The one time that I met a Goessel Mennonite on BART

         OH MY GOSH ALL THE THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, for real, that's why I haven't written anything for 2 weeks. Sorry about that. So, a recap:

         Two weeks ago was Bethel's and KU's Spring Breaks. So Grace and Natalie came to visit Friday through Friday. We went to church, went to Marin, saw the redwoods, did the touristy things, and hung out. For more on that, see my recent Facebook album.

         On that same Friday, I found out that I got a job at UCSF. So I was like “OMG IF I HAVE A JOB I CAN'T LIVE AT THE CATHOLIC WORKER MUST FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO LIVE!!!!” So I was spamming out my information on Craigslist (quantity over quality is my strong suit, apparently), responding to the emails, and visiting houses. I've probably seen like 10. And let me tell you, house hunting is literally the worst thing ever. Worse than a job interview. At least with a job interview, you can be like “Yeah, I have this knowledge, and this knowledge, and this knowledge, and I am a good fit for your organization because of this and this and this.” You have obvious, quantifiable, skills. Searching for a room in a house is different. You have to fit in with the people already living in the house.   And you don't know how you'll fit in the house until you meet them. So you have to be kind of fun, kind of cool, laid back, clean, not up in their business, have a job, be ok with all sorts of activities, not eat meat, not bring meat into the house, not have a dog or a cat, not have visitors EVER, and never ever host parties. Really. Some people are ridiculous. So like I said, I spent the last two weeks looking at a house or two a day. I was also doing training for my new job, so it was like this – Get up at 6am, get to BART, ride transit for an hour, get to class at 8, leave class at 5, go around the area and look at houses until 7, get home at 8, spam out more requests until 9 or 10, go to sleep, repeat. Exhausting.

          One of the first houses that I saw was perfect, and it tainted the rest of them. It was cute, in a nice neighborhood (no shootings/graffiti/prostitutes), near transit/grocery stores, was inhabited by intelligent science-y people, and was immaculate. I loved it as soon as I walked in. But they were like, “Yeah, we'll call you in a couple days!” and then I didn't hear from them. Later, I saw the same house on Craigslist, so I was like “Ok, well, that's too bad, on the to next house!” So on Saturday, I was just about ready to seal the deal with one of two OTHER houses, when an email from the first house pops up, being like “Hey, we want to live with you!” So yeah. I wish they had told me about a week ago, because my week would have been so much less horrible. But on the bright side, I HAVE A HOUSE THAT I REALLY AM EXCITED ABOUT!!!! So I'll move in here in the next week or so. I have to do the rental agreement and pay a bunch of money and stuff like that, but then I'll be good to go!

          Also, I have a pretty great story for you guys. I was on BART last Friday, headed to see Ben. I was just chillin' out with my bike, on a pretty packed car, listening to my iPod and not paying attention to anything. Then this dude sitting next to me tapped me on the arm and pointed to a pin on my bag. Ryan Goertzen bought it for me for Christmas and it says “Time to sing 606. It's a Mennonite thing.” And he was like “Dude, where'd you get that?” And I said “Um... my cousin bought it for me?” And he was like “Dude, I'm Mennonite!!” And I was like “?!?!?!!!!!?!????!!!!!!!!!! Whereabouts?” “Kansas. Goessel.” And I did a weird little “!!!!!?????!?!!!!!?!??!!!?????!!!!!!!!” dance and shrieked “OMG I WENT TO BETHEL AND I'M RELATED TO HALF OF GOESSEL!!!!!!!” And he was like “Yeah, my name is Schultze, Chase Schultze.” “Unruh. Claire.” “Are you related to Marie Unruh?” “She's my cousin!” “Dude, I TOTALLY know who you are! She came to San Francisco and visited me a couple months ago, and we looked at your Facebook profile!” “Yeah? Well I bet you know Ryan Goertzen then? He's the one who gave me this pin! He's my second cousin!”

         It was probably one of the coolest things that has happened to me so far. Rando guy on BART happens to be a Mennonite from Goessel Kansas. What are the chances that he'd even be on BART at the same time, in the same car, sitting right next to me, and then be checking out my pin?!!? So we proceeded to have a nice little chat about stuff. That's what I love about Mennonites (among many other things) – as soon as you meet one, you have an instant connection – you already know what they believe in, you probably have several mutual friends, and you don't have to explain all the acronyms! Then we went our separate ways, but as Ben and I were coming back from supper, we ran into him again! So we had a couple of drinks together and talked some more. It was awesome, and it made my whole day.