Seminary Housing

#1 - I have an old friend that I learned has been living in town the past few years when I ran into him at a Rumi poetry event.  The event took place at the seminary where he was in school to become a hospice chaplain.  

He's almost done.  And a  few weeks ago as he helped me sort things at my dad's, I learned he was applying for jobs locally as well as Illinois (where he is from) and Washington state.  

I called him Saturday to see if he knew where he was headed at the end of the month.  The good news  was he was offered a job!  The bad news - he needed to be out of his on campus apartment in just over a week and had not found a place to live yet.

I jumped into action bringing him boxes to pack, looking for places online, and wondering if he didn't find a place in a week if he could stay with me or at my dad's.  He'd still have to pack most of his stuff, move it to a storage space, finish his internship, clean his place, look for a place to live and start a new job.  This sounded exhausting to me, so later I called and asked.  "Have you asked if you could extend your stay in the on campus housing?"

"The only reason that let me stay last year was I took a class each semester," he stated (during his internship).  I knew the housing wasn't full though so I said,

"Well it would be so much simpler if you could stay there instead of having to find a storage space or move somewhere you don't like.  It doesn't hurt to ask."

"Thanks for helping me think," he said.  

So I waited with fingers crossed.  I knew the seminary was short funds so hoped he could just extend it a month.  And when I called to check today they said that was no problem!

#2 - I was a little crabby as I haven't exercised the last few days.  I tried to get my partner to join me for motivation.  No go.  So I grudgingly tried to motivate myself.  It wasn't much fun until, MACKLEMORE, popped onto my playlist.  Thank you sir!  That was exactly what I needed.

#3 - My brother got rid of a few big things at my dad's house today - the mattress/box spring on my bed (which I cried about when he said he wanted to do it today, but it's old and has to go), a study cubicle from the work room and maybe more I don't know about.

#4 - I tried to bring a load of things to drop off at the Habitat Restore, but when I got there they were closed for donations on Monday.  I didn't want to leave it all in my car overnight (I don't have a garage to park in) so I asked my partner if he'd help me unload it,  

"Why?" was his response.

That response was so exhausting to me I just left the room.  But then I turned around and did the emotional work of explaining how it can be hurtful when someone asks for assistance for the response to be, "Why?"

#5 - And later, while I was typing this, he has the Chastity Brown Pandora (or something) station playing.  I thought about going in that room and asking him to dance but I didn't.  A few songs later another Chastity Brown song came on and I did ask him.

"How can I refuse?" he said.  "I thought there was something wrong."