Long time.

Since it has been since about May since I have posted on here there should be a lot for me to update you on.

In May my good friend Lauren "Hall" Gaines and her husband Chris came and visited. We did a whirlwind tour of Southwest Philly complete with cheesesteak and water ice
In July three of my Roommates and I rode what is called a casino bus all the way to Atlantic City. The way we heard this was supposed to work was that we payed $30 for the ride and when we got a casino we would be given $30 in casino money that we could cash out whenever we wanted. What really happened though was that we were mislead and that we had to gamble the entire $30, which none of us really wanted to do. We ended up playing the slots and miraculously made enough to pay back the $30 we spent to get there. Other than that Atlantic City was fun. We walked to boardwalk and sat on the beach.

My roommates and I had a lot of good times. One night for our weekly family night I suggested that we do 80's glamour shot night. As you can see it was a big hit. We always found weird ways to entertain ourselves over the course of the year.

For my roommates Lu's birthday we had a banana pudding party and invited all of our neighbors. We made a huge tub of pudding and sat outside all night visiting and eating. It was a lot of fun.

We finished our year well. We spent weeks packing and cleaning out our house. It was bittersweet to pack up our lives and say goodbye to the neighbors that meant so much to us. I really learned to live simply and well this year, and it was hard to close this chapter in my life. We ended the year with a week long retreat with all the other Mission Year teams from our area in the Pocono Mountains. It was relaxing and fun. After that my roommates and I played in Philly for a few days, and I might or might not have gotten a tattoo. Then I came home. I have been in TX for a little over a week. I spend last weekend with Brooke and Averie in the mountains and tomorrow I am heading down to College Station for Brooke and Kelley's graduation. I will start work in Arlington on August 29th. Life is back.

Something else that shaped my year happened in July. My grandma had a staff infection that she got in early June. She was put into long term care and was there about three weeks to control the infection. When she was about to be released in early July she started to get violently ill. Things moved really quickly and they found out that she had another internal infection that had gotten into her bloodstream. She got sick on a Sunday and we pretty much knew by Tuesday that she wasn't going to make it. They moved her into hospice on Wednesday, which is the same day I got in from Philly. She was in hospice a week and it was really hard to watch her die. The bright part of it was the amazing time I got to spend with my family. Literal hours upon hours of togetherness. My grandma was an amazing woman and it was wonderful and bittersweet to celebrate her life with others that loved her.

Rebekah

what's next...

Well, I am officially moving to Tx in the fall. I have decided to settle in the Dallas area, so I can co-habitat (spelling?!?) with my friend Catlin. I am excited to be coming home to the lone star state, but sad at the same time to leave Philly, which is truly an amazing city. I am going to be doing grad school via the internet (we shall see how that goes) and try to secure some kind of income/job. Right now I am looking into positions with Americorp. They would be amazing because A. They pay some of your student loans (grad school) B. It would be excellent experience in the field I am interested in (community development) and C. they give you money to live on. Awesome. I don't really want to head into full-time crazy employment right away, so hopefully this works out and most everyone will be happy.

Hold in your excitement.

I am going to post some pictures here on Friday, because life has been pretty darn funny lately. Some of the things that happen don't have pictures to go along with them, so I will simply tell you about them. Lu and I have been trying to compile a list of the funniest things that have happened to us in Philly so far. Here are some of the highlights.

1. The other night this kid got on the trolley carrying his laptop. Ok normal right, except his laptop was on. He was watching an Anamae (anna may, anami, anamei??!?!), (i have no idea) movie with subtitles. weird.
2. I have entered into slightly illegally activity with my friend the security guard at the grocery store. He sees my roommates and I go to the store in order to rent movies from the redbox (www.redbox.com i highly recommend it) Last night he called me into his "office", introduced himself, and then proceded to show me all of these pirated movies he had. He had the new star trek, angels and demons, and many more. I didn't really know what he wanted me to say, so I just congratulated him. He then asked if I would be interested in buying some. I am not really interested but I have him my phone number. Bad idea? Perhaps. I will never buy one though, I just think the security guard is really nice.
3. The other night our 15 year old neighbor Liz was over with the 1 year old she babysits, Rhiana. Rhianna= the funniest baby in the world. On Saturday she took off all her clothing (diaper included) and danced for about 30 minutes. I felt like I was in a movie, or a trippy cartoon, but it was all real.

So that is life right now. Chris and Lauren Gaines were in town Monday which was awesome. We saw my neighborhood, got stuck in traffic for a long time, and then ate Philly cheesesteak and water ice. It was a lot of fun.

I will keep this blog updated on my next life steps when I figure them out myself.

rebekah

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.