weekends...

I did this once before, sometime in 2007, where I had a particularly full, unique weekend and just felt like sharing it with everyone :) I suppose if I'm to get the full scope of things I should actually start things last Wednesday evening... when the real fun got started.

5pm & dinner with Deborah. In our two years of being here I hadn't walked to this particular corner of HP, to discover a beautiful corner garden outside of our friend's home. A beautifully fresh meal surrounded by conversations of Sudan, missions & culture.

11:20pm & I leave to pick up 3 weary travelers at the Chinatown bus stop who don't really arrive until about 12:20 am. I had been awaiting word of their flight/travel plans all day as they were trekking across the U.S. on standby from SF, to attend an event called PapaFest in the Pennsylvania farm country. My friend friend Renata was amidst the bunch! We came home, slept, and then they head off early with Ted to the airport/train station, on their way to the Papa gathering

Thurs.

10:00 am & my first Kindergarten graduation. A serious affair with song performances, slide shows, and tassle-shifting, reception, and lots & lots of pictures and excited parents

Evening & nothing, except for Little Caeser's pizza and a movie with my man. Loved it. Precluded by a phone catch-up with my dear friend Katie.

Friday.

10:30 am & 8th grade graduation. Very moving. Saying good-bye to our thirteen 8th grade graduates. I come home at noon to rest & prep for more goodness.

5pm & church cleaning with cell group, yippee! Nah, the work's not so bad when you get to scrub toilets with Wendy Hilemen by your side, haha. Home to change, cook dinner, and make calls before

7pm & last youth group meeting for the spring. Pizza, birthday cakes, games, rug burns and reminiscing. Not too shabby. Then,

9pm & good-bye party for friends Andy and Jodie around the corner from the church, but what? They had already left the party just 4 minutes before we got there! We stayed to chat with the others for 20 minutes... which really turned into 1.5 hours. Whoops, when Hannah starts texting wondering where we are...

11pm & late-comers to the "game night" at Josh and Hannah's house, partly in honor of our visiting friend Chris who moved out to Wisconsin to join InterVarsity staff a year ago. Looked like people were going to bed, but they stayed up and chatted with us for another hour or so anyways -- no games, but good times nonetheless.

Saturday.

12pm & Farmer's Market in HP and then scooting off to Burlington, New Jersey for what? A 40-minute meet-up with Gina which includes going to a Victoria's Secret in a ghetto mall and then picking Yuan and her boyfriend up just in time (or late, whichever) to head off to Flushing, Queens. Wawa stop, Tom Tom directions, and then about 3 hours of halted progress...

6pm & wedding and banquet reception at the Linden Place Chinese banquet hall. Incredible. Yes, there was glitter and lights, beautiful wedding party and service, and food; yes, there was food. 13 courses: eel, jellyfish, seaweed, fish, lobster, shrimp, shark fin soup, octopus, abalone, chicken, steak... and at that point it was 11pm, and we decided to leave, after some dancing of course. The 4 hours of traffic on the way home was a blast ;)

Sunday.

10am & church, sigh. Some Sabbath rest and corn on the cob, and then, a drive to the airport for a 2-hour chat with Renata outside of security before she headed out on her stand-by flight, back to SF. Wonderful time.