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I'm in South Bend this week, leading worship each night for the youth group at North Liberty Church of Christ. They are doing a youth rally this week called, Seriously?? I'm using the time away from Lansing as a mini retreat--something I really think I needed. So, rather than crashing with Jody, the youth minister at North Liberty, and his dog, Napoleon, I snagged a room at a local hotel--which is why I'm posting.
When I was planning this trip, I started looking at options of where I could stay and get get lots of work done. I almost stayed at Michiana Christian Service Camp, but didn't want to spend a lot of time driving and so on, especially since I plan to connect with some ministry partners and camp students who live here in South Bend. I would have been driving from the camp to SB, then out to North Liberty. It would have not been fun and would have eaten away time just traveling. A solution was needed.
So, I emailed my friend Sarah and asked if the church she volunteers at had any hotel connections. Being the big church in town, I was trying to work the system. Unfortunately, they had no system to work, just some suggestions on hotels in the area. However, she forwarded me to the blog of Jason Powell, one of the staffers at Granger. Jason I guess has a knack for landing cheep hotel rates through Priceline. He has a post on his blog about how to use the bidding system and insanely cheep hotel prices for good hotels. He even has a video of him doing it. I watched, I learned, and I went bidding. The result, a sweet suite at a 2 1/2 star hotel in Mishawaka (technically not part of South Bend if you live here) for $35 a night. Seriously, $35 a night. It is hotel bliss for my retreat--except for the skunk coffee they have here. (I must venture out to Lula's for a good cup of coffee and some time at the big table--I'll try and post a picture later)
Here's the downside to the bidding thing. I've done it once and had good success. Now all I can think about is places I want to take my family just so I can bid on Priceline and get insane deals. Oh, how the world and our consumer culture invades us.
I received this from one of the people from South today. I thought it was quite funny.
Well. Hannah Grace heads off to kindergarten at Wilcox Elementary in Holt tomorrow. If you would have asked me a couple of weeks or months ago how I was doing with it. I would have lied to you and told you I was doing ok. Just a few weeks and months ago I was having some serious fears about giving my precious little girl to strangers for school. Granted, these fears also come about when she closes the car door by herself, too. I know. I'm a mess.
I think I will do fine tomorrow. Somehow my mind has worked through all the fears I had. Maybe its simply that the day is coming and will have to pass. Maybe its the fact that I am slowly coming to grips that my little girl is going to grow up whether I want her to or not. I can't stop it. I can't stop her teeth from falling out (she lost her two front teeth in the last month). I can't keep her from physically growing. Maybe I'm just fooling myself. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I have a feeling that Hannah will do much better than Steph and I.
It's hard to believe that I've been blogging for 5 years. How times have changed. . . mostly the venue of coffee shop that I blog from, not that I blog that much anymore. Back in the day it was Il Baccio, the best coffee shop on the south side of Lansing. Unfortunately Dennis, the guy who owned it, decided to move to the beaches of Mexico for most of the year. I was lucky enough to run into him the other day at Taco Bell of all places. He and his wife are doing well, even though she has been battling breast cancer. We talked about coffee a little and about life. it was good to see him.
I miss some of the other people I used to talk to there regularly. When Il Baccio closed, we would sometimes run into each other at Cornerstone Coffee--the next best alternative to non-chain coffee at the time. But, that was very infrequent.
I really miss Il Baccio. It was a great mom and pop coffee shop. They were free to buy beans from wherever and make their own decisions. Dennis was a connoisseur of coffee--always having great selections to fill your bottomless cup with. It had a great atmosphere with plenty of space. It was a place close enough to the office that I could meet people there for coffee and a chat. Not that I can't do that at the chain coffee around now. Its just not the same.
So, this place here holds 5 years of periodic blogs about my life and what is going on around me. I really try to blog once a month to push myself to reflect and write. I haven't been very good at that lately--not that there hasn't been a plethora of things to write about. I guess you could say I've gotten out of this habit. I hope to change that soon. . .
To those of you who still read, thanks for reading and being patient with this place.
