Coconut Island

For about a year, when I lived in New Orleans, my friends and I put on The Lil Big Vaudeville Variety Show.  Recently a picture from one of my favorite numbers was posted on Facebook.  It made me want to re-watch the video, and so as I did, I thought I would share it here too.  If you'd like to watch for me, I'm the first hula dancer to enter.

Goals

What do I want? Everything. So what is everything to me?
* Great dancing
* Good friends
* A job I like, with a flexable schedule
* To travel
* A church I can grow in and really be a part of
What do I have now?
* Good friends
* A great job, that is flexable but still difficult to travel
* A church where I have been growing a lot

So how do I get everything else? Primarily the dancing? I have to move. I am miserable here in Oregon. No where near my favorite people. Those people who bring out the best person in me and really help me feel like I am delving deep into my life.

I still want to go to New Orleans. I want to go now. But getting everything arranged is difficult. I have a trip planned to Prague this summer thats smack dab in the middle of the best time for me. I hate to quit my job because it's so perfect for me. But a job will never sustain me. Passion and life and creativity sustain me. Without those, there is no heart to my work, even if the work I am doing is great.

What would I have in New Orleans
* Great dancing
* Great Music
* Great friends; Cid, Keegan, the King's hopefully
* Potentially a good church.
* New oppertunites to travel
- but no job lined up, and who knows how long it could be or what kind of job.

But if I think about the last paragraph, clearly a job is the least of my concerns. I know how to make myslef happy even when working hard and thats by playing hard, living hard, and loving hard.

A New Journey

Over the past year, the Lord has been preparing me for a big adventure. All the while, I had little idea of where this adventure would take me. After traveling across the United States twice, after prayer and growth in church, after meeting dozens of new friends, I have finally realized that I am to move to New Orleans.

I visited for the first time in April, and found myself back in June. I fell in love with the city. The music, the art, the culture. It is beautiful.

Mimi, Mariah, and I were all in NOLA for a swing dance event. Here are a couple of pics of Mimi and me.






The truth is, I love the Northwest, but I have lived here my entire life and it is time to stretch myself beyond my limits.

I finished classes at PSU last week, have no job, and no significant other to hold me here. Of course I will miss my friends here and Coram Deo more than anything, but with Facebook and cell phones it will be fairly easy to keep in touch with them.

I just have to move a few things into storage at my Dad's house, load up my car, and I'm off. Crazy! I've been watching the hurricane updates. It will be a bit difficult getting there with all of the heavy rain in the area, but I'll leave when I feel the time is right and I am sure God will get me there.