Update on Ministry Trip Ideas: Stop 1 - South Dakota?

Ok, so this isn't anything final...but, while traveling, my roommate Kaitlin emailed me and told me she had put down an offer on a house and gave me the update on what that might mean for me housing-wise in the near future. This happened a time or two until one of the offers was accepted. Now, if the inspection goes well, I'll be needing to move most likely at the end of August. She doesn't mind if I move earlier. So this changes my view toward Tommy's August trip to Aberdeen, South Dakota. To refresh your memory, he has plans to spend a month working with the mentally disabled there on a creative project of some sort, to assist the ministry and coffeehouse, and in return they will be mentoring him in fundraising (which will be a bigger part of what he may need to do going forward w/his music consultancy work w/church plants etc.), and giving him a stipend for the month as one of their interns recently left, opening up some room in the budget. (This is a new development; he was initially just volunteering to do it for free because it is on his heart.) His biggest struggle with this is being away from me for so long, so early in our relationship.

I've wondered if the change in housing situation may make it possible to join Tommy on this first plan. I have seen Dan Cleberg (who runs the Red Rooster coffeehouse and the Fallout Creative Community out there with his wife Angie) speak before at an Urban Ministries Training Week with Source Ministries - and I STILL tell people one of the stories he told* at that, even 10 years later. So it wouldn't be too terrible to spend some time out there with such great folks. :) I'm willing to go if I'm not paying rent anywhere here, and if I can make money there for a month, perhaps by temping. Storage would not cost too much, altho' I don't want to move my stuff twice. Perhaps I can strike a deal either with my present or future roomies to accept $ for storage for 1 month?

Tommy's checked, and per the Clebergs, I could stay in the 'piano room' of the community house for the month if I wished, and there is reportedly a temp agency in Aberdeen. Once we find out for sure the details on that, I will contact them to see what I can do in advance to find placement for the month, if anything.

Oh! I've forgotten to mention - we've both gone through orientation this past week with eXtreme Loyalty Marketing, and have flexible sales jobs we are going to try out this summer, selling those great cards with free/discounted oil changes and other services door to door. (At least my sis and aunt say they're great!) We might love it or hate it, but it will be some non-office-job time outside together (working opposite sides of the street) in the sun, with potential to make some really good money. I'll probably look into temping also, just because it sounds like I'll need to stay in office work for awhile to qualify for a loan to get a house sometime - Kaitlin says they want you to have been in the same 'field' for many years; unfortunately that is never how I've lived and I get fearfully bored if I don't change things up. And of course I want to find a temp agency w/some medical insurance because the temporary kind I am on can only be used for 1 year. We'll see how it goes. My agency was so great with their benefits in NYC; I don't know if there are any comparable agencies here.

Re: the house dream - it's not necessarily the normal 'American Dream' thing, it's more that my family here doesn't have any 'guest room' available for me and wherever I (or I and Tommy) may be led to move futurely, it's nice to have a bed to sleep in when you come home for the holidays (not a futon or air mattress)...and a place to leave your books and such. Could be rented out when I am away... that's the thought anyway.

Ok enough rambling! I'll put the Dan Cleberg story in a note below just because it's unfair to allude to it and not share.

* The context of this story was (I think) in a discussion about prayer walks, and specifically how it's always good to go through your community and pray for God to fill the empty lots or buildings with good things. Dan had prayed for a particular space in the neighborhood.

At the same time, he had this guy who would come into the coffeehouse on a regular basis who wasn't very keen on God but LOVED the band Kiss. So whenever Dan would be out at a garage sale or something and see a Kiss album, he would pick it up and give it to this guy for his collection, just as a way to show him love.

Anyhow, time went by and the space Dan had prayed for was purchased by a church. One day he came into work and a whole pile of all the Kiss albums he'd ever given this guy were there, under the register. Next time he saw the guy, the guy said he'd given his life to Christ at this new church and he didn't feel these records were good for his spiritual life, so he brought them back. I don't know one way or the other since I'm not really acquainted w/the band, but anyhow, it was a fun story.

Run #7: 31 min.

July 2. About 75+ degrees. Has been hot as blazes this week so I'm yet another run behind. But there were heat advisories telling people not to even play tennis! "Kids, don't play tennis today!" So I stayed inside, watched movies, dyed my hair bright red & worked on catching up/finishing my travel blog, among other things.

This run, tho' 'twas hot, wasn't so bad. The air smelled of summery flowers. People sunned themselves in the grass around the lake. All good.

Run #6: 40 min.

I should have done 12 runs by now. I've only done 6 due to traveling (& family gatherings 3 out of my first 4 days back). I'm about 2.5 hours behind. If I don't increase my # of runs, the--

Wait - shouldn't 40 hours = 80 1/2 hour runs? I messed up - I meant the equivalent of 40 1/2 hour runs which = 20 hours. Math. Need I mention it was not my most stellar subject?

Therefore, the total minutes should be 1200 min., I've done 205, and to do the remaining 995 in the remaining 28 runs would necessitate each remaining run to be...about 36 min. long. Not so bad. It could be worse. I ran around Lake of the Isles today, ran mostly, walked some. Listened to a few favorite ipod playlists...thank God for music. Well, we can still do this ladeeez & gentlemen! Onward & upward!

* painting by Christine Tierney

Run #5: 30 min.

June 22. Bernalillo, NM (near Albuquerque). About 80 degrees.

Remembered sunglasses & sunscreen. Used brand new $5 sports watch as stopwatch. Once I hit main road, the goal became 'to get to those beautiful mountains' if by hook or crook I could cross that highway. I journeyed in that direction for a significant time (15 min.) running, past llamas and for-sale trailers, until I came to some complicated space, which I deemed better to navigate via walking. Rattlesnakes and all. Cowboy boots are not just for style...and since I was wearing tennis shoes, I thought it best to take my time crossing around the tumbleweed and etc.

Upon reaching the highway I found it impassable by pedestrian traffic, as far as my eye could see in either direction. I maneuvered my way back to the main road and ran back...until I discovered a cart selling gorgeous butterflies (and tarantulas/bats/beetles) from other countries under glass in pretty arrangements. I am against such things theoretically...but that did not stop the bright blue butterfly from Indonesia in the wooden box from tempting me. Thankfully, my memory was short and I did not come back later, thus saved by a thread from supporting a heartless industry. Did you know they FARM butterflies for this? I need to start a Persons Against Farming Butterflies (PAFB) chapter. Anyhow, I ran back after, made it an even 30 minutes total...and did my 30 situps (my typical thing again - I used to do it all the time but stopped doing it this last year; now am back to it since Run #1). I used to also do 10 pushups but my arms don't really allow that now (cubital tunnel syndrome). They are in dire straits of late but when they are better I will pick up my arm weights again. :)

Runs #3 & 4: 33 min. & 35 min.

June 14 & 15. Los Angeles. 70s & slight wind.

Love the weather here, even tho' it is pretty hot. It's not humid so I hope to get more running done here so as not to have as much to do in the Mpls. humidity. I'm about a week behind already since I didn't do much more running in the Seattle/Portland/San Fran segment of travel. In my defense, I was only in Portland for a day, and San Fran was often freezing winds & random enormous hills that could not be planned for since maps don't include that info. If I were giving myself credit for dance exercise (sometimes 1 - 1.5 hours of dancing straight thru at the FC shows) or walking (miles & miles in San Fran), I'd be totally caught up. But that isn't what I committed to, so am sticking to the original goal. Such a masochist.

I'm running on my old running path here, on and off. So many changes. Many of my favorite spots are gone - the Rockotitlan Cafe, a hispanic clothing store or two, etc. A high school is now fully built and operational where they were building it for years when I lived here.

Much thanks for mental focus of these runs goes to Damien Jurado & the other artists I played on my ipod today & yesterday. I'd post the vid of 'Caskets' but it's rather creepy (tho' very artistic). Finally wore sunscreen/sunglasses but the glasses have suffered in travel so they're falling off. Maybe time for some new onezzzzz.

Run #2: 30 min.

Monday June 7. Seattle. 60s or 70s and windy.

Could have used same things as last run, forgot. Well the sunglasses & sunscreen. I have been looking for a stopwatch, but have not found one yet.

I wasn't trying to run for 30 min. I was attempting 23 minutes so that I could round the total to 1 hour, reaching 1/40th of my goal. But, as luck would have it, when I thought I was back, I wasn't, and the maze-y neighborhood kept me searching for a while more. So, now we have two tricks for running more:

1) Lose things you have to go back for!

2) Get lost.

Run #1: 37 min.

Minneapolis. 68 degrees & windy. Pretty perfect.
Could have used: sunglasses, sunscreen, a stopwatch. (I looked pretty nerdy running w/my cell phone open ;) )

Only longer than 30 min. because I left my keys in the grass when I did 30 situps at the midpoint of the run...and realized it 10 min. into my run back, 5 min. from my house! Lake of the Isles was stunningly beautiful, which I noticed while walking back after rescuing my keys. Sun-glittery waves spoke of the summer that is just beginning, and I didn't even get down after being passed by an older man in his 50s or 60s who was running w/his son who was also older than me. Tho' he did say hello in a very Minnesotanly way which took the edge off being left in their dust.

A very decent beginning to a summer of getting back into shape!