I'm now in Chicagoland. I realize that my last post was from the greater Bay Springs, Mississippi area. I realize this.

Here's my other realization. I'm kind of a gypsy. I have had this realization in that I am not really employed, I work just a tad, that is, long enough to be poor, and then I go off places. Like Chicago. Or Mississippi. Or Texas. Or Cambodia. Add to this the element of mystery current surrounding my life (apparently I'm vastly mysterious), and that I take trains, and poof! I'm a gypsy. Not ethnically, of course, but you understand what I'm saying.

Speaking of trains, that's how I got from Little Rock, AR, to Joliet, Il. It took me from Wednesday morning at 12:30-ish until about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. You do the math. It was a long time, but I read a good bit of church history and finished watching the second season of the American The Office. I also slept, ate mysteriously tasty chocolate chip cookies, and looked as the midwest whizzed past my window. I spent most of today in the observation car, not in my seat. And I think it's better that way. Big windows, spacious, and a plug-in for my laptop... thus the tv watching.

If I tried to explain my itinerary for the next month, it would be wasted, because it requires drawing diagrams and whatnot. Suffice it to say that I'll be starting school in Conway on August 21.

T

In Mississippi

Here's the skinny. I'm staying with Granny in Bay Springs, MS. And I realized that I've been basically recording my daytime events on someone's Facebook wall. So here it is for everyone else to see, slightly edited.

Day one:
My cousin's kids are adorable. And shy.
Uncle Donnie built a zip-line (to and from what, who knows?) and he fell off it and hurt his rotator cuff, and so he isn't moving his left arm much.
A deer ate Uncle Lee Roy's rosebuds and messed up the whole season.
Granny made open-faced tacos.
Tomorrow I'm talking to people at the nursing home about China and helping Granny put together like 25 Christmas shoeboxes for kids like the ones I gave out in Cambodia.
And I forgot my cell phone charger in Texarkana. :(

Day two:
I talked at the nursing home for a solid 45 minutes, and I look like everyone's grandson. Could be all of their twins. A (crazy-ish) woman told me that if I'd help her get her money in the bank she's give me a thousand dollars of it. Right.
Filled up the shoeboxes.
Took an oh-so-brief nap.
Had fried green tomatoes for lunch!
Took a picture of Granny and Uncle Lee Roy together... in drag. LONG STORY.
Had dinner with some old hands at the international game and Granny. It was fun, and I got to see someone I lived with this past year. You know, the L7.
Tomorrow will have lunch with the Cowboy, and I'm hoping some good hash-it-out talking. Not that we're feuding.
Also need to make a PPT for Sunday, because Mississippi people are especially generous when they know that pictures are coming. (It's a joke...)
Ate fresh purple hull peas at lunch today, too.
And fried catfish for supper (catfish and I are cool now). With hush puppies.

Planning to take a week of salad detox from the corn meal and grease diet when I get back.

The end.

T

I presented the church with a China gift on Sunday, and the people really seemed to like it. It is a scroll with the word "ai" which means "love" on it. And written over it is the scripture in I Corinthians that tells the attributes of love. It's nice, and I feel like the people really are pleased with it. I wish I could have done more, but it really wasn't much of an option. Space/money/time/everything was limited.

Today I am trying my hand as a window-washer at DiscipleGuide. It's pretty exciting. Well, it is because I am broke. I expect it to go alright. It very likely will be a two day job, but it's cool.

I also have a haircut appointment today.

Thursday I'm headed to see Granny.

T

Texarkana has changed ridiculously little. I'm in the same coffeeshop I came to last night. This time the manager recognized me, and I discussed with her my purchase options. It came out well, by the way. That aspect is nice. After I got my Irish Creme frappe thing, I sat down and bided my time waiting for a table with a plug-in to open up so I could get online. While waiting and drinking my coffee, I listened to a morbidly obese man preaching his reactionarily Republican America-could-kick-the-world's-face-in politics to some twenty-somethings who were on the internet and being generally too close for most public displays of affection. I am pretty sure that I have seen this scene before.

I just heard someone else bragging about his "Terrorist Hunting Permit" sticker on his laptop. Real cool.

I mowed the lawn today.

T

I am back from SOAR and in one piece. This past week has been exceedingly difficult and in ways so diverse that it is almost comical. Except it isn't at all. That said, things are on the up and up. And even though I don't like change (like that's a shock), the stuff going down now could be amazingly positive. For that, I am excited and thankful.

I think at this time it would be appropriate to begin a new blog or sign off indefinitely. I won't do anything without letting everyone know, though. I wouldn't want to perpetuate a mass withdrawal from me. What a mess that would be.

Anyway, I am going to press on and work things through. And pray.

T