My daughter is amazing. She is so sweet and innocent and it is awesome to see the little lights in her head flicker in anticipation of knowledge and understanding. This past week we moved the last of our belongings from the ghetto into our new apartment and we got some help from a friend of Rach’s, her name is Marie. She lives a few hours north of us and it was so awesome that she came to help us. Talia took a liking to Marie from the start even though she has only met her once before. She picked up Marie’s name super quick and she was so funny interacting with Marie.
Then Marie left to go back home and the funniest thing happened. Talia got a doll from a lady at our old parish that she never really noticed before, but it seems that that has all changed. Talia named her doll Marie and now she carries her all around the house, in the car, to the store, and the cutest thing of all, she sleeps with her. It is so funny to see her realize at random points in the day that Marie is not with her and she will walk around the house calling her, “Marie? Marie!” until she finds her.
Well, I am going to try and keep this post short considering that it has been a long while since i posted here. We have moved twice into two different apartments, although calling the first plae we oved ot an apartment is being extremely nice, it was a slum. Thanks be to God we were able to get out of there and get into a place we overwhelmingly love to pieces. We are outside of our initial “desired area” but knowing what we know and seeing the place we are in we do not mind one bit. We managed to attain a 2 bed/2 bath/ 2 floor town home. It is amazing. We are stil unpacking out boxes, but slowly this apartment is looking more and more like a little home.
Things on the work front are good, some struggles, but overall, very good. I have met some of the new people that were not here 2 yrs ago and the ones that were are great. It is great to be back in my element doing what I love and being in a position where I can say that I love my job, I love the people I work with and getting up for work is a joy and not a fear. This is a rare thing, I know and I am so grateful.
Church is great. Some minor differences in music, but I am learning. Father Damian is awesome. We are going ot have to sit down one of these days to have a chat about things though and we will see what he says about the things I ant to tell him and what we do (if anything) with them. The bishop is coming to visit the mission in November and I am really looking forward to that. I miss St. Peter’s and our friends and the people we love but we try and keep in touch through Facebook simce many of them are on there and we can send pokes and messages and stay connected. For those that are not on there there is always email.
Talia is getting so huge and so smart! So many little stories and things I could tell, but if I do not do that all here, maybe I can make little posts about it and spread them over the quiet times. I am so grateful for the friends we have out here from Church who were awesome in helping us with our moves. I feel so bad that we had t do this twice, but it is over now and I just want them to know how much their help and love and support have been for us in this mess.
I am going to try and keep this thing going some sort of regularly and we will see what we can do so this does not end up like all of the other blogs I started that ended in disrepair with months between posts. Here’s hoping. Until then!
So, I took the afternoon/evening to pack my clothes today and ended up having to use the old Army duffel rather than a smaller bag like I wanted to. It was easy and sort of hard at the ame time because as easy as it is to pack this time is a lttle harder because as I pack it becomes more and more apparent that this move is coming closer and closer.
Pat of me is ready for the move and part of me is still very sad about the whole thing. I want to know that things are going to work out quickly and without a hitch, but I have an appointment with a apartment finder company so we wil see what happens.
Sorry, at the moment I am listening to the tracks from the pilot of Glee. I love that show.
Well, things have been interesting. We went and handed in our 30 day notice with the apartment manager today and we also paid rent. We called a few more apartment complexes in AZ and got some info from them and some phone numbers for me to call when I get into town and it seems that I also have a date of arrival in AZ.
Next Wed.
I got hold of the director of the school and got a little info from her in email and we also set a time for a teleconference tomorrow… 1130AM… on the way to the ocean… wonderful. The downside is that the raise I was offered was only a way to keep me in AZ 2 yrs ago and is no longer on the table so I will be making $10/hr just as before.
The problem with this is that many of the apartments in the area want you to make at least 2x the rent and that is something I am just barely going to make with just one job. So, I am looking for another job and this is part of the reason I am going to be out in AZ earlier than expected. I have put in resumes and have gotten some responses, but not any offficial interviews. Yet.
I lave Wed morning for 13 hours on a bus. I am praying that I can manage to get a job quickly n order to start making money and saving for a place. We shall see. Things will hopefully work out when I am local.
You know what the worst thing in the world is? Not being able to type because you only have 95% of the keys on your keyboard that work. I spilled milk on Eugene (my Mac) and had ot get the keyboard replaced and so for the last few days I have been using he onscreen keyboard and let me tell you, that has been a pain in the butt.
Things seem to be slowly working themselves out. We have been chatting with apartment complexes all day today and through email last night and things look hopeful. There are still some lose ends I need to tie up with the school job, like hours and rate of pay so that I can tell the apartments how much I will be making and to see if there is a need for a second job and if there is what days and hours I can work.
I am going to try and go out to AZ in a week and a half and hopefully in that time I will have landed a job that I can work right away. I have been applying as many places as I can think of, even looking at daycares and things of that sort, part time stuff. I am going ot need something in order to make 2x the rent and be able to survive.
I am glad to be able to help at the Serbian Festival this coming weekend. It will be my last little gift ot the parish. I have been listening to the Divine Liturgy a lot since I got sick and it is a great consolation to me both when I am alone and sad, but also when I think of all of the great people and friends I will be leaving behind. I feel bad about doing it, but I know that I need to do it in order to keep my family happy and afloat.
I am going ot go watch more 24 for a bit. I might blog after a few episodes. If not, there is always tomorrow.
People sin. People Struggle. People Fall and hopefully when they do they will lift themselves up off the ground and shake off their sins and continue the struggle.
I pray that I can follow these directions within my own soul. God knows I struggle and I fail rather horribly. The hard part for me is enacting mercy amongst others who are in the same (general) boat of sinfulness as I. I understand that we are to forgive others 70 times 7 when they wrong us. That I am clear on. At the same time we have been instructed to deal differently with those who obstinately fight against the teachings of the Church. What do we do with this sort?
Add another area of struggle to the mix. What do you do when said struggle is between the Church and a 18 year old soul who is BRAND NEW to the life of the Church and they come ot Her with a great struggle of self Will and self image. They see themselves and recognize and refer to themselves by their illness, their sin, and as such, through their own choosing, their struggle is between themselves and their very nature attached to a world that tells them that his sin is natural. It IS who he is and there is nothing wrong with it and he SHOULD identify himself as such because it gives him power and authority.
He is 40 days within the walls of the Church and he is talking again (for the 4th time) of leaving the enclave of Salvation because he feels that he is not understood and the struggle is too hard and no one understands and noone supports him. How can we, as Orthodox Christians, believing what we believe to be the Truth of the Faith, say that these things are acceptable and tell him that no matter what he can live this life without consequence?
How do you tell someone that does not think that anyone understands his situation that there are those that do, and that they are willing to help him? How can you get past the wall of pride that is put up in defense of his sinful nature, saying that there is nothing wrong with it all? AND, how do you do it in a manner that does not cause him to run for the door? I realize that the Scriptures gis us a pretty clear distinction on how to handle these things..
“Confront them personally, then bring a witness, and then bring it to the Church. If they do not listen to the church, treat them as you would an unbeliever.”
The thing is, that, over the course of the past year, this has been time and time again and there is a paper trail to prove it (as if one were needed.)
How do you offer healing to a soul that does not think they are sick? You cannot force feed healing to a sick person. They have to see the state of their soul and WANT the healing of the Church. What if they are not at this point? What do you do with them? Do we place the salvation of the many against the struggles of the one? Which is more important? Does that even matter? What should be done if the words of the one could cause the others to stumble?
It is odd to me how sometimes there is a song or a show that can have such a great impact on you because it manages to evoke memories of the past. Maybe not directly, but then again, at times it is so close to reality that you can almost taste it.
“Glee” is a new series due to hit the FOX network this coming Fall and for some strange and still yet unknown reason they aired the pilot this past week. I caught it on Fancast the day after it aired and after about 10 mins. I was hooked.
The premise is a high school Spanish teacher tried to put the school’s once prestigious Glee club back on the musical map and the joys, sorrows and struggles of both he and the kids encounter and endure from the school’s elites. (Read: Jocks) There is more that can be sad as far as plot goes, but as they say, seeing is believing.
I was one of the off types in High School. I was into the music scene and loved choir, show choir, Spring musicals and all that went with it so this show sort of hit a spot with me that resonated through my entire being. I’ll write more as the season goes on (in the Fall, stupid teasers) about the parallels of the show and my experiences for sure.
All in all I think it is going ot be a great show. I was a bit worried when I saw that it was from the same guy that came up with Nip/Tuck… but how bad can they screw this up? (Please FOX, Don’t make me eat these words…)
Man, thank God that is over. I have been sick for the past 2 days and let me tell you, it was not fun at all. I am not sure what it was, but it was bad. I was in and out of bed all day yesterday and then went to lay down yesterday afternoon about 4PM and woke up again at 3AM… and promptly returned to bed. I slept for most of today and after breaking about 3 fevers I think it is finally done with. Thank God. I missed Church today and that was a bummer.
The funny thing is that as much as I have slept over the past 48 hours I am still a bit tired. I found this video tonight posted by a friend of mine on Facebook, Abbot Tryphon. I think it is a really great video and I pray for the intercessions of Evgeny Rodionov daily, a modern day martyr for the Truth of Christ!
I has it. And with me not leaving the state of CA for another month I am not sure how I am going to manage. I still have no work and have not heard from any of the jobs I have previously applied for, in terms of a job I can do to tide me over til I get to AZ. It is very hard for me to stay here with nothing to show for it. No money, no job, nothing to do and in the end nothing to help me with my transition except for money that I have to borrow from the in-laws.
I have said many times that I am grateful for the help that they have given us while we were here in CA, but there comes a point where a man has to stand on his own two feet and be able to support his family without support from others. I am not saying that if we fall on hard times we are made to suffer, but there comes a point where a man has ot exist on his own or there is no point to existing. Not to mention it is not fair to my wife and daughter for us to have to live like this. If I can not provide for them then who am I?
I know it is only a matter of thirty days, but that is a long time when you have nothing to hold you over. I am trying to think of a way to make some money to hold me over, but it seems impossible to do from this state. It is just so hard to be on he brink of something great when you are forced to wait for the chips to fall into place. I’m trying to be patient, I really am, it’s just that I want my family to be supported and happy, that is my primary concern.
Well, I guess at this point, that is all I can do, wait and pray, Fiat Voluntas Tua.
Well, on one hand we are one step closer to a schedule for my departure and in the other hand we still gotta fill in some blanks on the how and when of this wondrous little riddle.
I got an email from Juli today after I emailed her about the possibility of working this summer and the response I got was not as promising as I had hoped. It seems they filled the needed positions for the first session of the program, but there might be positions open for the 2nd session. In July…
This would not be so much of a bummer, except it means we are a month behind on the relocation plans for me and a month later on the plans for Rach to move. The 2nd session starts the first week in July… which means I will miss Rach’s birthday (which I would have if I got into the first session, but I had hoped if I got the 2nd session it would not miss it. Grr..
I am also really looking forward to putting things together in Tempe and the longer I have to wait the more her parents have to pay for and at this point the price for all of this is going up more and more.
Rent for the months we remain in the apartment
Storage space for our stuff til Rach makes the move out to Tempe
U-haul with Hitch, mileage etc.
Bus ticket to Tempe July or Aug.
See, and yet again here we are in a place I do not want to be. I am so tired of having other pay for me to exist. If I were to add all those expenses up it would be a few thousand dollars. This is not good. The hardest point in all of this for me is that there is nothing that I can do about it at this point. The job is the lifeline for me at this point and until that falls into place I’ve gotta stay here and do… something…
Oh well, we will see. Juli is on vacation til Tuesday (I forgot that Mon. was a holiday, bad me,) and then hopefully Thursday she and Linda will call and then at least things as far as Fall will be solidified and she said that she will look at the 2nd Session roster and see if there is a need for more help and if there is I can slip into a position and then I will be moving in July.
The only thing that could save my life at this point is if I get a call from In-N-Out and they will hire me for a month. I feel bad going and taking a position for a month only to leave, but I need to start doing something before I die completely.
Oh well, tomorrow we are taking Gremlin to the zoo and so I shall have a more upbeat and happy blog for you all. Until then, fiat voluntas tua!
Then Marie left to go back home and the funniest thing happened. Talia got a doll from a lady at our old parish that she never really noticed before, but it seems that that has all changed. Talia named her doll Marie and now she carries her all around the house, in the car, to the store, and the cutest thing of all, she sleeps with her. It is so funny to see her realize at random points in the day that Marie is not with her and she will walk around the house calling her, “Marie? Marie!” until she finds her.
Posted by Juvenaly 
Posted by Juvenaly 
Posted by Juvenaly 