Portland.

So, I went to Portland last weekend. I intended to visit a few people, 2 of the most important people ended up not being there, which was ridiculously sad. I decided to make the most of it though! I visited with a friend that I actually met at a wedding last summer, and it was so fun to get to know her a bit more and find out she goes to Imago Dei (the church I'm interested in getting involved with). I also had dinner with an old friend from Alaska whom I hadn't seen in probably at least 4 years so that was fun. 

So overall the weekend was good but there were a few bad moments, including the first night. I had nothing to do, so my sister told me I could meet up with a friend of hers. I figured I may as well, since he was going to a house show which I'd never been to so I thought it might be a fun experience. First of all, he was nice but socially awkward and insanely quiet. Fine. But he brings me to a run down nasty house (I'm talking a party house) filled with socially awkward people who refuse to look at me or talk to me. Great.  So for about a half hour I'm trying to find anyone who looks my age and somewhat "normal" and met a few alright folks but they somehow vanished just as quickly as they arrived. There I was alone again in this pit of a place (so far from what I had in mind for this weekend by the way). Then comes the "show" which is basically slayer type music that blasts my ears off, totally my scene. I try to endure it but can only last a few short minutes before I decide to escape the music and find myself back in the living room with 3 teenagers rolling a joint. Fabulous! One says "you look bored," I smirk at him. Then a few minutes later he says "you wanna get in on this" (referring to the pot) I kindly decline and promptly get up and leave. That was the last straw.  I text the guy and tell him I'm ready to go. On the drive home I burst into tears because I had tried so hard to have a good attitude all day about my weekend falling through but this experience just made it all that more real that it was not what I was hoping for. All I wanted was to go to sleep, and so I did... and slept for 9 hours! Phew, what a night.

The next day I was pleasantly surprised by the sun (it was supposed to rain all weekend). I called up my sisters good friend ( a different guy) and we decided to tool around and explore Portland. I wanted to get a feel for the area since I'm moving there. We had so much fun, he is a really fun/funny guy. I felt much better. But we only hung out til the afternoon and  I had nothing to do the rest of the day. I searched for things going on around town but just didn't really find anything good to go alone to. So I got pretty discouraged and lonely. But I had this revelation that this weekend was turning out to be more of a retreat/ learning experience than anything so I spent some sweet time praying and reading devotionals and felt so much better. God really spoke to me in my time alone and I felt peace in the end. 

Then on Sunday I visited Imago Dei, which like I said I've been curious about. It was wonderful! It was so encouraging to end my weekend with the prospect of joining this neat place. My old friend Joe met me there and we had a delicious Portland brunch after which was just amazing :)

All in all I'm glad I went and I feel like I can see clearly how God is working in my life and challenging me to become the woman he created me to be. I'm so so excited for this new season of life on my own in Portland. I know God has great things in store :)