Little tid bits and went to an Ordination

Hey folks,

So the past few weeks have been fairly quiet here.

Last Saturday, I went with the folks from St. Matthew's to the Ordination of my friend Pat Gotattus. (I probably spelled that wrong...) Anyway, it was an awesome day, pretty exhausting but lots of fun. The car trip was entertaining to say the least. :) I rode to and from Columbia with my friend Michelle and her two boys Hank and William. It was a good thing I had Angry Birds on my ipod or I think someone may have self-destructed, lol. Probably not, but hey it gave them something to do.
The service was awesome! All of the pomp and circumstance that originally attracted me to the Episcopal church plus more! I'd never smelled incense before. I'm glad I did because judging from photos and videos I've seen on the monastery, incense is a rather common thing, particularly at the eucharist (communion).
Speaking of the monastery, I got another email from the intern's director. I now know the names of the other interns. I tried looking them up on facebook but some of them have very popular names so since mine is rather unique, I'll let them find me. The great part is that I'm not going to be the only girl! I don't know why that made me so happy but to know that there's someone who goes through some of the same things as I do is nice. It turns out there are going to be two other girls, they actually split the interns half and half. Cassandra and Tedi are going to be the interns at Emmory House, and Rob, Alexis, Tyler and I are going to be the interns at the monastery. In the email we got, Mark said that we're going to all be at the monastery in Cambridge for a few days of orientation and adjusting, then we're all going to go to Emmory House for a day or possibly more, I don't remember, but Tedi and Cassandra are going to stay there.
Something else that is interesting, Mark said that "if we happened to have a black cassok that fits us we may want to bring it" otherwise they have some we can wear. I donno, I kind of found it funny, why would we have a black cassok? lol.
So anyways, on top of that, I decided that I need money, that being said I called the movie theater this morning and pending approval from the General Manager, who is not the same person as it was when i was there, I may find myself working at the movie theater once more. It's not what I want to do but I figure, I need the money, I'm going to keep some of it for myself and give the rest to my parents, they feed me after-all, for free. I probably won't be able to work much because of social security and such, but getting paid will be nice. Money for flight and hopefully getting myself an ipad.
I've played with a friend's kindle and it works... but for me, it seems a bit impractical. I need the words to be so big that there's only like three or four words on the screen at a time. I figure with the ipad, I'll have a bigger space to work with.
I've also got an eye doctor's appointment on the 14th and I want to talk about the possibility of glasses. It'd be nice for things to not have to be 32 font and my not having to squint so much.
So, other than that, there's not much happening here.
Hugs to you all!
Nancy

Great News!

Hi guys!

So, it's amazing what can happen in a few days.

I've been talking about the internship up at the monastery in Cambridge, well... I Got It!!! I'm SO excited.

The internship starts september 6 and goes through May 30. I get two weeks off for vacation (probably use that during Christmas time), Mondays are sabbath days at the monastery, we can go do things if we want to. There is also one day a month for retreat. I'm not sure what that's all about, but I'm not going to worry about it for now.

My logistical brain has already started to kick in. We (the interns director- Mark) and I discovered that there is a Petsmart not far from the monastery, so having access to stuff for Doc will not be a problem. Because Boston is a Long ways from here, Doc and I are going to fly. I've looked into one-way flights, and a flight from GSP (Greenville/Spartanburg International) is $119, with like $35 in taxes and stuff and to check a bag is $15, so It'll be about $175 just to be safe. We could investigate taking a train, but my concern with that, is Doc being able to relieve himself.

My parents are glad for me, but my mom is a little bit freaked out I think. A Big difference from this and Winthrop, is that at school they could easily come up there if the need presented itself. Boston, that's not an option. One thing really exciting, is that there is a cousin of my dad's who lives in Rhode Island but is about half an hour from Boston, so a potential emergency contact, or simply another person to go visit on my sabbath day.

I've been working with my dad on building a building for the company my mom works for, american train company. We're building a train station. It's 4ftx4ft by 10 or 12ft tall with the roof on, and we're going to be painting it this week and installing it on sunday. We're getting paid for it. I'm earning $15 for it, and my dad has estimated 20 working hours. I'm pretty sure we're close to 16 now and that was just the building of it. There's no telling how long painting will take.

So the money I get from that is going to be saved, I'll probably use it for my flight, but I'm thinking of getting either a kindle or possibly an ipad. I can see how either would be a good tool for me to have during my internship, but I am also considering taking my laptop, so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm going to wait for a while.

There's a possibility of our building more of these train stations, so I may wait until augast. I know I need to get a warmer weather jacket and some good gloves and a scarf. I've already got those yellow rubber boots, and I'll probably just invest in lots of warm wool socks.

It's going to be a big adventure, and I'm So excited.

The picture is of the chapel. I'm not sure if its facing toward the back or the front, I think it's the back. go to www.ssje.org there are Lots of amazing pictures, there's even a 360 degree chapel tour and you can zoom around outside the monastery too, it's lots of fun.

Hug to you all,
Nancy
PS: If it's allowed, I think I'm going to create a blog specific to my time at the monastery. Due to confidentiality concerns, I have to sign something like a non-disclosure, which is totally fine, I can respect and understand the need for privacy. I would however like to share pictures and stuff with family and friends. I think that'll be possible, it's just a matter of figuring out how to walk that line. We shall see, and I'll keep you posted on my preparations and whatever else happens this summer.