A big and welcome surprise

Took advantage of a chance to get out of town for awhile today. I've been needing an inexpensive white top to wear to various Buddhist centers while I'm in California, and for me right now, cheap means Goodwill. There's a good one in a town about 40 miles from here, where I've found good bargains before. Thankfully, I'd arranged to meet my cousin for lunch, since it's not all that far from where she works, because Goodwill had absolutely nothing that would work. As it was, the trip wasn't wasted. Had a good lunch, a good visit with Susie, made my way back home. Looks like I'm going to have to just settle for a plain white T-shirt, which my Thai friend told me would be perfectly acceptable at the Thai Buddhist center we're supposed to visit.

And, just after I arrived I got an email from Bhavana telling me that my application for residency has been approved! I wasn't expecting to hear from them for weeks, so this was a big and welcome surprise. I'm planning to go from Around Sept 24 through around October 30, which is about 5 weeks. I chose those dates because it coincides with a big celebration they're having the weekend of October 6-7 (it's Bhante G's 85th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the Bhavana Society itself plus an annual holiday), and I wanted to be there for that, if possible. I'm looking forward to the ceremonies around the entire weekend, not to mention some lovely Sri Lankan food that will be brought as offerings to the Monastery. I've been lucky enough to be there when some of that is offered, and it's really good. There's also a retreat that will take place while I'm there, on Metta, and I'll probably be able to sit in on some of that. I like the early morning hours -- in the hall around 5am while it's quiet and almost empty -- and I should be able to do that every day, since whatever work assignments I'll have won't begin that early.

I'll be home from Jesup for maybe 10 days before leaving for West Virginia. Plenty of time to do laundry and repack. So, after being forced to rest up for these few weeks, I'm going to be pretty busy from early July through October.