Sailing video

Getting fancier everyday. This is a video Emre, Karen's husband, took today of the Eleanor sail around the three small islands off the coast of their town.

Karen mentioned that sometimes I don't give background on who's who. So for the record: Karen is my friend from college. We met my first year/her sophomore year and have been friends ever since. I spent part of my first spring break with her in Long Island and NYC and we met MCA from the Beastie Boys--her longtime 'boyfriend'. ["Do you remember that?" "Uh, yeah. The biggest shock of my life is that I married someone who doesn't know who MCA is."] When she was studying abroad during grad school, I visited her in Vienna and we traveled together through Romania, Hungaria, and finally Turkey(!).

She met her husband Emre (who is Turkish but grew up in Germany) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan while I was living there. We lived in adjacent neighborhoods in Brooklyn for a while before she moved to Turkey and I moved to Richland.

And with that, here's the video:

"iyak shamlar"

That's a rough phonetic for 'good evening' in Turkish.

Today I visited the town castle and saw 1st century glass work. There was an alabaster jar in another display but it doesn't look as cool as these. Maybe it was the lighting. Every new conquering empire built a tower so the castle is a mish mosh of eras but very cool.


Wouldn't be my blog without a food photo. This was a portion of tonight's dinner wonderfully prepared by Emre's mom. Emre told me today that Anatolia is literally Lots of Moms. The Turks love their mothers. In the background, you can see the green bean and tomato dish made by Emre's dad, his specialty. I'm sure Turks love their dads too.

Not only was dinner delectable and the view stunning, Emre's mom also picked these flowers from her garden for Karen. And then on our way out, they bought some more peasant bread that we eat for breakfast from the 90-year-old neighbor lady.

Here's my reflection in the window. If you look carefully, you'll see their view reflected as well. Amazing, right?

I've been specifically careful to not give out last names of my hosts or any of their kids' names. I will continue this rule, as a note to my future hosts. Isn't she cute?

Random stuff:
- I burned out my Sonicare charger in Poland so back to manual brushing for me. Tough life.
- Steamed milk really makes the latte for me. Karen and Emre have a fancy coffee machine here. Everyone has had pretty great coffee options everywhere I've stayed: Nancy with her Cafe du Monde, Joyce's sister's mini-maker, Shannon with her french press, Colleen's cup-at-a-time, David's lattes, Gosia's coffee-ala-Gosia, and now here!
- Did I mention that several of the kids from Chinese church in Richland have been emailing me? It's great. Julie tells me about the WASL, Tiffany got baptized on Easter, and Grace forwards me funny stuff. Alex even wrote once. I'm very honored.

Sailing sailing

I know, I know. Weeks without any photos and I get to Turkey and it's like instantaneous. Maybe it's because Karen and Emre watch TV and surf the internet on his and her laptops, maybe it's because I forgot to talk about the amazing garden and wildflowers that just GROW here, or maybe it's because it's so slow (in a good way) here that I feel like I have more time. Regardless, here are some pix from today and yesterday.

In their front yard. Along with hibiscus and roses and syrupy-sweet smelling shrubs.

Lunch today at Sakiz Ana, a peasant-type place where this lady dishes up for you garbanzo beans in tomato-onion sauce, stuffed bell peppers, dolmas, and a nice spinach and rice stewp, with hot peppers and raw onion garnish on your table to amp up the white rice and ubiquitous yogurt.
Main sail and tell tales from the helm of their 36' yacht. Finally (Stacey), friends with boat. :)

Me at said helm. Emre let me steer in deep water where there wasn't danger of running aground on the many islands.

Close up of the Aegean Sea water.

The sunset view from their balcony.

Sweet dreams ya'll.

Turkey for me

There's this old Adam Sandler skit wherein he sings about how much he loves to eat turkey (if you ask Anna, she will attest to my similar adoration of turkey). My sister Delphine and I sing the bits of it we remember during Thanksgiving.

I sit in the quiet living room of Karen and Emre's apartment in Bodrum, Turkey. And though I just posted a big long one, I thought it'd be nice to just record a day's thoughts or so. Mix things up a bit.

I arrived yesterday evening after a bus, another bus, a flight, another flight, a bus, and a final car ride. Karen is so excited to make day trip plans for me to see other parts of Turkey she went to bed really late. Which was kind of bad because their cute-as-can-be daughter woke up at 7am. The last (and only other) time I've met their little girl, she was a few months old. Now she's walking and talking (in English and Turkish and some German slang) and playing. Adorable!

Today, after a nice solar-heated water shower, and a breakfast of bread and cheese and honey, Karen drove me around the country side which is spectacular. Mountains, sea, masses of wildflowers, cows, roosters, windmills, gentle blue sky. We both had tea for 1 Turkish Lyra at the chai shack (I forgot the real word and Karen's asleep) and looked at the tourists (the season is just getting into swing) wading through shallow water to a low slung island. There was a little shark for sale with other fish and a flat lobster, never seen one of those before.

After a cheese omelet back at their place, baby girl took a nap and Karen and I flipped through pages of a guidebook and talked more about the many options I have. Emre came home and their daughter woke up, we drove to Bodrum town and walked around. At one point, we met up with Emre's mom and her friend to say hi. Earlier in the day, the two of them had visited a new hammam only to discover today is men's day. Funny.

Karen bought a new pair of really cool sunglasses, their girl played on a swing, we inquired about my bus/ferry options to the Greek island of Rhodes and it's not going to work so I'm probably going to Kos instead on Wednesday, should be nice.

Iskender kebab for dinner, roasted cubes of meat over thick bits of yogurt covered pita bread. Yum. Then back home. Oh, first we had to stop for ice cream--same place Karen and I stopped last night. Bath time, email/fb check, TV and now, bed. What a nice day. Easy, pretty, yummy. It is a form of paradise here.

I asked them how they keep up with world news, thinking that if I lived here, I'd never know what was going on Out There. They said their CNN international coverage probably guarantees they're more informed than the Rest of Us. I assented.

We may rendezvous in September in Athens after my Greece/Israel tour for a sail back to Turkey. How fabulous?

I miss my nieces and nephew and am glad to dote and goof around with their sweet daughter in my absence from my own beloveds. Happy sighs.

Two 28-year-olds

Gosia and Stacey are both 28. My best friend in Richland and my best friend in, well, Poland.

This is a bakery by the bus stop. We catch the 718 to go to Gosia's apartment. Easy to remember because it's the Brooklyn area code.

Resurrection Sunday morning, we got up and caught the 9:30 bus to Gosia's church which is held in a movie theatre--very Bethel West Pasco. It was a shorter-than-normal service full of singing and prayer. I was especially touched by all the men praying. Gosia stood behind me and Stacey whispering translation to us. We shook hands with some of the congregants and the pastor and his wife. Her mom met us there and her dad picked us up.

This was the small lunch (taught Gosia the word 'nosh') not to be confused by dinner that Gosia's mom served us. Later, Gosia's sister, nephew, grandfather (jadek), and grandfather's girlfriend arrived for dinner. Lesser eating followed by greater eating. Followed by, in my case, a nap. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

After I woke and a bit more talking (Grandfather recited a very funny poem in English and I was embarrassed at not being able to reply with another poem--in English or Polish)Gosia's sister dropped us off here at the King's Bath Garden/Chopin Park and we strolled around like the stuffed birds we were. Somehow I managed to fit in a waffle--strawberry jam and chocolate syrup.

This was from the previous night at Starbucks, Gosia demonstrating Polish body language for 'being friendly'.

Monday morning, Gosia bid us farewell at the elevator and her kindly father took Stacey and me to the Central train station. He waited with us on the main concourse, walked us to our platform, led us to the correct place where our car (wagon) would pull up, blocked out some old ladies and ushered us onto the train, and ultimately I think I saw his baseball cap on the platform as the train departed. What a sincere moment feeling the doctrine of adoption.

Krakow is about three hours from Warsaw so it was still mid-morning when we arrived. A quick cab ride to our Hotel Jan and check in was smooth. Stacey rested a bit before we set out to wander the Old Town (Staremiasto) open square, market, cavernous cafe where Stacey had her first pierogi, shops, and closed museums--Easter Monday is an all-Poland holiday.

The next day we went to a museum and looked at armor and swords and the DaVinci painting "Lady with Ermine". Then we walked down to Wawel Castle and contented ourselves with the exterior courtyard. Here, a successful volley in the on-going photo war Stacey and I have.

Hyacinths in the Wawel Castle courtyard, I kept commenting how good it smelled. We walked back and saw the remaining bits of Old Town, spring is in full bloom. And collected our luggage and walked to the train station. I think I'm turning into my mother. Happy to sit outside the train station for half an hour if that means I don't have to hurry and rush.

This is our sleeper cabin to Berlin. I love this picture. The bottom of the three bunks was occupied by a very nice Polish woman who has been living in Berlin for the last 14 years. We communicated in Spanish. Though the car was very hot, I enjoyed meeting her and rested decently.

Our room at the Hotel Pension Elba on BleibstraBen was so pretty. I took many photos of the curtains and accents. You can see Mooch next the photo of my nieces and nephew. Continental breakfast was vastly superior to those of my past hotel stays: fresh mozzarella, gouda, chevre, prosciutto, rolls, hot milk for coffee, boiled eggs, ripe strawberries, apricot jam...The unlit candles were green and the walls happy yellow. I told Stacey it reminded me of A Room With A View where I could envision all the pension guests sitting down to dinner together.

In college art history, I particularly loved learning about Bauhaus. This colors my view of Germany in that I think all their design is so clever and graceful. Contextualizing it with my visit to the Warsaw Rising museum and, later, the Saxonhausen camp (see below), I realize Bauhaus fell just between the first and second world wars. An unusual time of peace for Germany and it shows what beauty can come of freedom from oppression. That's my semi-educated opinion.

Even this window display of a toilet is lovely. This doesn't happen in the States.

Wednesday, the day of our arrival, we joined a walking tour of the main sites in Berlin. This is across the street from a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. These Berlin Bear statues are dotted around the city. Mooch makes an unusually energetic appearance. It was a great tour even though it was five hours long. Our very knowledgeable and good-looking guide Derek from Canadia kept us moving through the museums, churches, memorials and thinking through the 20th century.

Here's a memorial to the strike on June 17, 1953 by East German workers. It's juxtaposed with a large Communist mural on the nearby wall of the built-by-Nazis-currently-Finance-department office.

After the tour, we went to the Staatsoper where Macbeth was showing. I can only guess that it was an Italian opera--the subtitles were in German so I never really knew for sure. The costumes were kabuki and space-aged style. Even though Stacey was enjoying it, we left at intermission to have dinner. Never found the restaurant Linsey told me about so wound up at Cafe So in Kreuzberg across the street from the Hebbel Theatre. The waitress was very kind about my English. And eventually we got back to the hotel safe.

The next day, we took a different tour by the same company to Saxonhausen, the capitol concentration camp run by the Nazis in WWII in that it was where the special prisoners went and where they experimented with gas chamber methods before deploying them to other camps. This is the first gate that read 'Work will set you free' which was likewise promulgated to other camps as those trained here went onto leadership in other more notorious camps like Birkenau and Treblinka. Very grim but something in me is satisfied by seeing a death camp with my own eyes. I've been told a lot, seen lots of pictures but to walk the same earth as thousands of murdered people is...real.

Our tour guide Nigel was great to inject some levity where appropriate, commenting about the side mirrors on buses that are tourist catchers, and the best place for the loo.

Back in Berlin proper we went to the Deutsche Guggenheim where the exhibit was "Picturing America: Photorealism in the 1970s". Really cool. There was even a painting of the NY Guggenheim. The museum shop had a graffiti coloring book, and some great postcards. I picked up an Optrixx for Gosia, who said she'll use it in her classroom to indicate the student in charge.

Then we went to see what I thought was going to be a movie on Bull Dancing from Brazil at the Hebbel. Had I thought a little harder, I would have realized it must be performance and must be outlandish given that I only know of the theatre because Big Art Group has performed there. Anyhow, I really liked it but Stacey had major objections and this was (after a day apart) gainful in the emotional health and depth of our friendship. (Yay counseling! Yay Emotionally Healthy Spirituality!)

Thursday, we indeed took our separate routes through Berlin--I to the Bauhaus Archive (photographs of New York in the 1940s--I've decided there's a deep love affair between Berlin and NYC) and she through Tiergarten--and met up for lunch at Monsieur Vuong. Then I wandered through the Neue Nationalgalerie and neighboring sculpture sites, witnessing Berliners sun themselves and shop. Here's Mooch with Alexander Calder's Tetes et Queue (Heads and Tails). We rendezvoused outside the Zoo Station and then got our last bratwurst before collecting our stuff and getting back on the train. This time, we were an HOUR early so had more than sufficient time to settle and chat and pray. It was Godsend, truly.

The three-bunker was just ours on this return trip. And the conductor took very good care of us, bringing us coffee and tea respectively in the morning and making sure we knew which way to walk after debarking.This is my favorite word in Polish: Uwaga--meaning 'Attention!' printed on the very cup of coffee furnished by the kind conductor.

So, observing the Sabbath today as 1) directed to in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and 2) commanded by God. It's been nice to drink tea and blog. Gosia's flipping through a catalog and Stacey is napping/journaling.

I love you, my dear readers, and hope you are edified and resting in the particular rhythm for your life. More to come, as it happens. Next stops: Turkey and Montenegro.

Photos/Wontoning

NYC:

with Juanita at Tom's













Alex and Meg over hotpot













With Chrissy outside Columbia University













FLORIDA:

Jules and Ken at The Sanibel Cafe, table 2

Chicken salad with grapes

Beach bike

































WONTON-MAKING:

My favorite brand of wrappers available at Kan Man Foods on Canal Street












Step 1: mix ground pork, chopped shitake mush-rooms, and finely diced onions, green onions, garlic, ginger. I think I used shallots too.











Step 2: moisten two adjacent sides of the wrapper













Step 3: spoon mixture (I like to say a cubic quarter size) into middle of wrapper, if in doubt, go less.











Step 4: fold to match up moistened edges with dry to form a stuffed triangle












Step 5: moisten one corner, then fold dry corner over it and press












Repeat until you're out of wrappers or mixture. It took me about 40 minutes to do these.













OTHER NYC:

With Linsey in Dumbo

Dinner with Natalie at the Islands

















Dinner by Tiffany

Trending towards food photos by newly-arrived Stacey and Juanita. This was at Le Pain Quotidien.

Bunny and Monkey

Writing from Gosia's apartment (which is huge btw) in Warsaw.

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Monday, I painted two walls in Northern Pear Tree. Very slowly. Then blogged the two-ago entry. After she got off work, Juanita and I met on the 7 to go to Tiffany's place. We arrived early to a text message that she was on her way so we wified in the entry. Oblivious to the comings and goings of the other apartment residents. Tiffany welcomed me with a request to go to Duane Reade to pick up paper towels. Juanita asked for white thread to sew a button. I got distracted in the candy aisle and eventually returned with the listed items and three packs of Cadbury mini eggs. Tiffany's place looks great, she's made lots of nice improvements (including paint) over the past two years. And a sweet couch with fun, colorful pillows. She fed us Portobello mushroom pizza (basically sandwiched between mozzarella--yum) and pasta and asparagus. Photo to come. (I know you're saying: promises, promises.) We talked about Driscoll and TSC and parents and friends and growth. It was good. Juany and I headed home around 9pm. I am now a 7 train fan.

Tuesday, I painted the Driftwood walls. Quickly. Because I met Linsey at her Jersey City apartment (well, technically the PATH Grove St. station) at 2PM. Her place with Kristin is a calm sanctuary with plants and amazing furniture. Lunch was mushroom risotto with rosemary. And coffee. We talked about work and the arts and old times and she gave me some tips on Berlin. I skimmed her CV on trip back into downtown and later sent it off to my Wellesley theatre contacts (Ken from Sanibel post)--wouldn't that be fabulous??

Called on Elder Donovan at TSC who visited with me for about twenty minutes. He asked some good questions and reflected with some good advice. And prayed for me. As Treg later quipped to me, I feel loved.

Also got to sit with Alice for a bit and catch up about her new job responsibilities which are really cool and chat with some other folks in the missions department. Including one fun talk about languages and what are the five key phrases to learn. Mine are: "Thank you", "I want", "I like", "Now", and "Good". [I have learned these in Polish.]

Tiffany joined me for service that night which was very poignant and pointed and pertinent. Sapporo afterward--she confessed she'd been there since last time. Ha ha. Really good chat about emotions and some things I've been thinking about.

Wednesday I did touch ups and then went to Brooklyn to see Laura's new kitchen (and baby stuff) and we had lunch at some place that served dim sum. :) Her kitchen, and closet, and pocket doors are very cool. Jason has done a good job. And her baby is set to come this week. She says that most people do not stand up to offer her their seat on the subway. Only black men. And older black ladies. Things that make you go hmm. Two other notes on the subway: there was a cellist playing on my ride in, quite good. I gave him $1 but since there was no money can, I awkwardly placed the bill on his knee as he continued to play. And on my trip later to JFK with luggage, a young man stood to offer me his seat. Maybe it's just Brooklyn riders who suck?

Raced back to Juany's apartment because I made a last minute appointment with my counselor for another phone session. It was really good. I told her that after last session, I was pretty down. But so many things have happened in the last few weeks that I can really see progress! It's working! :)

Then Juanita and I went to dinner at Taverna Kyclades--a place I'd ordered take out lunch from several times back in 1998 when I first worked in NYC on a movie that was being shot in Astoria. It was so yummy. And they give you free dessert that is kind of like a Napoleon. Juanita said Yelp is right on. We got there early to avoid the wait.

So then I typed up the last post. And met Stacey at JFK. We rode the air train/train back. On the escalator up, a woman was relating to her friends how much she loves air train. I could not help but agree. At 'home', Stacey met Anderson, the bunny. And ate some leftover fried calamari and Greek salad.

At 2:30 AM, I knocked on the neighbor's door and pleasantly asked them to turn down their music. Which they did.

Thursday, Stacey was up at 8 AM so we decided to take her into Manhattan for a quick look around since it's her first time to NYC. Juanita took the day off citing that most the rest of the office was out for Passover. We had beautiful breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien and then strolled around Central Park. It was a beautiful day. Perfect early spring. Flowers and children and nannies. We walked fast back to Times Square and then hopped on the train. The 7 was so quick that we had plenty of time to gather our things and go to the airport.

Not much to say about the flight. It was an hour late leaving but somehow on time arrival in Amsterdam. I sat across the aisle from Stacey and my row mates were a Dutch couple. The wife taught me the phrase City Trip and told me they're training for a 50 mile walk and that apparently these walks happen all over the world and were inspired by JFK's statement that the modern generation cannot even walk 50 miles in a day. They like Merrells and bought new pairs on their NYC visit. I told her I debated a long time whether to bring my Merrells or my sneakers.

The Amsterdam airport is truly impressive. There are lounge chairs and decadent chocolate shops. Great bathrooms where the soap smells good. Wow. The plane into Warsaw was small and I had middle seat but slept for most of it. Standing at the luggage carousel, I quip to Stacey: I hope Gosia's here. And as I've learned from my past arrivals to foreign countries, the pick up is always there. :) This time, with her dad. :) Who gave us a ride to Gosia's place. Which is huge.

We took naps and then walked around the old town which has been completely rebuilt post-WWII. Witnessed hundreds of people observing the Stations of the Cross outdoors along this pedestrian-only boulevard. Impressive. And kind of freaky. Had hot chocolate at the newly opened Starbucks--Gosia was literally jumping for joy--I have it on video. It was really cold last night and Warsaw looked austere in its post Communist aesthetic. The bus is fun. And learning Polish is fun.

Today (woo hoo, I'm current!) Gosia finally made some noise to rouse us at 11AM. Yummy 'breakfast' of farmers cheese, tomatoes, and buttered bread. We headed to the train station where we got the famous Polish runaround but succeeded in tickets to Krakow and Berlin and back. Then went to the Warsaw Rising (as in Up-rising against the Germans) Museum. Pretty cool and so revealed my gaping history knowledge. Embarrassing.

We tried to eat at a traditional Polish grandma-type restaurant but it was closed along with everything else--Saturday, and the special Saturday before Easter fast day. Some people carried baskets with eggs and some green (I suspect it's analogous to bitter herb of Passover) and a plastic chicken. They carry this around with them to church, get it blessed with holy water, then don't touch it for the rest of the day, eating the eggs Easter Sunday. Monday after Easter, apparently people get doused with water by strangers. A city-wide wet t-shirt contest all in the name of religion. Bad religion. We've been making Good Religion jokes. Anyway. It's late. I'm tired. Sorry for the rambling. We eventually ate dinner at a Jewish restaurant. Open = Good Religion. And then ice cream. Lodi. And then falafel at an Egyptian place. Walked through Saxon Axis park. Pretty. Again, pictures forthcoming.

Love you all. Good night.

Oh, the monkey part of the post is that I took a couple pictures of Mooch around Warsaw. It's funny to pull a stuffed monkey out of my bag.

That pain in my gums

Whenever I am anxious about leaving my family (which isn't very often), I get this tingly ache in my gums. I got that feeling just a bit ago while walking from the subway with Juanita back to her (newly-painted: Northern Pear Tree and Driftwood) apartment. What does that say? Is NYC 'home'? Is Juanita family?

In about 20 minutes, I'm going to get back on the subway to JFK and meet Stacey who will spend a mere 12 hours here before we depart for Warsaw!

- Saturday was another Brooklyn day. After an inspired trip to Home Depot with Juanita to pick out paint and associated equipment, I visited my old Prospect Heights neighbor Edlyn. She is well past middle age though she looks younger and her daughter Andrea who has Downs used to cross the street once a week for Bible study. So we are really good friends and so vastly different in background that I can only credit God for bringing us together. It was brief but she is really excited about a new phone-based women's fellowship/prayer circle that she's joined.

- My first paid taxi ride to downtown Brooklyn to meet Linsey who was getting out of rehearsal. Met her thesis partner and some other people involved with the production. Then we went to a cafe to talk. She's looking for a job. Graduating in May with her masters. Theatre, video production, TV. Any leads? San Pelligrino Limonata and Brooklyn Pilsner. What a good combo.

- Back to Prospect Heights to meet Natalie at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts where they have first Saturday of the month free. We stood outside in the cold talking, then another half hour in the lobby. Finally realized and agreed we really didn't want to see anything, so went to The Islands and dined in the cramped (we were sitting by the bathroom door and had to move our table everytime a patron had to go) upstairs and laughed and talked. It was great. After I told her abour RZIM, she wanted to go (lots of people have said to me: can I come with you? and my answer is: yes--just pay your way. Truly, if anyone reading wants to join me, just let me know.) but we just found out her fall class schedule conflicts. :( But it was nice to dream. Anyway, her family is doing lots for the advancement of the Kingdom and the associated warfare is retaliating. Heavy stuff but really good.

- Sunday I went to New Life Fellowship where Juanita's attending. It's really nice and I picked up a copy of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality that the pastor wrote. Only two chapters in but it's good. Kind of like Boundaries but personal to him.

- Afternoon service at TSC was great. I sat in the 2nd row and the usher had me put on my jacket so my arms wouldn't be exposed. Pentacostal roots. No problem, I love this church.

- Hung out with Thais who has gone from only knowing me to knowing everyone in Young Adults. Pretty cool. Went with her to the Young Adults meeting and it is amazing what God is doing. Singing, praying, studying, be-friending. :) Me like.

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Time to go to the airport. Sorry there haven't been any photos in a while. I have lots of good ones too.

A Rainy Day

It's been raining off and on for a few days in the Apple. People use umbrellas here. Not so on the west coast. They use hoods, or cars. I would say I've lost my umbrella touch but no one's that effective in the wind. Debating whether I should just bullet point stuff since I need to crank through more than a week of my trip in about .5 hours.

- manipulated upstairs residents into hurrying up their move so my friend Brigid could get her stuff into the unit by offering my own help since, until they vacated, I was just going to be sitting around, waiting. Not sure if it really saved any time but I satisfied my Project Manager compulsion. And to be sure did take several trips up and down the three flights with their stuff.

- saw my college buddy Greta in Brooklyn and got to take her and her friends to Sheep Station, a nice restaurant/bar that Olivia and I met at once. It satisfied all their varied requirements: dark, Guiness on tap, good food, not too expensive, close to Junior's where we were. Some nice ladies, I'm guessing Brooklyn Tabernacle folk, helped point me the way from the subway exit, they were being kind to a tourist as far as they knew.

- grocery shopping with Juanita, something nice to do in Queens: carts and regular-width aisles. Made her wontons the following day. Someday I'll post photos of the steps to fold a wonton, like a real Shirlie-level food blog.

- lunch with Mark-Anthony, my former ministry leader at TSC, and his wife and two kids and one extra kid, Lillian--never did figure out how she's related, niece? Anyway, at the Afghan House, lamb kabob, yum. He told me about all the awesome stuff going on with Young Adults at TSC and how God's really growing him and the team and group. Super cool. Got to see it with my own eyes last night. Pretty awesome. They just started a study on Called to Serve--very appropo.

- Starbucks juice break with Nomsa whom I met in 2004 when we went to Morocco together. Always fun. She's finishing school and has been working on not complaining. So awesome. I love her perspective and heart for her family and friends.

- hot pot with Alex and Meg. Sadly, Laura couldn't make it because she had pregancy related swollen ankles. We ordered fewer dishes and were still full and sweating. It was raining when we left, and Meg gave us both a lift homeward in her cute SUV, such a Long Islander. ;) Love that girl. Love Alex too.

- UWS Cafe Fresh to see Chrissy. Last time she was a Master, now she's a Doctor. Pretty cool. Working on a study of perceptions and media on autism. Joked about Jenny Garth, bad taste, I know, but Chrissy is just the girl to make those jokes with. Her hair looked properly stylish yet professional.

- Tuesday through Friday I volunteered at TSC with Loretta who is in charge of producing any theatrical/large events. It was rough, I sprained my ankle mysteriously Tuesday night and was limping by Thursday. Friday was the big event. There were lots of details and phone calls and stapling and texting and rehearsal and schedules and props and staging and music rights and errands and actors and lighting and cues and when do these people eat lunch? Or dinner for that matter? It was a lot of fun to be part of it though, I would've done it all over again just for the opportunity to serve my beloved old church and get to know a few new people, catch up with some old faces, and pray. Love it.

- Got a free taxi ride to meet her from some guy who is a investment banker. His quote: I never ever thought it would be a profession held in derision. Yet he was expensing the cab ride, so didn't take any of my offered cash. Recommended the Gallery to him as he had been attending Redeemer off and on but moved to Chelsea so it's kind of far.

- dinner at El Cocotero with Susan who is like Ken. Questioning. She treated me to dinner and it was yummy. Papaya juice. Rice and beans. Sancocho (short-rib soup). Tres leches. I gotta quit the tres leches habit.

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