Parenthetically

I was just getting ready to pack up the computer for the big move and thought I'd take a minute to post a little something before I hit the road.  The last two days have been an awesome time of hanging out with friends!  Yesterday afternoon Andrea organized a little get together at Fair Trade Cafe downtown (I heart that place!).  Some Poiema peeps and "old" friends came and brought me mixed cds for my road trip.  I am so stoked to pop those puppies in and listen to great tunes while barreling down the freeway!  I also got some really sweet letters, cards, pictures and an amazing Poverty and Justice Bible!  The most creative goes to Cash, since he broke the rules and created a Facebook profile for me.  I've resisted for months, but like it or not, I guess I'm a Facebooker now.  It was so wonderful to get to talk about Africa and Portland and just hang out together.  Afterwards we hit up LGO for gelato (first!) and my last avocado pizza for a long time.  It was just so nice to be surrounded by good friends and it didn't feel like a "goodbye" at all.  I'm still in denial that I won't be seeing everyone next week.

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Uh.  Wow.  I'm moving to another state tomorrow.  When did this happen?

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So this morning I went downtown to see my brother and say goodbye.  It wasn't so bad, thanks to my friend, Katie (who needs a blog I can link to).  Then I went to my last service and said like the one millionth goodbye (Ohio, Africa, Portland... I'm sure they are thinking when is she just going to leave already?).  Katie and I went to a little local Mexican restaurant for our last supper together and much to our surprise in came the Poiema herd!  So we had a nice long lunch chatting some more... and then another goodbye!  It still doesn't feel real.  But lucky for me there are plenty of trips already planned for Oregon, so I'll have lots of visitors!

I can't believe I'm doing this.  I must be crazy, but I'm pretty excited.  Ready to hit the road.  Ready to start the next phase.  Ready to see what God is going to teach me in Portland.  Bring it on!