Great Weekend

I have such a wonderful weekend.  I have been working on finding a program that I could volunteer in here in the PA area while I am working here.  I think I have found the right one for me that fits around my work schedule.  Saturday I helped plant plants for a Habitat for Humanity community, I really had a great time! The people are nice and what I like is that you can see the tangible difference it is making in peoples lives. I really can’t wait until when I get back next month to be able to have more time to work with them.

I also when down town New Hope to see the Reissuance Fair that was going on. It was really small, however it was the 1^st time that it has been put on in New Hope though.   It is kind of funny I come here so much but I don’t always walk down town, but today I really enjoyed it.  I was in the mood for trying some place new and different for lunch so I would walk across the bridge to Lambertville to find this restaurant that Sara had mentioned to me.  She recommended El Tule its a Mexican and Peruvian restaurant.   I had the Causa a Peruvian dish that has yellow potato cake with yellow peppers and lemon, stuffed with vegetables in the middle.  I was so good!  I am so glad that I went out of my way to eat there. 

Sunday I got up really early to headed to Chestertown MD to visit my friends Cindy and Susan and worship with them at their church the Unitarian Universalists on Chester River.  There was a guest speaker Allison Woolbert talking about her transition and experiences as a male to female transsexual.  We had a nice lunch after service and then Allison led a little workshop for the congregation on how they could make their congregation more open and accepting to the transgender community.  It is so nice that their church is very open and accepting and still striving to improve on accepting all of god people.   

After the great presentation I was able to spend some good time at Cindy and Susan’s house catching up on all the changes in our lives.  Cindy and Susan are such great friends, and such positive people!   As a spur of the moment thing some of their friends were going to see a concert at the Washington College just a few blocks from their house so we decided to join them.  I really wasn't sure what to expect I just knew it was some Renaissance music.  I am always up for expanding my culture a little.  This concert was so awesome; the entire vocals were a cappella.  The instrumental part was cool too; most the students performing had just learned the instruments that year.  What a way to end a great day J

non-eventful

I am here at my home away from home downstairs eating some really good Chinese veggie stir-fry!  Thinking back on my last week all I really can say is Blahhhhhh.   Nothing really sticks out as being extraordinarily good or bad.  You know it’s kind of funny how human nature its.  We are always seem to be striving or wanting more out of life.  I can remember over the last few years just longing for the normalcy in life.  Now that I have it, or as close to it as one can in the aviation industry it’s not enough.  Maybe because of having all the ups and downs in life over the last few years I just am not used to having a non-eventful  life?

    

I am feeling lucky because I will only be out of town for 11 days this rotation.  I think that Tina and I are starting to get used to me traveling.  It still is hard for us to leave each other, but it’s also really nice to have the uninterrupted time together when I’m off though.  We seem as a family to be able to spend better quality time now as compared to when I was working at home in Charleston.

While I was doing my daily walk and enjoying the great weather here today I took this photo of this tree that was full of blooms, it was so pretty.  

Lunch with a friend

Today I had lunch with one of my friends here in Charleston.  He is really a cool friend; I have known and worked with him since we moved here.  He is one of my friends that truly have amazed me in my transition.   He has never questioned or even asked about the changes that have happened he has just accepted me for who I am.   For lunch I ordered a baked potato with chili on it.  We sat down and were catching up on each other’s work.  I all of a sudden thought did I order that with veggie chili?  I wasn’t sure, but that’s what I normally order.  All these thoughts came to me, if it has meat in it will I eat it, should I go check the order to see, dang I really don’t want to make a scene….  All of a sudden the potato showed up, it did have the chili with meat in it.  So I had to make the choice of eating it or not.  Do I want to go against my conviction of being a vegetarian? I sure really didn’t want to make a scene and redo my order because the restaurant was getting very busy.   My thought was oh I can eat that,  it won’t be so bad.  It was really good to eat, but in the end I really paid for it.  Not only did my stomach hurt for a few hours but I was also very disappointed in my choice as well.

In thinking about this choice it really does parallel my Christian walk.  We all face small sins or choices that come into our lives each day.  We have to make a choice of what to do with them and either follow our convictions or give in.  It’s that choice of how we handle things that gives us the great pains in life, we all fall short from time to time.   Whether it telling a little white lie or falling off the diet and eating that candy bar calling your name or in my case eating some meat today.   In growing as a Christian part of it is learning from our past sins, so that we can better handle situations in the future.

Metropolitan Community Church Charleston Food Bank

One of my passions that I have found is volunteering at the Metropolitan Community Church of Charleston Food Bank.   With my travel schedule I am only able to work half the days that I used too.  It is a nice feeling knowing that you are helping and making a difference in a person’s life.  Christa our youngest daughter is on spring break so I thought I would bring her with me, it was also a nice way to getting some bonding time for just us two.  This was the first time she has helped me at the food bank, and she really didn’t know what to expect.  However she too also found it enjoyable and loved the feeling that she was helping people as well.   When she gets out of school for the summer I think I will have a new partner helping.  Today’s society seems to get too busy with life and not make time for volunteering.    This is a unique joy that people are missing out on.

Andi and Becky

Christa

A great week

This week has been a busy week for me. I really have been struggling to pull all my thoughts together.  So I thought I would just hit a on a few things that happened from last Sunday. I went from Pennsylvania to Texas and back in the 1^st part of the week to work an airplane.  On Wednesday Lisa and Michael had a really cool open house at the Bed and Breakfast.  They opened it up for all the neighbors to see what services that they offer at the Fox and Hound.  Sara in the picture below made this excellent French toast soufflé for the open house and some other great treats.    As you can see I had a really big piece.  It was so good!

Then on Thursday there was the airing if the Dr. Oz show we were in. Tina and girls watched it together at home.  I was glad that they could be together and support each other.  I really had a blessing of having Sara, Lisa and Paula watch the show with me at the B & B.   I don’t think they really knew how much their support meant to me.   I am learning to open up more, I am finding that I really value having friendships more than I ever have in the past.   In the past I was always so guarded, I would not let people get close to me at all.  Because of that I really didn’t have many friends and the ones I had were not that close either.