Day 20: Sofa, So Good

Sunday, June 4th happened today.

Now, maybe that specific day falling on that specific date (which only happens 3 times every 28 years) has no special significance to most of you, but for me, and for billions of people around the world, Sunday, June 4th also has no special significance.

Not that it was a bad day, mind you. I quite liked it. Maybe in 2034 when it happens again, it'll have more significance now. Probably not. 

We got up this morning to go help Alejandro Lagos y su esposa, Melany, move. That's our Lagos's brother. He's awesome, too. We showed up at their house around 9 and started helping out. Eventually, a flatbed moving truck came and got all the big stuff, but initially, we helped organize and pack the few things they hadn't already packed up. Their apartment was a really cool shapeñ it had rounded walls and unique angles. I liked it a lot, though if I was trying to feng shui a house, it'd be a challenge.

I want to tell you the story of the sofá (yes, i said that in Spanish) that almost defeated me. Did you know that I love couches? Couches are my favorite furniture, I think. You can sit on it and you can nap on it. Just...well done, couches. I like most couches: love seats, tacky couches, ugly couches, leather couches, cloth couches, double-decker couches. In the world of couches, however, sectionals are clearly the superior couch. They're so big and they turn and you can often change their shape. What a cool thing. 

Alejandro y Melany tiene una sofá seccional. It's really neat. Somehow, this couch was fit into one of the cool-angle rooms in their house, but one section of it refused to come out. I (and we) tried every conceivable angle to get this bad boy into the hallway. But it just wouldn't fit through the door because of the wooden armrest it had (the other pieces didn't). And this armrest wasn't detachable. Eventually one of the movers took the feet off of the sofa. I felt so dumb for not thinking of that. Rookie mistake, Sam. But here's the thing: IT STILL DIDN'T FIT. We thought about taking the window off (it wasn't a slide-open window) of the house and passing it out, but we weren't sure it would fit, and, besides, only a crazy person passes furniture through a window. 

Finally, I took the door off its hinges, because I wasn't fixing to be beaten by furniture. Take that, inanimate object.

Sorry for the long pause, I was afk. Yes, I know you didn't notice. See, I got hungry and realized I didn't eat dinner, so I made myself a brace of grilled-cheese sandwiches. I make a pretty mean grilled cheese and these ones were very nice.* Once I finished though, I obviously needed to wash my dishes, since I don't like leaving dishes undone. But then, once I started dishes I wanted to clean the kitchen a little bit. So, I needed to take out the trashes. But, before I did that I wanted to have a cookie dipped in nutella. Now I'm back, a solid 42 minutes later, and writing again. 

*Originally, I was gonna say my grilled cheese was pretty darn good, then that made me think of PDQ, which means pretty darn quick. THEN I realized, at the age of 34, while washing dishes in Costa Rica... I don't think the "D" actually stands for "Darn." I googled this to be sure and I feel a little dumb, not gonna lie.

We got the stuff to the new apartment and unloaded. I got to be part of pushing a sizeable refrigerator up a fairly small staircase, which was awesome. Then, I helped carry that self-same sofá into the house and I scraped the paint on their wall. I felt very bad, though they said it was ok. Sofa's revenge for taking it out of its home. 

There was a room for a washer and dryer, but the door was only 2.5 feet wide. The washer and dryer were much bigger than that. To resolve this, Abel y yo took off (see previous comment) the window that was between that little room and the bedroom and then we just lifted the washer and dryer through the window. Also very cool. 

We came home and had a worship time as a team. I think we're feeling some kinda way as a team and it's interesting to worship God together in that place. Matthew played some Psalm 42 songs and we vibed with how David expressed himself in that Psalm. We did another intense planning sesh and got groceries! 

I got to talk to Alexis for a while after her family Bible study, then took a lovely shower (i didn't smell very pretty) and got to talk to her some more. 

I feel so very tired and not negligibly sad. That's likely the source of the grilled cheese and nutella at 11:30 PM. I don't know why I don't like to go to bed when I'm sad. I love sleeping, but what I usually crave is a nap. Maybe going to bed when I'm sad feels like it's letting sadness have the last word in my day, and that's dumb. As Christians, sadness never gets the last word, even if it speaks very loudly in our lives.

PRAYER PLEASE

-for wisdom

-for guidance and healing

-for this week at the CDI and H@ngout to be powerful
-for me to take time to work on my teaching (now the 16th)
-for God to touch lives through and in our team
-for real emotional, physical, and mental rest
-for the church here (IGC) to be blessed
-for God to bless and guide and heal in Fellowship Church

The Door and The Couch

At one point, I climbed out the window to sit on a weird grass ledge

Through the window, through the wall