Wild Ginger

Letters Between Friends: THE PUNISHMENT

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Ah HA!  You were late too!  Beware!  Your punishment is coming….but ummmm then I was two days late posting, so…then there’s that… 

Letters Between Friends

Dear Lindsay,

Ha ha HA!  You were late writing to me, and so I — wait.  WHAT DAY IS IT??
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Alright, so I am ALSO a day late in writing to you.  I do not have nearly as good of excuses are you did, but I’ll offer them anyway:
  1. I forgot.
  2. Last night I went downtown to the anarchist area of Athens.
  3. When I got back to my room, I had to figure out a tax nightmare with my mom.
  4. Mostly I just forgot.
Sorry!  I sadly but curiously await my punishment.
AS FOR YOU.
 
Lindsay’s First “Letters Between Friends” Punishment
Created: April 22, 2016
Must be completed by: April 28, 2016
I hereby challenge you to “take” me to Avanti’s!  I want a full-scale documentation of the food, our “conversations,” and whatever else necessary to make me feel like I got to hang out with you and eat some sweet, sweet Avanti’s bread.
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Okay, now that that’s done…how are you?  How is it finishing up at DHS?  I know you love the kids there a lot, and leaving them must be hard.  But I also know that you have some really cool future options, and you must be excited to see where they will go!  You must be feeling all the emotions!
(By the way, I left you a video message on Skype.  Did you get it?  Maybe that’s another way we can keep in touch, since we can never seem to coordinate Skyping at the same time!)
Um, me?  What a week!  We just finished our first full week at HD, and I really love it.  The classes are super interesting, and I really enjoy sitting with other women, discussing how the world feels crazy and our desire to have some kind of control can be twisted into something unhealthy (cigarette addiction, work addiction, shopping addiction, *coughNetflixaddiction*).  It’s so cool to have a job where we literally just discuss all the ways we are weak and encourage each other to become stronger through education, community, and God.
I hope someday you’ll be able to come to HD and experience it too!  There are some dreams in the works of getting together teams in the US to work on landscaping or designing our rooftop space, and I keep thinking about how fun it would be if some Woodlanders came!  Like I said, it’s still very new and tentative, but…pray and dream with me!
I love you, dear friend, and I can’t wait to go to Avanti’s with you.
Tricia

Letters Between Friends: MENTAL BREAKDOWN

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Music Playing…”Should I stay or should I go now?!”  They wrote a song for you Tricia!!

Letters Between Friends

LINDSAAAAAY,

Are you ready for a mental breakdown?  Because I’ve been riding one for about a week now, and there is nothing else in my brain other than “WHAT SHOULD I DO??”
Should I stay in Greece after this year?  My gut says, “Yes!” because already it’s so obvious that one year is not long enough to really sink my teeth into House Damaris, or to truly start feeling at home in Greece, or to go everywhere and see everything and befriend everyone!  But if I say “yes” to staying longer….that means figuring out HOW.  Because I’m a foreigner living in Greece, and I need permission to stay.  And I’m also working for a mission organization, and they would have to approve me to continue working with them (and maybe change the terms of my working for them – I don’t know!).  And I’m also here relying on the generosity of others, so I would need to fundraise again.
(I have started talking to my professional supervisors about all of this, don’t worry.  Dina said, “Of course you are staying, I don’t want you to ever leave.”  Argyris said, “Maybe you will marry a Greek man,” to which I replied, “I keep telling you to set me up!” to which he changed the subject because here, like everywhere else, there are very few single Christian cool guys to match with the enormous amount of single Christian cool girls.)
It turns out it’s super hard to live in a foreign country and work for a mission organization!  Life does not run as smoothly as when I was a counselor or a librarian or a secretary!
But also – it’s SO COOL.  I’ve had meetings just about every day this week as we prepare for House Damaris to start, and I LOVE IT.  I love starting new organizations!  I love the chaos and the organizing, I love the planning and re-planning, I love the smell of excitement (and fear) in the air.  It’s SO FUN, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like when the intense AHHHH feelings turn into more routine schedules etc.  So I want to stay.  For one more year.
BUT DO I!?
What I’m really scared of is this:  what if staying for another year includes having to return to the US for six months or a year (to do fundraising and figure out visa stuff)?  I don’t think I could do it!  Although I’m not in an emotional place where I want to stay somewhere forever, it sounds EXCRUCIATING to live in the US for six months, get all attached to everyone again, settle into a part-time job or whatever, and then WHOOPS, go back to Greece and try to catch up on everything I missed.  That sounds awful, awful, awful.  But can it be avoided?
I don’t know.  The future is scary because it is unknown.  The unknown is scary because I cannot control it.  I would like to be a chill person who’s just like, “ah, whatever happens, happens” but that is so not me.  I am more like, “AAHHHH, WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS!”
*blergh*
So, dear Lindsay, please tell me what to do.  With the caveat that, while I would LOVE to live in the same city as you, there is pretty much no way in hell I will set up permanent residence in Peoria while absolutely everyone from my childhood is married to each other.  I know how to avoid SOME mental breakdowns.  So other than that….help?
Love,
Tricia

I’ll take a #TruthfulTuesday and a #WCW Combo

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Um…yes… I will take a #TruthfulTuesday and #WCW Combo please.. oh, and hold the sarcasm.  Thanks a mil!

Hello, friends.  I have been planning AAAAALLLLL day to post a Truthful Tuesday.  So what do you do when you don’t get started on it until 9:40pm at night?  Make it a combo!  Talk about real life lately, and then #WCW which, for those of you who may not know what that means, Woman Crush Wednesday where I get to talk about some pretty AMAZING women!

First… TRUTHFUL TUESDAYS!

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    1.  I feel like every year, I start spring break thinking how relaxing it might be.  NEVER HAPPENS!  Great and exciting things DID happen but only at the expense of sheer exhaustion.  But we got some GREAT pictures.
      File_000 (15)Tes milked a cow surprising well…File_001 (3)
    2. Tessa has a new favorite thing to do…she LOVES to cook with me.  She sits on the counter, usually asked for a piece of bread, then continually asks “Wha da?  Wha da, Ma?”  This was a funny video from the other night where we discovered Tes has an obsession with chicken.
    3. Last but not least…um…this is what I had for dinner.  True life.  And yes, that Snickers Bar says COMPLAINER.  Not sure how I got that…File_000 (14)
Second… #WCW
And I have two…I’ve had opportunities to spend my time with some amazing women lately. These two hold a special place in my heart right now, and deserve a SHOUT OUT!
This is my friend Courtney.
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We go WAAAAY back…like single digit grades back…I’ve known her as a daughter, an awesome sister, an authentic best friend to more than just me, an awesome girlfriend turned awesome and HOT wife, then mom, and now a MOM 2.0 (arrive mid-August–eeek!)
I met up with her for lunch two weeks ago, then a play date & lunch with her main squeeze, Hunter.  1st of all I see GREAT marriage potential here (Hunter the Handsome), but more so, MAN this girl is a STRONG powerful woman!  After meeting with her and chatting for hours, it just solidified that we women cannot do life alone.  In all feminist state, we absolutely can, but we work better together.  And it’s WAY more fun. Her friendship really means the world to me, so I wanted to give her a HUGE shout out.  Court, you are Godly wife and mom, a God-fearing Proverbs 31 woman, and on those rough days, you are EXACTLY where God intends you to be.  PS. Let’s schedule that double date soon.  CAN’T FORGET!
Secondly, this is Jane.
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Jane and I met during my glorious years that I worked at a local radio station.  Her and I had big dreams of a OnAir talk show basically covering the DEEP THOUGHTS of Jane & Lindsay…like fingernail polish keeping your hands warm or the power of chocolate.  The station manager, would usually just chuckle, shake his head, turn and walk away.  So there was hope there… 🙂 We stayed in touch on an off for about 4 years then began seeing more of each other last fall.  Last November, I joined her Mary Kay team, excited to make some extra money, but I gain OH SO MUCH more!  A sisterhood of Christian sisters with a BIG (no, I’m not calling you fat!!–Jane’s laughing right now b/c I put that…) SISTER named JANE!
Jane is taking the next step in our Mary Kay business and entering into Director in Qualification to become a Mary Kay Independent Sales Director.  And sometimes, when God asks you to step out in faith to do something, the devil begins to meddle.  BUT GUESS WHAT JANE!  God’s already won the war!  AND in this momentary battle, I am a WARRIOR on your team!
Being surrounded by wonderful, strong, God-fearing women PUSHES me!  And, the good Lord knows, that right now, I need that in a BAD way!  Jane & Courtney, Thanks for your friendship.  You are a blessing!
Heart=FULL
HAPPY TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY!
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