Last jam

Went to Crossroads this morning for the last practice session with Ken and Karl. Rob didn't play because he had a busted string and his replacements are a different gauge. I got to drum a bit but didn't do any singing because Paul Closius was picking up my parts on recorder. It would have been fun to sing, for old times sake, but it was a practice after all. I was just glad to hear how things are coming together ... they're sounding good! And the recorder is a nice addition.

We took today as a day of rest. Basically, that meant doing the laundry while playing Neverwinter Nights. We were playing a module that we'd been playing for much of the time that we've been here and we wanted to finish it before going our separate ways. Finally, late yesterday afternoon, Elriethrawen Lianoscia (me) and Jaithn Lukes (Rob), along with their hearty band of adventurers, slew the evil beholder Xanathar in the deepest dungeons below the city of Waterdeep.
Whew ... what a relief! Glad we got that taken care of.

Now that everything's washed, we can do the clothes assessment. We took a stab at it last night after dinner, just to get the mental balls rolling. For me, that meant hauling things out of the closet and putting them on, seeing if there was anything about it that was keeping me from wearing it on a more regular basis. You know, pulls at the neck, poochy at the waist, tight on the calves, wrinkles at the slightest provocation. Got rid of yet more clothes that way.

We realized that we have 3 categories of clothing that need to be packed in separate compartments (suitcases or boxes):
- clothes to take to our respective schools for wearing while there (casual, summer stuff)
- clothes to keep for use after schools, when we're cohabiting again (suits, "churchy" clothes)
- other clothes for both of us for over the next year (fall and winter clothes, coats)

Graduation

Rob has completed the VMS course ... yay! Went in with the class Friday morning to view their final video projects. Rob's group did a "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" sequence starring My Little Pony, Barbies, Woody (of Toy Story), Aragorn, Legolas and various other action figures. Very fun. And the outtakes were a hoot.

Spent the afternoon eating: cake at 2PM, Mama Lena's at 4PM. Came home for evening ice cream and watched the Village with the Kubitzas before they left town. :( Will miss them.

Made arrangements today to have approximately 10 boxes shipped to Idaho. JAARS has a truck headed to Spokane, WA so they'll be able to take anything we have ready to go by Thursday at noon. Let the packing continue!

Moving ahead

Yesterday was a pretty hectic day. Rob has been assigned a dorm room. I've booked a guest room for him for when he comes to visit me in SC in July. I got him a post office box and the details on how he's going to get into his room when he arrives on a Saturday. They said I could mail his linens to him and have them put in his room so he'll have them that first night. All my files are now consolidated in one box. I'm trying to get storage boxes down to 10-15 and just have 3 or 4 that come with me in the car.

We had lunch in the classroom and watched different videos that indigenous missionaries have put together; US, Guatemala, East Africa. There was even a Dutch puppet video.

After lunch, I went over to the JAARS transportation department to figure out how we're going to deal with our stuff; store locally or ship elsewhere to store. Also got contact info for someone to drive us to the airport on June 4. Once we work these things out, I just need to find a place to stash the car and my stuff to take to SC while I'm in Canada for 2 weeks. I brought bags of stuff to the Boutique, picked up some twin sheets for the dorms. If it's not too disturbing an image for you, just picture Rob in a twin bed. I packed some more, threw more papers away.

Hope still hasn't had the baby and she was due last week. Not that due dates are relevant. Mom says she's never known a woman yet who went on her due date; they usually go about 10 days over.

Abson & Lara's grad photos

These are just some of them. You can access all posted photos (I think) by clicking on one of the pictures.

Abson & Lara's graduation

Rob & I trekked out to Wilmore, KY this weekend for Abson & Lara's graduation from Asbury Theological Seminary. We started on Thursday afternoon, making it as far as Asheville, NC before we stopped for the night. Had dinner at a little Caribbean cafe where Rob had empanadas and I had sweet plantains with mango & ginger sauce. The server seated us beneath the Haitian flag, not knowing the significance. We knew.

We went the rest of the way Friday morning, making it in before 1PM. Rob finally got to meet Abson and I finally got to meet Lara. Abson's dad was there as well, a neat surprise for me. I knew he was in the country but hadn't thought of him being there (a one-plus-one that I should have anticipated, of course). We met many of their friends at a BBQ at the Wesleyan Seminarians Center that afternoon and saw Abson perform with the Singing Seminarians that evening.

Saturday morning was action packed. We all met for brunch on campus, took a load of group pictures for about 1/2 hour and then went in to eat. Chatted with new friends from Ohio over baked egg thingy, waffles and fruit. Learned that silicon is grown at high heat from a seed. Gotta see that someday; it sounds pretty freaky. We headed up to the gym a few blocks away to reserve seats for the ceremony; we got good ones, being there over an hour before the ceremony was scheduled to begin. Wasn't surprised to see Abson scheduled to speak as Senior Class Visionary (what I assume to be a.k.a. valedictorian). After the ceremony, we attended another party at the Wesleyan Seminariana Center before gling back to Abson & Lara's place to crash for a bit. Rob napped briefly while I watched the last part of Return of the King with Abson's dad, cheering the heroes and booing the villains. Nothing like a good group cheering/booing to reenergize. Abson and Lara were late getting back because of mystery car trouble (wouldn't start) but they got it going in the end. Chatted for a while bfore we all collapsed from exhaustion. Abson pulled out some pictures from our YWAM days that I had never seen before. Ah, memories.


a silicon crystal, photo courtesy of Technische Fakultat der Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel

We went to their church, Stonewall Wesleyan, in the morning and for Chinese buffet before hitting the road that afternoon. It was a good thing that we had a huge (and late) lunch because we couldn't find food for dinner when we started getting hungry. It was weird; when we got on 74E in NC, we started looking for food. It was nearly 8PM before we saw signs for fastfood places near the highway. When we followed the initial signs for exiting the freeway, there were none after the offramp to tell us which way to turn from there. After wandering around downtown Forest City, where everything was closed, we gave up and went to a grocery store. Rejuvenated with yogurt, sandwiches, Dr Pepper and string cheese. We got home sometime after 10PM.

Will post links to their grad photos when I edit and upload them.