To Philadelphia (Friday July 15))

Neon

I'm going to give a little summary of the four days of my trip to Pennsylvania. I'll just dish it out a bit at a time.

My flight to PHL was the first one of the morning, so David had to get up to take me to DFW. I used frequent flyer miles, so I didn't get a choice on which flight. I got a Dodge Neon rental car-drives nice, but I am too short to see out of the back very well. My first time to get lost was finding the hotel. After a scenic tour on the Pennsylvania turnpike ($.75 there, and $.75 back) I found the place. It was one of those places you can see but can't figure out how to get there.

After checking in I phoned the groom, Chris. (Thanks, Rachel, for letting me use your cell phone.) In a bit Chris and Matt came to my room and introduced themselves. They couldn't stay long as they were on the way to get the tuxes, so I watched a really stupid movie for an hour. I turned it off, decided I was hungry, and got in my car and drove around the hotel parking lot to see if there was a back entrance. As I drove around, I met up with Kenny, who had just arrived (he too had trouble finding the hotel). So we went out to eat together at Bennigans. I had Kilkenny Salad.

The next while I was a bit bored until Ken (not to be confused with Kenny) called and invited me to go meet the rest of the forum guys, which I enjoyed doing. I also met the groom's mom and stepdad and a set of grandparents. Stacy showed up after 10 pm, and then we two drove back to Bennigan's for some gooey chocolate dessert and a nice chat.

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In other news, the New York Times published an article about the Ethnologue today. Gary did a lot of work on helping the journalist, but his actual name got cut on the last edit.

I had a nice chat with Rachel today about her trip to LA. Thank you to those who prayed for her. She got home a day before I did. They had a good and safe time, and I think she learned a lot. She was the youngest one on the trip and her teammates thought she was a bit naive about life. They kept making fun of her every time she said, "I didn't know that." But I pointed out that at least she is learning new things, think of it that way. One nice thing they said to her when observing her work at the Boys' and Girls' clubs: "Rachel, you've chosen the right field. When you work with those kids, you just glow. They love you and respond so well to you." That was a good word of affirmation for her.

And speaking of Rachel and prayers, she has an interview on Monday for an aide job at one of the elementary schools in our home school district. Pray that God will give her peace during the interview process and lead her to the job he has for her.