i'm fairly obsessive about finishing books that i start so it's been bothering me that i haven't finished this one yet. in fact, i haven't picked it up in about a year. the last week though i've been back at it and i hope to finally finish it on vacation. good luck to me.
pics from last year...but i/we really appreciate these people. it's also been cool to see how we've gotten to know and been served by caleb, kaitlin, and jenna's families. each of them have taken care of us in different ways but all have done it well. thanks guys!
initial outline and ideas for a talk i'll give this sunday at first baptist akron in new york...this is our newest supporting church and i can't wait to meet them and share in person about what we are doing and how they are helping to further the mission.
a little avett brothers goodness in honor of our anniversary, which is actually tomorrow. think this pretty much sums it up =)
She keeps it simple
And I am thankful for her kind of lovin'
'Cause it's simple
No longer do we wonder if we're together
We're way past that
And I've already asked her
So in January we're gettin' married
She's talkin' to me with her voice
Down so low I barely hear her
But I know what she's sayin'
I understand because my heart and hers are the same
And in January we're gettin' married
And I was sick with heartache
And she was sick like Audrey Hepburn when I met her
But we would both surrender
True love is not the kind of thing you should turn down
Don't ever turn it down
I hope that I don't sound to insane when I say
There is darkness all around us
I don't feel weak but I do need sometimes for her to protect me
And reconnect me to the beauty that I'm missin'
And in January we're gettin' married
No longer does it matter what circumstances we were born in
She knows which birds are singin'
And the names of the trees where they're performin' in the mornin
And in January we're gettin' married
Come January let's get married
At approximately 3:30 am boston got hit with one of the most amazing thunder and lightening storms i've ever been a part of. beautiful and cool but it made for a short night of sleep!
i try not to use my blog as a forum for my personal soapbox issues, so please forgive this self-indulgent tangent. this is something i've needed to get off my chest for a while.
i spent the first 27.5 years of my life living in the western half of the united states. i have watched a lot of sports, listened to way too much sports talk radio, and read thousands upon thousands of sports related articles. when we play trivia i get almost every sports question right (and almost every other question wrong). and for 27.5 years i have seen, read, and listened to various commentators rip the west coast for having uninformed, uninterested, and, most offensively, BAD fans.
when i knew i was moving to boston i was excited because, finally, i would be able to experience this magical place where sports fans walked on water. i will say this: boston fans are passionate. but i have heard the most inane sports banter possible in this town. west coast fans may have more divided interests but they have nothing on east coasters for pure ridiculousness. furthermore, just because the lakers have movie stars in the front row of their games doesn't mean ALL fans in california (or elsewhere in the west) come late and leave early and can't tell you where ray allen went to college (uconn, look it up).
anyway, this is part defensiveness, but also (mostly) disappointment: come on east coast fans, i should never have bought in to the hype.
picked our fist offering from our share in the food project's CSA program. small, but the first of the season, which means lots of good stuff to come still!
sojourn staff getaway today and tomorrow to get some stuff hammered out for the fall. lots of talking, whiteboarding, brainstorming, thinking, and progress!
amy and i took in our first sox game of the year at fenway. we were treated to a pitching duel: for the last couple of years people have been waiting for prospect clay bucholz to break out (and this year he is doing it) and he faced the great zack greinke (last year's AL Cy Young Award winner). final score 1-0 in favor of the sox and clay.
we were able to enjoy the game from behind home plate and have great views of both pitchers doing their thing thanks to amy's current clinical rotation at Beth Israel, the official hospital of the Red Sox. for five bucks you wait in line until they release day-of tickets (and they are usually really good seats) and then you get to sit there the rest of the game. pretty sweet!
came home after work today and helped paint a friend's house. they just bought a big old victorian style home in dorchester and have some cool dreams for what that home can mean for the neighborhood. it was honor to spend just a little time there helping to get the place ready for move in (which amy will get to help with tomorrow).
in my never ending efforts to be a more organized person i think i have settled on these brown moleskine's as a great way to keep track of thoughts, tasks, and other to-do's (creative and otherwise).
not-so-coincidentally, today's pages are filled with notes from my morning meeting with tim as we planned for our staff retreat next week, a major portion of which will be spent on getting organized for the up coming year.
this is my friend manny...we got to hang out today and catch up on his many adventures (uganda, graduating college, etc). good times. i love hearing his passion for ministry and the possibility of that expanding to college students. proud of you manny!
i haven't played in an embarrassingly long time. months in fact. but today i got out of work early due to the fact that the temperature in our store was 97 degrees and someone finally realized this needed to be fixed (long story here, maybe a topic for another post).
anyway, i ended up with some extra time on my hands. i did some planning, finished a book, caught up on a few things, and then i played. and it was great. the guitar feels like a part of me that, for whatever reason, has not made the transition to boston. it felt incredibly good to do it again, until the tips of my fingers started to burn in agony!
i haven't spent too much time talking about moving in this space, but for a while now amy and i have been pondering moving out of dorchester to east boston. "eastie", as it is known around these parts, is the other, much smaller, forgotten neighborhood of boston. everyone knows dorchester and the reputation that surrounds it, but i've been shocked at how many people don't even know eastie exists. in fact, one person i was telling about our move couldn't figure east boston out: "so, is that like, in the middle of the ocean?"
we feel attracted to this area for a couple of reasons. one is that the "feel" of the neighborhood is an interesting mix of san francisco (architecture) and east salinas culture. the first time we drove through to check it out we were both overwhelmed with a feeling of home. it's also home to many immigrants, mostly spanish speakers from central and south america. from what we've gathered, eastians have a bit of a chip on their shoulders for being invisible to the rest of boston. finally, neither reunion nor sojourn have any real presence in the neighborhood and that felt attractive to us as well.
all that so say, we've felt pulled in this direction for a little while. and today we signed a lease and will be eastie residents come july! we are super excited about this opportunity (not excited about moving so soon) and feel that a good story is waiting to be told in east boston.
got to spend the better part of the last 24 hours with the hawkins' kids. it was our task to get four kids through saturday night and to church on sunday. they are great kids who can pretty much take care of themselves so it was a pretty easy gig, but it definitely gave me some insight in to my mom's life for many, many years. mom you are amazing!
for more on the hawkins family doings check out tim's blog here
a major date on the calendar...not only is that the day that project 365 will be over, but it is also the day that i can hopefully quit starbucks (or at least be down to 1 day per week). time to get to work and make that happen!
finally got a chance to rock stump trivia at the blarney stone, down the street from us. amy and i pulled a solid third place showing, aided greatly by a sports team/nick-name match that brought in a bundle of points.
continuing our conversations from our conference experiences this year, we (reunion and sojourn) continue to work on our discipleship process...today: revisiting the mission statement. i find these conversations somewhat tedious but ultimately inspiring, especially as i think of it helping us do what we do even better.
the odd looking vehicle to the left is a "duck boat," a world war II relic transformed into Boston-city-touring vehicle. i see these all the time but have never been on one before. pretty cool way to see the city actually.
amy has worked incredibly hard over the last three years to complete her DPT (doctor of physical therapy) and we got to celebrate the pay off today at her graduation ceremony. the ceremony itself was well done, and although "graduating" feels somewhat uneventful when you still have 6 weeks of an internship left the accomplishment is no less significant. i am so, so proud of my wife, and as a first hand witness to much of the work she's put in to this program, i know she deserves to celebrate and enjoy this moment very much. way to go babe!
the last two days have been about showing the fam around boston while amy worked (who makes their student's work the day before graduation!). here are a couple of pics:
today we spent some time prepping for family to arrive in town. amy's mom and sister fly in tomorrow to help us celebrate her graduation from BU's doctor of physical therapy program. graduation is obviously exciting, but any time we have family out here it is really special, being so far from california. so, hurry up stacey and sandy, can't wait to see you!
the city has been working on putting a dog park right next to our house. a cool idea but it has taken them about 8 months to finish it. part of that, of course, is due to the winter, but still, when you look at it you say "that took 8 months to build?"
the mayor will be out here on saturday to open the park. of course, any time our mayor speaks something truly unbelievable happens. for example, this week, while commemorating a statue of bobby orr, the mayor noted that orr is among the many "ionic" sports figures that Boston has produced. and then he listed some of these athletes and their achievements, my favorite being when "varitek split the uprights."
(note that varitek is jason varitek, a catcher for the boston red sox, the captain of the team in fact, and that adam vinatieri is the patriots kicker who became rich and famous for last second, game winning field goals...you can't make this stuff up!)
today was a blur of activity. breakfast with the boys, staff meeting, emails, sbux. so, instead of some deep thought on whatever topic, enjoy this silly picture of amy and i from last year (taken in our old apartment).
i've spent the last 36 hours in providence with the reunion and sojourn team working on our follow up to our trip to idaho back in march. this has been a time of hard conversations, deep thinking, brainstorming, and trying to work together to gain clarity and where we want to lead people. good stuff, but not easy!
i love community group right now...especially our dinners. i am really enjoying preparing the meals too. never thought this would be something i enjoyed doing on a regular basis, but it is!
i won't spoil anything, but there are only a few more episodes of lost. however it ends, i am pretty sure this is actually my favorite show of all time. tonight's episode was amazing and i am finding the eminent demise of the show to be somewhat bittersweet.
i know that everyone was dying for another picture of our stove, but we are not likely to have the boil water order lifted until wednesday at the earliest, so these two pots are a big part of our life these days.
in much more interesting news i am working on a video of student and staff stories from the year for our supporters which i am super excited about. good to be doing some editing again!
luke is a truly outstanding dude from canada who has been studying at harvard and living in the qunicy street neighborhood. he's brought a lot of experience, stability, and wisdom to the neighborhood and will be missed!
goodbyes are the theme of the season too. we celebrate 41 graduates this morning at Reunion.
today at starbucks we were slammed...perhaps heading to a record day, and then this happened. going to be interesting to see how businesses like sbux survive the next week or so while this gets all sorted out. meanwhile we get to boil our water and maybe learn a little bit about what much of the rest of the world goes through to have clean drinking water.
. 
)...respect tim keller's insights a lot so i'm excited to get into this one!
