My week in Ireland was difficult/humbling/tiring/restful/comforting. It was diffihumbltirestforting. Thank you AT&T & Wes Anderson.

I led worship at a conference for missionaries from all over the world: Uganda, Thailand, Ethiopia, The United States of America, China, South Africa, and Zulu, Indiana, just to give you an idea.

This is where we stayed and had the conference, at Barberstown Castle, which is about 30 minutes outside Dublin.

I had my own room. And a bidet.

The toilet had artwork inside the bowel. Little blue and white flowers painted on the linoleum. I felt bad actually using the bathroom. There was also a heated towel rack, which should be mandatory in every bathroom ever.

This was a 5 star hotel. To give you an idea of how I’m used to traveling, I packed my sleeping bag and my own towel for the trip. I think the staff at the hotel was offended. Whatever. I don’t need your silly chocolates on the pillow.

But thanks for the heated towel rack. That I will accept with open arms and a clean, showered body.

My father and step-mother were there as well. I haven’t seen them since I’ve moved to Seattle, so it was really great to be with them for a week. There are very, very few things as good as having a Guinness with your father. I think it’s safe to say that God drinks Guinness, and He probably gets it from Dublin, because as the bartender told us regarding why Guinness tastes different in the States, “It doesn’t travel well.”

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The people at this conference, I believe, where the giants of the Kingdom. There are all kinds of individuals we glorify as a culture because they are writers or speakers or dynamic personalities, but I really believe that in the age to come we’ll all be surprised as to who are glorified in the eyes of God.

A brief story.

Demi and Marta are Ethiopians who run Project Mercy. Project Mercy promotes education, health care, and other holistic community development projects to create economically independent communities with high ethical and social values. After years of responding to humanitarian crises throughout Africa, Project Mercy seeks to end the cycle of famine and disease through holistic community development initiatives. Their programs include the Medhane-Alem School, the Glenn C. Olsen Hospital, men’s and women’s skills enhancement, dairy cattle breeding, an agriculture program, and HIV/AIDS orphan care.

There is more.

Demi and Marta were dignitaries in the Ethiopian government. They were hosts to presidents and kings and prime ministers and the Queen of England. They have an incredibly brilliant story full of rich details, but to summarize, they eventually had to flee their country in secret as refugees because of religious persecution. They went from having everything to not having food or water for their own children.

As refugees in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which has a large refugee population, they began Project Mercy. They now live again in Eithiopia where they continue their work.

This was one couple out of the 50 some people at the retreat, all of whom have stories of grace and mercy, trial and triumph.

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I do not feel worthy to wash the feet of the people at that retreat, much less lead them in something as sacred as worship. It was humbling. It was also a very difficult week because I realized how much I have invested my soul into Mars Hill Graduate School. I’m not just there reading texts and writing papers. I’m co-creating, as are the rest of the students. I realized how much I love school during that week of being away. It is terribly difficult and emotionally draining, but worth it. It is going to be an interesting few years here at school.

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(Photography site coming soon. You can give me currency and I’ll send you something pretty.)

Some paper for your proverbial wall.

Mt. Rainier taunts me as I drive toward her on the 5 south to the airport to leave for Ireland. One day I will summit. Maybe this next Spring or Summer. June. Yes. June will be a good month to climb.

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Airports & Runways. I am all too familiar.

These past few months, and even years, have been ones of transition. There are times when I feel like I am constantly sitting down in a cramped seat next to two terribly overweight adults, one of whom needs to use the restroom every 13.5 minutes, but also feels the need to drink small bottles of whiskey and larger bottles of Coca-Cola Classic, thus furthering the need of the lavatory.

And I feel as though I’m always looking at one of those little airline pamphlets that shows calm little people who are calmly exiting the aircraft after some sort of calm crash in a calm ocean on a calm little raft.

Life, as it has happened to me, has been far from calm.

Not bad, but not calm.

I feel as though writing thank you in a post is such a poor way to express my gratitude, but I really am so, so thankful for your emails and comments. I have never met most of you, and yet you’ve offered so much help to a stranger. I’ve had a lot of people offer to send checks, old and new iPods, and two individuals offered to cut me a check to cover the entirety of the loss, one a friend, one I’d only met once before.

As my therapist could tell you, I have a hard time accepting gifts. This issue has deep roots, and so we won’t go into that now. But many people have told me that they would purchase a photograph or two to help me get back on my photographic feet, and so my friend Jake and I (mostly Jake, as always) are building a small site so people can purchase a 5×7 or an 8×10 of my photographs. I’m now in the process of figuring out which photos to make available. I wish that process was easier.

The site should be up and ready within a couple weeks.

dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot (centered, naturally)

I am sitting in my room in a castle 30 minutes outside of Dublin, Ireland. I’ll be here for a week leading worship at a conference and doing some photography. I’m going to do my best to do a daily post, which I’ve never done before. I apologize in advance if I fail at doing one a day, but I’ll do my best. One must not let the internet get in the way of life.

One must not let the internet get in the way of going to the Guinness factory.

Therefore we can conclude logically that the Guinness factory = life.

And even more simplistically,

Guinness = Life

Once I get back to the States we’ll try to have the portfolio available for your viewing and purchasing pleasure. Right now I’m borrowing a camera and Mac from my wonderful friends Jarrod and Taryn so I can continue to shoot and do school work. Jarrod and I met at grad school a few weeks ago and found out that we were actually in kindergarten together, and now here we are reunited after 18 years. It’s as if we were never apart. BFF Jarrod! el o el tee tee why el smiley face wink!

To the left, to the left. Some of you will get it. Others might not. It’s ok either way.

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4000+ miles. 20 days of travel. 10 states visted. 8 generous homes. 1 Honda that defied the odds.

Hello, Seattle.

It has been a long trip, but every mile was worth it. I met so many amazing people, and all of them were unique. Every time I travel, at the very end of the trip, I am always grateful that I did it, that I stepped away from comfort, stepped away from easy, and put one foot in front of the other into something unknown. Even though this time I was in my own country, I found it no less amazing.

People are so incredibly different from one another. California is nothing like Arkansas. Texas is nothing like Indiana. I’m glad I got to see so many different states and meet some many people.

I loved having Will with me from New Mexico to California. He is one of my dearest friends in the world and I think it’s safe to say that he teaches me more than almost anyone. The Grand Canyon was nothing like we’d ever seen. The hike down and up wasn’t easy, but it was good. There are few things like sleeping at the very bottom of the country while looking up at millions of stars, so many stars that it is almost impossible to pick out constellations.

Having Jess and Daley ride from Riverside to Seattle was really wonderful. Both of them are so easy going and great to travel with. I am grateful to both of them for putting up with my idiosyncrasies.

Many thanks to all of you who gave me shelter and meals. You all were incredibly hospitable and I can’t thank you enough. If you are ever in need of anything, or if you’re ever in the Northwest, then please do look me up so we can get together. I owe you a meal. And probably lots and lots of money.

Sorry Laura that I lost your map and that I accidentally stole your iPod cord. I’m pretty awesome.

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And so many thanks to all of you who took time to travel along with me and put up with my inconsistent writing habits. I hope that you got some enjoyment out of it. The internet is a very weird place, but for what it is, I am grateful for it. It’s so very odd how you can have ideas of who people are on the internet, actually meet them, and find out they are so much more wonderful than you had imagined them being.

So thank you. It was an honor to have you along.

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And now I sit here alone. I’ve been in Seattle for about a week now, getting to know new people, figuring out the metro system, and perusing the city. It’s all very daunting at times, but I just keep telling myself One step at a time. I begin graduate school on Tuesday to study theology. A new season is about to begin.

I’m ready. I think.

If a photograph could speak, then the photograph above would tell you a story of rest. It would tell you a story of a girl who is trying to find her place in the world, both geographically and emotionally. It would speak of the coffee that previously occupied it, and it would tell you that the coffee sends its regards. It would speak with eloquence a story of a boy who set his camera down for a few days.

If a photograph could proclaim, it would speak a story of a boy who is the midst of a lot of change that is both exciting and daunting in the same breath. A boy who wonders who he is in regards to God and others. A boy without a home for the time being, but not without provision. A boy that is admittedly afraid of a lot of things, though he is calm on the outside.

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Thank you so much, Johnny and Jamie, for your incredible hospitality. Giving up your apartment for a few days was not necessary but very greatly appreciated. Jess and I rested and had coffee every morning. It was wonderful. Thank you.

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It’s time to end this journey and begin another one altogether.

To The Up, To The Up.

We drive North. Long open roads. Mountain ranges. Pine trees line the highways and bring smells of purity and earth. The long hours create time to reflect on the previous weeks and the previous years. Hours of quiet. The music playing through my two remaining speakers are white noise to my thoughts. The Album Leaf, Rosie Thomas, The Cobalt Season, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice, Joni Mitchell, Feist, The Arcade Fire. All of them have come along to bring companionship and to speak into the ideas that run through my mind.

I think about a lot of things. A life of simplicity. What it has been like to live out of a car for weeks at a time. Meeting new people every day. Hiking the Grand Canyon. Singleness. The possibility of marriage. The fear of marriage. Graduate school. Money. God. Whether or not Fezzik is going to make it all the way to Seattle. Where should we eat tonight? Should we eat tonight? New friends that will be made. What kind of job should I get? Can I actually pay for school? I totally can’t pay for school. My family. My friends back in Indiana. I wonder how many of my old girlfriends are already married? I don’t want to know. Quit thinking about that. Stop it. Stop. Ok. We should go to Wendy’s. Yes.

San Francisco to Medford, Oregon is about a 6 or 7 hour drive, depending on how well one’s car can make it up the mountains. It was a lovely drive though. Northern California has these massive fields of golden grain. We pass Mount Shasta with its breathtaking height. We finally break the Oregon border and wave goodbye to California and to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who really need to find another muse besides their home state. Seriously.

I got an email from Will and Kendra up in Medford, who are really great people and incredibly generous, saying that they’d be willing to put us up for a night. They didn’t have room for us, but their friend Joey said he’d let us sleep on his floor for the evening. Fine with us. We met Will in Kendra in a Fred Meyer parking lot, said our hellos, and then started driving toward Joey’s house since it was already 9:30 p.m.

Staying with random people is always an interesting experience. You have no idea what it’s going to be like until you’re in the middle of it. Sometimes it’s absolutely wonderful and other times you get in really bad situations. Most of the time it’s right in the middle. One time I was in Florence, Italy looking for a place to stay. Some guy I’d never seen stopped me and asked if I was looking for a hostel. I told him I was and he said that he owned one and that I could stay there for 10 Euros, which is a very good price. I told him I’d take it and he led the way.

Apparently “hostel” was code for “my dirty apartment with a random Japanese man who doesn’t speak any English but loves to play old Eagles songs from his computer all through the night and talk to you as if you are fluent in Japanese.”

It was a very awkward night.

Like I said, you never know what you’re going to get.

So we walked into Joey’s house, and the very first thing I come to understand is that we have somehow stepped into the Death Star. Joey had quite a bit of Star Wars schwag around his house. A poster. Desktop background and screensaver. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head with Star Wars outfits. That sort of thing.

There was also heavy metal music playing on the stereo.

I instantly loved Joey.

I can honestly say that I’ve never met anyone like Joey Perez III. First of all, he loves metal music. I mean really really loves it. Manowar was pumping all things metal through the air in his house.

Joey is incredibly animated. Will says that Joey has two volumes: Loud and very loud. It’s obvious that he really loves life, and I appreciated that about him quite a lot. Whenever Joey loved something he would say, “That is so metal.” Whenever Joey didn’t like something he’d exclaim “That is so Yanni.” He also rated things on how terrible they were by awarding Yanni Points. For instance, anything that was an enemy of metal, as Joey put it. was very Yanni. Classical music got 6 Yanni Points. I believe he said that the state of Ohio got a few Yanni Points as well. I can’t remember exactly.

As our conversation went along I randomly wrote down some things that Joey said in my Moleskine. Here are a few quotes out of context:

“He’s got an authority mustache.”

“I never wanted to be your weekend lover.”

“I should drink my coffee in the shower. That’d be pretty metal.”

“How cool would it be to grind someone’s bones into the dust of the past?”

“E-vites on the internet are not metal. They get 8 Yanni Points.”

“Heavy Metal players carry guitar picks in their hearts.”

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It was an amazing night. I laughed harder there than anywhere else on my trip.

You should know that in the morning, when we woke up, Joey was in a suit and tie. He’s a real estate agent in Medford.

Of course he is.

Will and Kendra took the three of us out for coffee and breakfast that next morning, but before we left I asked Joey to give me his best metal pose.

Medford was an amazing experience. Easily one of the best of the trip. I have never met anyone like Joey in my life, and Will and Kendra were wonderful to spend time with. I honestly felt like God was gifting us with that bit of time.

Joey, we all would like to say that you, my friend, are so metal.

I’d like to apologize up front for the amount of photographs in this post, as it might take a bit longer to load.

Sorry.

Sometimes photographs tell better stories.

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We spent three days in San Francisco staying with a wonderful girl named Laruen who lives on the north side of the city. Lauren works at the University of San Francisco as a Resident Director of a dorm. She graciously emailed me and said we could crash on her floor for a few days. Lauren was pretty busy with work and with the fact that her boyfriend was in town, so we didn’t see much of her except for the mornings and evenings. Still, I am terribly thankful to her for putting up three strangers. She was incredibly hospitable and gracious. Thank you Lauren. Please do let me know when you and John come up to the northwest.

We spent most of our time with Ryan and Holly Sharp, friends of Daley and Jess who have their own design company and also form the band The Cobalt Season.

We spent a good bit of time at their house hanging out with their little boy Paxton and a few of their friends. Ryan gave Jess an old Holga and a lot of film. We all jumped for joy.

Thank you so much, Ryan and Holly, for showing us around the city, taking us to the Farmer’s Market, and going yard sale shopping (I got a window for free and funky Puma shoes I bought for $5). I’ll be sure to come to your show when you’re in the Northwest.

One of the greatest joys of my time in San Francisco was meeting Daniel Dixon. Jess told me, before I met Daniel, that I would probably never meet a nicer person. I believe she might have been correct.

I also met Adam Kleine, a friend of Ryan and Holly’s. Adam and I share a love of adventure races, so we decided to sign up for the Ron Herzon 50k Trail Run north of Seattle in November. Adam will probably kick my tail in the race, but I’m used to that in ultra-marathons.

These two photos were taken by Daley. I like them both.

Here are some more photographic visuals from our excursions in the city.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is getting to eat meals with new people at new places. This stop on the road trip was no exception.

One thing we did, which was unusual for us, was to go to a movie. We went to a small independent theater off Embarcadero to see the film Once. It was incredibly charming. Very honest and vulnerable with believable characters and circumstances, and the ending was perfect. If you have the opportunity to see the film then I would do so before it leaves theaters. The soundtrack is wonderful as well.

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On the home stretch now towards Seattle. Two more stops over the course of the week and hopefully we’ll arrive with Fezzik in one piece.

7 hours to Medford, Oregon, then to Portland, and then Seattle.

I wish I could post more often with more detail, but I decided a long time ago that I would not let writing/blogging get in the way of living. It’s not worth it. Blogs are good mediums for creativity, but I refuse to miss out on experiencing life and being with people because of the pressure to blog. I know people who miss out on so much because they continually feel the need to be blogging, and I don’t want to be like that.

So I’m sorry, but not really.

Thanks for going with us. Almost there.

Leaving Riverside was difficult. I spent more time there than I had anticipated, but it was worth it. Willie had to fly home to see his family and to start school back at Belmont in Nashville, but Daley and I had already planned on having him drive up with me to Seattle.

But, 3 hours before we left, we convinced a third party to join us on the road:

Hello Jessica Grady. Welcome. We shall have adventures together.

I met Daley and Jess 3 days before, and now they’re in my car on the way to Seattle. We had to do a little rearranging of my stuff, but Lauren, as it turns out, is a master organizer. We unpacked and repacked my Honda to fit another person in the back. It is ridiculous. You should see my Honda try to climb the hills of California.

Unfortunately, the lack of space meant that Jess had to start out in the back because she’s the smallest.

But Daley, being the man of gentleness that he is, switched out with her.

I drove. It’s what I do a lot.

I have been driving from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Daley and Jess since Riverside. We’re driving to Seattle. We like to stop at In-n-Out. And Chipotle.

We left Riverside, drove through L.A. and Hollywood, got to Ventura and stopped to get some food, and eventually made it to Solvang, CA to stay a night with the Moirs, friends of mine who lived in Indiana for a stint in their lives.

Kelli and Whitney were kind enough to stay up ’till we arrived at 10:00 at night. We socialized, slept, and then had a lovely breakfast. Many thanks to the Moirs for their hospitality.

And then onward to San Francisco. I refuse to leave my heart there. It’s not worth it.

Willie and I left the Grand Canyon and called Daley, a guy who I’d never met but had told me he’d help me find a place to stay in Southern California. Daley called his friend Lauren who very graciously agreed to take two strangers into her house for a few days, for which Will and I were extremely grateful. Lauren is an incredible person. We had never spoken a word to us and we were treated like family. Will and I probably said “Thank you so much” so many times that she most likely wanted to kick us out.

Thank you again Lauren. You really don’t know how grateful we are.

And thanks for doing our laundry. It smelled like an unfortunate case of perspiration, Honda, The Grand Canyon, beard, and other things that shall remain anonymous. That was gracious of you to not say anything, because most people do.

We spent most of the time there with Lauren, Daley, and Jess. We had never met any of them, but therein lies the excitement of traveling. Everyday holds the unknown.

The first morning we were there we went to Laguna Beach to shoot some photos and to meet Amos Lanka, a designer who was in town with his friend Heidi from Colorado Springs.

MTV wants will on the next season of their “Look How Rich I Am” show, whatever that may be. Pick your poison.

I had no idea what to expect when going to Riverside. I’m from the Midwest. Zulu, Indiana has approx. 36 people, 35 since I left for Seattle. People in the Midwest are quiet, to themselves, patient drivers, and generally down to earth.

California is like it’s own country, especially Orange County.

If Zulu and LA got in a bout of fisticuffs, well I think LA would probably think it was Zulu, Africa, and therefore assume there were lions and such, thus sending it’s actors who have been in movies who have slain lions, but the actors would be scared and fold, and Zulu would be triumphant, because you really shouldn’t mess with Texas Indiana, especially if you have seen the movie Hoosiers with Gene Hackman, who is continually intimidating.

Run-on sentences are our friends.

Willie and I spent a good bit of time traveling last year, and at the end up it decided that we should mail a Polaroid to each other every week while he lived in New Jersey and I lived in Indiana so as to keep up with each other through a visual medium. This was the first time we put them all together to recollect and tell the stories behind each photograph.

Daley had a photo shoot while we were there for a book cover. Jess did the modeling. Lauren helped. I felt awkward because we were in a woman’s bathroom.

Daley, Jess, and I took approximately 1 badillion photos in those few days.

Badillion.

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I apologize for the lack of writing I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying to experience as much as I can, and that leaves little time to write. I’m sitting in an apartment in San Francisco. There is so much that has happened.

I have some thoughts that I will try to pen tomorrow regarding the people I have spent time with thus far.