Shirley, Barbara, a Microwave?

The title says it all...well almost. For some reason people here go crazy when the temperature hits above 75. (we don't have to talk about life without air conditioning in 90 degree weather, I am coping) Sometimes the weather makes people say strange things..i guess. I have been called a lot of weird things in my neighborhood. Usually they are really generic however like, "white girl", "baby", "little momma", and a various assortment of other endearments. This week however the men in my neighborhood have outdone themselves. Sunday was a beautiful day. Think 80 degrees, sunshine, and a cool breeze after months of horrendous freezing cold temperatures. I got home from church and was heading to the store to buy some items. (I am actually really proud of what I bought (all the ingredients for a birthday celebration for under $10) maybe I should write a book). I was heading out the door and two gentlemen walked by. I said my friendly hello and one of the said, "hey Shirley". No... I don't really understand. Perhaps my sundress made him think of an older lady named shirley...or maybe I just look like a shirley. Also this week I was called Barbara by another person in our neighborhood. Sometimes I think people look at me a quickly try to insert a generic name.
The next best part of my week came when after work one day Lu and I were sitting on the front porch. We saw a man get out of a car with a microwave. It seemed normal enough, perhaps his had broken and a friend had given his. We thought nothing of it until we heard a scraping sound. Yes, this man was dragging the microwave by the cord along the sidewalk. Best moment of my week.
Moments like that are when I love my neighborhood the most. Deep joy.

help me, help you

I am officially selling stuff. For the month of April mission year (http://www.missionyear.org/) has recieved a match that makes every gift in the month of April doubled. So, if you feel so compelled please visit this website and enjoy? https://www.missionyear.org/match/welch

I have been trying to be creative about my mission year fundraising and have spent part of the week sewing things to try and sell. All proceeds will go towards my teams general fund for mission year, and will be doubled as listed below.

So long story short, if anything I post looks excting to you, shoot me an e-mail before Sunday at 6 p.m. rebekahwelchster@gmail.com and go to this link https://www.missionyear.org/match/welch and donate whatever you want. We will work on an honor system here. So. If you don't see something you like, I may be able to whip something up, if you conatct me soon.

Happy easter all.

Rebekah

23

Today is my birfday, as I like to call it. It came at a wonderful time this year seeing as I am home in Amarillo for my spring break. I have already had some wonderful celebrating for my 23rd year. Before I left Philly for spring break my roommates made a wonderful cake for me. They tried to keep me out of the kitchen so I would be surprised and ended up telling me I couldn't come in because they were ashamed that they were eating chocolate chips out of the bag and they thought I would be upset. I got over it, (originally I was mad because they wouldn't let me in the kitchen. That night I was wearing a great pair of wedges that I found on the street on the way to work. Woodland Avenue= constant accidental garage sale. p.s. the shoes fit me perfectly, just like cinderella.

Me wearing the shoes I found and holding the wonderful cake. Thanks roommates!

Next I went to Dallas for a weekend of fun with my favorite ladies from college. They surprised me with pudding cups, a knitting book, a littlest pet shop bird, and a muscle shirt. They are too good to me. Brooke made me some wonderful cupcakes as well.

the ladies at the deep ellum art festival. Sounds cool, but it mostly consisted of people selling weird jewelry and lizard wall hangings.

Since then I have been home spending time with my parents and grandma. I have had a lot of time to relax, read, and sew. All being some of my favorite things. This morning for my birthday I got to go get my teeth cleaned in Fritch (hometown) at my Dad's office. As my sister Deborah and I were leaving we took pictures of the main street to show our friends where we really came from.

Yes, this is where I spent the first 18 years of my life. My parents made sure we spent a majority of the summer at camp and other places, which is probably one of the reasons I still don't live there.

My grandmother sent me a sweet card today saying that she knew I was special when at the age of four I spent almost an entire day dressing a redressing a pet rock with a piece of fabric. Oh how far I have come.

rebekah

cake balls and higher education

Today I borrowed a car and drove about 13 miles and entered an alternative universe. Some friends and I went to Eastern University to talk to the School of Leadership and Development about further education. It was really weird being on a college campus, especially one full of trendy Christians. That is something I don't see very often. The upside was getting a free lunch in the cafeteria. I never thought I would actually be excited about something like that, but Mission Year has completely screwed up my life in more ways than I can even count. Overall it was a good day that brought about thoughts about the future. More to come about that I am sure.

Other than that I just wanted to post some pictures of March, which has by far been the busiest month of my life. It has flown.

Because I have not the computer smarts, the patience, nor the energy to figure out why the pictures are out of order this is a backwards slide show of the past few weeks.

Brooke A. Cunningham came to visit. We saw most of what Philly had to offer, including Danny Bonaduce of Partridge Family fame.

We went to the art museum (free in Philly on Sundays) and spent a few hours looking at ancient art. We didn't walk around together because after many years as friends (almost 10) we have figured out that we are very different people, down to the way we walk around museums. Brooke is slower and more methodical, where as I am more of a skimmer, breezing through sections, not spending too much time anywhere.

The Liberty bell. After nearly seven months in Philly I still don't completely understand what the big deal is.

The weekend of the Gaines wedding in Texas! Target is fun. The dollar section is funner (i know it's not a real word). My friends from college are the fun-est. We laughed a lot. Thank you Bre for the valentines day episode of 30 rock. I will always think of you when I microwave a donut.

The Gaines. There was christian rap at the wedding. I danced a little more than was probably appropriate. Hot, hot, hot in the church.

Blue angels. Need I say more?

Lilly and I made cake-balls in Philly. It was a grand experiment. I saw the recipe on a website and attempted to replicate it without having it in front of me (no Internet at our house). The result was kinda tasty, kinda chunky.

My Mission Year team with our adopted mama Janet Samba. She gave me a small sequined purse. She knows the way to my heart. She cooks for us a lot, and has probably used thousands of gallons of oil in her lifetime frying things.

So this has been life lately.

cats?

It has been a long time since I have had time to post on this thing. My life has been pretty hectic over the past few weeks and I have barely had time to think straight. One of the things that has been keeping me busy is this video project I have been working on for the SWCDC. It is a project that kind of got thrown in my lap because none of the people that are actually employed there have the time/desire to work on it. The project is a community formed documentary about a garden that some ladies started in the late 90's a few blocks from my house. The idea of the video project is to involve to community in the film making process. So the people involved in the garden and the video project helped film, transcribe and edit the film. This might sound easy, but when you are working with 60-70 year old ladies with no prior knowledge of film editing (and why should they have this knowledge?) it is a challenge. Needless to say I have learned a lot about film making in the past few months. If you want to check it out this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjqwD5Mn49c should get you there.

On fat Tuesday I went over to the nursing home to visit because one of the residents told me that there was going to be a parade. I am never one to refuse a good time so I headed over and found all the residents dressed up with Mardi gras masks and beads everywhere. The social hall was decorated beautifully and they had hired two people to be singing old time songs for the residents. Everything was going good until the parade started. When it started all the sudden there were older ladies that worked at the nursing home dressed like cats coming around the residents and purring at them and getting up in there faces. I was pretty scared 1st. because they looked really creepy and 2nd because I was really confused why there were cats at a Mardi gras parade. My confusion was soon ended when more people started coming out dressed in outfits that were themed by famous Broadway musicals. Some of them were Phantom of the Opera, Westside Story, and South Pacific. If I could give more details without going on for way too long, I would.

Then last weekend I was lucky enough to get to go to Brenham, Texas for the wedding of Lauren Hall and Chris Gaines. It was a beautiful weekend with sweet time with friends. The wedding was really special and this had nothing to do with the fact that I had fake eyelashes on. Yes fake eyelashes. The make-up lady asked if I would like fake eyelashes and I thought, “Hey, I will probably never get asked this again” so I said yes. So for the night of the wedding I was sporting more make-up and accessories than have ever been on my face before. Special. The weekend was so good. I ended it Sunday morning with some of my closest friends drinking coffee and eating breakfast at one of my favorite College Station spots, La Bodega in short sleeves. I really love Texas weather.

Brooke comes to town on Friday, so I am sure I will have some more stories soon.

coming soon

(me this morning before heading out)


I have had this weird obsession this week with the myers-briggs personality test. My co-worker at catholic social services carrie and I were talking about it the other day and I was filled with this huge desire to know my type. I had tested this summer as, an ESTJ which is often referred to as leader, or overseeer. I was the only one in our Mission Year city to test this way, and I just wasn't sure that it was me. So this week I took the myers-briggs test roughly 10 times and came up with a lot of different things. I am a little crazy. The one that I think is it is actually ESFJ, extroverted (just slightly), sensing, feeling, and judging. Here is a little blurb about the ESFJ person.
"ESFJs are responsible, dutiful, observe traditions and follow rules. ESFJs have a deep concern for others and often end up as caretakers. They are sensitive to criticism and have a need to be appreciated for the good they do for others. ESFJs are understanding, generous, have a quick wit and a knack for composition and beautification."
I am not positive that this is me, but it is the closest I have gotten, so let the crazy obsessing end.

Next. I had a really good week with God. He revealed a lot to me, but mostly how I struggle so much with seeing myself I worthy. I had it thrown in my face this week, (in a good way) that God loves me exactly where I am at spiritual, physically, and emotionally. Last night at city-wide the guy that spoke talked about John 15, the vine and the branches. This passage in the past has always made me nervous about my fruit production and how I was doing on the works end of things. I actually didn't like it very much. But last night we talked about how the only imperative/command in that section of scriptures is to abide in God. Not to go and bear fruit. He doesn't tell us to bear fruit he just asks us to abide in Him. Thats it! The message translations actually says to make your home in Him. So that is what I am dwelling on, simply making my home in God. Mission Year can be dangerous because we 'do' so much. We volunteer and try to help people and it can get a little defeating at times when things don't go how you think they should, or if things go really good you start thinking that you are pretty awesome. This puts it in to perspective for me, and I needed that.

I wrote and article for our local paper this week about my team. I made up all the quotes because my roommates wouldn't give me any. Here is the link if you want to check it out. http://www.southwestcdc.org/pdfs/SWGlobeTimes.pdf. So speaking about my team, starting next week I am going to start doing video interviews of my roommates to post on this blog. I got a new computer for christmas and it has a web cam built in and I feel like I should use it for something. So after reading the articles if you have any questions for my rommates post them in the comments and I will ask them live, on my blog. I know it's a little nerdy, but I appreciate weird things like this and most of my friends so as well.

Peace out.

rebekah

LOVE part 2

I realize that when I titled my last blog post, LOVE, people may have thought that I was in love. But actually I am not in love. Not in love with a specific person. But there are lots of things that I love.

· I love natural peanut butter…I have been stockpiling three jars that I brought home from Christmas. Central market brand is my favorite.
· I love reading a book that will make me laugh out loud. I tend to not love the heart-wrenching serious stuff that makes me cry. For example I just read this book called, Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos. It was yes, a little shallow with a predicatalbe happy ending, but I laughed so much that I looked a little crazy.

· I love when my best friend Brooke draws pictures that are hilarious and confusing at the same time and mails them to me. (i.e. a fairy with a semi-automatic weapon)
· I love snow days.
· I love dancing in my living room with my roommates trying to burn off the calories we just ate at dinner.
· I appreciate, and maybe even love a good cardigan, especially in this climate.
· I love good music, and finding good new music. Current loves are The Welcome Wagon, Fiction Family, and Feist. I love learning a CD and knowing where are the good lines and songs are.

· I love going to sleep when it is raining.
· I love a lot of housewifey things like baking, cooking, sewing, and crafting. I realize all of these are a little old lady-ish, but I actually do love doing all of these things. I also get a sick thrill out of cleaning out the refrigerator. Like taking everything out of it, scrubbing it, and then organizing it. I really don’t like to clean anything else.
· I love the book of Isaiah in the bible.
· I love discovering new books and authors. This year I have discovered Nouwen, Thurman, Manning, and Varnier.

· I love finishing a journal I have been writing in for a long time.
· I love my friends that I went to college with. The ones I lived with and the ones I didn’t. I had way too much fun, and I am only now realizing how lucky I was.

· I love and sometimes hate community.
· I do love my family as well…which is good because I will see them tomorrow!
I hope this post wasn’t too sickening.
rebekah