End Year 23

I sometimes think about how strange it is that agriculture dictates our education system and therefore the rhythm that we use to plan our lives. This means that mid-August is naturally a time of chaotic rearrangement. Kids and young adults shuffle off to school, teachers return to their kitchens and coffee pots to start a new school year after summers which they must relegate to dreamworlds untold. I am, for the first time, in the latter category instead of the former.

But before all of that, comes my birthday. And my birthday this year was incredible...

Let's begin at 10:15 am, when I left LMH in Lachelle and Brian's car, listening exclusively to a very beautiful piece: "The Last Waltz," the perfect blend of beauty and sorrow and change, with other significance attached in other ways. I arrived at Jordan's house to meet Krystle, Shelby, Alyssa, and Jordan. We left for Longwood Gardens together and met Garrett just inside, so we made six.

I've been to Longwood before, but my impressions of this day were something different from ever before. The sun's whole face was laughing. My imagination took over! We marveled at a treehouse; I felt like an elf, finally home. We stood above the Italian water garden; I felt like I was attending a ball, dressed in satin and lace. We stood in the triple fountain, south of the DuPont house; I felt like a duckling, delighted! We ran around the meadow; I felt like the Von Trapp children, set free! We stood under the wrought-iron gazebo above the coy fish; I felt like a goddess on Olympus, everywhere I laid my eyes was mine.

For lunch, we left the gardens and made hamburgers at Garrett's house nearby. Fun. So fun. Summer is cutting tomatoes and watermelon and doing dishes at someone else's house with good friends. The sun went right on laughing. Back to the gardens for the other, more exquisite half. We were walking our legs off by this time.

It's worth mentioning that sometimes when you have a few people together who love the Lord, your fellowship grows. At one point, I counted our group of six and thought, "wait, aren't there seven of us?" It has to be the Holy Spirit who comes and makes seven.

We departed for Jordan's house where we met up with David, pizza, and a fire after sunset. Why not finish with ice cream and conversation? Why not, indeed.

A Full Day (part III)

[If you thought this day was over, you are very wrong.]

2:30pm: Angela, Leah, Joella, and I meet up with Becky briefly, then part to eat lunch elsewhere. We find a Coffee Shop Diner (yeah, weird... the theme of the diner was "coffee shop") and ate (!) and drank a lot of water. We then recollect Becky and leave for Pennsylvania. Becky has had a shower and looks bright and feels sore. I envy her cleanness, and wish to take a shower after those eight miles. I had never before run/walked eight miles!

4:45pm: We arrive in Lancaster in time for showers and brief naps before our dinner plans.

6pm: Carmen comes and we walk to Sukhothai to celebrate Leah's birthday! We are so relaxed at our long table in the middle of that blue and green restaurant, with lily pad-shaped lights above us. We realize that we have much to celebrate: Leah is one year older, Becky finished her marathon, Carmen graduated from her clinical pastoral education and received a position as an associate pastor nearby, I graduated from college, Carmen will be joining the house as I move out, and we are six friends sitting around one table. The last is reason enough to celebrate.

We walk home in a cold rain, the sky still light, the air fresher and scented with invisible honeysuckle.

Birthday Freedom

Back in the city.
22 years old.
On the move.
I missed the transformative sunrise.
I did not create anything new.
I did not, in fact, even try to find a way to celebrate.

Do you know why?

At 22 years, one should feel free from expectations like that.

If I want to create a ritual, well, I may.

But if I want to sleep on a mattress in the middle of someone else's floor,

and wake up at eight am to do laundry

to pack a bag full of clothes ruined by camp

so I can catch a day-long train to Ohio to visit some friends, well, I'll do it.

Suppose that were my birthday ritual?

That'd be weird.

A Rather Dull Update

Minimal pizazz, and certainly nothing in the way of bells or whistles.

My birthday was a series of three days this year! Monday, Mom, Chelsea, and Michelle visited me, bringing the long-in-the-way cedar chest. I suppose it is time it passed on to the next McKalips lady. We went to Macaroni Grill where Chelsea played entertainer by questioning the waitress in the least mundane terms. August 11th dawned sultry and... well, I'm not sure. I slept in and went to work for the whole day. Becky found me at work and delivered a bouquet of picked flowers which still sit in the dining room, cheering the world. In the evening, Lachelle, Adriane, Joella, Angela and I went to the Dispensing Company for my first public drink! A white Zinfindel--as girly and flowery as they come, so I'm told.

On Wednesday, Joella and I used the gift that Lachelle and Brian had given us as thank you's for helping with the wedding: an hour-long massage at the Lancaster School of Massage. Oh my. Praise the Lord. Just thinking about it straightens my posture and helps me to breathe more easily. In the evening, Kelly and Sladana came to celebrate with me. We met BJ and Brian at Quips where I ordered the hot wings (on a five-heat scale: mild, medium, hot, ____, hari kari). It turns out the hot wings are extraordinarily hot. It is BJ's custom to order a half dozen hari kari wings for the purposes of torture to all newcomers. I was compelled to eat one. The burning began as I finished it. Then it moved through my whole body. My lips swelled up. My eyes teared uncontrollably. The nail beds under my fingernails that had touched the cursed sauce hurt until the following morning. My stomach was in ruins on Thursday. But all this and, more, all of you, have made my 21st birthday the best one so far! Thank you!

Tomorrow, Tim, Adriane, and their son Elisha and I are headed to Ohio to attend Kara's wedding on Sunday. This will be the first time that my team from Honduras will have been together since we left Harrisburg in 2007! Then, Tuesday of next week, I'll be headed to Mexico with my friends' children. I'll be there until August 30th, and consequently unreachable by phone. But I'll find a computer.