Beholding the Beauty

After Pittsburgh, I flew to Baltimore, where my dad picked me up, and from whence we drove home to Frederick. The next morning, we hit the road semi-early in Dad's Pinto, and went to visit my dad's brother and sister and aunt in West Virginia.  This is an approximately 4.5 hr. drive through the beautiful mountains of Appalachia.  I was raised, for part of my childhood (ages 3-8) in these mountains, and for the rest of it in their foothills. Once we got to WV, we stayed the rest of the day and the first night with my aunt Sharon and her husband Jack.  They are wonderful people, and we had a wonderful, relaxing time! They own several acres on top of a mountain near Rainelle, WV .  This includes two houses, a barn/shed area, a garage, a garden, and lots of grass.  We stayed in the guest house, which is the "old house", having been built in the early 1900's. The next morning, we left to go to my uncle Tom's place, which is about 30 minutes from Sharon

So...it's been quite some since I posted anything, let alone a life update. As I mentioned in my last post, I went on vacation recently. The first half I took for the first year residency at Antiochian Village for the Antiochian House of Studies ' St. Stephen's Course . (Note: The Course is really great, but I am taking a year off of it for personal reasons, and will re-evaluate next summer whether I want to continue it or not. This is not the fault of the Course, but is simply due to the circumstances of my life at the moment.) The flight -- on Southwest, of course :) -- across the country was beautiful, if predictably and happily boring. It was interesting to see the clouds hugging the ground, and the sharp division between the Bay Area, which was covered, and the central valley, which was decidedly not. Once I got to Pittsburgh, PA, there was a bit of a wait while the rest of the people who were taking the shuttle from the airport to the Village. Then we to

Well that turned out better than expected! Not the PayPal button...that got me nothing (Edit 10/6/2012: there was one generous fellow who was able to contribute; may he be blessed).  No, I'm talking about the whole car thing. I'm not going to say much here yet, because I'm working on a "major life update" series of posts, which will include the car drama.  But suffice it to say that I'm no longer hurting for cash. Of course, if you want to give me money, I'll still take it -- haha -- but no rush now. Look for the first post of the life update series this weekend.

EDIT; UPDATE (10/06/2012): As per my latest post , I am no longer in need.  God has provided.  Many thanks to the one who did contribute -- and out of your own lack to boot, like the churches of Macedonia; may God bless you out of Zion, and remember you in His Kingdom always. ------ You may notice the new PayPal Donate button on the right column. Basically, due to some rather unusual circumstances, I'm a bit strapped financially right now.  If you want to give me money, you can use the button at right! :) This will be used to keep me afloat for the next two weeks until I get my regular paycheck. I find myself in an unusual situation at this time, and just need a few dollars to get me through the next two weeks. I am usually good with my money, and I work a full-time job making a decent wage.  Recently, I saved up to go on a vacation (half of which was not really a vacation, but attendance at a theological school residency). Everything would have been fine, except that