A Very Happy Hour (several hours actually!)

Back in October, I went to a birthday party for my cousin Erin that her parents hosted at Howl at the Moon Saloon. When I got to the door they asked me to fill out a card to have my name drawn to win a happy hour party. So I thought "what the heck?" and the next morning I had an email from Howl at the Moon saying that I had won! Very exciting (especially considering that my family and I never win anything.) 


In case you were wondering, Howl at the Moon is a piano bar where two guys play covers of every song imaginable.  If you win a happy hour, that means that there's no cover for you and your guests, the first two drinks are $1 and then all drinks are free until 8pm. So Saturday, November 13th was the magic night. My parents came down from MA for the weekend and we were joined by 41(!) members of our family and friends, including my best friend, Anna, and her family, some of my parents high school friends, and many more. In short- it was a Blast!

Me, Dad, Mrs. Zawacki, Mom, Jon (Anna's boyfriend) and Anna

Me and Anna, fifteen years of friendship and counting...

Ian, Dave, Kelly and Rebecca

My mom and her high school buddies :-)

Dad, Mr. Bobby, Mrs. Patty and Aunt Becky

Aunt Pat and Uncle Tony

The next day, Aaron (oh yeah, he was there too :-P) and I met up with my parents and had a wonderful day in the city.

Me, Mom and Dad atop Federal Hill

Thank you so much to all those who came out for the party. It was so wonderful to see everyone. And a huge thank you to my parents for coming down. I missed them so much. I can't wait to see them again and everyone else in New England in LESS THAN A WEEK! (For Thanksgiving of course)

To write again soon,
Love,
Caitlin

my favorite state with some of my favorite people

It is Wednesday evening and my community and I just returned from our fall retreat at Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV. We left Baltimore around 9:00am on Monday morning with our supervisor, Allison, and spent two nights in a wonderful little cabin in the woods. During our time there we had discussion sessions on community, social justice, spirituality and simplicity. We also shared meals, hikes, games and, of course, lots of laughs.

Rebecca- our Master of Fire Making

The Falls of Blackwater

The Whole Gang

"the ants go marching six by six..."

Bethany, Rebecca and Doug the Dragon (a.k.a. our talking stick, because we all talk WAY TOO MUCH!)

Our welcoming committee

It was a bit squishy in the van, so they took a stretch...

...which resulted in an impromptu yoga class at the gas station. No big deal.

As the year gets busier and we all have more and more going on at work and in our personal lives, it was really wonderful to have the time and space to just be together. Can't wait for the rest of the year!

This Wild and Wonderful Adventure

So, it is 10:21 on a Friday night. I just finished watching Mulan with the girls and then had a really great chat with Kelly and Rebecca about faith and religion and the like. Now I'm sitting in the quiet of my cozy hide-away room, listening to some meditative guitar music and thinking about how truly fulfilled I feel at this moment and in general.

Amidst the fast-paced work environment and the time crunch to attend to everything pertinent in my personal life between the hours of 5 and 10pm on weekdays, I seem to be able to do all this amidst an all-encompassing sense of calm. Calm in knowing that I have a genuinely caring community to come home to each day who support me unconditionally. Peace in reminders that I have family both near and far who are willing to go out on a limb for me at the drop of a hat. Comfort in the fact that friendships new, old, and older can and will endure any test of any time or distance. Gratitude that I have found and am able to be so close to the man who brings me more joy in my life than I ever thought one person ever could. And, above all, solace in the constant awareness that the Lord's hand is guiding me through this wild and wonderful adventure that I feel fortunate to call my life.

There were so many times in my college experience that I felt so overwhelmed by all of the "things to do" that I failed to actually be productive in any way because I could not get past the ever-growing "List". I wondered if there would ever come a time in my life that I was not plagued by this terrible sense of urgency to constantly be doing something. I am happy to say that I think I have grown out of that stage. This is by no means saying that I do not run the risk of a relapse, only that I finally feel as though I am beginning to understand how to realistically find and create balance in my life.

It is now almost 11:00 and in forty minutes I've written three paragraphs. (How's that for productivity?) I'm not really sure where I'm going with this or if it is going anywhere at all, I guess I just felt like sharing.

God bless and goodnight,
Caitlin