Oh my dear friends... How terrible I am, I have left you for far too long.
I have grand excuses as to why, but it seems that the first paragraph of every blog consists of my apologizing to you for some form of lacking in my delivery to you. So let us just assume, and why not, make it a tradition of sorts, that I will more than likely always be late, and always have something to complain about in this first paragraph. Alright so I do believe that is out of the way for this week. I will be covering about two weeks of our adventure since I failed to report to you sooner. But there will be brevity in some parts I promise.
Alright where did I leave you.. Ah yes, we were driving across the country, I hate Kansas, stayed the night in Boise. I remember, you remember?
So we arrived in Kent at around midnight, Raul and Matt had already arrived at the hotel and were asleep in their beds. So we all climbed into clean beds not pre-slept in by bus drivers for the last time this week. We woke up and headed into Seattle for the morning. We walked around Pikes Place Market in the unusually sunny warm weather. Folks I am convinced that Seattle is lying to us, every time I have been there, it is bright and sunny, they just want to keep all the beauty to themselves… selfish. Anyway we had an enjoyable morning and afternoon in Seattle then headed back to Kent for the show. The next day, Oh this day of days was the most intense and important day on the entire tour. So we were on our way to Portland, and there is a beautiful rest stop along the way called Multonoma Falls. SO naturally, our eyes, which had up till that point only seen those white and yellow lines racing by at a glorious pace, where hungry for something different. We pulled into the parking lot all sleepy eyed with full bladders, and went to take care of that ::ahem:: and we walked up to take a picture of the glorious waterfall. It was raining fairly hard so we didn’t stay long at all. We walked back to the van… and this is where this lovely afternoon took a very drastic turn for the worst dear reader. When we approached our van, Matt announced that all of our things had been stolen! at first, I did not believe it. I thought Matt was messing with us, till I walked up to the van to see the inside emptied of all of our backpacks, purses, wallets and laptops. Our stomachs dropped and our hands covered our mouths to stay the screams of frustration. Bandits! Thieves! Were were taken for fools and in the corse of a mere ten minutes, we had been robbed! I know, it is a truly crazy and unbelievable thing, but as we all got on the phone with the police, credit card companies and insurance agents… it felt very real. So we waited for the police to come, and we filed a report with him… then we realized that we still had a show that we had to get to, so with heads hung low, we crept out of the parking lot with heavy hearts, probably never to return to Multnoma falls. We arrived at the venue and news had spread to everyone on tour of our terrible incident. And as we sulked into the stadium many of our tour mates rushed to our aid. Asking us what we needed, offering up everything from whole lap tops to much needed hugs and consolation. I must say dear reader, I have never felt such a sense of community and Christianity as I did on that day, Which is why I said earlier that this day was the most important day of the entire tour, at least for me. It was such an amazing experience seeing everyone band together and come around us in love to see us through this trial. That is what Christ called us to. He called us to love and to be the hands and feet. I am happy to report that our faith is real and it was applied to us and filled us to overflowing. And so, although we were tossed by the waves of the unexpected, we were lifted up out of the storm by community and faith that Jesus had a plan and that He would redeem the situation. Sp we spent the night in Portland at a very strange nifty hotel, our spirits refreshed and our hearts in a place of trusting and surrender, a posture our circumstances brought on, but one that in remembering, were convicted to remain in. The next day we were off to Spokane, our last show before we could finally return for a few days. The Spokane show went so well, considering the events of the day prior, we were so ready for what the Lord was going to do, and very much relying on Him for strength. A position that we should always be in. After the show, we all jumped in the van and I drove us through the night. Watching blacked out hills back lit by the blue cold light of the moon rush past, we were worn out, we were beaten down, we were burnt out, but we were going home. Home, a place and feeling that hadn’t graced our souls for over five weeks. 15,000 miles of road had replaced the feelings and presence of home in our lives… and we could not wait to taste the sweet Nevada air once more.
Dear reader, I NEVER thought I would be so happy to see the city of Sparks Nevada as I was when we saw that gaudy colorful sign welcoming us in, and the skyline of our biggest little city. We were home! Home and it felt so good, it took everything in me not to drop to my knees and kiss that sweet Nevada earth. We all went our separate ways for these few short heavenly days of rest, but I can say with full confidence that our beds saw much of our weary bodies, and our tummies were met with much In-N-Out.
Since I have your attention my dears, I will continue on to this weeks events! Considering that I have a serious issue with time management, and the fact that we got robbed and all that… not that I am at all using that as an excuse…. haha.
Ahem, so anyway this week has been going swimmingly well! It is a very different feel out here on the West coast, and I have to say, the shows out here have been better attended and the people have felt more energetic and into the music, which makes us love the West Coast so much more.
On Thursday we had a show in Sacramento. So that morning we were able to wake up in our own beds, get ourselves ready, and then drive to the Sacramento show. That was a very strange feeling, but also lovely that we were so close to home. This show was very surreal for us, because all of our friends and families came, and were about to see what we have been up to for the past few months. It was great to show them that we haven’t just been twiddling our thumbs and eating twinkles. I personally got to take my parents back stage and show them the “glamor” of the stadium bathrooms and dressing rooms. I even think we spotted some puke stains on the ground at some point. Needless to say they were SUPER impressed. I now realize that sarcasm can be easily lost in translation, especially in Blog world… so Ill refrain henceforth. We left the Sleep Train Arena full of love and life, inspired by our families and friends that this is what we were made to do. Their support keeps us going, they have no idea how important their presence is to us and how crucial it is to what we are called to do. The next day we headed to Fresno, which was a hop and a skip of a drive, which meant that we had all the time in the world to eat some delicious pancakes with some folks from KLOVE. Then, with bellies full of sweet doughy goodness we drove to Fresno, and stepping out of the car into the humid warm air, we were reminded of freezing Pittsburg just weeks before, and again were thrilled to be back on our glorious coast. Please pardon this next sentence, as it is very corny and it rhymes, but it may be the truest thing I say in this entire blog…. THE WEST COAST IS THE BEST COAST. There its done.
Well that brings us to where I am currently dear reader… thats right, on my bench in the van, driving through the sunny hills of California. We are on our way to play a show in Long Beach. Tomorrow we have our last show of the week in Phoenix, then the band drives to Colorado while I fly there to visit my best friend for a few days.
So I believe this is where I will leave you, until next week (no promises tho)
I do hope that my regaling of our adventures has not bored you too much… although if it had, you would most likely not be reading this.
I would like to remind you that life is wonderful, that beauty is everywhere, and that you are loved, very much.
Always yours, honestly,
a blunt bloggist
Stephane Liana Kulla.
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