The Rambling RedHead

Weekend Wrap-up August 8th

Whew!! This is the first chance I have had to sit down and do the weekend wrap-up since I got back on Sunday night.. The retreat was absolutely wonderful.. It was truly a “mountain top” experience.. Words cannot describe how amazing it was and the amount of love you encounter is truly mind blowing. I have never laughed, cried or prayed as much as I did during my 3 day Walk to Emmaus. It was exactly the spiritual renewal and reinvigoration that I was looking for as I continue with my preparations for the trip to Romania.. In addition to the wonderful accommodations, amazing sense of God’s unending love and bountiful meals and snacks, I met some amazing women and formed friendships that I know will last me a lifetime. One in particular, Donna, who truly is a sister of my heart.. Interestingly enough, she’s a psychologist at Central Prison.. Yep, I’m making a point of accumulating friends and acquaintances that I think will be of use to me when Xander grows up.. Detective Greg from the Gang Task Force, Special Agent Smart Ass, a probation agent and now Emmaus Donna, a shrink at the pokey.. I think I’ve got his high- school years just about covered.. Once I befriend a bail bondsman, I'm set... Donna and I probably gave our group leader fits.. We did take the experience seriously and we had many tear filled moments but we also had more than our fair share of being completely irreverent and cracking jokes.. I doubt they had ever had requests for Sangria during communion or anyone do the wave during prayers before. Part of the experience is not knowing what goes on there before you go, so I really can’t share much about the actual retreat except it did involve prayer, group discussions, singing, taking communion daily and fellowship.. As part of the singing, one of the spiritual directors requested “Muff the Tragic Wagon” to be sung. This is apparently a Boy Scout classic.. Having never been a Boy Scout, I can’t speak to the authenticity of that statement but it was just wrong to be singing a song with the word “muff” in it at a spiritual retreat. Wrong, I tell you!! I swear, I thought I would pee in my pants. We couldn’t even look at each other.. Anyhow, I returned home Sunday night, refreshed, renewed and filled with God’s love.. De Colores!

Many thanks to the folks who left me birthday greetings on my cell phone.. Yes, Gang, on Sunday I turned 29.. Again.. And, coincidentally enough, so did Dani.. Look for Team Single to be out on the town in full force this weekend as part of our belated birthday hootenanny cavalcade of fun..

Monday was my first day on the job at Cisco. It did not start off quite as well as I had hoped. As part of my retreat, I turned off my cell phone and handed over my car keys to symbolically surrender to walk in faith all weekend. The problem was my dad forgot to not so symbolically give them back to me so I could go to work on Monday morning. As I walked out the door, the second it closed behind me I knew.. I had locked myself out of the house.. Panic ensued. I was supposed to be there in a half an hour and I was locked out on the front porch. Dammit. After a few frantic calls, my dad headed home to let me in.. On a whim I called Alex to see if he still had a key to my parent’s house. As I was launching into full scale panic he stopped me short with: “Uhh, Jenn, you do remember your mis-spent youth, right? Do you really need a key to open the door?”.. Hmmm… Good point.. I did hang out with some, umm, less than savory characters in high school (Big Brother, I sort of have to include you in there.. You were my juvenile delinquency role model, after all).. I was not a bad kid, never ran afoul of the law (well, never got caught), but I did have some stellar skills in the B&E department. I truly have a gift.. I can open most non-deadbolted doors with a credit card in under 2 minutes. And it’s a skill you never lose.. I was able to pop the lock in about a minute flat and was only about 10 minutes late getting to work. So far so good, there’s a lot of system maintenance going on right now so I am not getting access to the areas I need and frankly things are a bit slow in terms of training or having anything to do right now but, hey, I’m getting paid so I'm good..

Great weekend ahead.. We’re calling all Usual Suspects to the pub after work (Hallelujah!) on Friday to join me in joyous celebration of my return to gainful employment.. Dani, AJ, Kansas and I are already confirmed for the night, as is my newest Sister from Another Mister, Donna.. I’m hoping to convince Ken, aka “My Hero” to join us so I can buy him many, many, many drinks of gratitude.. Saturday is going to be Team Single’s strategic assault on Glenwood South. All 3 of us are off the bench and in the game so we’re thinking we could do some damage.. I’m thinking I’ll probably let AJ dress me (down, Kansas, down) and Dani claims to have a serious “Rock Star” outfit.. Oh yeah, the girls are back in town..

posted by Monet @ 7:31 PM