My view this afternoon is of a fresh French Press of my favorite coffee right now, my journal, bible, laptop, and my front porch. I find myself more and more satisfied in the smaller things in life such as porch time with coffee and my thoughts. Today is one of the most beautiful days this year, low 70's calm breeze and not a cloud in sight. However with all of the beauty of Eugene comes pollen and the wonders that accompany it. A small price to pay for me.Last weekend I enjoyed an entire weekend by myself at home and frolicked in my clean house with no roommates to clean up after. It was such a great feeling to come home to a house just as I left it, but it was nice to have people back come monday.
This week brought a welcomed change of pace and kept me going strong. I started some of the work for my job next year. I began to recruit a team of leaders for small groups next year with had great success thus far. I would like to have a minimum of 6 groups next year and would love to see up to 10. That translates into a team of 12-20 people I was awaiting the go ahead to talk to people for some time and finally got the thumbs up on Sunday. I spend my entire day Wednesday meeting with people. I had 8 meetings and all but two were at coffee shoppes leaving me quite jittery but got 4 commitments and 4 maybe's so it was a great day! You can be praying that I can get committed and passionate leaders on board for next year, my time frame is by the first week of June.
Yesterday I enjoyed another day of meetings and fun in the sun, and topped the afternoon off with some house hunting for next year. My friend Dan and I walked around an area of town we are interested in moving to and really liked the area but found no leads as of yet. I'm still working through what I want to do for next year, so I'll just keep on until I find some direction. After our walk we joined up with some friends for a free show of 4 local bands and had a great time! I even got a free CD, Woohoo!
Perhaps the best part of the show came when I ran into a guy I met at the start of the year and hadn't seen since. His name is Neal and is a Yooper (a person from the Upper Penninsula of Michigan) here with Green Peace, and the only other true hockey fan I've met here. What a joy it was to have someone tap me on the shoulder and say "how 'bout them wings eh?" I think I giggled a bit. We took the all important step of phone number swapping and I'll have some great company for the next few weeks as the NHL playoffs continue. There is something surreal about meeting people from former homes of mine. It was so fun to chat about things like Makinak Island, Bells Brewery, Traverse City, and foreign concepts to most people like lake effect snow, wind chills, or playoff beards.
Recently I've realized just how much I am connected to every place I've lived and want to retrace my steps in the near future and revisit. I am thinking of a trip back to MI to see family at the end of the summer as a start. I have not been back to Michigan since I moved in 1998 and haven't seen anyone from there since 2005 when my Grandma came to my High School graduation, so I'm well over due! I'll keep you posted as I find out more details of the trip.
Until next time,
~B
