A Dusty Travel Journal

You know how some dates are just seared in you memory? You can't forget them no matter what. The weeks leading up to the date are full of expectation. You know something big has happened in your history, just because of the way your brain treats the date. 

Today is one of those days for me. 

Today is the 7th anniversary of this blog.

So...big deal, you say. What's that got to do with anything? 

Seven years ago, I got on a plane by myself for the first time. I'd traveled with groups before, sure. Never by myself. Never across the ocean. But now, I can't say that any more.

As the years pass, the memories start to fade. Some things I will never forget, like stepping foot in C. S. Lewis' church, seeing his home & his grave. Sitting in the warm rooms of The Bird & The Baby on a cold and rainy night.  Seeing London from the top of St. Paul's, the city stretching out as far as I could see in all directions. Attending a show at the Globe, in the freezing cold fall weather. (Honestly, I don't remember the cold; I just know it was. I remember that night and know that it was a supremely happy memory.) Feeling the breeze from the rushing train approaching the Tube platform; feeling thankful that the train had finally arrived and praying that you might actually make it to class on time. Seeing and falling in love with Scotland in a single moment. Praying desperately to God when I felt lost in the city and watching him answer in a big way. Sunday lunches with the Diamond's and friends from St. Giles. Bible study and Christmas party with the student group at KCBC.

Seven years ago, I started this small blog to keep my family and friends up to date on my life while I was in England. It's become so much more than a simple travel blog to me. Thank you for sticking around during the months I don't write and the ones that I do, for putting up with silly posts about fall weather & coffee and literature & theologically deep ones where I try to process different thoughts in my head. 

This blogging thing continues to be an adventure for me, so thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for the encouragement to keep writing and exploring things, even if it is simple every day things. Because really, the big stuff is great and memory making. But it's the every day stuff that makes life full and rich and worth getting up for in the morning. 

So here's to more coffee dates with friends, knitting projects accomplished, and half miles run with my niece. Here's to learning what it means to be content in the life you've been given but not sit back and watch it pass you by. Here's to staying out with friends and sleeping late. 

Here's to more adventures!

New things

Remember all that time I said I had because of not having a lot of shifts at Old Navy? And all that extra time because I don't have a full time job? 

Welp. Only one of those reasons is true any more. (When I started my last post, they were both true--I promise!)


I spent a bunch of time researching job openings that my mom threw my way, that I located myself and that my friends told me about. I promise. I did. I might not have applied for a lot of them, but I did the research! I put time into it. And then, I got tired of looking. I got tired of looking at jobs that not only was I not qualified for, but that also would require years of school and experience before I could even think about applying. I was getting depressed and super exhausted of looking. I was really, really fed up with life. (Hey man, you know my life is not always pretty! Don't look so scandalized!) 

My friend knew I was looking, (because really, did I ever stop looking?) and sent me an email about a position that opened up where she worked. I told her I would look into it. A few days later I actually did. About a week later, I still hadn't applied. It looked like a good job, I was just putting off the inevitable, "Thanks, but no thanks" message I was sure to get. I was getting ready to out with some friends and she texted me to see if I had applied. I can't lie to her...so I put the getting ready on hold and got my resume, references and cover letter ready to go. I texted her back right as I left the house, not caring about the outcome of the application, my mind focused on having fun with my friends. 
That was a Friday. The following Tuesday, I was called to fill out an application on location. The same week I had an interview scheduled for Thursday. For a week, I waited, almost forgetting about the application, sure that I wouldn't hear back from them for a few more weeks. How wrong was I? 


A week to the day after my interview, almost to the hour, I received a phone call. "We would like to offer you the job. Are you still interested?" 


Is that a trick question?? Most people took longer than a week to tell me "no" about an application. A week after my interview I had a job; three days later, I started my first day! 


My first week was a blur. I mean, an utter and complete blur. New faces, new paper work. New phones, new systems. This Monday, I started my second week and I must say, things are less stressful than they were last week. It is still an alarming amount of new information and processes, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. 


Do I miss sleeping in late?

Yup. 


Do I love having something to do with my day? 


You bet I do!

It almost makes the not being able to sleep in worth it :) 

Snowy Confession Time

Dear readers, I have to confess.

I haven't had more than 5 cups of coffee this month.

Insane, right?

It's the weather and my cold! It makes me want tea instead of coffee!

Good news is I'm starting to feel better and the coffee drinking has begun anew. I am feeling much more human and like my old caffeine-addled self.

But, alas, that is not the whole confession part.

Drumroll (and many apologies for not saying so sooner...):

I have a job!

Actually and technically, I have two jobs!

I started part-time regular work at Old Navy this week and it has been fabo-fabulous. I did happen to start on a particularly crazy day, as the Stuff&Save promotion happened this week. And getting to work yesterday was insane! The store was pretty quiet, which was a nice time to spend some more time getting to know the store better. This week I was on the sales floor; next week it looks like I'm on CashWrap. Which I'm not terribly excited about, but will find the strength to endure.
Why? How??
Because in my head, I'm always doing the happy "I've got a job!" dance!

I'm also part-time holiday at Bath & Body Works, but haven't started there yet. I'm having tons of issues with getting into the system from home to input my availability so I can be put on the schedule. So. I haven't worked yet and I'm not even in the schedule. I'll think about it tomorrow :)

Crazy, huh?

I waiting to post this for a few reasons. One being it felt weird to post about a job I had before working one shift. The bigger reason though was this: I was working on being thankful.
These jobs are not my dream jobs. When I officially was hired and my first orientations were scheduled, everyone around me was excited. I was thinking, "Gee, Lord. Retail? Really? Because when you see me you say "shopper!" My prayers were answered...just not in the way I had wanted! I felt embarrassed about having a job most college could get. No offense to college students, but I have my degree. Shouldn't I be able to get a "real", "grown-up" job? Apparently, not right now. Maybe soon. But not now.
It took some time, but I am finally thankful to have these jobs. (Even if it means driving to them in the snow! Rain! Or any other time!) They will stretch me. A lot.

And probably drive me to drink more coffee. Which, in the end, is a good thing, right?

P.S. Also, if this post is worded strangely (or rather, stranger than the usual oddness), I blame it on Rachel. She made me read this book called "Withering Tights" by Louise Rennison. It is hilarious and makes me talk like a 15 year old.

Oh me of little faith

Another Sunday here in Gettysburg...and I'm missing my FBC family again. But I took what I knew, that God has me here for a reason, and drove myself to a church in Hanover (about 20min drive) that a friend recommended. I did not get lost this time, as I did two weeks ago, and sneaked in the back row a few moments before service began. I opened my bulletin to find a quote from C. S. Lewis's "The Last Battle":

But for them it was only the beginning of the story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no on on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Every time I see a Lewis quote somewhere, I feel a little bit at home. Today was no exception. As I began to meditate on the path that God has for me, I looked up and saw, what looked like, the back of my one supervisor's head three rows in front of me. I thought it was just coincidence, but prayed through the service that it wasn't. As the service came to a close, I finally got a better look. I was right! It was my supervisor and her husband! After church I went over to her, surprise written all over her face. "Do you go here too?" I asked. "Yes, this is my church!" she replied. Relief washed over me and I hugged her. Someone I knew -- a believer! And someone who is also my co-worked! God is good. We spent a while chatting and just talking like friends, like good friends, instead of someone I hardly knew. Pastor Tim says there is a piece of historical documentation that non-believers would poke fun at Christians, saying that they act like brothers towards people they don't even know but who shared their faith. I say amen to that. I am so thankful and grateful for the faith community that I belong to that exists across the ocean and across town.
Driving home I was listening to a song that talked about God's forever presence in my life and how even though I walk through the shadows, He will guard, guide and defend me. I loved being reminded of that. I was also struck by my lack of faith over the past month. Did I really think God would dump me in Gettysburg and leave me all alone? Maybe not, but I think I was expecting him to work the same way in my life now like he did in London. Yet I should have known, as Aslan says, things never happen the same way twice. If they did, would we have any kind of faith at all?

"He is already in tomorrow"

An hour after I posted my last entry, I read an excerpt from Mere Christianity that coincided almost exactly to what I was trying to express! I was completely blown away. I wanted to share some of what the great C. S. Lewis has to say about the way God sees time:

...suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call 'tomorrow is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call 'today.' All the days are 'Now' for Him.

I find this thought to be extraordinarily encouraging. Why should I worry (or be concerned) with things that will happen tomorrow or today? If God sees our tomorrow's and today's as a great big NOW, why should I think He doesn't see every thing that came/comes/will come my way?

It means that the pregnancy my friend prayed for (and is finally experiencing!) was on the Time-line before she even thought about it! It means that the baptism of my (other) friend's husband that we had been praying for ever since I met them (and years beyond that) was already on God's agenda for this past Sunday! It means the thesis paper I am struggling to write is already completed! (And can I get a great big AMEN on that one?!?!)

You know what it means? It means that Matthew 6:25-34 is RIGHT!

~So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself~ Matt. 6:34