An unexpected and unlikely encounter.

Tonight on my way home from work I was walking up Elm St. towards University.  When I was just a few blocks north of Congress, I heard in a loud whisper - "Ash!" from the shadows somewhere over to my right.  I stopped and looked around quickly and kind of frantically.  This kind of thing usually scares me shitless, when somebody appears suddenly in the dark in my presence.  The last time it happened was about three years ago when Leah let herself into my house and came into my room when I was sick and dozing, to see if I wanted to go to vespers.  It was dark, and I when I came to and saw her standing there I was just flat out terrified for several seconds, even though I knew it was just Leah and that I wasn't in any danger.  It just freaks me out when I encounter people unexpectedly in the dark, I guess.  So anyway...

I looked around and didn't see anybody, and I started to high-tail it when I heard it again.  "ASH!"  Louder that time.  I stopped and got a hold of myself, and realized that somebody was calling my name, as odd as that might be, there in the dark, on some random block on Elm St., while I'm on my way home from work.  I looked around again and heard, "Ash!  It's Shauna!" in another loud whisper.  I looked in that direction and saw a shadowy figure approach.  "Shauna?" I said.  I suddenly remembered.  OH!  Shauna!  I remember her!  I used to work with her, at 7-Eleven, back in 2008.  Wow!  What the frik?  Holy cow, I haven't seen Shauna in years!  And here she is, whispering to me in the dark?  What?  Why?  How?  Huh?  All of this I was thinking to myself as she hurried over to me.  I approached her and finally recognized her as she emerged from the shadows and into the illumination of a street light.  "Hey, Shauna!"  WOW!  Recognition!  I grabbed her into my arms and gave her a big hug.  We used to be pretty good friends way back then, and it had been several years since I'd seen her.  What a surprise!  I could barely believe it.  Here was this girl calling my name out of the blue from the shadows on Elm St. as I'm walking home from work, this girl who has just been GONE.  Gone from my life.  Somebody I figured I'd probably never see again.  And here she was!

She said that she recognized me from my silhouette.  Can you believe that?  She lives in a house right there on Elm St., and she happened to be outside as I was walking by, and she hadn't seen me for almost four years, and she recognizes me from my outline!  KEEE-RAZY! 

Anywho.  That's about it, really.  We chatted for about 20 minutes, and I gave her my facebook info because my phone is out of service.  She's looking for a job, and I told her I'd talk to Chiy about possibly hiring her back.  She used to work at that same store, about four years ago.  That'd be really cool, to have her working there again.

I'm still kind of shaking my head in wonderment at the whole situation.  Wow, Shauna!  I can hardly believe it.

Same old shmame old - part 2

Anywho... about what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life and stuff, from my previous blog entry.  I forgot to expound upon that yesterday.

I've been thinking quite a bit about visiting a monastery myself. The idea has been in my head since the summer of '09, around the time I was deciding that I wanted to become a catechumen. For the last three years that idea has been growing, and now it has become a persistent thought for me; that I should visit a monastery. Possibly to become a monk. More and more it seems like my entire life has been custom designed for the specific purpose of becoming a monastic. I've never really fit into this life of western culture and society and careers and money and families and social interactions and The American Dream and what everybody considers 'normal'.  I've always wished that I could just drop out of society. I could do that by becoming a monk and living in a monastery for the rest of my life.  That seems like a pretty flimsy reason to become a monk, though... just so that I can drop out of society.

Wouldn't that be ironic if I were led to a monastic life by such a selfish motivation?  After all, the only reason I started going to church in the first place was for the girl.  You know?  And look what happened.