So my shower and tub are gone, gone, gone. On the first day, they removed most of the tile from the shower, revealing a disturbing phenomonen: the only thing holding it upright was the mortar. Talk about rot! Ick!
I saved a piece of wood to justify the cost of this project ;)
That being said, tonight I returned home from a weekend away to basically "day 2" (they worked thursday and friday). The removal of the tub revealed some super looking subflooring - ie. I actually thought there would be rot damage to the subflooring but did not expect the walls - instead we got the opposite, which is in fact cheaper to fix. Removing the rotten wood also revealed plaster and lath in good condition. So, fingers crossed, I think the damage is limited to the shower stall.
Phew.
I've been struggling in finding my place in CA church-wise. I recently attended a catholic wedding, and I must say, it felt wonderful to be in the house of the lord.
While I am very interactive in bible study, weekly, I rarely attend services. Part of me just really hasn't found a place where I feel home yet. I frankly missing the southern preaching style - dynamic, lively. I also, surprise surprise, prefer a traditional service.
I'm tossing around several new ones to try out. Julian has been attending an Episcopal church. There is a UMC (my first home) with traditional services in Alameda. And lastly, something that sounds a little more contemporary, All Nations.
There are parts of me that just love a worship service, and part of me that hates it. It's strange, but I shut down after an hour. Complete shutdown of the mind - must be my years of training of a one hour service.
I also hate anything said in unison. I know I am not alone in this - it just creeps me out. Feels like a brainwashed crowd more than real. I do realize that will be a problem in traditional services too ;)
Anyways, I've been praying to find a new church home. While I love the young adult population at my current church (and it may very well make me stay there), there is just something undefinably off about it that makes me feel like there may be a better place for me. Several concrete things at the church have bothered me - the constant changing of worship times for one! I stopped going all together when the services started at 4:30 pm.
Anyways, hopefully I'll have the gumption to really strive to find a new home. No worries, no plans on ditching my most cherished group of friends from my bible study. I'll probably just say that I'll have two church homes.... one fulfilling each of my spiritual needs.
I miss the south. I miss not feeling antagonized about being a 'stupid' christian. I fail often, but for the most part, I strive to be an open-minded, live and let be christian. So when the athiests attack, I'm like dude, what did I ever do to you? I know this pales in comparison to christians in other areas of the world; I think I just took the south for granted. Throw a rock and hit a church. Biscuits. Oooooo by the way, I finally perfected a biscuit recipe. One last caveat - their wetness makes it hard for them to have oomph unless wedged together, so they don't look like traditional biscuits. That however, I am sure can be remedied with a little more fanagling on the ratios. As long as the recipe doesn't have sugar, I'm good. I also want to cut the buttermilk ratio. Okay, so it's not perfect yet, but it was much closer.