Messin' with Texas

Hello from Texas! (I would say "howdy" but I have yet to hear anyone exchange greetings in this manner, so I am beginning to think it is a myth...)

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for the ghastly lack of posts. I have had very little time, and I think Arte, Bridget, and Kayce (on top of having very little time) forgot this existed. I set it up, and while they were initially excited to use it, they didn't really seem too enthused when I last talked about it. Don't worry, I'll verbally abuse them when I talk to them and make them use it.

SO... Now I receive my punishment for never posting. I shall recount to you (as briefly as possible) everything I've been doing since the summer program. I'm sorry- I can't take you back past that because I would do it an injustice. Let it simply suffice to say that the summer program was the best month EVER. If my year never got better than that, it would still have the potential to be an unforgettably awesome year.

I descended into the Dallas airport at 10:04 pm on July 14th. How do I remember this? Simply because I remember marveling at the pilot's proclamation that, at 10:04 pm as we landed, local Dallas temperature was 94 degrees Fahrenheit. No, that is not a typo. 94 degrees at 10pm. IMAGINE, if you can, what it's like in the daytime. I try not to look up temperature, because it is just that depressing. It is also a humbling experience for me to take into account the humidity. I lived my entire life thinking that no one can beat the humidity of Atlanta- I prided myself on surviving in it. Dallas makes Atlanta look like a desert. There are literally no completely straight-haired people here.

So arriving past nightfall and after everyone had gone to sleep was a little bit intimidating, Paulina and I (other coworker working with me) found our way to bed in the dark, but the first 12 hours or so in our new temporary house were confusing and a little overwhelming considering that even when we woke up and the lights were on, we were in silence. (Note to future coworkers: make sure your plane arrives when everyone is awake.) The first two days were special days (The Assumption is a first class feast day, and Sundays are rest days) so I was under the subconscious impression that we would have extravagant feasts and sports and "conversation music" every day, and I was LOVING it.... and then Monday came. I wished it was Sunday, ('cause that's my fun day) but I got to spend the entire week working with Florencia Vicuna which, if you know Florencia, makes the whole thing so much better. She's from Chile, her accent is exactly like Magdalena Faine's and she's SO FUNNY. Common Florencia catchphrases: "So CUTE!" "Peace and love!" "Imayen!" (instead of "Imagine!") "People of the Lord!". So I translated and retyped a ton of questionnaires, made the consecrated a detail about spiritual motherhood, designed WYD 2011 advertisements and postcards, made Angel for a Day flyers, and prepared the Formator's Weekend for Denver, CO... which was that weekend. I jammed to my new mixes (courtesy of Elizabeth and James) and worked all day in the RC offices... and though the jamming MADE my day, I was a little bit jealous of Paulina who got to work at Highlands.

That weekend Florencia and I flew into Denver, Colorado for the Formator's Weekend. I partially lead the Team Leader track (I gave a talk on Group Control and Giving Team Dialogue) Colorado Springs, where we had training, was breathtaking. It was on a huge Presbyterian retreat campus situated between four or five mountains with huge, interesting rock formations spitting out of the ground every few hundred yards. On top of all of this, as we descended into Denver at noon, the local temperature was something like 80 degrees: a full 14 degrees cooler than it was in Dallas two hours after the sun went down. The families were so nice and cooked us homemade food (which was GREAT after living off donations).

This week I finally got to work at the Highlands, and it deserves its own paragraph.

For those of you who don't know, the Highlands School is the exact Texan equivalent of Pinecrest. This automatically implies its awesomeness, but I just need to expand on this point a little bit. Everything we do at Pinecrest, they do at the Highlands. The second time I came here (the first day school wasn't in session yet) they had a formation assembly that I sat in on. Throughout the entire thing, I could not stop smiling. Everything was the same... there was even a pseudo-Mr. Lynch to grill the juniors about being lazy with the college process. There was an all school mass today, and I couldn't stop smiling again. There's something so comforting in knowing that there are kids all over the country and the world doing the same things you're doing. FANtastic.

This week I've been going to school every day helping out during school... it's indescribably strange to be on the other side of the academic process. I have a badge and work in the teacher work room preparing formation-related things for students. I see the seniors walk past me in the hallways and feel mischievous because I'm not going to class with them. The bell rings and I automatically start packing up what I'm doing. Today we had an all school Mass, and when the Director of Formation dismissed the high school girls, beginning with the seniors, I stood up. In short, I'm having a small identity crisis. I think I need a few more months to detach from my identity as a senior before working in a school. But I did get to go back into my element once- I visited the pre-k and did puzzles with a little blonde boy named Andrew. It felt like Aftercare.

Today at 4:30 Paulina and I are going to the airport to pick up Angie Hawkesworth, a consecrated at our HOUSTON center (my REAL center). We leave for Houston on Monday (no, I have not actually been to my center yet. I have been living out of my suitcases for two months) The consecrated who were in Atlanta were just picked up earlier this afternoon (I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous, I'm NOT jealous) so nearly everyone will be home for dinner tonight! This is really exciting. (in Kelley family speak, this is sort of the coworker equivalent of Wong and Wunway)

I love my consecrated here. They're beyond awesome. When I have time to do each of them justice, I'll tell you about all of them. We played a joke on Denise (the Director of Formation) the other day- we had been teasing her for bringing so much sugar from the teachers lounge into the consecrated dining room (sort of a secret lunch sanctum... none of the students know it exists and it's only accessible through one of the consecrateds' offices). Seriously, she brought about eight or nine HUGE cans of sugar for the consecrated to use. So two days ago I found about ten more cans of sugar in the teacher work room. Paulina and I carried the cans to her door and made a pyramid with a sticky note on top that said: "For Denise, because we knew you were running low."

And one of the first few days I was here, Florencia and I took Paola Trevino, Tammy, and Tiffany to the airport for vacations. All the consecrated had been teasing Florencia about how much she loved vacations, saying "Make sure you come back!" and "I saw you put that suitcase in the car!" So when we were driving home from the airport, she concocted this whole plan about how to trick our directress, Michelle, into thinking that she had gone on vacation... and it worked. Florencia does things like that... she wrote Alexandra (another consecrated in our center) a postcard from a horse Alexandra had met on vacations.

In short, I love coworking. It has more and harder challenges than I ever anticipated, but it's more than worth it and I'm so glad I did it. Please keep praying for us- we definitely need it!

61 days until Homecoming!

Love,
Sarah