Take a ride on the vignette blimp!

Vignette. That's the word.

It was a full and eventful trip, but I don't want to descend again into the chronologically-precise slog of my typical trip account.

So we'll start up in the Goodyear Blimp, taking a wide shot looking down over the weekend. If you follow the little dotted lines around the map, you'll see that Mike Q, Shannon Q, Kayte B and I drove 4 hours down the windey PA Turnpike to Harrisburg, Kayte's hometown. We went to see the Harrsiburg church, the Bell family, and to run a 10K race which some of the Bells were doing. We left Friday at 3:30, and we got back Monday at 5:30 or so. That's the Family Circus version.

Now we jump out of the blimp, pop out our Kevlar 6-foot gliding wings, shoot down towards the grey ground below, and crash through the roof of the new Pleasant Hills Chick-Fil-A. We were there twice over the trip, and it comes to mind when I think of the weekend. Vignettes, remember? Anyway, Mike had his stash of coupons, so he got us all free combos on the way out and the way in. Verily, it was on the way out, whilst balancing my sandwich and fries and holding my Dr.Pepper firmly between my legs in the back seat of Harvey (Kayte's car) that my phone rang and I got a job offer! Nice way to start the trip. We also ended our travels with a long sit in the restaurant, eating our ridiculously free food and having a rollicking good time. As Steph would say, the four of us had bonded over the weekend, and it was fun to hang out there for an extra hour before hitting the Q's and splitting up.

So that was Chick-Fil-A. Great place. Another picture is the four of us in the car. Mike and I traded off driving to be manly. I think we got roughly 3 manpoints per 10 miles driven, if I remember the latest manpoints rewards plan.

Harvey is an old Ford Explorer, so he had plenty of room inside, which was nice. I played guitar on the way out (when not driving, gosh), but other than that we didn't play music, which was actually nice 'cause we just talked. And ahh, what a great group of people! No worries about redeeming vacuous conversation, no striving to stay involved or keep someone else from being left out - just abiding and having a blast. The Quinlisks are like family, and Kayte fit in enthusiastically like she does in everything. We got running jokes started (like annoying Shannon), we talked about real stuff like our parents and plans and possibilities, we commented on the world as it passed by, and it all flowed very nicely. One of my favorite parts was when I had each of us say something we respect about each of our parents. The depth and encouragement of what we shared still lingers. I say again - good group of people :-)

**BEEP BEEP** Gratuitious Vignette Alert! **BEEP BEEP**

Sitting in the back left of the SUV, all folded joints sweaty, definitely aware that Harvey's AC isn't working and the sun's radiation definitely is, but nobody's said anything.
Shannon: Man it's hot in here!
Kayte: Yeah! I know..
John: Agh, sorry guys! I just can't help it, geez.
*clamorous expressions of disdain* Heheheheh

Hmm. Let's see how to work this now. Basically, we're back in the blimp again, we just watched our little band of voyagers truck across the state, and now we're jumping out again over open green farmland/housing developments. It was night when we arrived, but right now it's day so that you can see around. The sky is crystal clear, the sun is shining, the grass below seems to glow green of its own accord, and as we drift down under our parachutes, warm smells of cow manure drift up to meet us (hah farmland). We settle down in a cul-de-sac 10 minutes from anything but other houses and some pretty farms. That big box of a house with a basketball hoop out front is the Bell's house. Let's go inside, shall we?

Ahh yes my friend, you see the spacious comfort of this fine Pennsylvania home? Out here in the country, space is a plentiful commodity, spent with ease. It is neat, it is new, it is nice, no? It makes a nice setting for the weekend, no? Indeed. Big new houses are one of my favorite things. And despite Mrs. Bell's protestations, the unfinished basement was sweet too. Mike and I slept down there in the couch quadrant. We also played ping-pong in the ping-pong table quadrant, thought about wrestling in the wrestling mat quadrant, and stayed away from the storage shelves quadrant. Big basement. And I was undefeated in ping-pong except for the Chinese ping-pong, in which I was.. the opposite of undefeated. Unvictorious, I suppose. Or unundefeated.

And how about the people living in this house? From what habitat springs this Kayte we've known for 4 years? What must the household of Debra Bell, renowned homeschool speaker and writer, be like? Is it indeed as fun and funny living with Gabe as you would think?

Well, the Bell family is cool. Very friendly, open and humorous. The household seems commesurate with the house: big, open, and lots of stuff in and out :-) Mike and Destiny live 15 minutes away, so they're around often. There's a Bible study every Sunday, and I get the impression that Gabe and assorted friends come and go whenever. They welcomed us in unceremoniously and unselfishly, and it didn't take long at all to be very comfortable in the house, hanging out, talking, laughing, and participating in what was going on.

When we got there Mike, Destiny, Gabe and a friend Dan were playing a hot game of spades, Mrs. Bell was at a conference in St. Louis, Mr. Bell was heating up some pizza, and Kristen was around. We talked, unloaded Harvey, played some ping-pong, and several of us went for a run around 9:30. Mike Q and I ended up out on the back porch with Gabe and Dan, smokin' pipes and enjoying the first warm night of the spring. Good batchelor stuff as Gabe put it :-) We talked in the kitchen till after 2, and Dan finally headed off and we hit the sack. That night was a lot of fun.

*Whizzz* *click* *whirrr*
That's me reeling you back in to my blimp vignette analogy thing.
Hokay, so, we're in the blimp again, and this time we've drifted away from the Bell house over to a Holiday Inn around Harrisburg. It's Saturday morning - 65 degrees and sunny. Using our magical vignette X-ray goggles, we look inside one of the meeting rooms, and behold! Half the Harrisburg church is there, and several folks from the Philly prophecy team are doing a prophecy seminar. Mr. Prater teaches a couple times, and we have two times of ministry. Mike is standing at the sound board helping (which makes him happy), Shannon and I are sitting watching people get prayed for, and most everybody else is prayer or a prayee. Cool way to spend a Saturday morning, and another reminder that God really is real, and really is beyond this natural world. I think a lot of people were encouraged and challenged and stirred up, which is great.

Mmm, the rest of Saturday... got home late after helping Darryl (sp?) tear down sound stuff, had a hearty ham lunch (which really made it feel like Sunday), and eventually ended up hiking in the woods at a nearby state park (or some such preserve). That was another enjoyable time of comfortable fellowship - walking, picking our way down paths or through thorns, and talking on and off between various groups about life. From our magical blimp standpoint we would see our pluckish band wander around the woods (*cough* lost? *cough*), we'd notice a few manpoint-earning assisted creek crossings, and we'd probably laugh at the silliness of these fine folks trekking through half-mile-wide thorn patches. We'd definitely laugh when I fall flat on my face in the middle of a clear path after successfully transversing said ungainly terrian. Yep yep, I'm a smooth one :-)

Let's pull out those vignette X-ray goggles again, and this time look inside the Bell home. We'd see me spending a lot of time diddling quietly on my guitar in rooms full of talking people. Saturday and Sunday we ended up spending many blocks of time sitting around the living room/dining room area and talking with whoever was around. Most of those times I would pick up the guitar and start amusedly musicating. I wonder about that - I wonder if it was nice, unnoticed, or perhaps annoying for the people around. I wonder if it's a lazy personal alternative to entering more fully into the conversation. I wonder...arg, if I'll ever write a song that is a good and personal as "Only Hope" has been for me. Switchfoot is amazing and I'm terrible. But that's unrelated. Anyway, yeah - lots of guitar. One cool thing was that I wrote a song about Kristen (Kayte's sister) for her birthday, which was Sunday. I sang it during her nonchalant birthday observance, and I think folks enjoyed it. Writing songs about people seems to be a musical thing that people like far more than I wish they liked my songs and skills. Funny how that works.

Ah, and Saturday night late sitting around just me and Mike Q I wrote a song with his lyrical help that's kinda cool and sounds like an old folk song. You would have needed magical vignette X-ray microphones to hear it, though, 'cause it was pretty quiet.

Sunday was church, the race, the Bible study in the house, Kristen's birthday, and more chilling/guitar diddling time. Church was, well, rather unexceptional in a completely benign way. Mr. Prater spoke, so I didn't get to see the home pastor do his stuff, and we didn't hang around much afterwards 'cause we were off to the race. The message on evangelism was good, but nothing new to me. It will become more applicable when I start working, which will be interesting to see. I will say that the worship team seemed to copy, admirably but uninventively (and somewhat stiffly) the CD arrangements of the songs they played. I've never seen that before in a Sovereign Grace church.

Our blimp now drifts down south to York, PA, where a bunch of sportily-clad people are hopping about, stretching, mulling, and fussing over headphones and mp3 players. Finally they all pack together like a motley amoeba, somebody yells "GO!" over a megaphone, and the amoeba starts to stretch out. Pretty much at the back of the amoeba is a little girl in pink running determinedly, another little girl in purple running amiably, a thick-built guy in a maroon Izod fleece running like a farm horse, and a skinny guy in an AE shirt trotting along and trying not to go faster. Up somewhere in the middle is a short-blue-shorted giraffe running pell-mell, long legs kicking (Yep, that's Mike. And in case you were wondering, those people were Kayte, Destiny, Gabe and myself). By the end of the race the amoeba has gotten really stretched out and distended. The AE guy comes in on his last breath after a fast second half, the Izod guy motors up the hill with amazing speed, the giraffe lays it all out for the final stretch, purple girl zips up with a smile on her face, and pink girl powers to the end with a wild Bell look of eager determination. Everybody had a great experience, and the pretty green land around the running trail enjoyed being looked at.

Oooh yeah. With our X-ray microphone (not quite sure how that works, but hey, it's magical, right?) we would hear Gabe call AE boy a beast, which is pretty spiffy coming from him. AE boy still wants to beat him up the hill, though.

Anyway, moving on to Monday. Monday was nice, for those of us who didn't have to get up early and run the American economy. Sunny, relaxed, and more fun time with the four of us. I got up at 9:15 and drank some milk whilst waiting for my call about the job offer. The call went great, and the offer, while not stunningly awesome, is totally solid, and I'm 99.5% sure I'll take it. It's a great blessing to get it, too, because aside from this job other prospects are kinda dreary. I got to take the call in Mrs. Bell's airy office, which was nice and quiet.

After the phone call you vignette blimp observers will note our foursome packing into Harvey and toodling down to a fabric store to sate Kayte's (totally cool and not-unnormal or homeschool-geeky) passion for quilting. You'll wait in vain to see Mike and me leave the store soon after entering. Hah! Verily, Mike and I ended up hanging around in there the whole time, looking at the myriad patterns and thinking about Youth Camp team colors and remarking on noteworthy fabrics. We even helped the ladies pick out some patterns. I tell ya - whatever the four of us did together, we made it a good time :-)

After the store and some lunch we dragged ourselves into packing up and heading out. I had to get back in time to leave with Mom, Dad and Daniel for Gettysburg (tracking right back down the same road!), and Kayte wanted to get settled back in for Tuesday. So, another road trip, more holding breaths through tunnels (I remain undefeated and unchallenged, HAH!), more sunshine, twists and vistas, and more great fellowship.

I suppose the picture in my mind of this trip is of sparkling sunshine, a big house surrounded by green green grass and open, rolling hills, and probably Gabe saying something funny about somebody. I'm pretty glad we got to see Harrisburg while we still have a tour guide here in Pittsburgh, and hopefully some day I can come back and beat Gabe up the hill at the end of his nightly run. Garr! D-:

I guess that does it. Good trip! I definitely feel a "bond" between the four of us, cheesy though that may sound. It's an honor to get to spend that much time with such good friends, and the memory will linger long and happily in all our memories.

Farewell, vignette blimp! Farewell magical X-ray goggles and technologically bewildering but concurrently magical X-ray microphone! As it drifts away into the Monday sunset, it leaves us with a faint, effervescent picture: The four of us 5 years from now. It's more a spark of excitement than a picture. Excitement and curiousity at where God might take us in our lives. I'm happy to know everybody now, and it should be fun to track our progress as we walk along with our interesting Guide.

--Clear Ambassador