Quick note...

I've noticed that there's a few US-2s and Mission Interns who have this blog linked. While I would LOVE it if you read this blog too, (it's more ramblings and musings than what's actually going on with me/NOLA/Hagar's House,) this is the blog I would like you to link on your websites:

Wandering Mouse

I'm following you guys on this blog, since that's where I already have my followers set up, but I'll be posting things about my work and life in NOLA on the other blog. I'll also put your links up on there too!!!

Much love, and I hope all your work is going fabulously.

Leaving...on a jet plane!

I have been waiting for this for a long. Freaking. Time.

So now that I've done it, it seemed OK. I mean, of course I cried and I was sad, but that's not a bad thing. It's a love thing. You can cry and miss people without it being horrible. Saying goodbye to my family and everyone at church was like that. I'm most sad about the people I didn't get to see, (Mike, Adam, HannaH...) but I feel like I got a nice chance to say farewell to everyone else.

Today, I flew into NYC. I'm basically a pro at this flying thing. Whenever we flew into LGA I was thinking, "Why is this so familiar?" Then I remembered it was my fourth time to NYC this year, which was a tad mind-boggling.

Also, I'm re-naming this blog and creating a new blog! The other one will be for my US-2-ocity, and this one will be more personal ramblings. (Not that anyone will read either...but it's nice to pretend, right?)

My NOLA blog is: amandameetsnola.blogspot.com . It currently has the very poetic blog title: "Blahblahblah." My brain is fried and I haven't come up with a title yet, OK? Patience is a virtue.

For all US-2s

In honor of all my fellow US-2s, mission interns, missionaries, preachers, and other people in service to the Lord (or whatever...)



And I see Danielle tomorrow! YAAAY!

Have a great weekend!

And now you're back! From outer space!

OK, so I didn't go to outer space. (But I did go to Utah. Close enough.)

I'm now going through the pretty significant realization that I'm moving in 14 days. And it's far enough that I can't really pack yet, because the stuff I'm going to pack is stuff I'm going to need until then, but I don't want to pack while Dani's here, but I don't have much choice.

Conundrum.

Also it's very hard to try and figure out who I'm going to see before I leave. Two weeks looks a lot shorter after vacation.

I talked to John on the phone last night and I realized how desperately I'm going to miss him. And Connie sends me all these bumper stickers on Facebook about stargazing. It's been so long since I've seen her, and I miss her so much! (Plus I know it's going to be too hazy in NOLA to do much stargazing. That and the highest point in Louisiana is Driskill Mountain: elevation 535 feet.)

I'm really not complaining. I'm excited about going to NOLA, THRILLED about the work at Hagar's House, and really looking forward to meeting people down there.

It's just hard to get there.

At some point in the future there will be a rambling vacation post for the 2 people interested!

It's official!!!

I will be moving to New Orleans in October!!! I'll be working at Hagar's House, a center for single women in crisis.

I'll be living in the church nearby, with several other people who work there (mostly young adults, methinks.) I know some of them will be Americorps volunteers, which means that not only will I be living in !freakingNewOrleans! I'll be living with people from all over the country and with different faith backgrounds.

Heck. Freaking. Yes.

Right now, the schedule that I know so far: Our training, which will be in upstate NY, will start September 23rd (ish.) We'll be commissioned and fly to our placement sites on October 13th (ish.)

DID I MENTION I'M EXCITED?!?!?!?!?!?

Hmmm...

As some of you might guess, I'm stressing a bit about the placement thing. Because that's kind of my thing.

Well, about a week ago, I had a dream while I was at Dad's. I dreamed that I had gotten placed somewhere in New Orleans. And when I woke up, even once I realized it was a dream, I felt better. Not because I thought I knew anything from it, but because my subconsious brain saw that I would still go somewhere that was a good fit, even though right now it was stressful.

I'm not going to say anymore right now, so don't ask me, but more information will be coming soon.

Patience Blows

*headdesk*

So, I'm supposed to hear about where I'm going to be placed sometime this week. Apparently, they've been waiting on the placement sites to respond, and they haven't.

I am SO TIRED of this helpless waiting to hear where I'm going to be. And I'm frustrated because it's not like it's unavoidable stuff. I've just committed the next two years of my life to this--I don't think it's unreasonable to be antsy about where I'm going.

Watch my ass get placed at a Wesley Foundation in Iowa.

Edit: We interrupt this rant to be...um...non-ranty. More information to come as stuff is confirmed.

Dreams

In last night's dream...

Dani and I were in jail in Australia,

Granny and Gepop moved to the Philippines where rats could walk on the ocean,

We were all nervous because we'd just found out that a US-2 had gotten placed at an auto-body shop in Michigan,

And somehow there was Magnolia Bakery.

Concert and Suspension

Life, for me, is still a paralyzed thing. I'm waiting to hear back about a summer job. I'm waiting to have some clue about when the US-2 training will be.

But, in the waiting, there are moments of sheer awesome.

I.E. today I drove down to Burlington to visit a friend I haven't seen in over a year and go to a Decemberists concert. It was fantastic. Spending time with Amanda was great--she's one of those people who when you're around her you just remember that there are beautiful things and people in the world. I also got to hang out with Erin, who I knew only vaguely from my few times at the Wesley Foundation, and meet a few other people who all seemed really cool as well.

The concert: it was great, but a little disappointing. For the first hour/hour and a half, they played THE HAZARDS OF LOVE. The whole album. In its entirety.

That is a LOT of the same kind of thing over and over. And what I love about the Decemberists is their subtlety, the tounge-in-cheek folk tales and clever lyrics.

The subtlety of THoL was basically getting slammed in the temple with a hammer as someone yells,"I'm artistic! I'm different! I'm artistic!"

YES! We know! We're all very impressed with your artsy-ness, complete with a woman who seems to think she has angel wings trying to fly onstage.

I just want to hear the Mariner's Revenge, dammit.

The second half of the concert was spectacular--it was great fun, even if the only real "old" song they played was "Eli the Barrow Boy," which I love. There just wasn't enough of it.

But I still LOVE the Decemberists, and I can't wait to go to a show where they're not pushing an album so hard.

FOUR MONTHS?

The "dangit I didn't get Mission Intern" has mostly worn off, mostly between the hours of 1-2 AM when I couldn't get to sleep because I was so excited. Well, I was also excited about heading up to Delaware to visit some of Shirley's friends today, but mostly about US-2.

And, AGAIN, I have been paralyzed, because there really isn't anything for me to do right now. (Crap.) Which leads us back to Shirley's constant declarations of, "You need a job."

Boo, job. I am thoroughly not interested, because pretty much the only job I would be able to get is probably total shit. And I am NOT going back to work for the city.

I should probably address that large question that has been popping up everywhere: What the crap is a US-2?

So now you know.

And knowing is half the battle.

Or not.

So now that the initial disappointment has worn off, I'm pretty stoked.

I know that I have somewhere to be in fall. My cell phone will work. I won't have to get shots. I'll still get the mission experience, and I'm only 22. I still have loads of time left to live in other parts of the world, and one opportunity begets others.

So this will be a very good experience, and I know that where I'm going is exactly where God wants me to be.

(Although, if one more person tells me, "I'm glad you won't be out of the country," I might punch them in the sternum.)

And it's a Bittersweet Symphony this life...

Bitter: John and I got hopelessly lost in the dark on the way home from the beach.

Sweet: We got to get dinner with Lauren before we left.

Bitter: It was cloudy and cold almost the whole time there.

Sweet: It was sunny the very last day.

Bitter: Huge parts of me are sunburned.

Sweet: I have a permanent imprint of John's hand on my shoulder, because he cannot apply sunscreen.

Bitter: I did not get a Mission Intern position.

Sweet: I DID get a US-2 position.

So...I don't know how to feel right now.

Weekend

I wanted to come up with a much more clever title for this blog, but oh well. This past weekend was the interview and discernment weekend for the Mission Intern program.

I really don't know how to describe it.

It was phenomenally amazing and humbling to be around so many incredible women. Literally all ten (eleven counting Suzanne) were people I would love to just sit and talk with for days on end. I felt like I got very close to many of them, but I would have celebrated more time with each of them.

I've never been in a situation where I was complete strangers with people on Friday, sharing experiences and opinions and discussing discernment and God's presence Saturday, then having frank conversations about complete and vulnerable life stories and the communion within on Sunday. It was a place that felt like total safety, where we all shared our raw pieces and understood that each of us was a child of God and deserved to be loved and guarded.

Well, it was great and fantastically noncompetitive. We won't hear anything back for several weeks, so now it's back to my favorite Waiting Game. Yay.

I admit defeat.

My iPod is dead.

I am no longer attempting to restore it--I acknowledge its whole-hearted, grinding-hard-drive sad-icon deadness.

So I am writing sad letters to Apple to try and get my purchased music redownloaded. Failing that, I will say farewell to legality and rip it from everyone I know.

In other news, I am currently packing (or not really packing yet, but emotionally preparing to pack) for the Far Away Country of New York. And I'm trying very hard not to get as freaked out about this as I want to.

Just breathe, Amanda...

Wow.

OK, so I have been waiting on pins and needles to hear from the General Board of Global Ministries about this mission intern thing and hadn't heard anything. I was starting to feel a little stressed about this, so I finally e-mailed someone.

I got a response back less than two hours. Apparently, Yahoo, For My Safety, thinks the United Methodist Church is Dangerous Spam. So my lovely e-mail that says, "Hey, come for an interview to work for Jesus in April!" got sucked up in the same junk folder as my last chance to buy a timeshare.

Fantastic! Amazing! I literally started jumping up and down. Happily, no one was home to see me fall on my knees and scream thankyouthankyouthankyou to God, but even if they were I wouldn't have cared. Now the fun part--the last day I would have been able to schedule a plane ticket?

Tomorrow.

Wow.

In short, I'm very glad God poked on me today to e-mail them. But still...couldn't He have shaved at least a week or two off ulcer-inducing stress? Sigh.

Either way...one step down!