Except it doesn't rhyme. Apparently an "ode" is supposed to rhyme.

Regardless, moving forward!

I want to be fair to the Bay Area. I know there has been a lot of griping and complaining on this blog about Berkeley, this area, CA in general. So I want to clear the air. Yes, there are many things I dislike about the Bay Area (constant noise, way too effing expensive, crazy lifestyles, too much traffic) but there are a lot of things that I really do love about Berkeley: the weather, the perpetually ripe avocados, magnolia trees, hummingbirds, weird people to watch and meet, seeing the Bay from our rooftop.

But besides all of those perks, this has been an amazing school year and Berkeley has been an amazing place to live. This is the place where John has spent two incredibly challenging and rewarding years. This is the place where we began to fuse our lives together. This is the crazy city we began our lives as very poor and very unknowing newlyweds. We have seen the crazed and destructive lifestyles of those around us and have been able to (hopefully) focus on what our goals, dreams, priorities are.

The Bay Area is a weird mix of the poorest of the poor, some by choice and some by misfortunate, and some of the wealthiest people. There are students from the Midwest, students who have never been out of California, and students from (seemingly) almost every country.

I'm getting so nostalgic.

Our tiny apartment has taught me how to be neat and tidy, and strategic about how to put away things (aka throw everything under the bed). Our tiny kitchen has been the stage for some real cooking wonders and some really incredible flops. Our new apartment in CO has a washer and dryer in unit and, you guys I kid you not, sometimes the thought of that makes me tear up. No more walking across two parking lots and up four flights of stairs and praying for open machines! The things I am grateful for are truly ridiculous. We are going to have two closets. A full-size fridge.

But that has been part of the gift in Berkeley. I'm grateful for little things that I really should be grateful for.

I get to move with my husband to a new city and we both have jobs doing things we enjoy! #blessed

So thank you all for your kind texts and comments and calls. Berkeley has also been a crazy lonely place and it has meant so much to me to have people reach out. Even in the smallest of ways.

oooooooookay that's enough genuine emotion for awhile now. Wow, if you stuck around for the word-vomit-no-picture-post you are a real trooper.

You guys rock. Happy Monday

This post is probably going to be sappy and drawn out and a little over-indulgent. But I want to write it down now, when I remember it, when I'm still overwhelmed in the best way and still in awe of what all happened.

So, if you aren't into those things, I don't blame you, you can click clack away.

Buuuuuut if you are into those things, please make yourself comfy.

John and I were blessed to spend the whole week before our wedding to be with our families, finish final details, and sleep in. It was awesome.

Hannah threw a perfect Bachelorette party which included wine, underwear, fries, brownies, popcorn, and a mouse. Perfect.

The rehearsal was Friday and apparently we picked readings that weren't actually approved...whoops. We thought we pulled them from a Catholic website but we were wrong. But, our priest, Fr. Holdren, called the chancery and got them okay-ed...so there you go.

Besides that, there were no snags, no problems, no issues. Unless there were and I just didn't hear about them. And then we got married.

our teammates, Maya and Leanne

old farts reading by a vineyard

Mendocino coast

Mendocino coast

redwoods

Sacramento Cathedral

Wine tasting at Duckhorn

 We had a wine tasting and it made me realize that I know nothing about wine. Just that I like it and I like it red.

The Oh Hello's in Sacramento

 The Oh Hello's are potentially my favorite band and we saw them live in Sacramentooooo. It was such a gift. In October we saw that they were doing a West Coast tour and we thought, there's no way we would be able to see them. But, oh, we did. And they were amazing. You know when you go and see a band you really love and you are so nervous they are going to be terrible live, or they won't sound good, or they will be jerks and snobs, or they will sound different?

None of that was true. They were humble and gracious and crazy talented.

we got new books for ourselves before our flight out

Inn-N-Out is my favorite

Every experience we had was amazing and we wanted to call it quits because how could it get better? But it always got better. We are so blessed. Then we drove home on Saturday night and when we got home our apartment was arranged, unpacked, and beautifully decorated. Our teammates (and some students) had a key, let themselves in, and spent the day organizing a-TLC-Hoarders-episode level of chaos into HGTV level beauty.

I cried like a baby. It's amazing and such a beautiful gift.

Anyway, that's what happened. It was so great. Let me gush a little bit more.
But not right now.

Thanks for reading, y'all.

Cook time sweet potatoes

Basically a million years. Why does it take so long to cook them? Do they take a million more hours than normal potatoes? Or am I just that impatient when it comes to that delicious orange tuber?

What is kombucha?

A mushroom that hippies eat. No gracias.

Bed bug bites

We don't have them. Whew, PTL.
 

Is it illegal to shoot people with air soft guns?

I didn't actually google this...like I started typing it but then...you know, I didn't want incriminating evidence. We live on Greek row and last night some punks were partying in our alley way, directly beneath our window, at 2am. So, I was just wondering.

I wasn't going to do it.

So.

Keep about your Saturday, people!

Hannah has mentioned multiple times that she doesn't know what Berkeley looks like and would like me to send her photos.

That sounds like a lot of work. Also I don't want to stand out and take photos because people will know that I'm new and it will ruin my street cred.

So instead I'm taking y'all on a digital tour oooooooh

Using pictures from google.

Professional.


This is what our chapel looks like. Nobody likes it. Well, few people like it. Our chaplains compare it to the Flinstones. It was designed to look like a tomb so...check.

Pro: you are never sweaty.


This is my favorite coffee shop!

Orrrrrr this one

Sacks is great, you can sit on coffee bean sacks. Also the guy who runs it is hilarious and they play the best music. Strada is busy so it's only good when you go at like 8am...so...

Obviously these are the important things about Berkeley.


My favorite cheap eats is El Burro Picante and they have this weird little burro outside. Anyway, like I said, these are the important things.



Here's a beautiful scenic picture that someone else took. But it's pretty legit. The clock tower is the Campanile in the middle of campus. It's great. It has bells and plays music (not the Harry Potter theme so UNL's got them beat there).

And of course the bay and the Golden Gate bridge, which I can sometimes see from the top of our hill on a clear day (it's always foggy).

There you go! A free tour! It's really beautiful here. And full of stone cold weirdos but I love that about it.

Thanks for all your prayers. You are in mine as well.

You know when you move and you feel like the first couple of days you are just treading water? Just trying to keep your head above the waves?

Well I finally feel like...maybe...I'm past that point. I mean, I'm sure I will feel it again BUT now all my stuff is (basically) put away and I have groceries in my cabinet and I've finally met some students.

Praise the Lord.

Exciting CA news in 3 bullet points!

1. At 3:20am there was a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Northern CA! You guys! It was crazy. I've never experienced an earthquake before so it was nuts. My teammates share a room so we all woke up and waited until it was over and nothing feel over or off the walls. Literally the only damage is that our floor lamp tipped over (but didn't fall)...but also it's old and jankey so that may have happened before.

But pray for Northern Cal, especially the Napa area because it was rowdy up there; fallen furniture, fires in trailer parks, no electricity, etc.

2. So John and I are getting married in November which means our teammate Carlos needed to find a new roommate. And today there was 2 (two) people who got in contact with him about living with him. A great problem to have.

While he figured that out, John and I hip hopped over to padmapper and began to hunker down on our own apt search.

Carlos took a picture because it was "Sooooo cute".

And then he asked what a garbage disposal was and we rocked his world.

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.

I know it's been a million years since I last blogged. The end of a school year is madness. Here are some things to get you up to speed with my vida.

1. Moving
I moved back to Lincoln, NE on Friday. My dad and I drove 14+ hrs in two moderately sturdy cars and all of my belongings. It was the longest trip ever. We ended up driving through (maybe, but definitely) a tornado in Missouri (Jesus, take the wheel) which was nuts.

We had this sick little trailer and we were off like a herd of turtles.