Thoughts on Pentecost, Colorado, turning 25, and life in general...

Yep.

It's been a long time.

Sorry about that, and thank you to Tricia and Carrie for waking me up and reminding me to post!

I have a feeling this post may end up being long and somewhat random. Bear with me.

Let's see...

This Sunday is Pentecost! YES!! Pentecost is my favorite church holiday. I love it. I love that we ask everyone to wear red all day. I love our banners in church (see photo at bottom of post). I love the music we are singing in choir for Pentecost this year. I love the Holy Spirit. I love that at Pentecost all the playing fields were leveled: women and men received the Holy Spirit and prophesied, and some of the earliest Greek texts say that "men, women, and even children" prophesied. I love Pentecost. And I'm really excited :)

Colorado...

Well, I've finally been there now. I left two weeks ago for my sister's graduation from Naropa University in Boulder. I met up with my parents and grandma in Denver and we drove the hour to Boulder, where we stayed in a hotel that was pretty much right up alongside one of the mountains. Miracle of miracle, my sister's incredibly tiny, private, Buddhist school got Alice Walker to speak at their commencement. THE Alice Walker, as in she-wrote-The-Color-Purple-Alice-Walker. Yeah. She was amazing. I was floored to be in the same room with her and breathing the same air as her, let alone hear her speak. She has one of those voices so rich and soulful you could just listen to her speak or read all day. Amazing.

I'll admit it, Colorado is beautiful and I'd like to go back there. (I have a friend who works at Estes Park, so visiting her would be good.) Of course, I'm biased. Colorado is land-locked, which did not set right with this Seattle girl. I desperatley missed seeing large bodies of water wherever I went, and to be honest, I prefer the Olympics and Cascades to the Rockies, although they were very pretty. There is just something wonderful about active and/or dormant volcanoes that can't even compare to boring old mountains. That's right, I'm now a mountain snob!

So, for the record, here are all the states I've been to:

create your own personalized map of the USA

I just need to go to Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico to block our the rest of the continental west! woo hoo! Looks like I need to take a Grand Canyon trip next summer...

Moving on....

I turned 25 on May 8 and it was actually quite fun. My friends Emily, Kirsten, and I drove down to Portland, Oregon on May 7 for the Nickel Creek concert. Nickel Creek is one of my most favorite bands ever, and this was their last tour for awhile. They've decided to take a hiatus for awhile. The concert was amazing, of course, and I'm so glad that we went. We also got to stop by Powell's Books, the largest independently owned new and used bookstore in the world! It was awesome! While there, I picked up copies of favorite novels for a few bucks and an awesome "literature" nalgene bottle - instead of ounces labeled along the side, I have authors such as Tolstoy, Morrison, Bronte, Hemingway, and Dickens. They have a cool philosophy one, too. Check out powells.com

Ericka (my friend and boss) took me out to lunch on my birthday, which was fun, and everyone at work made me the sweetest card ever. Then Emily and I met friends down in Tacoma for dinner and walked along David Chihuly's Bridge of Glass. It was relaxing and pretty. Birthday celebrations will be extended until the end of June, when I head down to L.A. to visit Sara. She got us tickets to the Alison Krauss concert in Hollywood for my birthday, and we're also going to go to the beach and the San Diego Zoo. I can't wait!!!!

Life in general has been pretty good. Work is going strong. I took over for the manager above me last month when he went on vacation for a week and a half. I had a ton of fun being in charge in the stockroom, but I was also worn out from do both his job and my job at the same time. It was a great learning experience, though, and I accomplished a ton. And Ericka wrote me a note saying I daily surpassed all of her expectations. Awesome.

I'm currently knitting lots of baby stuff for my dear friend Lynne, who's little baby girl is due to arrive smack in the middle of July. Lynne is 41 and this is probably going to be her and Jim's only little one, so it's really really exciting!! I'm halfway through a blanket (but need more yarn) and have finished the cutest little booties ever and am now working on a simple hat. This little girl may end up with lots of knitted stuff from me. So much for getting Lynne something from Pottery Barn Kids!

I've been missing my "far away friends" a lot lately. Dear Karin is in the UK (I'm incredibly jealous and am hoping to visit next year) and I haven't seen her in almost a year! I'm planning to find a good international phone card and surprise her with a phone call for her birthday. My friend Andrea is in Grand Rapids and all of her wedding plans are well underway. I'm amazed at how much she's still been able to include me in planning, despite the 3,000 miles between us. I just wish I wasn't missing so much of it and really don't want to be the Maid of Honor who buys a plane ticket and a dress, writes a speech, and shows up. Sara is in Los Angeles, which Praise GOD is in the same time zone as Seattle! I don't know what we'd do if that weren't the case. I haven't seen Sara since New Year's, which was so long ago, considering I lived with her for three years. Crazy.

Not much else at the moment. I'm fading fast here and need to get some sleep. Sickness has been going around work and I'm finishing some antibiotics for a sinus infection. Oh, that's something new! I now have a real doctor in Seattle, not just the SPU Health Center - yay! I feel so grown up. Gotta love health insurance :)

Oh, here's the picture of the Pentecost banners we have a my church: