catching up

Well, a long time has passed between blogs. How interesting to look at where I was in August and what has come of it all.

First, Urban Village has lived up to its first impression. I made the decision to switch from Berry to Urban Village, and from the first service that I mentioned in the August blog until now have rarely missed a service. I have found myself spiritually reinvigorated, excited about going to church again. And more than that, I have become compelled to keep live out my faith throughout the week. I am much more aware of mission opportunities, helping with the Market Pantry each month, giving to UMCOR to help with the victims of hurricanes etc. And I agreed to lead a small group for Urban Village - which is a great experience. And I am doing Disciple 3 with a small group. And perhaps the biggest thing is that I agreed to take on the role of Director of the Lay Academy, which is a big job. My spiritual life is fuller and richer than it has been in a number of years and I am grateful for that every day. Urban Village has helped me to reconnect in an amazing way.

I finished the tax training and got hired by H&R Block; I worked there nearly every night from January 1 through April 18. I absolutely loved it, I really loved working with clients one on one. I felt like I was helping people, it was overall a great experience and I can't wait to do it again next year.

There is a lot more to catch up on, but over time.

A very different kind of summer. For the first time in 16 years it is not time to start preparing for Gloria to go back to school. I know it is a really different summer for her, looking for a job and just beginning to realize that for the first time in her memory September does not mean school. But for us too, it is a big change. This time it is me starting school. I am taking a tax class at H & R Block. It may not sound that exciting, but I have high hopes for it. The class is fairly intensive, it is 84 hours of class instruction in under 3 months, and University of Phoenix (I know!) allows 4 credit hours if you choose to go down that path. But the goal is to learn to do taxes and hopefully get a part time job at Block during tax season. All presuming that I like doing this -- I expect to, but one never knows.

Work is in transition too with the two projects I have been working on finishing. One is nearly there, just in the last phase of close down. The other will be finished in October or November, depending on how much post-deployment activity there is. I will be moving to a different role, and I look forward to new and very different challenges there. So for me, Fall is a time of starting up, of transitioning.

But there are some other large goals in front of me too. The first is all around health. I have started a yoga class - very light duty for a yoga enthusiast, but for me it is a pretty big deal. And focussing on exercise most days of the week, eating healthier and trying to get control. I am doing a combination of walking on a treadmill, preparing for a walk for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at the end of September, and yoga and aerobics. This will require me to exercise self discipine more than exercising my body! I don't mind grey hair and wrinkles, but creaking joints and lack of energy can be combatted.

The final front is a spiritual dimension. For too long I have been allowing myself to drift, dissatisfied with my church, letting my spiritual practices lag, feeling the tug of inertia. It is time to take my faith journey back into my own hands and find a source of energy. After talking about it for quite a while, last week Joy, Gloria, Sonja and I visited Urban Village, a new church started in the spring downtown. We all came away eager to go back, excited about a sermon series on the book of Genesis. I have been feeling that my church demands little spiritually, it has not provided me with the structure and accountability I long for. I am in a covenant group that supplies some of that, but we only meet monthly and it is possible to slip a long way in a month. I found that I came away from Sunday's service at Urban Village feeling energized and clear that the responsibility for my journey is in my hands. I was challenged and excited. This Sunday we are going back, and are interested to hear what the sermon on sin brings. Sin is rarely discussed in the contemporary church, it might demand us to change in some way. Feelgood church is not about change, it is about 'do your own thing and that's ok'. Perhaps we could also put some flowers in our hair and head for San Francisco......... the 70's live!

At any rate, all around me, everywhere I look there is a goal, a challenge, a chance to change and grow, to improve. I look forward to this time and am committed to sticking with it and taking charge of my life.

Real life is not as much fun as vacation - well there is a surprising insight, right?

Real life is filled with work and party plans and quilting. And newly introduced to the mix, yoga. Gloria and I started a yoga class that is intended for people who have no prior yoga experience and who need modifications to do the poses. I have learned a few things in the first month of the class. One is that yoga is real exercise. I always was sort of interested, but had the idea that it was gentle and meditative. I am finding that on different days it varies, but it is absolutely exercise, sometimes it really pushes me to the limit. I considered last week some kind of success because the sore muscles were easing up by Sunday, unlike the weeks before when they lasted into the week. And I only had to take Advil twice in one night the first night after class instead of for a few days. I find that it motivates me to want to do more. So I ordered two DVD's, one is a yoga class for 'fuller figures' and the other is low impact aerobics. Now the hurdle is to get time in the living room so that I can give them a try. I am actually excited about exercise, which is NOT a common condition for me.

On the quilting front, I have been able to do one to two hours of hand quilting each night since Sunday, it is actually starting to show. I don't have a square yard quilted yet, but getting there. I do like this part of the process. I enjoy the handwork, I enjoy the feel of the quilt as parts are quilted. It begins to change, to become softer, to drape more. And I enjoy getting to have one last close look at the individual fabrics as I work my way along.

Other than that, we are in the throes of party planning, Gloria's graduation party is Saturday. We have done quite a bit of the shopping, ordered the cake and started the cleaning process. Jovito has been a dynamo this week, he fixed the bench, vacuumed, mowed the grass and edged, waxed the kitchen floor ..... and the list goes on. We have enough beer and wine to make people forget anything we miss. (Just kidding - we really do have beer and wine but we are really not very big drinkers.).

I have tomorrow off work, a three day weekend is kind of like a vacation. Even if I am shopping and cleaning it is fun and different from my daily life. And most important, I am not spending 3 hours in the car just to commute back and forth. The Chicago commute is worse this year than it has ever been, and I have been commuting to Schaumburg for 25 years. If it had been like this in year 1 or year 5 I would never have celebrated a 10th anniversary. Now I have been there too long to want to leave. Fortunately I am working one day a week at home, and for a few months in the fall I will be working two days a week at home. That helps a lot.

I got the rainbow quilt sandwiched and basted and started marking it. It is now decorating our dining room table, until the marking process is finished. I am hoping that will be the next couple of days. I am really looking forward to sitting with the quilt and quilting it, that is a time that I find peaceful. I like the process of spending quality time with each hoop sized section of the quilt. By the time I have completed it, I feel that I know each square personally, and there is a lot of 'me' in the quilt. There is also a lot of my thoughts, prayers, meditations, hopes for the person for whom I am making the quilt. In this case, it is for my daughter who has recently graduated from college. I feel that the quilt is so appropriate to this time in her life, a rainbow for me is a sign of hope; at this time when she is embarking on the next phase of her life after 16 years of being in school (since Pre-K) it seems to be such an appropriate metaphor.

The rest of the week was spent in a much more mundane way, a Kaizen session to improve the forecasting process used to manage the budget my company's portfolio of IT projects. For those not familiar with the process (as I was not) here is a description of Kaizen:

Kaizen (Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the better") refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management. It has been applied in healthcare, government, banking, and many other industries. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste. Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who visited the country. It has since spread throughout the world.

It was a structured, facilitated process that used several interesting tools to assist the group in identifying the current process then identify issues, rank them, identify root causes then develop short, medium and longer term resolutions. It was intense and required a lot of concentration. It was a cross functional group so many perspectives were represented. It was a great learning experience. The plans that we identified for resolutions are exciting.

The process that we worked on is one of the more difficult parts of my job, and most months I spend about 4 days on it, so I am personally very invested in improvements that will help to ensure that the results we get are accurate and meaningful. There are many of us who do this work, probably at least 50, so it is a costly process that today does not produce reliable results.

Of course there is now a task force to carry out the actions, and yes, of course I will be a part of that. This afternoon I came back to a rush of questions about the project we are rolling out over the next week, so this week has really flown by. I look forward to working at home tomorrow and catching up as best I can.

Life in Chicago

The vacation trip was great, and I will probably come back and write some more about it. But now for some thoughts on everyday life.

I have been working on a quilt for Gloria for a long time now. She asked for a log cabin quilt in rainbow colors. First stumbling block for me was to figure out the order of the colors in a rainbow. Gloria set me straight on that, she learned it in grade school: ROY G BIV (red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet.) My interpretation of that has green/blue in between green and blue. Then I drafted my particular pattern, figured out exactly what colors should be in what squares and how large it would be. The next part was to gather the many, many colors I needed to make 30 blocks in these colors. I used approximately 20 colors per block, and used scrappy fabric. I bought fabric everywhere I went, asked friends for scraps and collected colors over several years. In particular, I was light on yellow, red and orange. I realized as I gathered fabrics that those are colors I use rarely, so I did not have a stash on hand.

After doing all of that, I began to assemble the squares. Over about a year, I made 10 while continuing to gather fabrics in the 'missing' colors. Realizing that at that pace it would take really long, this spring I stepped up the pace and completed the remaining 20 in a couple of months. I have now added the borders and prepared the backing. I have obtained the template I wanted for the hand quilting pattern (Baptist Fan) and marking pens. This weekend I hope to 'sandwich' and baste the quilt, then begin marking the pattern. I am really looking forward to starting the hand quilting process. I especially enjoy hand quilting when it is a gift. It allows me to think about the person who will receive the quilt. It may sound like a cliche, but a lot of love goes into the quilting process.

This quilt has turned out very well so far and I really look forward to seeing it take shape as I quilt it. The rainbow pattern has a lot of significance, since it is the sign of God's covenant with humans. I have always found a rainbow to be filled with hope and peace. I hope that Gloria finds those qualities in this quilt that is being made with so much love and that it is comforting and sustaining in bad times, a pleasure to use in good times.

The other thing I think is of interest is that I have started a yoga class. I have attended two classes, the most recent just a couple of hours ago. The first week was pretty gentle; I was a little sore afterwards. But tonight's class was much more intense, and I am already feeling it. It worked the various leg and buttock muscles a lot, also some upper body. I am pretty sure that tomorrow I will be feeling it a lot. I like the whole concept of yoga a lot. It is very relaxing, even now when it is new and hard. And the stretching feels really good, and so needed. After tonight's class I feel more that this may help to combat the loss of flexibility that I have experienced over the last few years due to arthritis and the lack of stretching exercises. I am determined this week to do some exercise so that I keep gaining that flexibility.

And last night, Gloria and I went to a natural perfume workshop with Joy and Marlene, good friends of ours at another friend's home. We worked with a group of 14 natural oils to develop our own scent. The oils were divided into base, middle and top notes. The first part of the workshop was spent familiarizing us with the oils, then we began to experiment with different combinations. The end result was a 'signature scent' for each person based on our own preferences. Jess, who led the workshop, told us that the perfumes will develop over the next couple of weeks, and that they will change as they age. In addition, they change as they are applied to our bodies. It was a lovely relaxing enjoyable evening. All in all, this has been a good week, and I am really looking forward to the weekend.

We have been home for a week now; I have some additional thoughts on the trip. The last day in Savannah was incredibly hot. It was normal weather for the season but our Yankee blood was not ready for it. The temperature was 100+ and the humidity was very high.

I got up and walked to The Lady and Son (Paula Deen's restaurant) to make a reservation for dinner. It was early enough that the temp was probably only in the low 80's and I did my best to walk in the shade where possible. The line stretched 2 1/2 blocks at 9:10 in the morning. Although we had to stand in the sun part of the time, it turned out to be fun getting to know the other people around me. After about a half hour in line, I walked away with the reservation.

We had decided that we would see the Mercer-Williams house, where Jim Williams of 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' fame lived, and where the movie was shot. We walked around the historic district for several hours, toured the house and took a number of pictures. I would have liked to see a few other things up close, but the heat was just oppressive. So we walked back and spent a little time in the hotel cooling down.

Dinner at The Lady and Sons was good, it is a fairly informal place with a really friendly staff. We all chose the buffet so that we could get a good sampling of her good old-fashioned Southern cooking - fried chicken, ribs, green beans, mashed potatoes, biscuits, grits, corn cakes and more. Definitely Southern!

The most fun part of the day was the 'Ghosts and Gravestones' tour in the evening. It was on a black trolley, suitably decorated with draped cloth, flowers, a skull etc. And Miss Violet, the tour guide was a delight. She was dressed in a black lace dress with hoop skirt (remember the temperature), hat with feathers tickling her forehead and a fan which she used in true Southern Belle fashion. She was in love with her stories and made the tour a lot of fun. Savannah is considered to be one of the most haunted cities in the United States, so she had plenty of stories to share. Perhaps it is the heat, perhaps it is the Low Country landscape - but Savannah has a dense, brooding Southern Gothic feeling that makes it one of the most interesting places I have visited. The tour ended inside a chandlery on River Street, blessedly air conditioned. It was truly a nice way to end the visit.

The absolute highlight of the trip for me was seeing several container ships on the Savannah River. They were heading from the Port of Savannah out to sea, and were loaded about 10 stories high with shipping containers. It was an awesome sight to stand by the riverfront and watch this behemoth pass by. I do have some pictures that I will post.

Gloria and I capped off the hot day in Savannah with a 10PM swim in the hotel pool, cool water has rarely felt better than it did that night. We had the pool to ourselves for a while, which made it delightfully relaxing.

The next night on the way home, we

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Savannah is the kind of town that spawns a story like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It is an old, old town, incredibly beautiful. The trees draped with Spanish moss contribute to the sense of mystery, as do the old buildings and old stories.

We took a trolley tour of the mile-square historic district. It is filled with small, lovely squares surrounded by interesting old buildings. We saw the house that was the home of antique dealer Jim Williams, accused of killing Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute. There is a bookstore dedicated entirely to 'the book', we plan to visit it tomorrow. We passed a synagogue that is the third oldest in the United States and which houses a Torah from the 1400's. We passed the church where John and Charles Wesley served during their time in Savannah. We passed the church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached his first sermon.

We walked by the river and saw the port area with giant ships, we saw two tugboats and the statue of the 'waving girl' which is a famous Savannah landmark. We stood on the 'echo spot' by the river and tested it out.

We also saw Paula Deen's restaurant, we were too late to get a table for tonight, maybe tomorrow. We walked a bit in the City Market, but it was just too hot to walk there a lot. We used the trolley tour as transportation today, using the on/off feature. So after stopping for lunch in the City Market, we got back on and rode a few stops to River Street. Our first stop there was the Savannah Candy company, where you can get a free taste of praline pecan candy - really good. So of course we got a pound of that, and a big caramel apple because their caramel looked great.

We walked around some of the smaller shops and looked at all the souvenirs. Del Sol has t-shirts, bags, jackets and some jewelry, all of which changes color in the sunlight - very cool. But we went there because we had certificates for a free bottle of water. That was really appealing in today's (seasonable) heat.

Tonight we walked a few blocks and had dinner at a British pub in the heart of the Historic District, called the Six Pence Pub. It was fun to eat in the window and see the horses and carriages go by, along with tour trolleys and rickshaw tours. It is a great place to visit, but most likely winter would be an even better time to visit.

Plan for tomorrow is to get up early and walk to the City Market to try to get a reservation for Paula Deen's, visit a few of the spots we saw today and get an up close look, then in the evening we are taking a ghost tour. Lots to see, a couple of days really just touches the surface.