Weekend Internship Return

Returning is often hard. Will people recognize me? Will people remember me for mistakes or applaudable things? Will it be all smiles or all awkwardness? Will I screw up with people’s names? I went into this weekend worried about all of the above. Friday afternoon I drove down to Keokuk, IA to try to spend time with some of the friends I made at my internship last summer. It knew it would be hard, but it has already created some great memories.

Friday Night:
Walking into the Waddell’s house (Dave, Susie’s and Elizabeth’s — where I’m staying for the weekend) on Friday afternoon was great. Dave wasn’t home yet, but I had a quick 30 minutes with Susie and Liz before Dave came in. Luckily I’d already warned Susie about shaving my head; she saw my pictures too on the website, so it wasn’t much of a shock. Dave, however, wasn’t prepared and his first comment when he walked in was “whoa!” All I could do was smile. Then came Matt Hunt and his kids, who had seen me since the shave (mid-August for those who forgot). Susie had scheduled a card game with the regular friends, so people started arriving left-and-right. Jason, Caroline and the kids; Carla; then came the surprise I almost missed: Cathie and Steve Courtois and Taylor. Hugs were shared throughout the night and it was incredibly fun.

Saturday:
Sleeping in until a little past 8, I woke up to my alarm and the sun shining through my window. I knew it was going to be a great day (we haven’t had a lot of sun for a couple of weeks). I spent most of the morning preparing lunch and catching up with Kathy Seibert. I made a last-minute effort this week and coordinated a fun lunch with Kathy in which we invited the Millers and Mitchells over. Tom Seibert was unfortunately hunting (unfortunate only for me — I’m pretty sure he was enjoying it), so the six of us enjoyed eggplant parmesan, saltimbocca and what Mike is now calling the “Black Tie Affair” (a rich-chocolate cake). I’ve been trying to think of how lunch could have gone better; I’m convinced it would be impossible. For some reason, my recipes turned out better than ever, the fellowship was better than I could have imagined and it was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time. Plus, beyond that, one of the pieces of “The Black Tie Affair” made it over to the Hakes’ house afterwards – so even more were able to enjoy it.

After that, I returned to the Waddell’s and went walking with two of Susie’s friends and then came back and watched a movie while Dave hunted. When Susie and Liz returned from a swim meet, we went to “Mexico” (Fiesta Jalisco) and then came back and watched “Pay It Forward.” This drama with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment was powerful. It might have been more powerful, had the funniest moment in the past month not happened. Buddy, the Waddell’s black lab, had been sleeping for most of the night on the floor in front of the TV. When the time came for the martyrdom-scene in the movie, Buddy all of a sudden rolled onto his back and had his legs sticking out in some incredibly awkward angles. When we saw it we couldn’t cry or keep straight faces — it was too classic! Dave blurted “that dog has been waiting for that moment for his entire life.” To have a dog act like that at the pivotal scene and then to back to a resting state was uncanny; or, should I say un-canine? I know that I won’t forget this weekend for a long time. The biggest things I’m looking forward to for tomorrow are both seeing the congregation in the new church and the lunch with the Whitakers!