hello

Hello. It’s been a while since my last post, but I ll try to make up for it. Lets see, I don’t think I’ve posted since Platina and to tell you the truth I really cant remember all that’s happened. I think peter has posted but I haven’t had a chance to look. Im sure if he did he properly supplied you with a poetic version of all the events. So ill try something new and use good old bullets to rush through some of the stuff and say a little something about each:
• Platina monastery- It was an incredibly peaceful place, and a great retreat, but I was ready to go. I felt strangely out of place, lets just say I don’t think I ll be a monk any time soon.
• Fr. Steven’s in Sacramento- Great, great, great, people. I could go on and on about how kind and hospitable they were, but it would take pages. We saw Stasia and Mat and Mary.
• West to San Francisco- We met up with a fr. James at the old church of St. John of San Fran. He a was a great person and we ended up spending the whole day with him. We had a good meal and then drove over to St. Tikons to see St. J’s cell. It was an amazing experience. We wandered around china town the next day and did all the things your suppose to do in SF : Golden gate bridge, Lombard st., Chinatown, the wharf, and sourdough. It was cool. Oh ya, and pete got in a fender bender. It sufficiently shaken but after we reassured him we don’t give a hoot what the van looks like and as long as the other guy was cool about it, we don’t care. He wasnt actually that mad, just irritated. The San Fran streets are mad! We drove to St. Timothy’s in the morning and went to liturgy there. We also saw “The Green Lantern” at the local theater. If your thinking about going and seeing it, don’t. It was like every other “super” movie I have seen except everything was green.
• Drove north to St. John Monastery in Manton- It was one of the highlights of the trip. We were pleasantly greeted with Greek coffee and Turkish delight. I felt almost like Edmond except instead of an evil queen, it was very kind monks giving me the TD. We loved it so much we stayed an extra night ( after much positive pressure from father N) We were all very happy we stayed and spent more time with the monks. It is hard to tell how purely kind and open they were. There was nothing shallow about their hospitality, they just worked hard to make you as comfortable and welcome as they could. They all seemed to be happy and they all had a great sense of humor. As fr. Schmemman said, he never trusts an orthodox person without a sense of humor. We saw Brother Andrew (aka Ross Bell) and spent some time with him. We also spent time with Fr. Meletios , the abbot, and Father Nektarios . All three are great people. I cant stress this enough how welcoming they were.

I can see my plan to use bullets to keep things short didn’t work, but oh well : ) So at this point, being very “churched” out as we now call it , we left and drove south. We went to Yosemite yesterday just as it was getting dark. Great place, but over rated. I think it is a place for all the cali people who have never seen real mountains to go out into the “wild.” I mean, they got to put all their expensive gear to use some where. We all hiked up to the waterfall and stood in the mist with our shoes off. On our way out we passed a young guy goin up to do the same 10 minuet walk. He was decked out head to toe in Patagonia and north face. It was kind funny. Here we come looking like a gang of homeless people strait off the streets and this man is suited up in hundreds of dollars of gear. I felt like I didn’t belong in Yosemite. The same way whistler was fake, Yosemite had a little fakeness to it. But whatever floats their city boats, more power to em. This morning we woke up and drove through Vegas. It was just how I imagined and probably just how you imagine it, loud and big. We went to the largest gift shop in the world packed wall to wall with things that no one would ever need. Like any other kid would, I pushed a button on a “try me” doll I saw on one of the shelves. It proceeded to cuss me out about something to do with me being a terrible driver .As I found out the store was packed with these dolls that spewed offensive white trash slogans. It was still kinda funny though, to see what rock bottom society looked like. I fully expect pete to poetically criticize the “worldliness” of it all, so ill just leave that to him. My conclusion was this, I was glad to see it but I’ll never go back. We drove east to the Grand Canyon, and at the moment we are driving to flagstaff. The Grand Canyon was very beautiful. In a weird way, it looked like a painting, like I wasn’t really looking at the real thing. We are on our way to the promise land, aka Barnes and Noble. They have free wifi, clean bathrooms, and when you wander in still sleep drunk in the morning after sleeping in their parking lot, there is coffee. Great place this is. Oh, in other big news, I have given up chewing my nails. It is proving far harder then I thought. Im sure it is somewhat similar to quitting heroin, but I wouldn’t know. The only other person I have ever met that chewed their nails more then me was G barb. My fingers are on the fast track to looking like hers, nubby and round. Can you belive it, im so bored im talking about my fingernails! Often times blogs turn into people just spewing out personnel facts that nobody really cares about, and I feel as though ours is getting there : ) Next ill be rambling on about who knows what. So, on to new Mexico in the morning, after spending an unhealthy time in B and N mooching off their wifi. Hans claims that there are 5 dollar ponchos, and if this turns out to be true, expect to never see me in anything else. It don’t matter, church, work, school, it will be ponchos : ) Im gonna buy 100. Well here I go again rambling on about ponchos, so I think this is a sign I need to be done. oh and hi cindy!