Tim's Blog (Original, No?): 05/01/2006

Random Pic of the Day - "Cowboys like us sure do have fun. . . ."

Here, There, and Everywhere

Of late my blog has been completely devoid of any substantive blogging, providing only the very occasional random photo or thought. Instead of my usual accounts of life’s activities and issues, minimal verbiage has ruled the day. It has now more than six weeks since my last substantive blog post, and I am growing weary of an idle blog. Time for a post!

Let it not be assumed that my recent non-blogging is the result of a slow, uninteresting, uneventful time in my life. Au contraire. These past six weeks, and particularly the most recent three, have been some of the busiest weeks of my life. It is this fact that has mitigated my opportunities to blog, and thus correspondingly diminished my frequency of posts. Allow me now to share some of the events that transpired these past three weeks.

April 20 – May 7, 2006

Thursday, April 20, marked the beginning of my "three home school conferences in three weeks" travel extravaganza. I departed from San Antonio via plane in the morning, and was met by my good friend Caleb Hayden at the Kansas City International Airport that afternoon. Caleb drove us to our nearby hotel where we deposited our luggage and then headed to the Midwest Parent Educators’ 2006 conference location to setup VF’s booths.

From setup on Thursday through teardown Saturday night, my time at the MPE 2006 conference was one of excellent fellowship, conversation, ministry, and general enjoyment. One unexpected treat was dinner on Friday night with a father, Joseph Hoffman, who formerly attended my old church assembly in New Jersey. (The Hoffman family moved to Kansas last year, I believe, and Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman were in attendance at the MPE conference). Mr. Hoffman generously took Caleb and me out for dinner, and we all three of us enjoyed a wonderful evening of conversation about life’s weightier matters. Caleb and I were both blessed by Mr. Hoffman’s willingness to share his wisdom and insights as a father and a man who desires to obediently serve God in each area of his life. How good it is to fellowship with like-minded believers and talk about the things of the Lord!

Saturday night saw the end of the conference and the arrival of Mark Stubblefield. Mark arrived in time to supervise the completion of our booth teardown efforts, and then Caleb, Mark, and I departed for dinner at a local restaurant. ‘Twas great fun for this trio of friends to reunite, an evening marked by what quite probably was the last time we will enjoy a meal together as the Three Musketeers only. As of June 10th, a Muskette will be added to our merry band, and our shared bachelorhood will lose one of its members (hot dog!). All sentimental hypothesizing aside, the short night together was a mixture of "inside" humor, recollecting "the good ‘ol days," and collective sharing of present doings and aspirations. Caleb soon had to depart for his home, so we exchanged good-byes and parted ways. Mark spent the night in Kansas City in Caleb’s stead, and took me to the airport on Sunday morning. How grateful I am for godly, life-long friendships.

Many thanks to the MPE leaders and conference organizers for their hard work in putting together MPE’s 2006 conference, and for making our exhibiting experience easy and ministerially rewarding. Many thanks also to Caleb for taking time out of his busy schedule to labor with me throughout the weekend. Working with Caleb is always a privilege, especially as our opportunities for face-to-face interaction are rather rare these days. I look forward to our next joint effort, Mr. Hayden, wherever and whatever that may be. Finally, ‘twas good to see Mark in person and take a break from our phone-only conversations. Here’s to June 10th, my friend.

After a brief one-day interlude in San Antonio, it was back on the road again for a multi-purpose, work-related trip to Massachusetts. On Wednesday night I picked up Nathan Barnes from Logan International Airport in Boston, as he was to be my co-worker at the MassHOPE convention in Worcester. Departing my Worcester hotel for the airport, I was soon driving the opposite direction from my intended destination. Pursuing this course for about twenty-five minutes, I finally realized my mistake and called Barnes to inform him that his chauffeured ride would be delayed by about an hour. (Oh, well. Not the first tip I’ve lost.) Once I reached the airport I found Barnes in a state of great hunger, having had no opportunity to grab dinner during his abbreviated layover en route to Boston. We made the hour-long drive back to Worcester and stopped for dinner at a Denny’s next to our hotel. I enjoyed a late-night meal of French toast and a chocolate shake, while Barnes went for pancakes and an assortment of breakfast items. Not so good for the digestive tract, but very tasty.

On Thursday Barnes and I conquered the logistical challenges of procuring our convention inventory and transporting it to MassHOPE 2006’s convention site. Driving to a local U-Haul facility, we rented a small U-Haul box truck for the day. From there we journeyed to the nearest UPS customer service center and loaded the truck with our convention inventory, shipped there the previous week from San Antonio. Caravanning our way to downtown Worcester, Barnes and I were ultimately successful in locating the convention center and parking our respective vehicles. The excellent MassHOPE volunteer staff of fathers and young men assisted us in unloading our truck and transporting its contents to our booths inside the facility, and in a few short hours we were setup and ready for exhibiting.

For dinner Thursday evening, MassHOPE provided the exhibitors with a tremendous buffet meal on the third floor of the convention center. Featuring lasagna, salmon, chicken, rolls, vegetables, salad, chocolate mousse, and many other tasty morsels, Thursday night’s meal was truly a feast to behold. Many thanks to MassHOPE for its generosity and thoughtfulness.

Friday and Saturday were both excellent days of interaction with conference attendees and fellow exhibitors. Barnes and I collectively and individually enjoyed thought-provoking, stimulating conversations with folks at VF’s booth, and I was able to renew friendships and acquaintances with exhibitors I hadn’t seen since the previous year. 2006 was my first opportunity to personally exhibit at MassHOPE, and I look forward to doing so again in the future.

On Sunday, Barnes and I took advantage of a late flight out of Boston to enjoy a brief tour of that historic city. Visiting sites such as the Old North Church, the Old South Meeting House, Faneuil Hall, Cobb’s Hill Burial Ground, Paul Revere’s house, King’s Chapel Burial Ground, the Bunker Hill Monument, and Starbucks, we made the most of our day in Boston. Lunch was eaten at Durgin-Park, the same restaurant where my parents treated my fellow interns and me to dinner during the 2003 Faith and Freedom Tour. In fact, Barnes and I sat next to the very same table at which we all ate 2 ½ years earlier. (Kind of a cool fact.) Anyway, the day was one of remembering God’s providential working in the early days of our country, from visiting the graves of the Mathers and Winthrops and pausing at the headstone of Billy Dawes, to walking around Bunker Hill and envisioning in our minds’ eyes the bravery and courage of the men who battled there for America’s independence. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning and afternoon in Boston, with the sun shining brightly, a slight breeze wafting off the river, and a perfect New England spring day chill in the air. With these physical elements framing the background of our meanderings, it was easy to lose ourselves in the remembrance of the countless heroes of America’s past who had been used so mightily for the Lord’s purposes. Although political correctness and history-revision were prevalent throughout our tour, we yet rejoiced for the opportunity to remember our heritage and honor the faithful dead.

Our time for touring at an end, Barnes and I headed for the airport and were soon flying over this great land on our return to San Antonio. Another conference completed, and one more to go.

That Wednesday morning I drove to the San Antonio International Airport and met David Wean for our flight to Atlanta, Georgia and the GHEA 2006 convention. Landing in Atlanta and renting a car for the duration of the convention, David and I soon arrived at the Atlanta Weston Hotel. There I was pleasantly surprised to be informed that I am a Gold Member Starwood Preferred Guest at Starwood-affiliated hotels across the country. (Not sure when or where I signed up for this privilege, but complaining seemed an inappropriate response.) Truth be told, the perks that accompanied Preferred Guest status weren’t all that perky, but we did have a placard on our hotel room door informing us that we were preferred guests (a helpful reminder, as the business of a convention can cause one to forget important details like that).

Thursday found David and me setting up VF’s booths at the Georgia International Convention Center. Although beset by a few unexpected logistical challenges ;-) (unrelated to GHEA), David and I finished our setup in plenty of time to clean up and begin exhibiting that evening. Once again I enjoyed the fruits of a well-organized and run home school convention throughout the weekend, and David and I found ample opportunities for mutually profitable conversation with conference attendees. Many thanks to GHEA for its willingness to sponsor, host, and coordinate the convention.

Convention details aside, the weekend was actually one of consistent "inconveniences," from annoyingly programmed alarm clocks, completely packed restaurants with hostesses promising unrealistic waiting times, and loud parties at the hotel, to weather-delayed UPS shipments and airline flights. However, all this is part of the fun of conference life, and makes for much better stories than do boring "everything-went-according-to-plan" trips. Nothin’ like a little spice to spike the normality of life.

As I finish this somewhat lengthy post I am sitting in an airplane flying from Chicago to San Antonio, grateful to be on board a flight that both David and I were very certain we would miss. If you are reading this post than you can be fairly confident that the Lord blessed our travels and that we arrived safely home in San Antonio. Assuming nothing unexpected arises, I should be in San Antonio for at least two weeks before I again depart for the conference trail. As much as I enjoy traveling, I unhesitatingly admit to eagerly anticipating two entire weeks at home and in the office. As a great man once said, "It’s good to be back, it’s also good to be gone." Right now, it’s good to be "back."