Unruh for president

I'm running for political office. My platform is simple:

1. Be nice to everyone.
2. Mind your own business.
3. Clean up after yourself.

        OMG, but what about trickle-down economics?! What about the healthcare crisis?! But... but... the gays would win!! What do we do when our god needs to be violently defended?! I know, these are all valid points of argument, but seriously, just stop running around in a dither, sit down, and think about it for a second.

         What if we all really were nice to everyone? That would include helping them in a pinch, letting them see a doctor without asking for their papers (the money kind or the legal kind), giving them groceries when they couldn't afford it, not telling them that they couldn't apply for a job because their papers aren't in order, allowing them to go to school without charging them an arm, a leg, and the rest of their lives to pay off their loans. What if that actually happened? Well, in an ideal world, everyone would be better off. If people had an education, access to a job, and money to spend, we would eventually stop having to help them out, thus reducing this so-called “drag” on the economy (which is bullshit, by the way, not to mention incredibly dehumanizing). If we helped them out when they asked for it, maybe they might just turn around and help someone else when they asked, spreading out the “burden” on everyone else (also bullshit/dehumanizing). In my limited experience of life on earth, I have noticed that people just want to be treated with a little dignity, a little respect, to be treated like they're WORTH SOMETHING. What if we actually did that? What sort of crazy world would we live in?

         How about we all mind our own damn business once in awhile? Stop telling people what to do with their resources, their bodies, their love, their lives! Let them think for themselves! Stop snooping, demanding, legalizing/illegalizing (not really a word), outlawing, legislating, giving the run-around. Treat them like you would like to be treated.

         And for heaven's sake, clean up after yourself! If your corporation's oil rig blows up and sends the whole gulf coast into a spiraling shit-storm of a lost ecosystem, clean that up without being asked! If you accidentally drop a napkin in the street, pick it up! If you inadvertently offend someone with words or actions, apologize, so you don't accidentally start WWIII! It has happened, people! Let's just all tend to our own messes, and maybe one day we'll look up and the world will be a nice place to live in.

         Notice I laid out this whole, incredibly complex plan without invoking a deity of any kind. That's another thing that goes with “mind your own damn business.” People are pretty much happy with the god that they have. Quit the door-to-door evangelizing stuff, ok? It's annoying and a waste of your time. Stop drawing foolish cartoons, ok? No one likes to be insulted. Quit telling everyone they're going to hell because they're not part of the three people on earth (or 2 billion *ahem* Christianity) who believe what you do! No one appreciates being told they're going to be barbecue for all eternity simply because of your narrow-minded view of salvation. I'm pretty sure that a lot of wars were begun on the back of religion, a lot of people oppressed (entire cultures, or maybe just a gender or two), and a lot of unnecessary talking-but-not-doing. If you like your religion, that's great, good for you. Keep on doin' what you're doin'. If you don't, maybe you should find people who DO like their religion, and join them! If you think religion is the answer to the world's problems, keep it to yourself. If you think religion is the cause of the world's problems, keep it to yourself.

          So there you have it. I'm pretty sure I'm leaving stuff out, but I think that if we all just adhered to the three principles laid out above, they'll sort themselves out in time.

         Vote for Unruh. Or... don't. I don't care. Just be nice to everyone, mind your own damn business, and clean up after yourself. 

Incredibly ill-advised adventures: the time I met a guy off of Craigslist

            About a week and a half ago, I decided that I needed to get off my butt and do some swing dancing before I got fat and flaccid. Ben said that checking Craigslist “activities” section would be a good place to start, and lo and behold, there was a guy who ran a small studio and needed partners. So I replied via email to the guy's post, and a few days later, he told me to give him a call. I was sort of skeptical, since I'm pretty sure most of the people on Craigslist are sex offenders or something sketchy like that. So I asked for a bit of background and maybe a website for his studio. A week later, he sent a link to a half-finished website, using an email registered under a pseudonym. That was a bit of an “uhhhmm.......” moment, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt (he is a swing dancer, after all!) and gave him a ring. We ended up planning to meet on Saturday evening in the city, and then head to a studio in Emeryville to try some moves out. He told me to meet him at a cafe that was in a shopping center in Diamond Heights at 8pm, so I hopped on a bus at about 715.

            Before I left, I gave details of my potential whereabouts and the guy's number and dance studio name with Ben, so that if I did happen to end up dead in a ditch, the police would have somewhere to start. My phone also died, so I borrowed Ben's and asked him to call me at 830, to be sure that I wasn't being actively abducted or something. So, like I said, I hopped on a bus. The whole trip, I was like “Umm... this is pretty much exactly how “Taken” starts......... but the guy is a swing dancer... “Taken”..... swing dancer..... “Taken”.... swing dancer... eurgh, this is such a bad idea.””

            The bus dropped me off in Diamond Heights, but I still had to get to the shopping center, which, as it turned out, was a bit of a hike. It was actually only like 5 blocks, but when they named the place “Diamond Heights,” they sure as heck weren't kidding about the “heights” part. I'm pretty sure I climbed more than the elevation of the entire state of Kansas in one block. I'm actually not kidding. Every time I reached the base of a telephone pole, the top of the previous one was level with my face. It was literally straight uphill. And FREEZING COLD. The fog had come in, which cools down the city a lot. So I had my leather jacket, my new REI jacket, and then a t-shirt, but I was sweating, but it was cold, so... conundrum.

             After I climbed the third INCREDIBLY STEEP hill, I realized that the directions on the map were wrong and that the road I was supposed to be taking actually did not exist. So now, in addition to meeting a potentially sketchy dude off of Craigslist at 8pm in a shopping center I've never been to, at night, in the cold, now I'm also lost. This sounds like the script to pretty much every terrible horror movie ever made, except that I don't have a bunch of dumb, loudmouthed friends with me. So I trooped back down a block, over a block, and diddled around trying to find this shopping center, which I eventually did. When I reached it, I realized that the cafe I was supposed to meet this random character at was closed. Cue more sketchiness. So I sat outside and read a book and waited and pretty much froze to death and it was probably the most ill-advised act I've ever done in my life.

             Everything ended up being fine. I was not roofied and taken advantage of, or abducted, or addicted to heroin, or any of those horrible things that were flashing through my mind. The guy turned out to be a pleasant, ex-Army chaplain who was stationed at Fort Riley for a time, so that was kind of neat to make that connection. When I mentioned the Big Red One, an infantry division out of the fort, he said I must have dated my share of army guys, which lead to the awkward “umm... I'm a pacifist... a Mennonite...” discussion. But I whipped out a choice selection of Mennonite jokes and it was all good.

So there you have it. I may have a swing dance partner who is not a creepy sex-offender guy off of Craigslist, so perhaps I'll get my swing fix in after all!

A Day in the Life: Wednesday Edition

Today was a typical Wednesday. Here's a play-by-play rundown. It probably won't be as exciting as Tim Tebow's multiple touchdowns, but whatever.

600am – wake up, take a shower, do morning-related things

630am – discover I can't find the van keys

630.50 – panic

633am – find the van keys

635am – get the van out of the lot that our pupusa stand neighbors let us use (they are so nice!), get on the Interstate

645am – drive on the Interstate. Manage to not kill self or anyone else.

655am – arrive at Whole Foods in Berkeley and pick up past-dated cakes and breads for donation

725am – drive on the Interstate. Manage to not kill self or anyone else.

745am – put away breads and stuff. Take a nap.

900am – hit 15 minute snooze.

915am – realize that I shouldn't have hit snooze. Put beans on to soak and cook.

930am – chill out in the kitchen and put on some Pandora or YouTube music. Cut up onions, dilly-dally around

10am – realize that I shouldn't have dilly-dallied, and that people will want food in an hour. Run around the kitchen like a crazed maniac, alternating between washing/peeling/cutting potatoes, cooking spaghetti, sauteeing onions, stirring beans, putting out cups/plates/forks

1045am – finishing touches on everything

11am – doorbell rings. Bring plate of food. Check Facebook in down times. Repeat roughly 30 times, until 2pm.

215pm – clean up the kitchen, wash dishes, put away food, etc. Reach into drain trap to clear food from drain. Grimace and squirm and think of gross things. Drain traps are literally the most disgusting things on the planet, and that's coming from a CNA in a nursing home. I hate them so much.

230pm – sweep ALL THE THE THINGS

330pm – mop ALL THE THINGS in the basement. Watch as a resident with dirty shoes walks down my recently-cleaned and still-wet hallway. Clean bathrooms, wipe down showers, sinks, clean toilet, take out trash.

415pm – haul mop bucket upstairs. Drag hose upstairs and put it in the bucket. Tromp downstairs to turn the water on. Tromp upstairs to check the level of the water. Tromp downstairs to shut the water off. Tromp upstairs to mop ALL THE THINGS on the second level. Doorbell rings 3x, signaling a resident who wants in. Walk in dirty shoes down recently-mopped and still-wet stairs. Watch as resident in dirty shoes walks up recently-mopped and still-wet stairs. Continue mopping.

445pm – hang mop up to dry, knowing that it will never truly be dry and is a germ-filled bastion of all things disgusting. Carefully walk down back stairs with heavy, water-filled mop bucket. Get splashed repeatedly with black mop water. Rinse out mop bucket and mop-water-splashed arms.

500pm – collapse. Check Facebook.

530pm – start on supper. Get great ideas about delicious and interesting foods that are not rice and beans!!

630pm – serve supper. Watch residents eat only rice and beans and tortillas and not the delicious and interesting not-rice-and-beans food that you just prepared.

715pm – clean up, wash dishes, take out trash, clean up the kitchen. A clean kitchen is a happy kitchen!

800pm – watch a movie with Maria and Juan. Listen to Maria fall asleep and snore halfway through.

10pm – finish movie, go to my room and dink around on the Internet.

1130pm – go to bed.

So there you have it. Significantly less exciting than an ESPN radio announcer's version of Payton Manning and the Denver Broncos, but if my life were that interesting, I would have a more disposable income.  

6B - I hope you liked the multiple (3!!) sports references contained within.  

Love our Journey and Love our Homeland

        Members of the First SF church are just the nicest people I've ever met. They are SO NICE. I don't think I've ever met a more concentrated group of nice, welcoming, helpful, interesting, NICE people. Every time I've been around them, I walk away thinking “Wow, what a great bunch of people!”

        The annual First Mennonite Church retreat was this past weekend, Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Tobi and Ling, a couple from Oakland, gave me a ride to Redwood Glen, where the whole thing was held. They are really cool, and super easy to talk to, which is great, because I'd only met Tobi once for like 10 minutes. We took Highway 1 down to the camp, which is pretty much the most scenic road in the world. It runs right by the beach for miles and miles. We stopped by one of the beaches and it was totally gorgeous. I love beaches, and people who take me to beaches.

        The first thing I noticed about the camp was how QUIET it was. At the house, it is never quiet. If someone's not walking around on the creaky wooden floors upstairs, then the car wash is blasting music, the fire trucks are shrieking, the street is busy, some moron is whipping kitties in the street, the lady next door is exercising by walking back and forth and back and forth in heels in the walkway, or a multitude of other things. I haven't heard silence in weeks. It wasn't necessarily oppressive silence, but definitely something to make you sit up and take notice. And the trees are so tall here! They're redwoods, just babies, but they dwarf Kansas cottonwoods by a good 50 feet! It was a very beautiful and serene setting for a weekend away from the city.

        The first evening we were there, Friday, we just sat around and talked and ate food and got to know each other better. Saturday morning was a church meeting where we talked a lot about the discernment process that is currently going on in the church regarding our newfound size. I guess the church used to be like 60 people, but within the last five years it's gone up to about 120 or something, so there are some obvious issues associated with that growth. It was kind of cool to be in on the inner workings of the church. That's something I've never really been a part of, either because I was too young to really care, or because most of that stuff is usually confined to board meetings and the like. But the discernment committee did a great job of being like “Ok, here's some stuff that we're thinking about doing. We know, it's change, and that can be a little scary... what are some responses right now?” And the church did a great job of being like “Yeah, we're a little apprehensive, but we're definitely open to suggestions and stuff.” That was refreshing for sure, since one of the churches I attend at home practically split over the idea of pew cushions, and let's not even mention the idea of putting in an A/C!

        The afternoon was spent learning to quilt! My goal this year is to learn how to quilt, and then piece and quilt my Sunbonnet Sue applique project. After stabbing my fingers several times, I got it figured out! And the more experienced quilters said I was going a good job, and that my stitches were nice and even and small, so that was really nice to hear. Other people from the church played kickball, Ultimate!, went on a hike/walk, played games, or just sat around and talked. There was a hymn sing at 430, while we quilted, which I think is just about as Mennonite as it gets! The people here are great singers, too. A lot of people (mostly Mennonites) say that we are very humble people. I think that is pretty correct, except for when we sing. We are good and we know it. Heaven forbid we clap for ourselves or others when they sing, but we all know that it was a damn fine job.

         Sunday morning, Ben and I took a little walk through the redwoods, which was super cool. They are just so tall! I can't get over how huge they are! Then we had a church service, where we acted out our representations of the Kingdom of God. I was kind of like “umm” about that whole thing, but everyone else seemed to really like it. After dinner, Ben and I took a longer walk, and I stopped about every 5 steps to take pictures of something or another. Poor guy. Sometimes I wonder if he feels like he plays second fiddle to my camera!

         Tobi and Ling took me home, too. On the way, we stopped by Tobi's friend's house. She works for Google, and helped develop Google Maps. Checkmark in the “meet a Google employee” box. She's also from Wyoming, so we had a nice little “Oh yeah, California is totally different from Kansas or Wyoming” country-girl chat.

          Most of this summer was spent being angsty about moving to California. I was unsure of how I would be able to relate to the church, find friends, and stay sane while I was out here. I didn't want to leave my comfortable, happy little existence in Newton, where all my friends were, and everything was familiar and easy. I like Kansas, and I still miss it. I miss Bethel, and I miss all of my friends that are still there. But I am glad that I have met these people at First. I am glad that I came out here and met people who were different, from outside my sphere of experience. I am glad that I met a church who seems to be able to function well and healthily in the midst of increasing growth and change. At this point, I still definitely prefer the Midwest, but for now, the Bay Area is ok, too.  

OMG MY CAMERA IS FIXED!!!!!!!!

      For a few days here this past week, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. I literally had nothing to do, all day, most days of the week. My phone is on it's last legs and I'm in a heated email exchange with the provider; my camera was broken; my laptop is too slow to work on my timelapse stuff; and none of my favorite shows start until later this month. Because I spent this past summer working my butt off, all day, every day, all summer, up and running around for 8 or 15 hours a day, when I suddenly have nothing to do, and no one to do it with, I get incredibly bored. A lot of you would say “Oh gee, free time, what a TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO-GOOD VERY BAD thing to have!” Well... when all of your hobbies involve photography, and your camera is broken, there's not a lot of options.

BUT NOW THAT'S ALL CHANGED!!!!!!!!!

          Yesterday, I decided to update our resources book, which has like 100 pages of homeless housing, hot meal options, Spanish-speaking resources, medical information, etc, etc. And it hasn't been updated in years and years. Some of the agencies don't even exist anymore, and a lot of the numbers have changed. Coming from a hospital, where everything is painstakingly updated yearly, if not monthly, it was a bit of a shock. And none of it has dates of insertion on it! I have no idea how old the papers are! Yvonne and Stephanie at the Clay Center Hospital business office would just have a STROKE if they could see it! So that's one thing I've been working on.

         I also received a big box of stuff from my parents – hangers, an alarm clock, a couple of dresses, and of course, a plastic pat of butter. Haha. They are so funny. I decided to start a computer class at the house for a few of our residents. I asked what they wanted to learn, and Maria said “Can you teach us how to use a mouse?” So I guess it'll be from step 1.

         Today was our bi-weekly team meeting, during which SSusan got frustrated because there are some things that we haven't been doing because we have no training manual for the house. So that's another thing I could work on. She also gave me some more stuff to do. A lady also stopped by and donated another computer, so now I have 3 that I can use for my class! She gave me an Excel project to work on, and that made me very happy, because I love Excel, and thanks to Yvonne and Stephanie, who made me do like 100s of Excels at the business office, I am an EXCEL MASTER.

          Some postcards also arrived for me, courtesy of Grace. They illustrate how to effectively parallel park, a technique which I have been avoiding as much as possible.  Aren't they just the CUUUUUUUTEST?!?!?!  If you send me cute postcards, I will feature them on this blog.

          AND BEST OF ALL MY CAMERA WAS FIXED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON'T HAVE TO USE A POINT AND SHOOT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN GO TO CHURCH RETREAT WITH A RESPECTABLE PIECE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you know me well at all, all of those exclamation points can be pictured as me hopping on one foot and flapping my hands violently. If you don't know me well, then I guess I'm sure you'll see it at some point or another.

So I think I'll make it. My computer is still a slow piece of crap, my cell phone (or rather the provider) is still a giant d-canoe, and my shows still won't start until next week at the earliest, BUT MY CAMERA IS FIXED AND I HAVE THINGS TO DO. And that's the important part.  

Look-Alikes

        Today, Ben and I were told by the First pastor that we looked very similar, because of our short, sideswept, blondy-brown hair, very blue eyes, and general Mennonite phenotype. Ok, that is so not true! He has a beard-thing! I don't!

        A couple from the church who lives in Oakland picked me up this morning, saving me a 1.5 hour commute and more importantly, a $5 train ticket! Thanks to their generosity, I was at the church in about 20 minutes. Ben was a greeter, so I stayed to help him greet. My ulterior motive, however, was to examine a table full of Jewish books that had been put out by the synagogue. I found a collection of Jewish folk tales, and a copy of the Apocrypha. I also found a little book on how to speak Yiddish, which I thought Martin Olson would like, but alas, I forgot to pick it up after church.

        After church, Ben and I hit the city, heading to Yerba Buena in downtown, and then out to one of the piers by the Ferry Building. It was a really nice day, sunny, and warm enough, with a nice breeze. It was nice to see Ben again, even though we'd seen each other like, 4 days ago! We watched the sailboats on the bay, which was super nice because it reminded me of my tiny crappy little sailboat that I learned to sail while I was at Camp Friedenswald. Except the ones here are a lot bigger – they have a cabin! And more than one sail! Mine was about 8' long and had one triangular sail, with space for one other person, if that person was a midget. We talked about some stuff that we wanted to do while we're here. My list included:

1. Find a climbing gym
2. Find a swing-dancing place
3. Learn to sail again (on a big-girl boat!)
4. Go to Muir woods
5. Go ice skating
6. Go to Hardly Strictly bluegrass festival
7. Take the Amtrak down to Fresno for the April MCC Sale
8. Do some timelapse stuff

His list included:

1. Spend quality time with his girlfriend and other close friends

Gosh, what a sweetie! I'm not gonna go all mushy and gross on you all, because lord knows I hate that stuff, but he's really a great guy, and I like him a lot. I think it's important that you all know that.  

I'm gonna look like the Incredible Hulk by the time this is all over

            The last two days have been pretty long and tiring. This past week was my first “real” week of work, done without the help of previous volunteers. On Monday, our core team (Maribel, Don Petronilo, and myself) met and discussed how things were going to work. That was nice to finally have that hashed out, since I'd sort of been making stuff up for a week, which is not how I prefer to do things.

           Wednesday was a pretty big day for me. I left the house at 630 with Don Petronilo and Maria, one of our residents, and headed to Whole Foods in Berkeley to get some “used bread” and slightly stale cakes. It was terrifying. I had to drive the van during the first part of rush hour on the Interstate. And I got sort of lost twice. Mostly because I don't know which way south is, and when the directions say to go south, well, I just pick right or left. I chose wrong. But now I know which way NOT to go, so that's good, I guess. Learning experience, yay.

            At about 9, I started cooking, my first time without any help. I made pinto beans and rice, like we do most days. It's easy and we always have the ingredients. Definitely gets pretty boring, so I'm sure I'll branch out more at some point. I did find out that pinto beans expand a lot when they're cooked. So that was interesting. I had to dip some out of the big pot and put them in a smaller pot. And then of course, I ran out of food at about 1230, so I made more, but then no one showed up to eat it. So I had a lot of extra food. Woohoo for leftovers.

           Juan, another of our residents, had to run some errands in Hayward, further south of Oakland, so I took time off of cleaning the house to take him around. That also involved Interstate driving. So far, no one has died, so I guess I'll call it a successful venture. When I returned, I finished cleaning, made a pasta salad, reheated all of our beans, and served supper to our residents and several members of the board, who were having a meeting. Ben also came over, and it was nice to see him. I'm afraid I wasn't very good company – I was so pooped! We watched “Up!” with Maria and I worked on my applique.

            Thursday (today) is our weekly food distribution day. At about 830, the Alameda County Food Bank dropped off pallets of potatoes, sweet potatoes, watermelons, and cauliflower. Don Petronilo and I were the only ones at the house, so this random homeless guy stopped to help us. The bags of potatoes weight like 50lbs, and the boxes of sweet potatoes are 40lbs, and since there were only 3 of us, I lifted and moved a lot of pounds of potatoes. I'm going to look like the Incredible Hulk by the time this is all over.  Or Wes Goodrich.  Handy as that would be, I think that the hassle of buying clothes to fit my new physique would really outweigh any potential benefits.

            We actually distribute food from 11 until whenever we run out of normal food and people don't want to take any more sweet potatoes. We always have a lot of sweet potatoes. Our primary clients are Hispanics (a lot of Mayan/Guatemalan women, actually, which is exciting), and Vietnamese. Occasionally there are some African Americans, but not a lot. The line for food stretches around the block, and is usually about 300 people, but we never know for sure because a lot of people get their food, loop around, and stand in line again (and again). I feel like that's sort of disrespectful because we have a lot of people that are still coming at noon or 1 when we're starting to run out, and so sometimes people get 2 watermelons and some get none. And no matter how many times I tell people they can only have one of something because there are so many people and only so much food to share, there will always be those few that swipe a couple of extras when they think I'm not looking. So that's kind of frustrating, but I guess that's how it goes.

            So now I'm just vegging out in my room, recovering from the last two days and from speaking and thinking in Spanish all day long. It's exhausting. I hope everyone back home is having a good time, what with the start of school and jobs and whatnot. I love you all and miss you very much.

Food that involves meat

       This weekend, I went into San Francisco (hereafter referred to as “the city” because San Francisco takes too long to type) to visit Ben and to go to a church get-together on Sunday. Ben was still in Berkeley, cleaning up his house-sitting place, so I helped with that. Then we had to move all of his stuff out. He had to lug his laundry hamper all the way to the BART station (inter-city train system) and then all around the city. Poor guy. We then got to the MVS house and I met all of the house again and talked to Alyssa Schrag. It was really nice to see another Bethelite. We talked about how much we missed our mods and how it was hard to be here knowing that everything was still going on at Bethel and we were missing out on it. Then Ben and I went out to eat at a Thai place around the corner. It was one of those places where spending more money doesn't necessarily mean you'll get more food.

          The next day, we hopped on BART again and went to Oakland to meet the First Mennonite church people. They were having a picnic and chili cook-off in Alameda. I don't actually know where Alameda is in relation to the rest of the world, but it's somewhere, and it's an island, and it's a nice place to be. The chili was also super good, mostly because it contained meat (we don't really have that at OCW) and because it wasn't beans and rice. 

I met a LOT of people there, some of which I had met before and forgotten about. I'm working on remembering everyone's names, a feat that is made easier by the fact that at least half of them are Mennonite names, meaning that I don't have to learn any new pronunciations or new last names. There were also a lot of games going on. Ben and I won the three-legged race! It was very exciting, but now I have a bruise on my leg from where the band cut in. There was also watermelon seed spitting, water balloon tossing, and a new game – Bohnanza! It involves planting beans and trading beans in order to plant more beans. It was kind of confusing at first, ultimately a lot of fun. I had a great time hanging out with all of the young recent college graduates of First. There are a lot of them and they are all very nice. They're also almost all from Mennonite colleges, or know Mennonites, so we can play The Mennonite Game really well.

 These are some of the people from First

 Alyssa dommed it up at the water balloon throwing contest

 Ben's great hair allowed him to get maximum amounts of distance in the seed spitting contest.

Rosanna Kaufman (previously worked at OCW), Ben, and Meg learn to play Bohnanza.

It was really nice to be able to get away from the house and hang out with English-speaking white people of my own age. That sounds really horrible and racist and whatever, but I can walk all the way to the BART stop (a mile and a half) and not see a single white person.  And that's fine and whatever, it's just so far out of my realm of experience that it's worth noting.  And I speak Spanish almost all day every day, so to be able to chatter on in English without having to worry about how to conjugate a future reflexive verb is just so nice. And all of the people in my house are over 50, I'm pretty sure, so it's nice to be able to hang out with people who are at the same stage in life as I am.

         All in all, it was a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to hanging out with the church people on a regular basis.   

A few photos for your perusal

Ok, I've finally gotten around to editing some photos.  Lag time of about a week, I'm so embarrassed!  It's usually only a few hours!

 Here is a picture of the observation car of the Amtrak.  It is full of British people.

 This is my applique project for the year.  I am about halfway done with the blocks.

 The scenery was very pretty most of the time.  This is part of western Colorado, I think.

 There was a brief but heavy rainstorm as we passed through Utah.  This is the pretty rainbow I mentioned.

 Very nice reflections.

 When I arrived, Ben and I took a tour of the Berkeley campus.  This is the UC Berkeley equivalent of Krehbiel Science Hall.  Had I been a student here, I would have set up a cot and had a hot plate in the lobby.

 We had a "yay birthday, yay job" supper.

This is the living space in my house.  It is very orange, but the boxes of lettuce and bags of plums usually aren't present.  They are just there for a few hours on Thursday, before our giant food distribution.

There are a lot more photos on Facebook, if you somehow missed the giant album that I just uploaded.