The MAGIC Continues

I got my plane ticket booked for the MAGIC Camp build!  I will be there Saturday to Saturday.  The Camp is Monday - Friday.  The movers and shakers out there advised me to arrive on Saturday to get settled in before the Camp begins - and you know, I'll probably want to go roll around on my new trailer* all day Saturday since it will be the first time I've seen it!  LOL  And then post-camp, apparently traffic is so horrific in LA that everyone advised me to stay until Saturday morning!  So that's what I'm doing: Saturday to Saturday.  And I see a really amazing dinner with new friends on Friday night.  I suspect by the end of it I am going to be so high on life that I won't need a plane to fly home...

Last night I was invited to participate via Skype in a Board of Directors meeting with regards to Camp plans.  I'm just going to say - hearing Daniel lay out the daily construction schedule - hearing things like "framing, house wrap, windows, doors, roofing" and knowing that they were referring to MY HOUSE made my head spin.  I felt like I was in some kind of dream - surreal.  It's really happening!

I've written here before about this path that I am on, and how it seems to be laid out before me and how I am just walking it, and that continues.  In the weeks when this whole project idea (partnering with the Camp) was developing and I was contemplating attending but watching my budget, I told several friends that I was going to look into Couch Surfing.  Nina and now Judy have done it with great success, and I had decided it would be a fun way to reduce my expenses.  I mentioned it to friends in conversation, but said what I really hoped would happen was that I could stay with someone involved in the Camp.  I said it several times, to many people, and said you know, how fun would that be?  It would really seal a relationship with someone, and make it "feel" like, I don't know, almost like family.  My build is feeling a lot like a Habitat build to me (as did the California build that I attended) and having that cohesiveness, that sense of community, really ratchets up the satisfaction and good vibes.  And then you use those good vibes to build your home.  That's nothing short of spectacular.

So fast forward to literally the first time I spoke with Laurie on the phone.  I was listening, and learning, and trying to hear what we needed to pull this together.  We were both really pumped about all of the potential and the possibilities of what this could turn into.  And about 8 minutes into the 90 minute conversation?  An offer to stay at her home.  And then, a few minutes later - and I could tell she couldn't really believe herself that she was saying this out loud, she offered me her second car to drive for the week.  Immediately followed by disclaimers in case I was an axe murderer.  Because, you know, that's what we do -- we follow our hearts and blurt things out, and then our mind says, "Hey hey hey now you don't even know this person - what if they are a serial killer?" and then you have to back pedal.  It's human nature - we all do it.  But here I am again - with yet another piece of the journey falling into place.  It's happened repeatedly to me in the last year - and now I just watch these things happen with gratitude and the new found ability to just say, "thank you."

I really believe that you get back what you give out.  I believe that if you do good, you will get good in return.  Last year I did a lot of giving.  I gave time, I gave away material things, I gave emotional support to friends.  And I am getting all of that back three-fold.  Do I deserve it?  I like to think so, but ultimately I am just grateful, and I'm learning to accept help and say "thank you."  This concept that this year is my year to say thank you has come up in more than one conversation with friends in the last year. At first you just laugh and say, "Yeah, okay, thank you!" And then it starts to sink in; it's really a thing.  And I fully expect that next year, with my little house, I am going to be in a position to be giving a lot back.  Giving it back to the people who have given to me, and to the new people that I am going to meet on my new path.

ANYWAY - Whew that was getting deep -- lol -- here's how it sounds like the Camp days will shake out; we will have 20-25 girls attending.

Monday: Safety talk, and framing and insulating the floor

Tuesday: Frame the walls

Wednesday: Frame the roof, guest speaker Karen Wolf**  (more to come on that - an inspiring story!)

Thursday: Sheath the house

Friday: Roofing, and install the front door and windows

Laurie said she isn't sure how many nights Nina and I will actually make it to her house - that she suspects we will spend nights at the school, tinkering with the house... she may not be far off... maybe we will sleep in it one night just to say we did... ha ha wouldn't that be funny?  Maybe Friday night... (Nina - sleeping bags??  LOL)

*      Oh you KNOW I will post photos!

**     I hope my notes are accurate on her name; it was a tiny bit hard to hear