So ... how's that move coming?

Cardinal rule of blogging: broken. I could make excuses about Internet access and bein' busy, but Sean's been in the same situation as me and managed to send out quite a few posts since we arrived. Of course, he was often doing this:

Yes, that is Sean precariously balancing his laptop on the sill of our bedroom window (no screen, sixth floor up), hoping to catch some wifi on the wind. We found that if it was both morning and not too humid, we had a fairly good chance of getting a weak-and -unstable-but-serviceable signal at that exact spot. Fortunately, you can't really beat that spot as far as views go. I mean ... castle! I love waking up and looking out to see it every morning through these huge, cheerful windows.

While we still enjoy standing at those windows, our wifi pirating days are over. These last few days have been remarkable in terms of taking care of the necessities: we have cable Internet here at the house, we have cell phones and bus passes. Today we started the process of getting our visas at the police station and tomorrow we will go for a medical check up required by the school--after this weekend (long weekend for national holidays) we'll also have a local bank account. None of this can be credited to our ambition or moxie: our hosts and guides have taken care of us and all the details--we've just shown up with our documents and been ready to sign stuff! We're feeling blessed in so many ways these days.

So, now that I really have no excuses, some first impressions of our new home:

• Sean is still an excellent cook here, and my baking skills seem to have traveled with us as well. Of course there are some differences in the ingredients, tools, measurements and methods, but so far we're doing quite well. I'll be sure to document our first (and, from what I've heard, inevitable) spectacular cooking/baking failure. Until then, though ...Sean made one of the best spaghetti sauces ever with oven-roasted tomatoes, bell pepper, onion and garlic. I made a loaf of banana bread, which you can see featured in this picture along with a St. Luke's prayer shawl (we've had some cool days already!) I substituted plain yogurt for the sour cream and it worked beautifully. I also made bread pudding, but it was a Paula Deen recipe and maybe unnecessarily sweet. I think I'd like to make cookies next, but we'll need to track down a cookie sheet. Everything is just a little different, and it's hard for me to explain exactly how: sugar, flour, butter ... but so far it's all turning into yummy stuff. One interesting difference we've noticed in the grocery store is that we can't find celery but celery root, or celeriac, is everywhere, even little tiny convenience stores. Time to make some soup! Also, the quality of fruit, especially stone fruit, in the grocery stores seems better here. It had been a long time since I'd had a good plum.
  
• On our first day in Slovakia, David and Carla took us to one of their favorite places for pizza. When we sat down our menu didn't have any pizza in it. We got a menu from another table--it, too, seemed to have had a page removed. We found out from the waiter that the restaurant, which continues to have the word "pizza" in its name, no longer serves pizza. This was especially weird because David and Carla had just gotten pizza there recently. Then a copy shop that had been open the day before closed without warning for renovations. Then Larry noticed the picture on my desktop: I told him I took it from the tower of Bratislava castle. "When?" he asked. "In January." "Right before it closed down for repairs... why ... it's you!" Yes, I am behind all these strange events. Beware. Bwah ha ha.
  
• So, between all that and successfully predicting the weather (I've started getting migraines the day before storm systems move in ... blergh) I've been pretty busy, but not too busy to pick up some basic and useful Slovak phrases. I'm pretty good at saying thank you, hello (at various times of day), excuse me, I'm sorry, good-bye, please and I don't know. I've gotten good enough at these phrases that I have misled many well-meaning strangers into thinking I know Slovak; hilarity ensues. The only solution is to learn Slovak! Put it on the list!
  
• My first Sunday in Slovakia I helped lead the singing and the prayers of the church, enjoyed sitting in the congregation with Sean, and got to meet many good folks after the service at coffee hour. My second Sunday I got robed and led worship with Pastor David, taking on parts of the liturgy previously off-limits to me (parts marked "P"!) I got to lead my favorite part of the service: the order for confession and forgiveness. It is such a reliable and powerful witness to God's grace--we confess that we are in bondage to sin, we cannot free ourselves, and we hear and receive the Good News that ALL our sins are ENTIRELY forgiven. What could be better? How about a baptism? We baptized an adult member of the congregation--it was baptism, confirmation, and first communion all at once, as in the Orthodox tradition. That baptism made everything feel even more precious than usual: the gift of water, the welcome of the table, the way the Word came to us in the sermon and the hymns, especially as we sang "Go, my children, with my blessing," the beautiful sending song by Slovak hymn-writer Jaroslav Vajda, who just passed away this summer. "In my love's baptismal river/I have made you mine forever/Go my children, with my blessing, you are my own." My parents and I sang this hymn and wept before I moved to Texas; Sean and I sang it walking down the aisle together as very-newly-weds; we sang it at St. Luke's again the Sunday I preached and the congregation prayed for our safe transition to Slovakia. I've always associated it closely with St. Luke's, and home, but now I also connect it with Slovakia, with the baptisms celebrated and remembered all over the world, and with finding home in Christian community near and far.

Well, now I've broken another rule of blogging and gone on for too long. No excuses, just one more picture.
This is our magnetic photo wall. We realized the day we left for Bratislava that we have lots of prints from our wedding and pretty much no other recent events. We also ended up with too many pictures of just the two of us and we know what we look like. Send us photos! We will display them with honor and care. Our mailing address is here.

Later, gators.

My parents: Home safe and sound

My parents returned from their month in Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Egypt yesterday. They sounded tired but happy on the phone--it is good to have them near-er again. And it will be so, so good to see them July 3 when we arrive in Chicago.


We haven't had much of a chance to debrief their trip yet, but they were occasionally able to post pictures and brief updates from Internet cafes, and from that I've gathered that they were often moved and surprised by images of peace in the midst of conflict. From the cooperation of people of different religions, to the symbolism of green and black olives growing together on the same tree, their trip seemed marked by these images of hope.


One of my favorite images from the trip, I have to admit, is this one:

It's the umbrella that cracks me up. My parents: Always cute. Always prepared.

Back to packing. We're making progress but it's still kind of hard to see. Blessed are we who cannot see the progress but have faith that this move is going to happen anyway, right? I guess that's not a matter of faith--it's a matter of our lease being up on Monday. Here I go, then.

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey ...

... Sean has sold most of our furniture and it's been taken away! Yay! I will come home to a much emptier house. This is really a simpler way to move, this "get rid of everything" method. I say as I sit in DC, far away from the actual process of getting rid of stuff.

Lots happened today, but I need to think about it a bit before I write it up.

Very detailed anxiety nightmares and other updates

So, this morning I had an anxiety nightmare of the very, very detailed variety. Evidently I'd thrown together a band and planned to play guitar, even though in this dream, as in real life, I can't really play songs so much as make a chord, make a face as my fingers start to bleed, make another chord...

I was worried about this, and the fact that I only had one original song (which impresses me now, I wish I could remember it!) and the fact that all lyrics to cover songs had fled my brain ... and Leonard Cohen was in the unexpectedly large crowd of people coming to hear me sing and play.

This past year I've gotten really good at resolving my anxiety nightmares--my recurring back-in-high school nightmare lost much of its ability to induce trauma when my dream self was able to realize and assert that I didn't really need to pass this high school math class--I'd already done it, I'd graduated from college, I was in grad school ... the surprise exam and lost text book and the forgotten locker combination were irrelevant. I've gotten to the point where I enjoy working through this category of dream while I'm in it, and this musical performance dream was no exception. In this dream, Sean was there helping me come up with ideas for how to be most impressive with the least amount of skill and how to perform best at my most forgetful and nervous. He looked at my set list, "Of course you don't remember the lyrics to these," he said, "How about 'Come Thou Fount of of Every Blessing'?" Perfect. I could sing it in my sleep. =)

Anyway, I must be stressed about something. Probably item number 1 on that To-Do list: sell all earthly belongings. June is flying, y'all, and we have a lot of stuff. I made a spreadsheet last night and today I'm taking pictures for Craigslist. It'll happen--it has to happen. It makes me nervous about leaving for the Bread for the World Training this weekend. I am glad that, as in my dream, I'm not doing this alone.

In other news, I've gotten to talk to my folks every afternoon of their trip so far, which is a happy thing indeed. Yesterday was their first day in Israel, where they are staying on a hotel on a kibbutz on the Sea of Galilee. They day before that they had an 11 mile hike down a canyon to Petra, which Indiana Jones fans particularly may recognize. The weather has been good, Mom's been taking great pictures but hasn't had a chance to post them, everyone is doing well and soaking it in.

Soaking it in is precisely what we did at the Jersey Shore this past weekend, and we have pictures to prove it. Sea creatures, boardwalk food and grilled hot dogs were consumed. Mom Albright took us out to a lovely dinner to celebrate my graduation (Dad Albright had to stay home to meet up with the air conditioning repair guy--all went well.) The boardwalk was walked, plants were planted and the beach ... was sunned, read and strolled upon. Good stuff.

A self-portrait on the ferris wheel at the Wonderland Pier, on the Ocean City boardwalk.

On Tuesday night we had Jill, Brian, Bella, Gus and Eli over for dinner: Sean made fried chicken and summer veggie saute while I made some cornbread with fresh corn kernels and a little bit of pickled jalapeno and strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream for dessert. Bella helped whip the cream and took the lead on designing and building the shortcakes. It was wonderful to have them over to our house and pretty funny to watch Eli explore this new place with such great interest. (The kitchen! I want to go to the kitchen! While Uncle Sean is frying things!)

Here is Eli on-the-move! The child is fast. Fozzy was like, "Hey, wait up!"

OK, back to it. As much as I enjoy conquering anxiety in my dreams, I'd rather diminish my anxiety while awake so that my sleep is more restful.

Failing that, I could nap. =)

So you're going to move (again)

The last time I started a blog and kind of stuck with it, the first entry was a To-Do before moving list. I did my best both to keep it fun and whimsical and also to make it about more than just food (I do still miss the food in Houston … so cheap, so good, so gourmet-you-can-get-wearing-jeans.) Faced with less than a month (!) left in New Jersey, I find the task of keeping the stress and preponderance of food out of my list a little daunting. It is go time, people. If I don’t feast on Atlantic coast sea creatures now … when? Who knows when mussels in red sauce will be so good, plentiful and local for us again?

So, here’s my new To-Do—a little less whimsical, a little more realistic, but still great fun and part of an adventure I’m so, so glad for. Every once and awhile Sean and I stop what we’re doing and just grin at each other, or embrace, still unable to completely believe that we’re this blessed.

Without any more ado …

To-Do in June when you are selling all your earthly possessions and moving to Slovakia for a year:

1. Sell all earthly possessions. We’ve got to get a move-on on this. I think we’re going for three fronts next week: Craig’s List, apartment bulletin boards and family members. There might be a yard sale with the help of our siblings (and their yard, ha!) Some of our very most treasured things we’ll keep with family, I think, though we haven’t explicitly asked anyone yet (it shouldn’t be too much stuff … my cupcake carrier and Sean’s cast iron pan are all I can think of at the moment. =).) We think we’ll drive to Chicago and try to sell the car there—anyone in the metro area looking for an incredibly fuel efficient, lightly-used Toyota? It’s a great little car.

2. Go to Jersey Shore and soak it up. We’re talking Pirate Island Mini Golf, the Ocean City Boardwalk and all the rides and terrible/wonderful food that entails, fishing, flying our anniversary kite on the beach (our gift to ourselves on our first wedding anniversary last year) and eating mussels in red sauce until I am sick or sick of them. Mmmmm, creatures. I can’t wait for this weekend!

3. Pray. You’d think this was a professional hazard, goes without saying, etc., but my folks are doing some serious traveling this month and that, uh, makes me less forgetful about praying. June 19th is also the one year anniversary of my cousin’s suicide; prayers and good thoughts sent the way of my family—especially Jason’s mom, dad, sister, brother, and fiancé—would be wonderful and appreciated.

4. Get trained. June 14-17 I’ll be in Washington DC getting trained by Bread for the World to be a Hunger Justice Leader; on the 17th I’ll hit the Hill for Lobby Day. Read about the Global Poverty Act here.

5. Write prayers. I’m writing intercessory prayers for Sundays and Seasons, 2010. It was pretty great to see my name and work in the 2009 edition that just came out! (Check out the alternate worship texts for Lent and Easter!)

6. Enjoy New Jersey. One more romantic dinner at Oh!Yoko, another trip to the rootbeer stand, The Taco House, the farmer’s market, McMillan’s Bakery. Walks in the park across the street, walks to the custard/water ice stand.

7. Enjoy our family. We had a wonderful Bon Voyage Party last weekend and have plans to see other folks before we go.
Here's one picture from the party (it's in the photo set I linked to above.) The US and Slovak flags are a gift from Sean's parents. We love them!

This afternoon we’re expecting guests—Diana and Sarah, good friends of mine from Yale Div. Diana has her first call at an Episcopal parish in Rittenhouse Square; I think I’m going to introduce the two of them to water ice today. I will teach them the correct pronunciation, too: “wuder ice.” Hee. Yeah, I’m excited to get going, but I’m surely going to miss this place. In June 2005 I wrote: “I feel like this is a good choice. I think the mental transition is going to take some time.” This is most certainly still true.