Welp, some of you are just getting home from Calvin, some of you are progressing through your anything-but-normal lives playing with toy dinosaurs on the navigation comm or going up stairs via umbrella (you know who you are), but I know that all of you have a two burning questions on your mind as you flutter through your day.
Where oh where has Candace gone? and Why isn't she responding to my incessant messages on blogger/facebook?
The answer to the question #1 - Walton, New York - may only produce further perturbation.
Where on the planet is Walton New York???
long answer: here
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Walton+NY&ie=UTF8&ll=42.166203,-75.122108&spn=0.109677,0.211487&t=h&z=12&iwloc=addr
short answer:
Nowhere
---------------------------------------------
l
l
l here.
l
l
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Which is precisely why I came.
Basically, this has been a whirlwind summer for me. Really a whirlwind half a year. First a fun but busy semester. Then Mexico for 7 weeks, then some rapid catching up with friends, and lastly the conference at Calvin where sleep as a HS counselor was so little of a priority that we only managed 1.4 hours on the last night. Sooooo yeah. First on my list of things to do in the next 48 hrs is sleep, sleeep, sleeeeeeeep.
I guess the bigger issue, though, is that on top of it all, this has been a pretty brain-intensive time as well. The Lord has had a lot to teach me in the last 7 months and it was pointed out to me that my brain can't just have input time, it needs processing time as well. So I wanted a place to process.
And that is why I'm writing this note from upstate New York and not my home in Indiana (much as I love it there!). I first came to Walton on a trip this Spring Break, and the beauty, quietness, and hospitality of it all so impacted me, that when I started thinking of places to get away to this was the first one on my mind. It isn't that I can't think and pray in Kokomo, but a wittle voice inside of me warned that all of the legitimate claims, duties, and opportunities of home would distract from the task of resting, seeking, and praying. Middle of Nowhere, here I come.
And in case you're wondering why I didn't tell you about it sooner, quite honestly I didn't know about it any sooner. I've been wanting to get away for a while, but this specific plan didn't burst upon my cranium until... ah hem, very recently. A few Walton friends very graciously offered to give me a ride and a bed, so on Friday I packed my bag of tricks and here I am.
Now to the second question, Wherefore are thou on facebook or blogger, oh Candace?
answer:
I'm not.
>:D
The general plan while I'm out here to pray, read and memorize scripture, pray, get to know the local Walton RP congregation, pray, work and help out a couple of families as I can, pray, and lastly, get out into the woods and pray some more.
See anything about Facebook on there? Nope. Sorry, this girl needs a Facebook and blogger break.
So let me be abundantly clear:
I am not checking my Facebook while I'm out here.
if you poke me on Facebook - I will not see it.
if you invite me to an event on Facebook - I will not see it.
if you make me your friend on Facebook - I will not see it.
if you send me a comment or message on Blogger or on Facebook - I will not see it.
if you send me a flagwaving, green and purple superhug via superpoke - I will not see it.
So alas, what can you do?
Well, if you truly wish to contact in the next week(s) before I get back for any greeting, question, sanity checkup, or interpretive dance, do this:
email me!!!
That's right folks! In the dawn of time before Facebook there was email! I will check my email (which ironically is on my facebook wall) from time to time, so your salutations and concerns will eventually be seen there. And I won't be gone for ever anyways, methinks I'll get back to it all when school starts. If you could care less that I fall off the face of the earth, good for you; have a donut and enjoy the rest of your day.
And lastly, when will I be getting home?
Uh, sometime... before school starts. In August. sometime.
Honestly, I'm not too worried/specific on that end. I know that I'm here for at least a week, and maybe longer than that. I'll work out transportation when it becomes clear that I need to head west. NY has planes, buses, cars, and cows, one of those is bound to do when I get me back to Hoosier-land.
Are we cool now? On the same page? Clear as mud?
Good.
See ya
on the other side.
sábado, julio 26, 2008
lunes, julio 14, 2008
I'm just waiting till the firing starts...
Well, we're back to the US(SR)... and oh how lucky we are!
Mexico was real, and great, and really great (and it seems that my mind is only operating in quotes right now. oh well, here's looking at you, dolt). Coming back seems to ask for a change of skin, and aridness seems to suit my pallet for now, so enjoy.
Anywho, wouldn't it be nice if I could just put out a list of "99 Useful life lessons that I learned in Mexico that I won't have to learn any more..." Somehow the burrito just doesn't seem to roll that way.
It's not that I didn't learn things, lots of things; they just seem to go all gushy and gray when I try to quantify them into neat little platitudes. Perhaps I wasn't learning so much about México in the end - after all, wikipedia will tell you any number of facts you are looking for, this is not why your travel. At the risk of being sappy (a risk I'm always dangerously happy to take) I get the feeling that somehow the thing I learned the most about in the end... was my own wittle self. Dangerous faring indeed, seamates.
But enough about that, for today let us stay in more navigable waters. In fact, why not just go to the old list idea...
21 not-so-life-altering yet usefull things I learned in Mexico:
1. In any situation “Por Favor” and “Gracias” can do a world of good
2. Some countries are just a nation full of people waiting to be your friend. Then, there is America.
3. Don’t drink the water
4. water from the tap will make you sick
5. no bebe el agua
6. if you drink the water, you diiiie. X-P
7. A “gringo” is a white foreigner from a different culture
8. we were gringos
9. Mangos, though a delightful fruit, can leave certain acids on your skin when you bite their juicy rinds. We gringos called the resulting rash “Mango Chin” and it is not an attractive facial accessory.
10. You can put lime juice on *anything* and it will taste good.
11. You can also put chili sauce on *anything*, and it will sometimes taste… bizarre.
12. Chili sauce on papaya…. baaaaad idea.
13. Honking while in traffic is a perfectly acceptable way to vent frustration. Never mind that four cars in front of you have already poured their wrath on some random object – somehow adding your own blast will still help the situation along…
14. Beware of altitude. Just because the air is cool, doesn’t mean your skin won’t be crispy red at the end of the day.
15. Being the temporary teacher in a language school does not save you from any number of personal questions, but if you tell them how much you like Mexico, the outcome will be good.
16. McDonalds is everywhere.
17. The Simpsons is everywhere.
18. we grieve over this.
19. “Ahorita” meaning ‘a little moment’ is a time unit that spans anywhere from 2 minutes to several hours. Somehow no one thinks this ambiguity diminishes its usefulness.
20. Goth or emo kids are not to be taken at face value. Oftentimes if you make a crack, they get it first, if you ask them their opinion, they will eloquently express it, and if you shoot them a smile they are suddenly your friend.
21. When the day is done and you are abroad, you may be lonely. You may be exhausted. You may have frittered another precious 24 hours away on google or youtube or facebook, trying to fill a void. But behind it all is a God that is stretching your brain, viewing both successes and failures with mercy, and saying to you in your darkest moments “It is I; do not be afraid” (Jn 6:20).
Mexico was real, and great, and really great (and it seems that my mind is only operating in quotes right now. oh well, here's looking at you, dolt). Coming back seems to ask for a change of skin, and aridness seems to suit my pallet for now, so enjoy.
Anywho, wouldn't it be nice if I could just put out a list of "99 Useful life lessons that I learned in Mexico that I won't have to learn any more..." Somehow the burrito just doesn't seem to roll that way.
It's not that I didn't learn things, lots of things; they just seem to go all gushy and gray when I try to quantify them into neat little platitudes. Perhaps I wasn't learning so much about México in the end - after all, wikipedia will tell you any number of facts you are looking for, this is not why your travel. At the risk of being sappy (a risk I'm always dangerously happy to take) I get the feeling that somehow the thing I learned the most about in the end... was my own wittle self. Dangerous faring indeed, seamates.
But enough about that, for today let us stay in more navigable waters. In fact, why not just go to the old list idea...
21 not-so-life-altering yet usefull things I learned in Mexico:
1. In any situation “Por Favor” and “Gracias” can do a world of good
2. Some countries are just a nation full of people waiting to be your friend. Then, there is America.
3. Don’t drink the water
4. water from the tap will make you sick
5. no bebe el agua
6. if you drink the water, you diiiie. X-P
7. A “gringo” is a white foreigner from a different culture
8. we were gringos
9. Mangos, though a delightful fruit, can leave certain acids on your skin when you bite their juicy rinds. We gringos called the resulting rash “Mango Chin” and it is not an attractive facial accessory.
10. You can put lime juice on *anything* and it will taste good.
11. You can also put chili sauce on *anything*, and it will sometimes taste… bizarre.
12. Chili sauce on papaya…. baaaaad idea.
13. Honking while in traffic is a perfectly acceptable way to vent frustration. Never mind that four cars in front of you have already poured their wrath on some random object – somehow adding your own blast will still help the situation along…
14. Beware of altitude. Just because the air is cool, doesn’t mean your skin won’t be crispy red at the end of the day.
15. Being the temporary teacher in a language school does not save you from any number of personal questions, but if you tell them how much you like Mexico, the outcome will be good.
16. McDonalds is everywhere.
17. The Simpsons is everywhere.
18. we grieve over this.
19. “Ahorita” meaning ‘a little moment’ is a time unit that spans anywhere from 2 minutes to several hours. Somehow no one thinks this ambiguity diminishes its usefulness.
20. Goth or emo kids are not to be taken at face value. Oftentimes if you make a crack, they get it first, if you ask them their opinion, they will eloquently express it, and if you shoot them a smile they are suddenly your friend.
21. When the day is done and you are abroad, you may be lonely. You may be exhausted. You may have frittered another precious 24 hours away on google or youtube or facebook, trying to fill a void. But behind it all is a God that is stretching your brain, viewing both successes and failures with mercy, and saying to you in your darkest moments “It is I; do not be afraid” (Jn 6:20).
sábado, julio 05, 2008
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