Hurricane Irene swept through Alexandria Saturday night and Sunday morning. We were prepared for the worst; thankfully, it only felt to us like a severe Seattle windstorm (plus lots more rain). A few trees around the apartments and on campus came down, but there was no severe damage. And we only lost power for about five hours. After the storm, a few of us wandered over to campus to play frisbee and hang out a bit. The kids decided to build a fort out of storm debris.
On Sunday evening, Christy, Sarah and I attended church at St. Paul’s in Alexandria (having missed church in the morning due to the hurricane). St. Paul’s is a beautiful old church, complete with those weird box pews that people used to pay for, plus a balcony all across the top for the regular rabble like us. Luckily, they don’t do it that way anymore, so we got to sit in a box. It was a tiny congregation that day; we may visit again on a Sunday morning when we can expect to encounter a lot more people.
After that we returned to the apartments for an impromptu cookout with our friends. The kids built another storm debris fort! Too bad I didn’t get a picture of that one, because it was much more impressive than the first.
Then Monday came, and I launched into my final week of August term classes. I’m getting much faster at pronouncing and translating Hebrew sentences; our first quiz will be this Thursday. In our writing workshop, I’ve been writing a précis to an academic paper, identifying the problem and thesis, and crafting a response to the paper. Also, I’m interviewing for several on-campus jobs.
Monday evening, we saw some St. Thomas folks! Cecilia and Renee Buss were visiting relatives in McLean, only about 20 minutes from here. We had dinner, and to my surprise, two of the guests at the party are future priests as well: Laura Cochran, who is a senior at VTS this year; and Elyse Gustafson, whom I’ve already connected with on Facebook through a common friend, Mike Demmon. To add another layer, Elyse’s home diocese is Chicago, where the former St. Thomas rector, Jeff Lee, is now the bishop! It’s a small church after all.
But the event that really solidified the evening as a memorable occasion came just as we were walking out the door: Sarah’s second tooth popped out! Yes, changes happen fast around here.
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| Christy poses at Episcopal High School's Ummel Bowl ... er, Hummel Bowl. |
Sunday was Christy’s and my 12th anniversary, and today is Christy’s birthday. Sarah will get to play with a friend tonight while Christy and I finally get out to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.
The priest at St. Paul's in Salem this past Sunday preached that the Church is not a building, the Church is people. Your story about connecting in a bunch of different ways with people you know from past and present church lives reminds me of that. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, Stacy! It really is true. Now if we can get all Episcopalians to catch that spirit and project it outside the list of Episcopalians to the entire world, we'll be in great shape. :)
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