Things are in general going really well. I've only had a couple emotional break-downs so far in the adjustment process, but I feel pretty leveled out now. And work was getting boring, but it's picking up and I keep gaining more responsibilities that make it interesting. I have to make an extra effort to keep things hush hush now though because I'm working in prototype development for Toyota and living with a Ford employee (my uncle).
Just to prepare your brain, here's the order of discussion points: ultimate frisbee, UK update, Emma's soccer game, She's the Man, church, middle eastern food, welcome lunch, barn party, hiking, sermon, art institute, software training, being sick, Ekiden run, pizza pasta, kayaking, half marathon training update, painting, church, Emma's birthday, and future plans.
Ok. Ready?
So this cat Jaret emailed all the co-ops, yes all 60 of us, and organized an ultimate frisbee gathering on a Tuesday after work. The only people that showed up were me and him. It was all the way out in Ann Arbor, about a half hour drive for me. But I like to go do fun things and run around. I enjoy ultimate even though I need to work on my catching/throwing frisbee abilities. So when we were waiting around for the other people that never came, we started off throwing frisbee. Then when I realized it was more like me playing fetch with him because I couldn't aim straight, we switched to football. We had a good time of fellowship and such, talking about church and living out our faith in the co-op scene. And after about half an hour when we decided nobody else was going to come, we left. Cool story, now go make me a sandwich? Sorry for the anticlimacticity (yes, I make up words) - remember, this is real life, not Hollywood.
I talked with this nice lady, Amy, from UK, and she gave me some more insight about transferring (still not finalized, but I still feel called to go). So now I'm in the process of getting syllabi from all of my engineering professors to see how my credits will transfer. Dr. Brown and Dr. Norman are the ones I'm still waiting on if anyone wants to go pressure them, much appreciated. On the upside, my Cedarville friend Joe Franklin's new girlfriend (woot woot!) goes to UK and will gladly hook me up with the scene in Lexington.
I went to one of my cousin Emma's soccer games a couple weeks ago. Turns out it's the only loss they've had so far this whole season. Perhaps I'm the opposite of a rabbit's foot when it comes to luck, because that's what it seems like lately. But it was great to be there and cheer her on as well as to have some chill time talking with my aunt on the sidelines and meeting a super nice soccer mom, my cousin's best friend Grace's mom.
I had Christine and Thomas over for dinner. They are fellow co-ops. It was my first solo attempt at grilling, and I was pleasantly surprised. Except I evidently burnt the table with part of a kabob....oops. We decided to watch a movie after dinner. And Thomas had never seen She's the Man, so Christine and I took that as a golden opportunity to get him to watch the beloved chick flick. Then Thomas left and Christine and I went hot tubbing and she stayed the night so we could carpool to church in the morning. Thomas has expressed interest in coming to church with us but he hasn't yet.
The church we went to that week was called North Ridge Church, which is the first megachurch I've ever been to. It was literally like a concert inside with the seating. And they had overflow parking across the street that people took shuttles to. Great service, and God is definitely moving there. But for a regular basis, Christine and I decided we would stick with Grace Bible Church in Ann Arbor.
After going to North Ridge, Christine and I checked out this cool Mediterranean food place called La Pita. It was absolutely delicious. I came home and was telling my aunt about it, and my aunt said that they stopped going there when it had closed down. Evidently it has new owners and a new name now, but it used to be run by a guy who was funding terrorists with the money from the restaurant, and he's currently running from the feds. But hey it was good food.
I had a "welcome lunch" at work a couple Fridays ago. All the engineers in my prototype development team and I went to Izakaya Sanpei in Canton. It's a really cute Japanese restaurant with delicious food. Thanks Toyota! And it was a good way to get to know the engineers away from their desks.
That night, I went to a barn party at Chelsea Fairgrounds, hosted by U of M Cru. The other co-ops that went were Jaret, Netsanet, and Christine. It "was a hot time in the old town" that night. Lots of square dancing and line dancing. I have never held that many guys hands in my entire life. And I carved a pumpkin with Netsanet's face in it. Sometimes I call her "Nets," whatever I feel like in the moment.
The next day, we went on a hike. But most people got lost trying to find the park we were going to hike at. So we waited around for quite a while for everyone to get there. In the mean time, we went in the nature center and looked at the turtles. And the guy working there came out and let us hold the turtles (Dad, I know you're reading this....set your phone down so you don't drop it) and the snakes. And he showed us the hawk they keep outside. It was a great day of nature. The hike was really good too. Not much compares to hiking, fresh air, and talking with new friends. Then we all played ninja (thanks to Camp Loucon I'm moderately skilled at this). I'm sure all the people that came to the park that day thought we were crazy, but it was great fun.
Then we went out to dinner at this Egyptian restaurant called the Blue Nile in Ann Arbor. They don't use utensils to eat there. You scoop up the veggies and meat with the tortilla-like bread. So yummy. And then I drove K'Ehleyr home because she needed a ride. She's a cool girl, but I didn't really know her before that day, so it was a cool time to chat and get to know her better.
Church that weekend was great. It was a sermon about John the Baptist. They are in a series about doubts, so this sermon was aimed at the doubt people have of "If God is good and powerful, then why doesn't he save us from all the suffering in the world?" And we dove into the passage about when John the Baptist was in prison. Even though he had spent most of his life preaching about Jesus, he doubted when he was in prison. He sent his followers to Jesus to ask him if he was "the one that was to come" AKA the Messiah or if there was someone else. Jesus told them to go back and tell John about everything they saw and heard....the dead rising, the lame walking, the blind seeing. In essence, Jesus was saying, "I'm the Messiah. Look around you. And I'm doing great things here, totally capable of saving you." But then Jesus didn't save him. In fact, John the Baptist was beheaded. Evidently, it wasn't about John the Baptist. Jesus was involved in a greater plan. And it's not about us. Sometimes he does save us from suffering. But sometimes he doesn't. But he did something greater when he saved us on Calvary! So even when he doesn't send the cavalry, he still saves through Calvary. Boom. Good stuff. I needed a reminder that it's not about me.
Then Nets and Christine and this guy Josh and I went to the DIA (Detoit Institute of Art). Detroit recently went bankrupt, so there's rumor that the DIA might be selling off some of its pieces, so I'm glad we got to see it when we did. It's so huge and so fantastic. We were there for a few hours and we only made it about halfway through the place. I think my favorite area was the modern art area. I like to figure out what all the meanings are too, so the religious artwork was especially interesting and powerful to me. All day long, though, I sounded like a cartoon character because I barely had a voice. I was getting over my cold, and I had lost my voice the night before when I drove K'Ehleyr home.
Then I had software training from Monday to Thursday for four hours each morning out at the Saline location. And I work in Livonia, so it was a lot of cruisin around town last week. I definitely learned a lot in the training and hope I get to use what I learned. It was cool too because I got to eat lunch with the other co-ops that work out there, which is the majority of the other co-ops.
I babysat the kiddos last week while my aunt and uncle were at a banquet shindig. So I took Emma to her soccer practice and decided to stay and help out. Probably due to my experience at Camp Loucon, I was able to learn all the names of the girls on her team in the first five minutes that I was there. And it was a lot of fun. Those kids are so full of energy. And of course, soccer is the bomb diggity. I'm thinking someday I want to be a soccer coach for sure. It would have to be with young-ish kids though because I'm not incredibly skilled at soccer. But I know enough to coach and I think I would be good at it.
Friday was the Ekiden in Ann Arbor, which is a race based off of the one they have in Japan every year. We had 48 teams, at least one from each department. I was the anchor of our team. It's a relay race, and the first and last people run 1.4 miles, and the middle 6 run 0.7 miles. It was great fun. We definitely didn't lose and we definitely didn't win (dang five minute milers - no offense Dubie). It was cool to be on the same running team as our VP too. He was very encouraging and thanked us for running. It was also in partnership with an outreach called S.O.S., based in Ypsilanti. We donated 5,000 items, and Toyota donated an additional $5000. I'm trying to plan a volunteer outing for the co-ops to go there and help out. I saw on their website that they have tutoring programs for homeless children among other things, so I think it would be a good thing for us to do instead of our typical fun-hunting, money-wasting excursions.
Then for dinner that night, I made pizza pasta for the fam. Basically, baked pasta with pizza sauce, pepperoni, tomatoes, garlic, onions, and cheese. It was surprisingly really good, especially for not using a recipe. So I think I'm on my way to being a chef. Not sure what I will make this week, but I've set the bar high.
Saturday, I went kayaking with a bunch of the co-ops. We did double-kayaks because there had to be one person per kayak with rowing experience. Near the beginning of our route, there were a bunch of man-made rapids. On the fourth one, my kayak and another kayak were about to enter the rapid at the same time; so, in an effort to avoid a crash, Netsanet (my friend riding in the front of our kayak) and I paddled backwards to let them go first. But we ended up hitting some rocks and going down the rapid backwards, hitting more rocks on the way down, and capsizing out kayak. We weren't wearing helmets, but we were wearing life jackets. The water was shallow enough to stand in luckily though because my friend Nets is not confident in her swimming abilities. We ended up scraped and bruised, but it was memorable. And nothing serious. We got back in and were fine after that. We learned our lesson and tried not to be too close to other kayaks near the rapids.
Then we went to Chipotle. Fortunately, I brought spare clothes to change into. Netsanet was not as wise though, so she was a bit uncomfortable. I was so glad people wanted to go to Chipotle when I suggested it because I had been craving it for a while. I've never had a burrito there that I didn't like.
Then I came home and ran 8 miles. Half marathon training, for the win. Remember you can help my fundraising for Active water: https://activewater.myetap.org/fundraiser/Africa/individual.do?participationRef=3357.0.255731741
Then I came home and finished the painting I gave to my cousin for her 9th birthday. She's a figure skater. So I painted a girl figure skating on our Grandma's pond. It was the first picture I've completed for about 6 years. I'm hoping there's more where that came from.
Then we had the family birthday party for Emma. It was good stuff. Got to see the grandparents and catch up. And good times re-meeting my aunt and uncle's friends. But among all of the adults talking, I saw Emma being bored. I thought that wasn't cool since it was her birthday party. So I sat down with her and we played Guess Who :)
Yesterday, I had lunch with a coworker named Kristin. We went out to Thai Bistro. I had red curry, and it was the perfect amount of spiciness for me. And I think that was my first time eating eggplant and bamboo. And she had a really good apple salad. I have been so blessed with the people I have met up here. Kristin is definitely one I am thankful for. She is so kind and encouraging. It was great to sit down and connect with her and see pictures of her kids and talk about real life stuff instead of just work.
This morning, my Aunt Jen threw out her back. It usually gets better after a day when this has happened in the past. But instead, today I just got worse throughout the day. So please pray for her.
Stay posted.....here's a sneak peak of future plans: get involved with the church youth group, go to co-op soccer gathering (with my old mentor John's old co-op / now full-time engineer Laura), dinner with Rachael and Andy from Cedarville (Toyota connection with Andy working for a supplier up here), Walk to End Alzheimer's, Cedar Point trip with co-ops, RunScreamRun Halloween 10k, starting a Bible study at work
