Time is getting short

Less than two months until I hit the road for Texas. Life has been a lot of fun and I am trying to thoroughly enjoy my time here in Annapolis before heading off to school. I've been getting out a lot and spending time with my friends and family as much as possible. Since my last post much has happened.

I had another wonderful time up in Princeton at the Youth Ministry Forum. I got to meet a bunch of my Twitter friends "in real life" and got to hang out and reconnect with several of my Princeton/Lawrenceville friends from past visits. It was great to see Sara, Laura, Rich & Greer, Mark and Katie again. And I managed a trip to and from Jersey without any police incidents, so that's a big improvement over last year! The forum's featured speakers were outstanding this year. Kenda Creasy Dean, Shane Claiborne and the Reverend Peter Gomes were all excellent.

At church, we've wrapped up another program year and I'm prepping for our group to spend a week in Philadelphia with Broad Street Ministry. Should be a great week full of service learning projects, meeting new people and will be the biggest group that I've taken on a week long mission trip since I've been in youth ministry. In other youth related news - Youth Sunday was fantastic this year. I am so proud of the job that they did. The sermons, music, prayers and entire service was off the charts good. Confirmation Class concluded, we recognized a huge (18) class of graduating seniors and I managed to get through both without crying. The search committee has been accepting resumes and hopefully they will have a replacement for my position lined up before I leave. Still kind of sinking in that I will not be the youth director at First of Annapolis in a few short weeks.

I got to hang with Dan and Megan while they were back in the country briefly and check out their house in DC where they will be living when he finishes at Trinity and Birmingham.

My poker buddies and karaoke friends have been a ton of fun to hang out with and I am really going to miss them even though some of them I've only just met in the last few months. They are both a great bunch of folks (with some overlap between the groups) and they have done wonders to help me get over my stage fright and to just have FUN. After the last two years it has been just what the doctor ordered.

This week I received my housing assignment from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Initially they had me assigned to an apartment building the students lovingly refer to as "the leper colony" because it's about a block away from the rest of the campus. I was also assigned a second floor unit and the building has no elevator. This was a mistake because they had missed the fact that I have mobility issues and need either a ground floor unit or a building with an elevator. They were extremely accommodating when I called to tell them my problem. Within ten minutes the housing director called back with a ground floor unit in one of the buildings right on campus. It happened to be a 2 bedroom, instead of a 1 bedroom (for only $15 more per month) so I've really lucked out. The school has the floor plans on their web site, so this is the layout of my new home. Sure makes it nice and easy to plan what furniture I'll take and where it will go when I get there.
And speaking of my mobility issues, my hearing with the Worker's Compensation Commission will be in a month to determine my permanency rating and hopefully I can close the book on this whole accident and bureaucracy chapter once and for all.

I've recently reconnected with my high school sweetheart through Facebook and she lives outside of Houston with her husband and two girls. Having made the same transition that I am about to make, from the shores of the Chesapeake to Texas, she has been a wealth of information about what I need to prepare for culturally in Texas, what I must do here in Maryland before I leave and has some great suggestions for my road trip down. Gonna do a little Elizabethtown style road trip on the way there. My cousin and his wife are planning on driving up from Atlanta and meeting me in Tennessee for a few days of sight seeing together on my way out. I really want to hit the Grand Ole Opry, Jack Daniel's Distillery, Sun Records, Graceland, and the Civil Rights Museum on the way. My buddy Andy is planning on making the drive with me too. Should be a lot of fun.

Last but not least, my best friends Doug and Penni have made me an uncle again this week. Melody Soul Day was born Monday morning June 14th 12:48am. 6 pounds 4 ounces and she is beautiful!