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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Let’s see if I remember everything….

….and I hope I don’t report something twice. I should start at the beginning which would be the Worship Conference. Judy and I made the trip successfully July 19th, although we had to circle the airport in Minneapolis due to severe weather in the area, which allowed us to miss our first shuttle to St. Peter. After walking for miles through the airport, we located our pick up point from which a nice lady directed us to a restaurant where we could have dinner. She wanted us to have a glass of wine for her, but neither of us did.

When we eventually were connected with a shuttle, we met a very nice young man going also to the Conference, a soon-to-be freshman at Martin Luther College as well as a classmate to be of my young friend, Naomi. We saw Naomi frequently in passing at the Conference but she was kept extremely busy with rehearsals for the final concert.

Immediately upon dismounting the shuttle bus, Judy and I pulled our luggage up the sidewalk toward the registration building. As we walked along, I heard a screeching sound and someone screaming my name, running toward me with arms extended in front of her. It was Kari Hahm, a former member of FG and now residing in MKE where her hubby teaches at WISCO. How wonderful to see my Facebook friend live and in the flesh, and get squeezed by her! Right behind her came a tall, blond lady, carrying a baby in a seat with a handle. I realized that this lady was Trisha, a long-time friend of Kari’s and, as I already knew, is Judy R.’s daughter! They stood up for each other’s weddings and served as Godmothers to each other’s babies. The one Trisha was carrying belonged to Kari, named Titus, and I was so glad to see him. He’d had a rough beginning, too, like Angelo, and is now flourishing. Kari would not be staying for the Conference as her family was enroute from a long vacation in WA back to MKE and had to keep moving. She has a number of other children besides the baby and it would be hard for her to entertain them while she sang and such for four days. But it sure was great to see and hug her again, and meet Trisha after hearing so much about her these years, from Judy.

Judy C. and I got checked in, had our room assignments and received our Conference materials. Once outside again, a nice man with a golf cart took us to our dorm, our apartment actually, and we rejoiced in the ride. It was plenty hot there during the Conference and lots of walking involved from point to point, so loved the golf cart man!

The first event, after our lovely cafeteria dinner (Judy loved to say, “I had better never hear a complaint about college food again!), we went to the chapel for the concert. It was just that, a chorus and orchestra plus the pipe organ, complete with applause at the conclusion. Hmmm….When I first heard the pipe organ and the singing, it brought tears to the eyes, reminding me of First German. The chapel was sort of more modern a design and furnishing, not quite a worshipful atmosphere but certainly ideal for this type of event---especially acoustically.

When we got to our dorm room afterward, skipping the fellowship gathering each night, we hoped to meet our suite-mates, but nope, we were alone. Judy and I each took our showers and readied ourselves for bed. My laptop was all set up with the playback of “Seinfeld” ready to lull me to sleep. Judy assured me it was fine and she, in fact, read a bit before going to sleep. Later I did hear our suite mates come in but was closer to snoozing than being awake enough to go out to greet them. This was late on Tuesday and we did not meet either of them until Thursday morning, and then we ended up sharing a ride with Marylin and two other ladies to MLC! How about that??? It was a good night’s sleep, much needed after a long day of traveling, walking, and being edified, by the choirs, music, and lastly, “Seinfeld”!!