Vacation

How sweet that word sounds rolling off my tongue. Not just a weekend away but a real honest to goodness vacation where I can think of nothing else but myself and the utter joy I am experiencing. I mean I am talking no cell phone and only answering e-mail if I want to. I will be blogging about my trip everyday but I won’t really have any contact with the States, it will be kind of nice. Now I know that sounds so utterly selfish but in a way I feel I deserve it.

• I worked my rear off at my old job in order to earn enough paid time off so that I would still get paid and get to go on this trip. The stinky thing is that they didn’t appreciate me and I had to leave for a better job with less PTO and the pay-out for that saved time from the old job helped cover the week that I took off between jobs.
  
• My vacation between jobs, though it was a week long was not a vacation in the sense of relaxing, think only of me one. Not that it was bad, in no way was it a terrible week, in fact besides going to Scotland, it was one of the greatest weeks of my life. I got to spend an entire week doing what I love with one of my best friends. I got to serve her by helping with all her last minute wedding details. It was great, I loved it, though I do regret I have only one picture of the two of us and it isn’t even in our dresses. What a bummer!!
  
• For the past couple of months since moving in our apartment has been affectionately known as Hostel 310. We have had people living with us since August. Now I am not complaining about this either, because God gave us the place and we have a duty to give as we are able and if someone needs a place to stay we’ll offer since it is God’s place not ours. However on the flip side, it is a little tiring to go home and have to “entertain” because you have guests and really shouldn’t go hide in your room.
• So those are some of my reason that I feel that I “deserve” to be a little selfish about thinking nothing of anything else but how much I am going to enjoy this trip. I must note though that I do realize that I would not be getting this opportunity if it weren’t for the Grace of God and the many prayers of all my friends. I know that I will definitely enjoy my time in another country, marveling at God’s magnificent creation.

You know, I realized that sometimes I tend to think that the US is all there is because it is the only thing I know. I mean I have been to Canada, but that is attached to the US so I didn’t leave the continent. I have also been to Bermuda, which is like a little slice of Britain in the Atlantic Ocean off the US. Yet again though it is still too close and you don’t need a passport to go there, just a birth certificate. I mean I am actually leaving the United States of America and stepping foot in not one but two different countries. I will be landing in Amsterdam first for a short layover before heading on to Glasgow.

Kind of stinky things though:

• missing almost the entire series of my Pastor’s Billboard series.
• missing the first two games of my football teams season.
• missing almost the entire first month of my small groups.
  (Stage Left, Alpha, and a couple of other ones I want to do that I can’t think of off the top of my head.)
• missing my friends immensely as I have finally begun to form close friendships.
• missing a possible trip to Philly where I haven’t been since I was a child.

Now these are almost all such trivial matters when compared to the big picture of finally achieving a dream I have had since I was five years old. I can always go to Philly another time and as for the football games, I can check on them online. I think it is the spiritual and friendship aspect that I will actually miss the most. I didn’t realize how much I was getting fed by talking with my friends and through Pastor Mark’s messages and my small groups.

more later…