Amateur Seattleite: On Location

It's unbelievable but after 2.5 days/32 road hours/2093 miles/7 states I AM IN THE RAINY CITY! AND it ISN'T raining! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me both financially and through prayer because this adventure is finally underway! I cannot express my gratitude enough.

Mom and I left Tulsa on Thursday night and spent the night in Hays, KS before moving on to grace the interstates of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington before arriving in Seattle on Saturday night! Along the way, we were able to have lunch with my dear friend Sam just outside of Denver, which was such a pleasant treat (at this insanely awesome French crepe restaurant)! We also were blessed to be able to stay Friday night with my friend Josh (both of these friends are OU grads/RUF Alum!) at his apartment in Salt Lake City where he was so gracious to host us for the night! It was a long trip and exhausting, but we were so ready to get here and thankful to have a pretty uneventful trip up (in the best way possible!) Mom and I entertained ourselves by 1) listening to sweet music by Stephen Gordon (thanks, Bentern), Indelible Grace, Sigur Ros, Les Miserables, and some other favorite bands from the itunes library, 2) read aloud from "Freakanomics" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," 3) watched/listened to the movies "Oklahoma!" and "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Notting Hill." We stopped when we needed to but made excellent time and enjoyed our time with one another as well!

A family from Greenlake PCA here in Seattle hosted mom and I while she was in town since I'm not exactly settled yet (!) which we were so thankful for! On Sunday morning, we went to church at Greenlake PCA which is where my campus minister, Ryan Hughs, and his family attend church and several RUF students go as well. My friend Mark leads the music there as well, so it was a treat to see him that first morning. As the senior pastor got up to begin to speak my mother unexpectedly said to me, "That's Mike Kelly!" I was confused as to how she would know this and looked at her quizzically - she explained that she and my dad had been at seminary at the same time as Mike in St. Louis at Covenant over 20 years ago! It's been incredible and eery to see the connections that continue to appear between my life and the people here in Seattle, and this was just one more link! We talked with Mike after church and the service was very encouraging and I'm excited to get involved in the community here! I will probably visit a few other churches in town before I decide, but Greenlake would certainly be a wonderful and healthy place to be.

Mom had never been to Seattle, so in the afternoon we did a bit of sightseeing around the city! We came and saw the house I will be living at (!) and then saw the sights around town: Gasworks park, the view from Kerry Park, the Fremont Troll, saw my roommate from last summer (Cilla!) and Eli, then went downtown to Pike Place market and took the ferry across to Bainbridge island to see the city at sunset from the ferry, before ending our evening with Compline at St. Mark's cathedral on Capitol Hill. Mom got to see a lot of the city and we had a beautiful day to enjoy it!

Today mom and I got to go down to the U District and see the campus and Mom was able to meet the staff from SYM that I worked with last summer! (For all of last summer's musings, feel free to visit: www.hellosleepyseattle.blogspot.com) This afternoon I took mama to the airport after we had some awesome Thai food for lunch, and took my first official step into adulthood: I am now a college graduate who has moved away from home, and my mother is no longer with me. Although she did buy me six sweaters today, so maybe I'm not such a grown-up after all.