daily dish :: favorite. email. ever.

in response to bahamas habitat's weekly update email, i received this email today:

"ARE YOU NUTS! Haul you ass the hell out of there before you wind up shark bait!

You can build habitats at Lake Tahoe!

Now get your get gear AND SHOVE OFF WHILE YOU CAN!

btw - Are you Mary's son?

RVSP ASAP!

(Uninterested Recipient)

New Government Motto: We're not happy till you're not happy"

highlight of the day again, among many.

this guy wants to raise money and get a plane

again, a toss up between learning the song 'paris (ohh la la)' by grace potter and the nocturnals while doing speed punching bag motions in the air, seeing madeleine, sonic happy hour, first official flight with my new student pilot and painting with allie...today's moment has got to be the phone call i had this morning:

the essence of the conversation can be summed up by the caller's question:
'so, theoretically through bahamas habitat, i could raise enough money to buy an airplane for flying in haiti?'

God is alive! the seemingly impossible and nearly only imaginable is given life with the blessing of God being..God. and i am overwhelmed in thankfulness. it's just an airplane. and, it's just the beginning to an answer to prayer that may, or may not, grow to fruition.

moment of the day

today is the first in this series, for however long it will hold my attention, of the moment of each day that stuck out the most. so, i'll start.

trying to decide between playing scary monster with auguste (my nephew-2 yrs old) in the house and finding imaginary popcorn or..the man balancing a 5 ft. floor fan on his lap while riding a bicycle and looking for a place to plug it in, presumably to cool off and being denied at a construction site, or the really good conversation with my brother, i still will choose the moment i got to go flying.

it would have been one month tomorrow since i had last flown. this weekend i presented bahamas habitat's presentation island flying to serve those in need and it resulted in a flight instruction job! amazing. today was getting oriented to ms. claudie, the black and red (not that there's anything wrong with that) painted 1972 172. it was really fun and i got to do two landings right in downtown knoxville. the guy who owns the flight school went up with me. right before leaving he says, 'uhh..one more thing, there's a ghost here.' completely serious! you won't be catching me up there late at night!

it may be a small moment, but it was really fun. i get to start with students this week!

repost to recap

1.) catch a bonefish (this implies that i really learn to fly fish...i'm on my way! still just practicing the cast-no fly yet)
i got to the point of putting a fly on the line and...that was it. how hard will it be to transition to river fly fishing? maybe as difficult as finding a fly rod. anyone....anyone??

2.) surf at surfer's
george 'ratdog' robinson. a legend. as a tropical storm was brewing, the waves were churning not making it the most ideal. i meet up with ratdog at surfer's beach and we go at it. nope, i never stood up, but i did get tossed by some waves and i am determined to do it! ratdog is one of the sweetest men i've ever met. we were sitting at the surfer's shack at surfer's beach after a long attempt at surfing. he said to everyone there, 'i started coming here 30 years ago. it is my favorite place in the entire world. right here. this very shack. it's my favorite place!' i loved it.
3.) play ultimate frisbee at gaulding cay no..
4.) go camping in abaco super fun. went camping in tarpum bay. bonfire on the beach, cooked for dinner and the rain stopped for us to eat. coolest thing: bioluminescence: (look them up!).
5.) think about, and possibly, jumping off the rainbow cliffs (yikes!) didn't happen
6.) out for good music: elvina's and cocodimama really fun. what i love about elvina's is that everyone has a place there. it's an incredibly hodge podge group of people who play instruments...tourists, locals, who cares?
7.) support ghana beyond france in the world cup to avoid losing a bet with a stiff wager: watching the exorcism of emily rose word to the mothers. i won! wager won: brandon mcmath swallowing pride for a public dance. total satisfaction. did you hear about the soctapus?
8.) saturday-style kickball game in JC alright, that didn't happen either
9.) spear a grouper or a lobster i more just carried a spear while snorkling. pretty anticlimactic.
10.) visit the haitian farm at camp i'm starting to feel lame
11.) explore spanish wells this village is crazy. it's a lobster village. really ritzy and fun to see all the boats. it's a harbor island with character
12.) lighthouse beach one of the best places in the world. it's the southern-most point of eleuthera. The picture to the left was taken as seen from the lighthouse. my dad was there. we flew at kite, until i let it go and it flew into the trees.
13.) grow something from a seed and not kill it i wish i could say this was accomplished
14.) hitchhike done and way fun. lutra man (the potable water deliveryman) picked me up from the airport to JC.
15.) night swim in the sea watch out for sea lice :)
16.) take jc kids flying on my birthday i got to take people up for pleasure flights. that was really fun and i want to do it again. the problem was that not many had transportation to the airport! one of my favorite quotes from the whole summer was from edwin, he's from nassau. we flew to abaco and he asked, 'is turbulence kind of like a pothole in the sky?' it was perfect.
17.) hatchet bay caves yes! love this place! we go through with candles, and maybe a flashlight or two. i don't think i'll go back over the time that there were a dozen people following me and i lost track of the rope through the cave.
18.) bake bread with mrs. white mrs. white taught me to make johnny cakes and conch salad.
19.) go to a bahamian wedding (horatio and/or godfrey's)
it started about an hour and a half later than they intended. it was fun. my favorite part of bahamian weddings is the walk. bride/bridesmaid struts up the isle and the groom/groomsman meets them halfway and gives the bouquet of flowers. it's pretty sweet. godfrey works in nassau at the airport.
20.) jc softball games every chance i got, i was there. it was intense and there's no doubt who eleuthera's best team is: james cistern, no doubt.
*bonus/unrealistic: take an invitation to lenny kravitz house to swim and sing a song* no, but the birthday was a rocking good time.

summer reading list: the hole in our gospel richard stearns check!
the heartbreaking work of staggering genius dave eggers whoops!
the confessions st. augustine surprised by hope nt wright working on it, can't figure out how he was dubbed a saint!

it was definitely a rock star summer, even though i didn't get to accomplish about half of the list. it was wonderful.

chasing rainbows

i wish i had a picture to show for this. today i flew roundtrip governor's to nassau and back. on the way back i got to see at least 5 rainbows, one was a full arched rainbow. beautiful. made a left 360 after dipping into the left arm of the rainbow and when i turned about 270 degrees i saw the rainbow from a side angle. i've never seen that before. it looked like gumby with the top of the arc tilted back. it was amazing.

i couldn't help but feel like i was in a starburst commercial with the girl whispering into the headset, 'taste the rainbowww.'

the essence of life is to care

i don't know much about this guy, but i like his words. i ran across these quotes of his and want to share.

“We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead." ~ William Arthur Ward

"The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care (serve).. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give." ~ William Arthur Ward

this guy seems to have it together but i've learned that i'm skeptical of clarity.

top 20 for a rockstar summer

i'm determined that this summer will rock. i have a few things in mind that will make this bahamian summer complete:

1.) catch a bonefish (this implies that i really learn to fly fish...i'm on my way! still just practicing the cast-no fly yet)
2.) surf at surfer's
3.) play ultimate frisbee at gaulding cay
4.) go camping in abaco
5.) think about, and possibly, jumping off the rainbow cliffs (yikes!)
6.) out for good music: elvina's and cocodimama
7.) support ghana beyond france in the world cup to avoid losing a bet with a stiff wager: watching the exorcism of emily rose
8.) saturday-style kickball game in JC
9.) spear a grouper or a lobster
10.) visit the haitian farm at camp
11.) explore spanish wells
12.) lighthouse beach
13.) grow something from a seed and not kill it
14.) hitchhike
15.) night swim in the sea
16.) take jc kids flying
17.) hatchet bay caves
18.) bake bread with mrs. white
19.) go to a bahamian wedding (horatio and/or godfrey's)
20.) jc softball games

*bonus/unrealistic: take an invitation to lenny kravitz house to swim and sing a song*

summer reading list:
the hole in our gospel richard stearns
the heartbreaking work of staggering genius dave eggers
the confessions st. augustine
surprised by hope nt wright