Spaghetti Brain

I keep meaning to post, then you know, I get distracted by something shiny. But I'll be doing things and suddenly I'll think, "I should blog about that!" but then I usually fall asleep or find myself playing Plants v. Zombies for like, 6 hours instead. (I wish I were kidding about that, but I'm not. This game is like crack.)

Anyway, what's been going on in the life of the Baldridge's lately you ask? Well, my first instinct is to say not much. Does that happen to you? People ask you what's been going on and you just respond, not much, even if that's not true and you've had 1 million things happening lately. So weird.

Several things have actually been happening lately. I've been working for the Census, and boy-oh-boy are there some stories to tell from that. Yesterday alone I saw a man kill a 4.5 foot snake, an Osama Bin Laden doll nailed to someone's front door and a man in nothing but his very form fitting underwear. Can you tell I'm working in the country?! As weird as it may be sometimes, I think it's definitely worth the extra money.

Derek's been in charge of the TV station where he works for the past week as well. One of his assignments was to get the station running a live web stream of their programming. They've been working on this for a while, and he finally got it done (cause he's awesome and all you know). So that's right, you can now watch Exercise with Emily at 9:30 am and 1:00 pm every weekday just by clicking here and clicking play. You're welcome former LaGrangians.

We also have a roommate! Our fabulous friend McKendrick is going to live with us for the summer, and we're super excited about it. The dogs still freak out every time he comes in the door, but they do that for everyone.

As far as DC goes, Derek's been offered 1 internship already and we're sure there are more to come. We have no place to live, but I'm looking and emailing people quite regularly. But we are less than 3 full months away from moving and soooooo excited!

So what's going on with you?

Earth Day

Tomorrow is Earth Day and it's easily my favorite day at the College I work at. We have a delicious, organic lunch outside with music and it's so wonderful! Everyone has such a great time and there are so many ways to learn about living a sustainable life.
We have representatives from local and national environmental groups set up tables to educate people (and usually give away free water bottles or something!) We have a table set up from 10,000 villages to buy beautiful fair trade products. We usually have a couple of hybrid cars on show. And we always have our local bike shop here with bikes for sale and demonstrations. But this year, I'm most excited because they're doing free bike repairs! My bike has been out of commission for sometime because one of the tires went all wonky (that's a technical term) on me and I haven't gotten it fixed yet. I never ride my bike because I'm not very brave when it comes to riding in the road and (come closer I need to whisper this) Derek never learned how to ride a bike so it's no fun riding by myself. Also my lack of stamina and total inability to breath after riding really deters me from doing so. I'm going to sell the bike before I move, but it makes sense to get the tire fixed to make the most money.
So those are my plans for earth day - save money and have tons of fun! What are your plans?

Coupon Clipping Fiend!

I never look over and see who's following me on my blog. Mostly because the number never changes so usually looking over is disappointing. I should probably be more interesting if I want people to read this. Or you know, I could post more.
But imagine my surprise when I did look over today and not only do I have a new follower, she happens to be one of my BFF's who has a blog and DIDN'T TELL ME! Which is fine, I'll forgive her. But you should really go check out her blog because A) she's fabulous in real life B) her blog is way more interesting than mine (I'll work on that) and C) this lady can help you save big bucks! I hope that one day I can be as good at saving money as she is. I'm amazed at how much money she saves. She is my guru. Though I'll never be quite as good as coupon clipping as she is because I usually don't plan before going to the grocery store, or if I do I might forget to make a list or actually print out coupons. I'm working on it. Her blog is teaching me well.

So go, visit, and learn!

Stick a fork in me, cause I'm done!

You know how when you're in school and graduation is approaching you get senioritis? Well I have that right now. I'm so ready to move and start this exciting new thing that I've kind of checked out in the other parts of life. It feels like I'm in limbo. I don't like it. If you have any solutions to cure this problem of mine you just let me know!

The Results Are In...

The main reason for our trip to DC was my scholarship competition. Money is definitely a huge concern for us as we start this process, so I was pretty nervous about going. The scholarship awards were determined by a single, 30 minute interview. To be honest, I'm pretty sure I bombed it. I got so nervous and flustered that when I look back on it, I feel even dumber than I did at the time. Nothing I said was what I wanted to say. Words completely failed me. I walked out of there feeling sure that not only were they not going to give me a scholarship, they were going to revoke my admission.

Thankfully, the interviewers got the point that I can be articulate and I'm passionate and mostly, I'm excited about the work that Wesley Theological Seminary is doing to prepare people for ministry. I got a good scholarship that's worth almost 2/3's of tuition! It's so wonderful just to know what's available and what Derek and I are dealing with as far as funding my theological education is concerned.

I was pretty disappointed though that when I got the call about my scholarship, they said nothing about being an Urban Fellow. After visiting Wesley and seeing the amazing work that the Urban Fellows are doing I was so excited about it. I knew the spots were limited, but I was just hoping that I would be one of the lucky students who were picked. When I didn't hear that I'd been chosen I was so disappointed.

Good for me, the notification that I have been chosen to be an Urban Fellow came this past Friday! I will be a part of the 2nd cohort of students who will be working on a Community Based Action Research Project and Cooperate Praxis Projects. This program is really focused on tying together theological education and the implementation of those practices at the same time. It's going to be amazing (and it's definitely going to make this blog more interesting!).

Now we just have to find a place to live... if you hear of any inexpensive, dog friendly, Metro accessible apartments in the DC area just let me know.

Did you think I was eaten by the Lincoln Memorial?

Yeah, I know, it's been a while. Like, way too long. Sorry about that. :)

Our trip was great! It was rainy and gross pretty much the whole time we were there, but we still really enjoyed it. We got to tour around a see some great sites while we were there too. I think it was the perfect intro to DC for Derek!

The first day we got there we mostly just learned more about Wesley (Theological Seminary that is) and I had some meetings and stuff I had to go to. Derek was left to fend for himself that night and a good part of the next day, but he survived!

The second day I went on a tour of Wesley's "presence" at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church where they have an amazing intentional community for some students to live in. I, and 13 other students, also went to meet with the current Urban Fellows which are a group of students that are selected for this program each year, and work within the Mount Vernon Square and surrounding neighborhoods to focus on available outreach in those communities. That was the program I was interviewing for and I was desperately hoping to get into. It was amazing to meet with them and to learn more about all of the work they're doing.

But hands down, my favorite place we visited that day was The United Methodist Building (pictured)

which houses the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society where I hope to work one day! It's located directly next to the Supreme Court (pictured below) and it's the only non-government owned building on all of Capitol Hill. It was wonderful and I absolutely loved it!

That night we went on a trolley tour of the city(but my flash was being funny so I don't have any nighttime pictures) which was beautiful. It was fun to see Derek's reaction to all of this stuff for the first time.

Sunday, Derek and I just walked around and saw some of the fun stuff in the daylight. Below is the Library of Congress and the Capitol Building.

It's so hard not to be excited about being in DC. It's amazing to know that huge decisions are being made every day in that place. We really can't wait to move in August!

I'm sure some of you are wondering how the competition went and if I'm an Urban Fellow? Well, for the you're just going to have to wait until the next post. This one's already too long. I promise I'll post soon though. (Maybe even this afternoon!)

In the meantime, enjoy Holy Week!

Trip # 1 (OMG I'M SO EXCITED!)

This weekend will include several firsts for us:

1. Derek's first flight. Ever. I'm so stinking excited about it. I love flying! Which is weird, because I HATE heights, but flying doesn't scare me at all. I can't wait to see the expression on his face when we fly for the first time!
2. Our first trip to DC together. It's actually Derek's first trip to DC at all. I've visited several times and (technically) lived there for 4 days. (Long story for another day). It's such an exciting and wonderful city and I'm just praying that Derek likes it as much as I think he will!
3. Our first visit to my seminary! I've been before, many moons ago, when I was a junior in undergrad. They've made some changes and I can't wait to see what it looks like now and show Derek where I'll be every day for the next 3 years!

We're flying up early Friday morning and staying until Sunday evening for a Scholarship Competition. I'm really trying to focus on the fun travel part of it, and less on the "holy crap whatever happens this weekend will determine a lot about the future for us" part. No matter what happens, we're moving to DC in August. I'm starting seminary at Wesley in August. But it would be awesome if I could have a great scholarship while I'm there. It would let me breathe a little easier. Secretly I want to ask that you'll pray for me to win, but that's really wrong, so I'll just ask that you pray. A lot if you get the chance.

Whatever happens I know God is at work in me and in these plans so I'm not too scared, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little naseuous if I think about it too much.

I'm planning to take plenty of photos (send me a text and remind me to do that every once and a while) to post on here when I get back. Also, I'll be updating on Twitter so feel free to follow me www.twitter.com/abaldridge !