Meanwhile, in the SF Bay Area

I am staying at Ryan's while he is away.  He has a desk and I can complete these classes with less distraction.  Claire is my roommate in San Rafael, CA- she is about 15 minutes north and we now have to plan dates to see each other.  So, we will hang out on Saturday- I think there might be a hike in store.

Speaking of exercise, one of Ryan's friends and my new friend, Katie got a hold of me asking if I wanted to go on a walk.  Folks, it was not a mere saunter...  It was a walk with interruptions of lunges and squats.  Tricky Katie, quite tricky- and now I know what this new season of walk looks like with you.  It was good.  Katie is in a thriving long distance relationship- it has been good to connect.

Last weekend, I was able to see Jeff and Jess.  They are dear friends from CO that recently moved out here.  It was wonderful to connect up and realize the we were in a new space and a different season than before.  Jess has her year residency for vet school that has just begun, Jeff has a new architecture job, and I'm engaged in a new city and engaged to an incredible man.

The classes I am taking are Assessment of Learning and Assessment of E-Learning.  Surprisingly they have very little overlap.  If you did not know any better you may think I was attempting to have a lighter load this summer! ;)  Well, let me assure you, they are not making that easy.  :D  I suppose it is good- I am an advocate of quality education.

Regardless, I am unable currently to find employment in the education field right now.  It has been a process of great frustration actually.  However, today I applied to a candy shop and suddenly it felt better for this time.  Ha!  I am bad at giving up control.  I am sort of bad at having my plans changed.  It has been good to change direction sometimes; I suppose we ought to move in the direction of the open door, eh?

And, on a lighter note my hair is back to a natural tone.  It seemed "Cherry Praline" was not going to be the best for pictures the first weekend of August.  A friend from Colorado will be flying out to take some shots of Ryan and I.  The talented Amanda and her talented husband, Aaron might be in Africa working on their film during October.  The film will no doubt be amazing- stay tuned: Liyana

Ryan and I have decided we will travel to the storage units in August.  It will be wonderful to see his family in Washington and Montana and visit with friends in Colorado and possibly Wyoming.

Lately, video conversations with Ryan have been cut short due to bad wireless connections on the base in SC.  Frankly, it is annoying.  He has been good.  The workouts sound outrageous- no, seriously, insane...  I can't help but feel a bit wimpy when I share about running stairs.  We miss each other, but we are both in good places now.  I am beginning to find my place in the strangeness of Marin County (more on this later), while allowing new community to invade in the very best way while Ryan is preparing well around professionals that know the same drive to care well for persons serving in the military.  We are both being loved on by God and others.  It is still appropriate to miss this man dearly...  I get that love means wanting the very best for another.  We had texted and planned to chat but with the intense days Ryan was beat this evening.  He napped and set the alarm to converse with me.  He woke and told me how he was feeling- completely drained... we determined to reschedule for tomorrow- no worries- sleep strong, brave, dear man... but then it was important to see each others face; I so wanted to see his pliable and alive face.  And I did for a few precious minutes and we bid each other sweet dreams and restful peace 'when we got there.'  ...CA to SC is four time zones right?  

xoxo, all.

Chaplain School Day 4

Today was my Fourth day at Chaplain School.  Life has been much better than expected, and the staff is great. 

As I previously mentioned, the first day was not as bad as we had all anticipated from the letter we were given on Sunday night.  Thankfully my attitude has improved greatly since then as well.  We had no PT on Monday or Tuesday but had our Initial PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment, this is an unofficial Physical Readiness Test of a 1.5 mile run, 2 minutes of Pushups, and 2 minutes of curl-ups) on Wednesday.  I was pretty nervous because I showed very little physical discipline between ODS (Last November/December) and now.  I have to admit I was praying just not to get hurt; but in the end I passed all three events with no problems.  I passed the Pushups with 14 over the minimum, I doubled the minimum for the curl-ups, and my 1.5 mile time was better than my last one at ODS.  Now that we had finished our PFA we started PTing today with a “short” 45-minute formation run.  Tomorrow will be “Blue Falcon” working our cores in a sort of relay with one person from each squad at a time running and doing dips and pull-ups.

The first two days of classroom setting were administrative days with ten hours a piece of death by power point.  Luckily though we have Chaplain (Lt Cmdr Moore) as our class’ main officer, and when he gets in front of us he is very relaxed, and fun, and jokes a lot.  He is very entertaining and keeps us awake.  The ethics class we have been taking has been very interesting and engaging.  It is being taught by a retired Captain who really knows his stuff and does a great job of keeping us engaged, and asking the right questions to really make us think and come to our own conclusions with many real life examples of ethical dilemmas faced by members of the military.  So far, training has been very rewarding, and I am really enjoying myself.

-Ryan

More airports, More Goodbyes.

Yesterday was a long day of hurry up and wait.  Jasmine took me to the airport (SFO) in the morning and we shared some good byes and she cried a little practicing her dabbing technique for the wedding.

The rest of the day was a long flight to Charlotte, NC first, and then a very short flight to my final destination of Columbia, SC.  The first flight was a little disappointing; a 5 hour flight across country, no screen on my seat, no screen overhead, not even peanuts.  I spent most of the time trying to access the Germany Denmark Euro Cup game, but the internet on the plane was really slow so I was able to watch about 5 seconds of game, ten minutes of buffering, 5 seconds of game, ten minutes of buffering.  Germany did win in the end 2-1, and the flight wasn't as bad, the pilots were good, and it was a clean air the whole way there.   The connecting flight in Charlotte was a quick turn around, so I jogged to the connecting gate, only to get on and take some time to relax because there were some late flights and we were waiting for people and luggage.  We took off about a 45 minutes late, and spent twenty minutes in the air.

Upon arrival in Columbia, I grabbed a cab and was off to Fort Jackson.  When I arrived, there was a group of students with a letter for s all telling of a bunch of events for the next day I wasn't prepared for, and equipment I was not previously informed to have.  This caused a little stress, and late night polishing.  As it turns out the letter was old, most of the stuff was not needed fro the day, and it was  atypical admin day with not a lot going on.  I wish I could write more, especially about the woman I love, but I am pretty tired, have an early start tomorrow, and have a bit of a headache so I will talk to Jas a little longer on the phone and call it a night.

-Ryan

P.S. Jas keeps thinking Im in NC, Im actually in SC.

Father's Day

I talked to my dad today.  It was a pleasant, heartfelt conversation.  We laughed and shared memories.  The phone stopped working on us three times.  I like to blame that on the Wisconsin cell phone reception.

I am certain Ryan thought of this father heaps today.  I told him this morning as we left for the airport that his daddy would be proud of him.  Ryan knows that and has shared of his dad's smile many times when telling the story of himself choosing to attend seminary training.

I will forever love these fathers regardless of how many days I get to spend in their presence.
These men have instilled passion, wisdom, drive,
truth, and joy into Ryan and I and I am thankful.

I am thankful also, for our LORD, that has enable
use to call him daddy and be embrace in his
tender care and soul provision when we chose
to slow down and lean into him.  I am in awe and
stilled again by how often I throw temper tantrums
in the presence of the holy; I am in awe by how he
chooses to quiet me.  I am in awe of his consistent
love pursuit for his creation.

This morning Ryan left for Chaplain training in NC.  I spoke with him this evening and he arrived safe and ready.  I left him to ironing his uniform and getting a good nights rest; traveling through multiple time zones can be rough.  He will be in NC for a month.

Ryan has been reminding me that I am probably better prepared than I think for future deployments but I find myself going through more tissues than what I view is reasonable.  It is hard to be away from someone you love.  Ryan is going to make an amazing Navy Chaplain.  I am calmly reminded when I set aside my worries and ask him to share his passion and reason and calling for this ministry again.  I believe we are in the exact spot that we need to be currently.

As for myself, I am seeking employment.  I recently moved to the SF Bay Area from the Denver Metro.  I had been working in the Higher Education industry.  I am growing antsy as I am reminded that the results of this waiting season will be good.  I am also learning about community by slowing down to attempt to invest in the relationships I have from WI, MN, and CO before plunging headfirst into numerous CA connections.  The process has been filling with a lot of waiting and checking my motives; lonely moments and an aching appetite for deep community next door.  I must learn to appreciate people and seasons.  I must learn to love people for who they are rather than the convenience and timing of them filling my extroverted senses to a satisfactory level.

The wedding planning is mostly done as all of the larger stuff has been completed. Ryan has contributed time, energy and effort; perhaps more than I have.  The Mountain Man whose career requires him to be clean-shaven really is the most incredible groom a bride could ask for.

Today, after taking Ryan to the airport I dabbed my tearful eyes like a pro and went with Claire (my roommate) to the Mt. Tam, Mountain Play, "Music Man."  The performance was wonderful and the weather was toasty.  We each had two rounds of snow cones in our party of four.

The day was eventful.  I laughed, I cried.  I experienced deep joy and sorrowful grief.  Emotions continued to run through my existence until now... I am stilled and reminded to be centered, to relive positive memories, to determine not to exasperate the rotten memories, to let go of the crud that I would like to be able to control but I can't.  So be it.