i'm back.

it's nice to be home. after a month and a half away, i was beginning to tire of living out of a suitcase. but the trip was good. i'm not much for giving lots of details freely, so i'll give you a brief look at my time.

5 weeks in new orleans: 3 different living situations. i now know the roads of new orleans better than austin...because i had to drive all over that city like crazy. 48 students joined us to help gut about 14 houses, paint, clean some dorms, move some matresses, and share the gospel with students on 4 campuses. i had one day off. on that day off, i got a great haircut for $12 at the aveda institute. some girls from my group had an amazing street performance. i had 148 unread emails when i got back...just from the ccc finance people. i still have some work to do to wrap up this project, but i will finish someday. eventually i'll have more details from the trip here.

week 6: southern california to northern california and back again. after a day off getting fried on my front side at the pool, i hopped on a plane to go see someone known as vitamin p (good luck getting rid of that one now, paul). i arrived on tuesday night, we had dinner, hung out, woke up wednesday, went on a hike, spent some time at the getty, watched the last movie on his top100 list, woke up on thursday and drove 5 1/2 hours north to the bay area to meet the fam. first it was dinner with the parents, then the grandparents as well, then joined by aunt, uncle, cousins, and brothers. it was great. the next day we headed up to lake berryessa...but not without some adventure. paul knew his car was on it's last leg...and that last leg broke halfway there. so we got to enjoy a tow truck ride back to daly city in traffic before we headed back up to the lake house. then it was dinner again, watched some old home movies, woke up on saturday and went out on the boat, attempted wakeboarding (i don't think i've ever before only been sore on one side of my body: it's strange), then we headed back to the bay area....but not before stopping in at the home of some family friends. so, running late, we rushed back to the house, showered, and headed to san fran to catch a show. psapp, juana molina, and jose gonzalez at bimbo's 365...it was a great show. then it was back to los angeles to hurry and move everything from old apartment to new. it was busy, and i was almost late for my flight on monday (thank God it was delayed), but it was much fun. now paul is on his way to tokyo for a few weeks to have his own suitcase adventures.