The good parts of the trip:
-cheap tickets on Frontier and Southwest
-hanging out at the Mall of America on the night we spent near the airport in MSP before flying out
-the pool and spa at the airport in MSP
-the Lake Wobegon USA store at the Mall of America — a dangerous place for me to know about
-seeing my family again
-seeing Jon’s family again
-being back in San Jose for the first time since Christmas 2002
-coffee with Abra and tea with Mrs. Griffin (neighbor who shared the Gospel with me)
-sushi on my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-having a $tarbuck$ in Claremont and San Jose (it’s nice to have a frappucino on occasion)
-Joanna (my sister-in-law) graduating from Pitzer
-Bernadine Dorn speaking at the graduation (ex-Weathermen member and currently a child law professor at Northwestern)
-the 12 cream puffs I had at the President’s reception the day before the graduation
-meeting Alyssa (in-law’s new cat) and Homer and Jethro (my mom’s new hooligans)
-seeing my mother’s resplendent Maine Coon sissy cat again (who happens to like me)
-watching Secondhand Lions with my parents
-reading the Harry Potter books at my parents’ house with Jethro snuggled in my arms
-seeing my dad’s best friend and his wife again (we stayed with them in Las Vegas)
-the rainbows in Utah
-the beautiful scenery in the West (which was very green as it’s spring)
-the NEW CAR (’92 Volvo 740 wagon)
-a decent bathroom in our hotel room in Omaha
-seeing my cats when I got home

The bad parts of the trip:
-running from one end of DIA to the other to make our connection without being able to stop in the bathroom because we couldn’t find our gate
-the sinus infection/bronchitis I’ve been fighting for two weeks (will be seeing my PA about that tomorrow saw my spiffy cool PA who gave me drugs — all is right with the world)
-the idiotic drunken frat boys on our flight from Ontario to SJC
-finding out that my parents’ cat Mouse went out two weeks ago and never returned (translation: he went off by himself somewhere to die)
-having to say good-bye to my parents at SJC on Friday
-having to say good-bye to my in-laws in Claremont on Friday
-the highway system in Las Vegas
-the drivers in Las Vegas
-the casino where we ate (the buffet was great but we had to walk around the casino floor to get there — lots of noise, smoke, and hypnotized people gambling away their grocery money)
-the street numbers in Salt Lake City (it’s made to confuse non-Mormons)
-the fact that they were doing roadwork on every highway in SLC in the direction that we were headed
-the Moonie who accosted us at the Applebee’s in Cheyenne
-the idiots trying to road-race me on I-80 going through central Nebraska
-gas prices (insert “nasty comment about Dubya being linked to the oil companies” here)
-the shower stall-sized bathrooms in our motels in MSP, SLC, and Cheyenne
-not being able to find Finian when we got home (he was hiding under the curtains)
-the realization of how far I really am from where I grew up and the disorientation I felt on the road after being “home” but being away from where I live (more on this later)

I have returned from Minnesota. It was a good trip and it feels weird to be home; but I think I’ll adjust in a day or two. To describe the trip, here are the positives and negatives:

Positives
-Southwestern Minnesota Synod staff people (they are soooooo cool)
-the zebra hot chocolate at Calf Fiend
-playing some really vicious Uno on Saturday with Nik and Whitney
-our “landkitty” Kaetze
-the “Lutheran guesthouse where we stayed”
-food at call interviews (ye shall know them by their potlucks)
-the tours of the towns
-the call committees greeting us with hugs
-the laidbackness of the call interviews
-seeing my first pheasant
-the wonderful synod picking up the bill for the trip

Negatives
-the screaming kids in front of me on my flight to Minneapolis (of course while I’m trying to sleep since I’ve maybe had 8 hours in the past 3 days)
-getting lost while driving “home” on the pitch-black prairie at 23:00
-almost hitting an opposum on the prairie
-almost hitting a deer while having to listen to the Lars Larson show
-being subjected to the Lars Larson show in the first place (we were only listening to it because hurling insults at him was keeping us awake)
-the realization that after each interview, we had to drive 2 hours to get “home”
-badly marked freeway turns
-the smell of the manure on the fields
-the dead kitties along the side of the highways
-getting lost at MSP while trying to return the rental car

Well… I’ve been here for 24 hours and am enjoying it thus far. The local Thrivent rep has a guesthouse of sorts in their basement and it’s easier for the synod to house us there (read: less expensive) than putting us up in hotels and actually gives us a homebase. They’re reimbursing us for food (we’re eating relatively cheaply anyway) and the owners of the house asked us if we wouldn’t mind feeding their cat while they’re gone. 🙂 (Guess what our answer was to that!) They actually have two outdoor ones (I think the smaller one is theirs too). The first one I saw is a tabby patch kitten (who looks like the next cat I want to adopt would look like) and the second one is a calico patch kitty named Katze. (I know… really original.) As good Lutherans do, Katze and I had a long talk about Lutheran theology last night which involved me telling her my thoughts on the use of the means of grace and her rubbing and nuzzling my hands. 🙂 (VERY happy Jen.)

The flight was OK despite the screaming brats in front of me. (Their parents weren’t even trying to keep their kids quiet.) The drive to Redwood Falls was long because I was nervous but also trying to sleep. Everyone here is so nice — Minnesotans are a lot like Canadians in that way. We ran into one of our classmates (who was assigned here last spring and has been a pastor here for a year) and we’re going to try and get together with him and his wife tomorrow and/or do church with them on Sunday. We start interviewing at the first church on Sunday afternoon and we have 4 total.

Anywho… keep us in prayer. The good news is that I’m really loving this area and I’m really excited about this process.

Jon and I got to Claremont last night. We made our connection in Houston… barely. (Evil airport in an evil city named for the evil Usurper..) The flights were good and it’s great to see my in-laws and their kitties again. My parents are coming down today and tomorrow and Jon’s interview is Monday.

I’ll probably not be on all that frequently, so if you need anything, email me.

Could y’all lift up some high holy hands that I make it to L.A. tomorrow? The power outages in the Northeast have meant that Cleveland’s airport shut down for a while and we fly through Cleveland.

**UPDATE: we are being re-routed through Houston on MUCH later flights.** I checked the Continental Airlines website compulsively and found out about 20 minutes ago that our flight into Cleveland was cancelled. Our flight from Cleveland to L.A. was fine. The first person I spoke to at Continental was an airhead and told me sweetly that the soonest we’d get to L.A. would be the 21st. She then decided to look at our information (which she really should have done… WHEN I FIRST ASKED HER!!!!!!!!!!) and saw that they’d already re-routed us through Houston on later flights in the day. She then hung up before I could ask her anything about the details. I called back and got someone who knew what she was doing and she got my questions answered and even told me how to check my reservation status online. So… I’ll probably sleep some time and God willing, we will not have a situation like Christmas morning where they forget they re-routed us and refuse to let me on the plane.

I’m back from spending the weekend in the Twin Cities. I’ll have an account in my candidacy journal eventually, but for now, enjoy these pictures.