She wanted you to know...

My roommate is now a blogger!

Kristin and I have been lamenting that our times in the Nut House are coming to an end. Just a few more months and we'll be packing this place up...hard to believe! It has been the best of times...I will miss her dearly when it's time to go.

The Notch Club will live forever. ;)

first day

Left the house bright and early this morning to accompany my new boss to a meeting in downtown LA at the US Dept. of Labor, Wage Hour division. He was doing a long presentation/training session on labor trafficking to the investigators there, so that they are better equipped to identify and help trafficking victims they may come into contact with. I didn't have to do anything; just observe and learn since these are the kinds of presentations I'll be doing. The DoL director took us out to lunch, and then it was back to the freeway, back to Whittier and back to the church for a few hours at Job #2.

I have to be back up there at 8:30 tomorrow for the Salvation Army new employee orientation, and then Friday I'll get to go over to my Hollywood office to meet people and get set up there.

It's a bit overwhelming with both jobs in my lap at the moment, especially since one is over an hour away. Anyone need a nice quiet church job????

whew!

What a weekend. :) Parties, tea, mom, friends, food, movies, a bad cold, shopping... Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate!

P.S. If you didn't know, you can click on pictures to see them bigger. :)

yay, finally!

I officially have a master's in B.S.!!!!* :)

not sure what these are for...hand warmers?

the quick blurry walk-by:

* B.S. = Biblical studies...lest you think I am already treating my new degree with disdain.

stop the rain!

This morning I walked into work with my keys in one hand and a granola bar wrapper in the other (eaten on the drive in). Arriving at my desk, I threw my keys in the garbage.

I warned you.

Ok - I am supposed to graduate today, outside. It needs to stop raining!!

lasts, transitions, and a general madness of the brain

Perspective (Athens)


...

I noticed the other day that my stress level was feeling inexplicably higher than normal. Upon further reflection, I realized this is not inexplicable at all. And that I have every right to go completely mad at any time over the next 5 months.

I ran around the Biola campus yesterday getting signed out, checked off, and anything else related to graduating. I forgot to buy my hood for the actual ceremony though, so hopefully while I'm there for class today I don't completely space out. Kind of an important piece of the whole regalia thing, I guess. And speaking of class, today is my LAST class EVER. I can't say I've done any reading to speak of for several weeks now, and I turned in my last little paper last week (after banging it out 20 minutes before class - at work - shh), so I've been "done" for awhile, but after today I will really be DONE.

This week is also my last full week at my job at the church. I'm going to stay on a few hours a week while they look for someone else, which will probably contribute to my overall madness level as I try and work 25-30 hours at the other job...in Hollywood. But I couldn't pass up the chance to continue my stellar bulletin-creating, composing such genius statements as this one for the last Early Childhood family event: "Create a scrapbook memory page and fish craps."

That was supposed to be "crafts."

And yes, I caught it before it went to print, even though I was tempted to leave it that way, just for fun. :)

After I graduate this weekend, I will begin the process of raising nearly $3000 a month (!! I know!!!!! Europe!!!!!!) for the next year (at least) and figuring out how to move overseas in the next few months. I start my new job next week, trying to learn the ropes with the hopes of actually doing a good job and meeting high quotas in the short months I will be there. And doing presentations in Spanish. EEK.

So, if I happen to forget your name, or put the milk away in the cupboard, or wear mismatched shoes, or put mascara on only one eye (you get the picture), be nice to me. It's all really exciting, but it's also just a little crazy!

It's all Greek to me.

This weekend is the Orange County Greek Festival. Sounds all happenin', doesn't it?!

We really went for the food. :) And that's about all that was happenin' about it!

Whoever invented feta fries, I want to marry you.

beautiluf.

It's the new word. Look for it popping up in vocabularies near you.

I GOT THE JOB!!

I just got the phone call -- I got the Salvation Army job!!!

The Trafficking Outreach and Training position is only temporary, it goes through September, which is when I'm hoping to leave for Greece. The timing is perfect. The job is perfect; I will be able to learn so much before I leave to do almost the same exact thing in Athens!

I'm a little in shock; it pays well over what I am making now, and they said I can work up to 30 hours a week if I want to. I set my own hours. Part of the job is doing outreach with an organization in LA that I was planning to start working with anyway - now I'll be paid for it!!!

Wow. Wow. Wow. :) When God is ready to move, he doesn't delay, does he?? I'm in awe right now.

So...the last couple weeks have been a little crazy!?

Getting out of the city

Mission @ San Juan Capistrano

yay for birthdays...

pics from some of Janell's festivities this week (she always manages to stretch it out) ...

I have a title!

I am the new Outreach and Education Director for Lydia Today in Athens, Greece. Woohoo!

I will be the liaison between the international agencies working on trafficking, and we hope to have an international conference in Fall of 2009 in Athens for the region on trafficking and training. I get to do a lot of university outreach and education there to recruit and train Greek college students (they speak English), and that will be a little bit of evangelism/ministry/discipleship of my own. I will be teaching the Hands That Heal training a lot (for working with trafficking victims) and I even get to have Vanguard University (and maybe Biola) interns during the school year!

There are lots of language schools there, so I will be able to do some intensive language stuff every day for the first several months and then continue going twice a week...forever (as long as I'm there). I guess between learning the language and finding a place to live, the actual transition stuff is more scary to me than being there. But I'm really excited!

I have an interview for that Salvation Army summer job in the morning. I forwarded my email and resume to the right person this morning and they called not 2 minutes later. I'm a little nervous about that, because it will involve a lot of presentations in Spanish. It has been a long time since I used my spanish regularly. A couple years ago it would have been no problem...we'll see.

Yay Greece! I hope to be there by October. Tentative goal. First I need to graduate from seminary...

What blog?!

I'm here! Blogging. Like I should be.

I'm finishing school (without much motivation), brainstorming, planning, thinking, writing, etc. I will have a few meetings coming up in the next few weeks that will help to clarify a lot of what my next few months will look like.

I was noticing the other day that I am moving right along with this little "4-8 year plan" that I came up with last August. I didn't even really think about sticking to this...it's just worked out that way. Funny.

It's a relief not to have to be looking for a new job. I did get forwarded an email today about a temporary, part-time immediate position doing outreach, trafficking awareness and training with the Salvation Army. I emailed my resume on a whim; we'll see if anything comes of that. It's just for the summer; extra money and experience in my field is always a plus.

That's all for now...I haven't had much to say (or time to say it) so be thankful I haven't blogged. You probably would have gotten a taste of my pirate joke repertoire or something. Consider yourself spared.

You say it's your birthday!

Somebody is 31 today! :)

Janell and Kelsey in Portland, January 2006

well, I think I've done it.

I wrote an email today. It said that I am willing to make an initial one-year commitment to the ministry in Athens. It said that after I graduate this month, I am free and open to going whenever the money comes in.

Sandie and I are going to meet next week to talk about the actual "job description," sending details, budget, and I will hopefully be meeting with the missions board at church soon.

Amidst some terror and nervousness (wow, those words really do not go together), I feel peace. I think the biggest thing, more than actually being over there, is the upheaval it will cause in my nice little life here. I don't know all the details or what it will be like day-to-day yet. And I'm a little freaked out. But I feel like it's the right thing.

That's the way it's supposed to feel. :)