The Cart, Neither Before Nor After the Horse

Wayne Pushing the Cart

It’s been great being here in Alexandria/Washington, DC with Mimi. After the pressures of packing the house, moving our belongings to storage, parceling them out to friends, and moving what we need for Alexandria, I spent time in Abilene with Katie and Colin, moving them into their house and residence hall, respectively, and otherwise getting them ready for Welcome Week and school.

Katie is on the Welcome Steering Committee, so she’s been busy with the Spiritual Life activities and her task of filming, editing, and showing the daily videos in Moody Morning (the gathering of all freshmen each day of Welcome Week). Colin is loving his official freshman year experience. He and his roommate, JP, have just auditioned their song, Nature Kills (which Colin wrote), and they’re hopeful to be in the talent show on Friday night.

Now, what’s with the title of this post? Last week, before I arrived, Mimi attempted a trip to Target in Crystal City, just North of Alexandria, on foot. She got a little turned around and ended up on quite the “wild goose chase.” Well, last night she talked me into going to Target again, on foot. Luckily, I knew how to get there. But, I didn’t count on pushing a shopping cart with an ironing board to return. The picture shows me pushing the cart back home, this time with groceries and no ironing board. I guess there’s enough Oxfordian in us that we’re all about walking 30 minutes one-way to the store. Mimi reminded me on the way back that we are minimizing our carbon footprint. Of course, that made me feel all the better about this trek.

Life in Alexandria and Washington, DC is pretty amazing. Tonight we’re going to theatre under the stars in Alexandria to see the musical, 1776. This weekend we’ve rented a car so we can drive to other sites, and next weekend we’ll attend the first birthday party of Bennett Speck, the son of our former students, Travis and Kelly Speck. Bennett is a miracle baby, having pulled through some really tough days after his birth. We’re excited to be part of the celebration.

Sunday we’re attending Christ Church in Alexandria. This is the historic Episcopal church where George Washington and Robert E. Lee attended, and our former student, Kim Seidman, is a priest. It’ll be great to see her, and to meet her husband, Raj.

As I’ve said before, your prayers and support mean so much to us as a family.

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