy that one never knew was possible.

Having a "clean slate" is under-rated. Highly under-rated.

I like church at Hillsong London. They love to celebrate Jesus...and I DO mean celebrate. And they're authentic. And friendly. And helpful. Every time.

I made two successful first-guess identifications of band names for over-head music in public this weekend. This is NOT something I'd list as a skill on a resume for ANY job. Gold star for me.

Someone from my pastorate (read: church community group) at HTB called me today to get the specific words from a quote I used in a little talk I did last week. She said she'd been thinking about some things I said all week. Floored. Thankful. Cheering for God.

That'll do for now.

how did that happen?

Passion:London has come, but it hasn't gone. Thursday was a long day, but it was gone in a blink...all at the same time. I want to have some pithy words to describe it, but I'm at a loss.

I don't know why I'm always amazed at how much we can actually accomplish in just a short space of time. And when you put the 'God fact' on top of that...well...indescribable things happen.

I'm so thankful to have been a part of what God did through a few hours of time in so many lives - not just the students that attended, but the volunteers and hopefully some of the venue staff as well.

I didn't get to interact with many of the students, but the few I did were so fired up to be there. And the volunteers. The volunteers were incredible. I'm so thankful to have been part of it.

But 'it' isn't over. Not by a long shot.

Passion:London - almost there!

It's been years in the making, but the Passion World Tour is now well under way, and has already made stops in Kyiv, Stockholm, Sao Paulo, Kampala and is be lighting up the night in Paris tonight.

On Thursday, Passion:London will come to life.

If you're not already following along, check out the 268 blog to see some pictures and read about the events held so far, or the World Tour site to see where else the tour is headed.

Pray for health and endurance for the volunteers (it's gonna be a LONG day).

Pray for the traveling World Tour team...they've been on a long journey, and our weariness due to one event can't compare to what they're working with.

Pray for the students coming to the Hammersmith Apollo on Thursday, and for a new awakening in the university generation across the UK.

Pray for a full house - not because I'm hung up on numbers, but because I long for ever seat to be filled with a soul that gets exposed to the hope of the Gospel light-years beyond 'fire insurance'.

Pray for the students to fall in love with Jesus in a way they've never imagined.

Pray for dramatically changed lives.

Pray for students to be awakened through the Spirit with a longing to live a life of total abandon for the name and renown of God.

So much hope...so many more prayers...not enough words. If you pray...I don't know what else to ask for...just...go for it.

plug

So, my friend TLC is amazing.

And I don't think she's starving for publicity...but I can't not point you to her blog.

I mean, it's already on my links over there on the right, but that's pretty passive, whereas I am going for a more blatant approach here.

She sings, she's got mad guitar skills, she writes...she's one of the few people I know who is actually really good at actively maintaining long-distance friendships...and so much more.

The reason I'm pointing you to her today is because she's writing some great stuff there these days, and I basically just think anybody I know would benefit from (or at the very least enjoy) reading it, especially (but certainly not ONLY) anyone in a pre-married state.