Do you ever have those weeks (months) where the last thing you are able to comprehend is what day of the week it is? Seriously, I don't know why this has been such a struggle but my days all run together and about 50% of them are Mondays.

My teammate Carlos is pretty much one of my favorite human beings in the whole world. He's hilarious and insightful and brilliant and also sometimes just waaaaay too gullible. While we were in Napa I asked him to take some egg shells out to the compost pile and I was met with the blankest of all stares.

"What...?"
"The compost pile...?"
"..."
 "Carlos, the compost pile?"
"What is that?"

 It literally took forever for him to get to the actual question.

Other things that are hard, what is a plus-one, and the difference between lemons and limes.

Later he asked when we would grind up the compost pile to make dirt.

Berkeley is amazing because the people here are straight up weird. They say whatever, wear whatever, do whatever. This poses some problems as missionaries, but it also makes getting dressed in the morning really easy because no one cares.

We had dinner with our Newman Center priests last night and, because we are near wine country, we had some wine. It was CVS wine, but still.

Specifically, it was Menage a Trois wine. It's a mighty unfortunate name because the wine itself is pretty good for cheap wine, but a sketchy name. Anyway, Fr. Al who is literally almost 100 years old (93) looked at the bottle of wine, turned to Carlos and said, "That's a pretty sexy name for wine." And then he laughed and laughed.
And we nervously laughed.

Will you guys pray for us? Missionary life is hard and trying to do everything at the start of the semester is pretty overwhelming.

I also accidentally spilled the beans to John that I have a blog. He wasn't aware of it. Whoops. So now I need to zip back into the archives and make sure there isn't anything embarrassing about him written on it before he finds it. If y'all find something, holler at me.
 

I knew there would be a lot of perks to moving to Berkeley and being a missionary here.

1. I would be with John. That's the main one.
2. Berkeley is a cool place.
3. Our offsite retreats and planning weekends take place in Napa Valley.

Game changer.

It takes a lot of get FOCUS onto a campus, but it takes even more effort to get it into a diocese or a state that's new. Getting FOCUS to CA took literally 15 years. One of the main reasons why there are even missionaries out here is because of Judy Barrett.

Judy and her late husband Jim own a winery called Chateau Montelena. In 1976 there was a wine tasting in Paris, now called "The Judgement of Paris" and no American wine had ever won the competition, or taken seriously, but the Barrett's entered their chardonnay and it won a blind taste test and won the whole dang thing. They basically put Napa on the map. Also there is a movie about it, which is grossly fictionalized says Judy.

Anyway, they are amazing people. They love FOCUS and Judy is our Berkeley Mom. She has a sweatshirt to prove it.


She just loves us. And we are so grateful since we don't know a lot of people out here and we are desperately missing our family and friends. It was such a gift to be in a home and not a barely unpacked apartment.

She gave us strength for the journey and I am so grateful.

Stoic black-and-white dad shot.

With the matriarch

Okay let's just jump right in! Sorry I haven't been blogging. I basically started this blog so I could better document all the changes that are happening in my life so when big changes started happening...I stopped blogging.

Whoops!

So, good news...

I made it to Berkeley!

This is what we packed:



Yikes. John and I for sure don't have that much stuff on our own. However, apparently, when you get married you need to have furniture to, like, use. So we packed a queen size bed (wooooot) and some dressers and a kitchen table and chairs etc.

And all the sweet bridal shower gifts!

But it all went right into storage because we decided (begrudgingly) to wait to use our sick stuff until after we are married. Only eighty-some days until we are united, Crock Pot.

Here are some photos I snagged while driving for 23849237 hours through NE, WY, UT, and into CA.
Also if you follow me on instagram you've seen most of these, sorry not too sorry.

Salt flats in UT, c-r-a-z-y

Driving for s-o-m-a-n-y-h-o-u-r-s

Sierra Nevada Mountains

But now the whole team is here and it's great. I'll update you all on even more exciting details (I'm sure you can't wait) and post some thought provoking questions like; what the butt is kombucha and why is everyone drinking it here?

kids these days

Left side, by the blue flag, maybe the only Asian kid?

SIX

I remember when I used to blog. Those were the days. I had things to say and I could manage to articulate them in a semi-coherent way.

Now, my brain is just noodles and dust motes and to-do lists. Nothing of real substance and nothing I feel is worth sharing.

But I'm plunking myself down and forcing myself to string together some words and sentences! Because, commitment!

Alright let's get right to the list because all good bloggers make lists instead of using sentences and paragraphs!

1. My mom is making me take dance lessons. I thought John would be like, heck to the naw, but he was all about it. What a suck up. So, tonight, from 7pm-9pm, if you hear wailing, it's me learning how to waltz or something.

2. We are basically done with wedding planning. PTL. Basically done meaning we have little things to decide still that I just don't care about at all. WOOHOO

3. Did you know there is So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream? There is and it is DANG GOOD. Try it.

Well that seems like a good start.

Y'all are great. Have great days!

It's Wednesday which means that tomorrow is Thursday which will be followed by Friday which leads into Saturday and I will be flying HOME.

I love missionaries, I love this job, I love being here with so many amazing friends, I love having super structured prayer time.

And I am so ready to come home.

We had a fancy dinner this past weekend and I realized that I didn't have a normal sized bag to carry my stuff. My bag here is a beach bag and could hold two small children.

So I just grabbed what I needed and did this: