getting ready to make a move

So tonight I am getting my affairs sorted out as I prepare to leave for Baltimore. I am going to leave earlier than I had expected so that I can spend some time in New York City on my way down. I just got my train schedule and I'll have to go into schenectdy in the next couple days and buy my tickets. I'll also have to call the workers in NYC and see if they've got some space for a night or two. It's exciting, I've never been to NYC before and I was kind of wondering if I'd get the chance on this trip or not.

I think I've got the August issue finished but I don't want to make it official yet because I can't print it here without it taking a very long time. I'm going to send it to Karl in the next day or so and ask him to test it out, if it works I hope it will be him who breaks the news on the blog.

I'm pretty nervous about calling the Worker houses in New York, I'm rarely any good at cold calls and these are the coldest, they don't know I'm coming and I didn't really think of it myself until yesterday when I was on the phone with my mom and she insisted that I take a day in the big apple.

Yesterday I got to go to Barrett's church in Utica and Sarah's church here in Westernville. they did the Eucharist at both which was really cool because I got to share it with both my friends and the second time I got to hear Sarah preach her first sermon as an ordained Minister. Staying here has been a real pleasure and a rest from the usual kinds of hectic my life is.

I got pretty antsy earlier when I couldn't get online to start working on the zine and I think I got on Karl's nerves about it. I felt a lot better once I could begin working on it, though in retrospect I wish I'd been a little more easy going about it all.

I find when the zine is concerned I can get really anxious about getting it done on time. I don't like getting set back on that kind of thing even though the only deadlines I really have to meet are my own and your expectations. It's kind of strange because I was terible about doing this sort of thing in school and college, I'd put things off for ever and then I'd put them off even more. I guess there's something to say for having work that you believe in and no one in authority to answer to about it, I just hope I didn't get overzealous about it with Karl. I want this to be a project we share in equally but I have such a dominating personality sometimes and I'd already been doing this for some months before I asked him to help that I've really got a bunch of things sorted out for myself so unfortunatly I find that I take more than my share. This really bothers me about myself, of course the hope is that since I am aware of these things in me I can try and catch myself before I get carried away, it also helps when you've got friends who aren't afraid to call you on your bullshit before it piles too high.

In other news:
The Catholic bookstore in Utica rocks the one in Vancouver solidly off the block. The one in Van is really big but it's mostly stocked with books by the same publisher (TAN) who are, in my opinion, on the freaky side of conservative Catholicism, nothing by anyone like Boff or Dorothy Day or Oscar Romero or Gutierrez or anyone, just books on how the anti-war movement is the antichrist and various books about Catholic Doctrine, Dogma, etc.

In their defense though the Vancouver store has a really extensive selection of devotional material and copies of probably every Papal encyclical you could want for very cheap. I think that if I were a Priest or Deacon I'd probably go there for stuff like that and for their vestments and altar gear.

Today I got to spend time with some of Barrett and Sarah's friends, they are another ecclesial family in the area, very fun to hang out with and really cool people. anyway it's getting late and I've got a lot of calls to make tomorrow.

peace
Chris