Where do I begin??

1)
Last night we said goodbye to our very close friends and small group members Chris, Emily and Joseph Phillips. It was their last night in the Bay Area as they are moving to Easton Pennsylvania because Chris is starting a job at Lafayette College. In my heart I know this is a great opportunity for them, but I am still very sad to have them move so far away and mostly be out of our lives. Needless to say I cried (I am blaming it on hormones!) I have know this day was coming for a long time, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with it when it happens.

2)
Before 1 above we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was the worst service I have ever had there by far. It took at least 10 minutes just to have our order taken. Almost twice that to get drinks, bread and salad (which all came at once) and even longer to get our entrees. You know you should worry when your waiter says “I just rang in your orders so your food should be up soon” AFTER you have finished your salads! The only redeeming thing that happened was when the manager came by to apologize that the kitchen was backed up. We mentioned that the drink station must be backed up as well and told her (nicely) how poor our service had been. She offered to buy us some desserts, but no one really wanted anything anyway. So we get the check and I asked if they at least gave us some kind of discount, but no – nothing. Then just a few minutes later the manager is back and giving Scott his card – she said she had “taken care of our meal” – I was impressed. I had hoped for something to be comp’d, but 4 adult meals and 1 kids meal was very generous. Then she stayed and chatted for a few minutes and before she left she gave Scott vouchers for 6 FREE entrees! I was floored! I guess they really wanted to make sure we would come back! We gave our tip to the bus boy – because the server really didn’t deserve anything more than some job training.

3)
I think we are officially no longer attending MPPC. As much as I hate church shopping I am also not going to continue to go to a church that I don’t really feel at home. There have been a number of things that have preceded this decision (1.Not feeling like we fit in in any Sunday school class, 2.Changes in pastoral staff, 3.Direction the church is heading – multi-site project, 4.Commute, 5.Changes in the worship leadership, etc) We went there this last Sunday, because we were going to the Phillips’ house to hang out and help them get ready for the movers, and I cried through most of the service (It was the director of worships last week) It just doesn’t feel right. So I guess we are officially church hunting – which I hate!

4)
Lately I feel like most of the good things in our life are ending, but new things aren’t really starting. Part of this is because we don’t really know where we want to be (physically) in the next year. We have been talking about moving from San Jose to somewhere where we could afford a real house and still have lower payments, but we haven’t picked a location. We were leaning toward Sacramento – so that we would still be close to some family, but I don’t know if I can handle the summer heat. So we are stuck. We don’t really want to be here, but we don’t really know where we want to be. We don’t want to start something here only to leave in a few months, but at the same time I don’t want to have nothing happening in our lives until we figure it out. It is a conundrum. That doesn’t even touch on the whole issue of fixing up the townhouse and/or selling the townhouse. Which is a can of worms in and of itself.