A Lovely Day

Liane is in Amsterdam this week, so I am left to my own devices at home. It's actually no different than usual, except that it somehow feels less silly making plain rice with 5p (10 cent) curry sauce for dinner, for one person, instead of two.

It's nice to have the time to myself; instead of cleaning up from dinner (not much to clean), I watched Friends, then Scrubs, and then sat down to write this very blog entry you are reading. At the staff meeting this morning, Alan (the main pastor) talked about the many different ways a person can be energized: people, solitude, silence, nature, art, books, music, concepts. I'm starting to see that even though I'm having fun and I'd gladly hang out with the other interns every day, if I don't sit around by myself for a while, I'm completely useless at the office. You may be thinking, "you're useful at the office?" and my answer is a resounding, "not especially useful, no." But don't worry, I'm working on becoming useful. At this point, everyday feels like Monday. Incidentally, I don't work on Mondays.

Here's what I do: I work in the office 9-5 tuesday through friday. Then I help at various and assorted ministry things on the weekends, and here and there. Some examples are: Lift, which is a monthly prayer meeting I'm supposed to be organizing (this Friday night); Illuminate, which is a monthly servant evangelism on Saturday afternoons (this Saturday, free gift wrapping at Dunnes dept store); Sunday services, of course, where I'm supposed to manage the welcome team and the "connection cafe" for new people, as well as pre-service prayer meetings; Healing of the Streets, which is every Saturday in Coleraine, at which I have no responsibility, but am supposed to be a part of the team, though I have yet to go (H.O.T.S. is self-explanatory, yes? www.out-there.com).

And I have so far spent most of my office time in a meeting with Ricky (missions pastor, for whom I intern), making one list into another list into a better list and then making that list into three separate lists and turning those lists into sticky notes to stick to the wall above my desk so that someday I can throw away one of those stickies and hopefully feel like I accomplished something. And even though I can only accomplish a concrete task with the help of 5 different people who have jobs of their own and I'm sure don't want to answer my questions, I am actively rejecting feeling like a total pain. The hope is that I'll be here long enough to become indispensable, at which point, I'll come home. But seriously, they actually want to create a job for me and then have me do it and then delegate responsibility to put myself out of a job by the time I leave. Yep.

So far, I haven't done much exploring the coast. I hear there's beautiful stuff out there in the cold coast coldness. I tend to be a bit apathetic about scenery when I know I could just go see on a nicer day (that's right--instantly taking it for granted). But I'm getting over the weather, slowly. Also, I don't have a car, which makes things tricky--but not that tricky. It's only about 4 miles to Portstewart, where there are beaches I haven't walked on yet. And with an eensy bit of determination, I could work out some very unfamiliar muscles and ride Liane's bike out on a Monday. Or I could pay $5 for a day bus pass. Or some lovely friend with a car might come get me. (Petrol (gas), we estimated, is about $8/gallon here. Of course, minimum wage is $12.) Or, I can just go on a walk at lunch, as my office is right on the promenade ("the prom"), and that is what I plan to do today. It's a lovely day today. There's a glare on my screen from the sun! Imagine that! The sun.

The other night I was over at the guys' (interns) house in Portstewart (to those who know, it's essentially Montalban), playing Dutch Blitz (a card game similar to Nertz) in the kitchen and somehow Erik (who, coincidentally, is Dutch) began playing christmas carols on his guitar while sitting on the kitchen counter. We who were playing at the table, or leaning at the sink, or planning out cups of tea, sang along in melodies and harmonies (trying not to double harmonies, looking sideways at each other until it clicked), all amazed at Erik's repertoire of English carols (numerous verses of Silent Night, in English, as well as obscure songs, like, "Lo' How a Rose 'Ere Blooming"). I wish I had pictures. Card games and a Christmas carol chorale--I know you want to laugh at me for loving every last bit of it, but I just can't help myself.

Have a lovely day.