the Dallas trip...

The plane ride there and back were very uneventful, which is always good when traveling more than a half an inch off of the ground. I have realized that in the last five months at The Crossing I have been to Oklahoma, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Dallas and no more do I get ‘woozy’ when the plan takes off.

Our visits to Watermark Church and Northwoods were good ones. Each place has their unique character. Some people say they don’t like this church or that church because of this or something and others church hop because of it but I have come to appreciate churches of all kinds, especially those that are reaching and growing. We took some good ideas from each church and are gnawing on it now as we continue to process this new building phase.

I don’t think the highlight for me on this trip was the church visit (they were good though and thanks to the church’s staff). The true highlight was seeing certain individuals from a certain consulting firm in action. To protect the integrity of this certain consulting firm that is into acoustics and A/V/L design whose office happens to be in Dallas….and New York (though I still respect those guys up there a little) I will not discuss the many ‘mishaps’ that happened yesterday during our visit. This would include taking a twenty minute trip down the wrong road on the way to their client’s building! And I won’t even talk about the wrong turn made trying to just enter onto the highway that took us around in a circle.

BUT, I would like to mention this certain consulting firm who apparently enjoys employing certain individuals with a sense of humor that I do not have. If you read my retraction post from yesterday - here's the rest of the story. As we were leaving Watermark and heading to the cars the individual who will be named…hmmmmm –let’s see, we will call him Craig Janssen. Craig told me that he had something for me. Not knowing what it is, and thinking just getting to see him again would be a gift enough for me, I watched him pull a bag out of his car and bring it back to me. While handing it to me he said, “Cathy (whose last name starts with a ‘H’ and ends with a ‘n’ and has ‘utchiso’ in between) and I were reading your blog and wanted to give you free stuff."

Well, my heart pumped in excitement and then I looked down at the bag. I looked back at Craig and he had this silly smirk on his face. I pulled out of this then black book bag with yellow logos of Texas a shirt from a respectable audio company ( I will not divulge the name as they are assumed innocent) and a small tin of green goop. Craig kept sayings, ‘all you said was you wanted free stuff’. I got a good chuckle from this little shenanigan the folks from A.D.I. (initials so to protect the consulting firm’s name) until I realized I had to get on a plan last night with this in my bag. I could only imagine standing there at the airport spread against the wall with police as the bomb squad was trying to determine what this little tin of green play putty was. So I tucked it down behind the drive seat of David’s minivan. I hope they mail it to me – I like getting free stuff!