Whew! I’m a little sore.
State of the Agency
Friday Merrick Towle had it’s State of the Agency meeting. It went well, and afterwards we all herded over to a party at the house of a friend of the Partners. The place was huge. My whole block could have easily fit in his house.
In the back was a boardwalk-staircase running by a stream cascading down the back of the house where a private dock was, which parked two yachts, a speedboat, and twin jetskis.
Our domain was the enormous multo-leveled pool deck that wrapped around the back of the house, where a caterer had set up a dozen long tables and decked out a buffet line with Maryland crabs, chicken, corn on the cob, burgers and hot dogs. There were 6 giant coolers of beer (I finally found one that had Coke in it) and twin miniature waterfalls the cascaded down a rock diving board into a pool.
It was a little awkward for me, I’ll admit. It’s still hard to carry on conversations for me. Large places with lots of people make it difficult for me to follow conversations.
In addition to that, everyone sort of divided up into their pre-defined cliques. Being such a large agency, people tend to form smaller groups that they’ll eat lunch with, visit when they’re bored, or invite to private parties. Midway through the meal, I discovered my table was just such a clique; a group of people who I eat lunch with all the time.
I broke away when I was full, and walked around to see if anyone else wasn’t part of a group. My group is pretty friendly, and welcome in just about anyone. I grabbed a perch up on the steps that led down to the pool and pulled out my sketchbook. Midway through some doodling, Meagan Crable (Donna McGee’s daughter) stopped by, and we talked and drew a bit longer. It got hotter and hotter and finally I jumped off the porch and got changed, and jumped in the pool. It felt SO nice. I spent the rest of the time in the pool.
Pretty soon Patrick joined us in the pool too. He was so crazy! I’d never seen him so wild (he’s usually pretty stern at work). We found a couple tennis balls, and threw them all over the pool, splashing people on the edge. I spent nearly the entire rest of the time in the pool.
Gospel Singing
Twi Jackson invited Tamika and I to sing at his church. He’s been putting a group together, and our first practice is going to be this Saturday. I’m very excited. We’ve been going to a huge church near us called New Psalmist Baptist Church. It’s ENOURMOUS. They have three services on Sundays, and I think the church seats a little over a thousand people. It’s packed every service. Anyway; I’ve been listening to their choir a lot (who are REALLY good), and have been missing singing. I used to sing bass in Gospel choir at Messiah, Rev. Jimmy Allen Thomas used to lead. I miss it so much.
Stay at home Mom
Come September Tamika is officially going to be a stay at home mom! She’s been working out the details with my old (her current) employer, the National Fatherhood Initiative, and this week she finalized it. She’s going to be coming up on the Schefferville trip, and then working part time until September. She’s very excited!
Leaky Gas Tank
So, this morning, Tamika and I went to put gas in the Saturn.
After $5 worth (barely over a gallon) I saw a large puddle rushing away from the car.
I shut the pump off and dove under the car. Gas was POURING from the car, all over the pavement.
That is the last straw for me. I’ll no longer be using that car to drive my family around in. The bearing is still bad, it still has a hole in the muffler, no AC, and now this.
We drove it back to the house and parked it, and asked Talisha if we could borrow her car today. She (again) generously agreed.
Troy still has not fixed the Mercury. He has his own struggles he’s currently working through, but he admitted to me that he’s been putting it off.
I really don’t know what God has in store, but I know it’s something good.