DC

Looking Forward, Looking Back

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September 7, 2010

in whole life integration

Today starts my second week in my cubicle.

I’m working at Campus Crusade for Christ’s headquarters in Orlando, FL. The position may only be for a year (10 months, really), but we’ve really moved and it’s a real change and challenge for my wife and I.

We’ve developed friends here already, but (so far) they’re shallow (as in “not deep”). I enjoy the team that I’m working on and really believe that it’s will be a good fit – there’s sufficient freedom to work as well as a decent amount of structure to help me know what my job really is. The members of my team (I’m working in the US Communications group and working on web publishing) are fun and the right kind of dissimilar to make it a lot of fun.

We miss friends from DC and from our neighborhood in Arlington. A lot.

Even now I’m a little teary thinking of the people who left before we did. The teammates that we worked closely with – laughed, debated and fought with.  I am tempted to want to “go back.”

I miss our small group, the friends that we’ve now had for 2 1/2 years and the ones that we met 6 months or just under a year ago. I miss my unofficial small-group men who helped to heal my heart and to rile my debating nature.

I miss the sweet Pakistani family that lived below us – mom, dad and 4 kids. I miss helping with math & social studies homework. I miss trying to explain what it means to be a good tipper and a good grownup – but in a way that doesn’t communicate that those things are what determine your value and worthiness as a person.

I miss the church that has been the perfect imperfect home for us for three years.

I’m looking forward though. To an opportunity to do church different than we usually have. To work in a job that is more defined than I’ve ever had, yet as free and open as well. I’m looking forward to new friends that we may have to let go in a year (in the normal CCC fashion).

Ultimately, I am learning to trust God with my past and my future. It will be good.

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Reflections on Snowmageddon: Fun

February 15, 2010

in everything

I could say a lot, but video and pictures will do more.

Video:


I shot this one, I put my iPhone in a plastic bag to protect it from stray snowballs.


Here’s proof that I was there. Though this video sucks because I do nothing the whole time.

Pictures:

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Reflections on Snowmageddon: Community

February 11, 2010

in everything

Snowmageddon from Space

As you all know, the Washington, DC area is now finally beginning to dig out of the 3′ blanket of snow that was laid upon us in the past 7 days. It’s been a lot of fun on my end, actually. Here’s some reflections and memories that I wanted to share.

There’s so much that I think I need to break it up into multiple posts.

Topic 1: Community

As February 5, 2010 dawned, I was slowly becoming aware of the magnitude of the situation that this snowstorm was going to be. Two days prior I had received an email from Craig who lives with one of my CCC teammates and a pretty good friend. Craig is usually pretty calm, but he has his things that he can get excited about; this was an entirely different kind of excited. Here’s my favorite part of it (emphasis his):

I hope this storm is not a bust, but we cannot take anything for granted. I will say I cannot recall a time when nearly all models and every [meteorologist] was in agreement on a MAJOR winter storm over 48 hours in advance. Likewise the NWS posted up to 20 inches merely in their watch. This language in a watch is unrivaled.

This email was only a harbinger of things to come. Over the past week I have spent a lot of time with a smallish group of people: Carrie (my wife), Craig, Jake, Steph, Erin, Maegan,  and Bethany. There were a few more people that joined us occasionally or just for a time: Lulu, Matt, Jeff and Scott.

Regardless, we have had a lot of fun and have rejoiced in fighting our cabin fever together. On Saturday we walked the mile-and-a-quarter on unplowed roads to the Ballston Metro to get to the epic snowball fight at Dupont Circle, we ate together, played a lot of board & card games together, cooked together, had home church together, some of us went sledding, trudging to the store, watched Lost, and waited expectantly for Craig or text messages to tell us that schools or the Federal Government was closed.

It has been a lot of fun to get to know people better and rejoice in our collective quirkiness. I do have to say that I think the think that has been the most enjoyable for me has been watching Craig get really excited about checking “meteo” sites and updating us every five minutes on the latest forecasts, weather-blog posts and news regarding our pet snowstorm.

We’ve loved the time off school, work (for some of us) and the pressure that this city can lay on us. It’s been fun to watch Fenty bungle his way through it as usual as well.

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Classes Have Begun

August 25, 2009

Well, students are back in town here in the DC area. We’ve welcomed back the American University students, we’ve tabled twice and we’ve had our first meeting. This weekend sees almost all of the other schools show up too. This is my excuse for not posting anything of substance. That’s my excuse this week that [...]

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The Question I Need to Answer

October 15, 2008

As I processed a little today with my in-laws’ pastor he asked a question that struck at the heart of what I’ve been wrestling with. It’s a question that doesn’t seem to be all that crazy or out of the realm of possibility and even seems that it would be a next logical step in [...]

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