bingo and bagels

Today is Sabbath. That means it is a full day when I get to relax and chill. It started this morning really well. I woke up later than usual and stumbled downstairs. Some of my roommates were up and had already had a devotional together. I fell into a chair, read the paper leisurely, and drank a cup of tea. I was sitting with Lu and Amy just enjoying each others presence laughing and eating chocolate when we suddenly heard a disturbing squeaking noise. We have had a mice problem for a few weeks so we just assumed that the circus of mice had set up a party in our kitchen and were having a good time. Lu went into the kitchen and discovered that a baby mouse had gotten stuck in one of the glue traps we set up in the kitchen. Up unto this point the glue traps we set up had been unsuccessful in the area of catching and killing mice but today one mouse finally succumbed to the temptation of the month old trail mix sprinkled all over a bed of toxic glue. Lu was very emotional about the baby mouse that was squeaking with all that was in it. She rushed out the front door and tried to free it by pushing it off the glue with a spoon. Nothing worked. Lu overcome with emotion decided that if she were in the mouse’s position that she would want to be taken out of her misery instead of starving to death. She then proceeded to kill the mouse. So that is how my morning started. With death. But it has been good since then

Last night all the Philly area teams got together for training. We talked about our love languages. I discovered I am not so much a fan of physical touch. I tested as strong in words of affirmation and acts of service. I was not too surprised. I do take it pretty personally when people don’t do the dishes or pick of their crap. It was good.

This week was good as well. My neighborhood has really started to feel like home. My housemates are really starting to feel like family. It’s a good shift though. I already feel like these people are rooted deep into my life after being with them only a month.

I played bingo with senior citizens this week at the senior program from catholic social services. They were hilarious. I had to call out the bingo numbers and they really could not hear me and were very concerned that I was calling the wrong numbers or playing favorites. I also accidently spilled all the bingo balls all over the floor and interrupted a heated round. They were ok with this but not ok with the fact that we hadn’t brought lottery tickets for their birthdays or bagels and cream cheese for them to eat.

I have not talked a lot about our church yet and there are several reasons for this. One is that I still don’t know exactly what to say. I am working out a lot of things in me. I am learning a lot about how differently people see and love God. Stay tuned for more thoughts on that.

Something else beautiful happened today. My housemates and I have stumbled upon this group of about eight adults with special needs that live in a care home across from the library. These are beautiful people and I really love spending time with them. There is one lady who I first met as Rhonda but who sometimes asks to be called Tina. She also told me that the she wrote a Beyonce song, and she is a great dancer. This morning I had to go to the library to pick up some books I had ordered and I ran across Rhonda/Tina. She was so excited to see me and I was really excited to see her as well. She walked with me to the trolley stop and showed me her pocketbook (this means purse for those of you who come from my part of the country) that had lots of funny wonderful stuff in it. When the trolley pulled up she gave me a kiss on the check and we parted ways. It was a wonderful to start the morning.

Peace until next Sabbath
rebekah