Smart Phones and Friends

This has been a week of many things: new paint for the walls and ceilings in the two bedrooms with the floors done, a lunch and learn, various meetings (some with yummy goodies, some not), finding out that no other group is picking up Publix bakery items that are at their pull date, friends from church who invited us to their house for a home-cooked meal in the midst of our home reconstruction, arranging for a yard care service, waiting for the fence company, and making travel arrangements.

I began the week by making hotel decisions for the 2019 AWP convention in Portland and at the end of the week, I had bought airline tickets to go to Asheville for the retreat to plan the Create in Me retreat in September.

I used to travel back and forth to South Carolina to see my grandmother, and it wasn't uncommon to find cheaper airline tickets to Europe than to regional southern airports. This week, I found round trip tickets on Allegiant direct to Asheville for $159.00. Of course, I had to add some expenses: I decided that I wanted to choose my seats, and paid $19 each way for an exit row seat (it would have been $12 a seat for the economy seat), and $18 each way for a carry-on bag. It still seems like a heck of a deal.

The retreat to plan the retreat is a short time away, usually less than 24 hours, over part of a week-end. I used to drive, staying with friends along the way. Some years it's been easier to get away than other years. One year I tried to participate by Skype, but neither end had the right equipment, so I was frustrated. Last year, I hadn't accumulated much vacation time in my new job, so I decided to try Skype again, but that ended up being the week-end of hurricane Irma.

Being able to take a direct flight instead of driving 12 hours makes this feel more do-able.

Pastor Mary, one of the camp directors, told me that she had marked my flight details on her calendar so that she could pick me up from the airport--that makes me feel so nurtured and cared for. I wrote back, "Thanks for the offer of picking me up on Friday--I'll happily take you up on it. Sunday's departure is very early--I'm willing to call a cab or figure out some alternative. I don't have a phone smart enough to Uber."

She wrote back a response that contains my favorite sentence of the week or perhaps the month/year: "Sunday's not too early- and the airport is so close. You don't need a smart phone when you have kind friends."

You don't need a smart phone when you have kind friends--so much wisdom contained in that sentence!