Romans 8:28 in real life

There are few times in my life where I have been this overwhelmed with God's faithfulness.  Yesterday I accepted a new job offer.  For just over a year I prayed, and others joined me.

I prayed that it would be within a 2 hour radius of my Aunt's house and close to other friends and family as well...
It's exactly 2 hours from my Aunt's house, the only place it's over 2 hours from is Arwen, and it's still not that far.

I prayed for a fall and spring sport assignment instead of a winter sport assignment so I would be able to be with family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and also able to occasionally go up to the Christian camp which is dear to my heart for Snow Camps.
I was given a fall/spring sport assignment.

I prayed for a boss committed to life balance...
The first thing I was asked about during both my phone and face to face interview was how I achieved good life/ work balance because that is very important to them.

I prayed that God would meet my financial need, and that I wouldn't have to pull back from supporting friends in full-time ministry...
He answered this request in abundance.

I prayed for a location where there would be several decent churches to consider attending, in New England this is no small thing...
There are several on the list to check out.

I prayed for female coworkers...
I will have several.

I prayed for an opportunity to remain involved educating the next generation of athletic trainers...
I will be working at a school with a large, highly respected undergraduate athletic training program.

Then there are the things I didn't pray for...
A mountain with a running trail RIGHT NEXT TO CAMPUS
Being smack dab in between Boston and New York City
A start date that leaves me transitioning from one job to the next without any lapse in pay
Reimbursement for relocation costs
Amazing opportunities for continuing education...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Last day in Kentucky

I woke up one last time in the ridiculously early morning to run with my running buddy and friend Jen.  We have been running early in the morning for several years, and talking about life.

After saying goodbye to a few people and running a few last errands, I hit the road for a short 4 hour drive to Louisville.
I had decided that before leaving the state, I should probably stop by Churchill Downs.

I watched them bring the horses out to the post.

And then I watched a race...

It wasn't a very close race...

I was really more impressed with the grounds than with the actual horse racing... And yes I know, the Derby is not like just a random day at the race track...

The last stop of the day was at my old road roomie Sarah's.  I stayed with her family.  It was so good to see them, I will miss them, I am so thankful for Sarah, I am amazed at her faith and commitment to serving the Lord.  I will miss her.

All in all it was a good day.  I will miss some amazing friends in Kentucky, but I am looking forward to the things God has next for me.

Keep The Old

This morning, as I was leaving the pool, I ran into on older gentleman who used to coach here and who occasionally comes by our offices to chat.  He also comes by when he has hurt himself, which is why several years ago, I had the opportunity to tell him that he had completely ruptured his Achilles tendon pushing his stalled out car back into his driveway.  We laugh about it now.

He isn't someone I see regularly, so this morning when I saw him, I realized he probably didn't know that I am leaving.  I told him, he was happy for me.

He told me that I might be leaving this small west Kentucky town, but that this town will always be a part of me, and he is right.  Every place I have ever lived, whether it was good or bad, is now a part of me.

We started reminiscing about some of the funny things that have happened.

We laughed about my first week here when I was in the athletic training room by myself and another elderly gentleman came down looking for my boss.  I couldn't understand a word the man was saying except that it had something to do with shrimp, and the gentleman's great toe had clearly been smashed.  (I later found out, through an "interpreter", that a large block of frozen shrimp had fallen out of the freezer and landed on his toe.)

That same afternoon I met our old team physician, I couldn't understand a word he said either, but he taught me how to drill a hole in toenails using a paperclip.  It's a very useful skill.

I'm at the point where I know that when I see people, whether it be planned or not, it may be the last time I see them before I leave.

While it makes me a little sad, it has been a good reminder of some of the amazing people I have met in the last 7 years.  It was fun to reminisce this morning and think about all the crazy stories about this place that people just simply won't believe when I am living somewhere in New England.

There have been so many amazing friends, coworkers, students, and student athletes that I am thankful to have in my life.  I will miss them, and hope many of them will remain a part of my life and follow through on their promises to come visit!

The Fly Saga Continues

Back in 2009 I wrote about the Dinosaurus fly we had. It was parading around my office until my coworker decided to put up fly paper.

Well the saga has continued. This summer we had "fly mansions" installed in the offices. All told about 20 some odd flies lost their lives in the sticky glue.

This week, the fly saga reached a level few if any have ever attained, with the arrival of the small bird.

That picture doesn't really do it justice.

Then it started flying around, it wasn't very fast, thankfully. The room was filled with one of our womens teams, they quickly cleared out into the hallway.

Thankfully one of our staff members was able to kill the fly.

We took this picture.

Yes that is a quarter.

Then we held a memorial service, because I mean seriously, a dead fly that big needs to be acknowledged.

And so the saga continues...

Anne Lamott- Traveling Mercies

The other day I made a quick pit stop on my very rushed lunch break. I ran into the library to grab a book to read. I didn't have much time, so when Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies caught my eye, I grabbed it. I left it in my car.

The next day, my plans for the day were completely rearranged when a student athlete needed immediate medical attention.

I spent most of the day sitting in the ER, and on our way in, I grabbed the book to take with me.

As I was reading, I came across the following section.

"Pammy and I basked in Lee's love like lizards on sunny rocks. Lee lay beside me in bed when I couldn't sleep and whispered the Twenty-third Psalm to me: "'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want' - I am not wanting for anything, Annie. Let's find a green pasture inside us to rest in. Let's find the still waters within." She'd lay beside me quietly for a while as we listened to the tide of the lagoon lap against the dock. Then she'd go on: "'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,' Annie, not 'Yea, as I end up living forever in the valley…'" And she prayed for the Good Shepherd to gather my thoughts like sheep. I did not quite believe in the power of her Mother-Father God, because my frightened lamby thoughts seemed to be stampeding toward a wall, piling up on each other's backs, bleating plaintively while their wild eyes darted around frantically. But I believed in Lee, and I felt her arms around me… and Lee would whisper me to sleep"

While I don't necessarily completely agree with all of Lamott's theology, the book is the story of her journey towards Christianity, and this section is recalling an experience she had as a child spending the night at a friend's whose' family was Christian Science.

The words really resonated in my life. It is easy, while in a set of circumstances to forget that those circumstances are temporary, and that we are not alone.

The 23rd Psalm goes on to say, "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me."

It's a part of scripture I know well. I memorized it for $1 when I was in 4th grade, the year when our lives were in total upheaval. It was the year Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the year we spent half living in my grandparents' house, half living in our own. It was the year that we went to public school in America and didn't come home for lunch. The year my dad was at home working, and my mom was with us in safety. It was the year we heard on the radio that a scud missile had landed on a warehouse, just behind our favorite pizza place and Baskin Robins, killing lots of troops.

And even then He was with us, and even now as I walk through this life, wondering where He is leading, He is with me.

The Jersey Shore isn't real

Recently Abercrombie told the members of the show Jersey Shore that they would pay them a significant sum of money to stop wearing Abercrombie apparel.

What the people at Abercrombie know is that Jersey Shore isn't really how people in America typically behave and that it was giving a bad image to their products.

When most Americans watch shows like the Jersey Shore, or The Office, or Seinfeld, or Sex in the City, or Friends, or Baywatch, they might enjoy the show, but they fully realize that for the most part it is fiction. There may some elements of truth in the show, but life for most Americans isn't how it is on the show.

Ironically though, we export those shows to countries around the world, where people don't realize that the show isn't an accurate portrayal of life in America. Television and movies are one of the biggest exports out of this country.

What this means is that there maybe people in say China, who have never ever interacted with an American, but they've seen countless episodes of Jersey Shore, and therefore think that it is an accurate portrayal of the average American.

Ooops.

This is the exact reason that I find the movie Borat, though generally inappropriate, completely HILARIOUS. I grew up listening to third world nationals imitating the phrases they heard on whatever pirated version of the latest blockbuster they had just watched.

Think of the confusion when they are all of a sudden interacting with an American tourist, and their vocabulary consists of the expert phrases they learned in school like "do you have any turnips?" and of course the cool phrases they learned from....

Which brings me to my experience over the last several days.

I interact with international students on a regular basis. It's something I really enjoy.

So over the past week I have been taking care of a student who is a freshman, fresh off the plane, who has pretty decent English. And he doesn't realize the F bomb and S bomb aren't really appropriate in places like, say the waiting area at a large clinic.

For all that I need to sit him down and gently say "hey in America, those words aren't really very appropriate in this setting" I don't want to embarrass him, which he would be, he is trying hard to be cool. (also a word he uses a lot) And quite frankly, I think it's not really his fault, it's our fault, as a society, for projecting that image and not giving an accurate portrayal of life in this country. But overtime, he will be embarrassed when he accidentally seriously offends someone, without intending to. So we will have the conversation, but I won't tell him that it's also not cool to say the double bye because it's hilarious, and one of my favorite things about new international students. It cracks me up, every time, when they end the conversation by saying "okay Cate, bye bye"

Transformation

Disclaimer: photos were taken without flash on my iphone, quality isn't the greatest.

It's a hotel room, and it's an athletic training room, and it's my room on the road. Here's how I make it work.




1. Rearrange the furniture
See this desk? Yeah, not a desk it's a taping table.



That desk chair? Well it's just in the way so shove it against the wall between the wall and the bed.



2. Fill up the portable hydrocollator, or for those of you not in the know, it's a machine that makes moist heat packs. The ice bucket provided by the hotel is an excellent tool for this task.



2a. remember to plug the hydrocollator in, there is nothing worse than waking up in the morning to find cold water. Not that this has ever happened to me before.



3. Call the front desk and ask for more towels.
The four provided are for me and my roommate, the four extra are for the hot packs



4. Hang the clothes in the closet, and if it's a longer than 2 day stay, put the clothes in the drawers. Yes I said in the drawers, living out of a suitcase is not fun when you do it this often.




5. Break out the candle



and while you are at it, just take over the night stand, I mean, that's what you would do at home right?

6. Call the front desk and ask for matches, if you forgot them, again not that I would ever do that. As a side note, they also have toothbrushes and deodorant if you forgot those.

7. Position the athletic training bag in close proximity to the taping table.



8. Reposition a trash can in close proximity to the taping table

9. pull back the comforter on the bed, we've all seen the shows, and I've seen enough cleaning ladies in action, I'm not taking my chances thank you very much.

10. plug in the phone to the outlet closest to your bed
10a. plug in the computer to the second closest outlet to your bed



11. connect to the wifi

12. set out the taping supplies on the tv stand, or in this case, since it has the preferred but not always available, rolling 2 desk set-up, place them on the taller desk with the lamp.



13. Put the toiletries in the bathtub, and not those stupid little travel sizes, there is no point, they run out in about a trip and a half.



14. understand that the minute the girls come in for treatment, your bed is now a public area


.
Did I mention, one of the girls in this picture has a portable electric stimulation device on? True story

Here is the taping table in action.



What can I say, cleaning ladies love me

Dinosauras Fly

I'm so not even kidding, for months, literally, like 3, this giant fly has been in my office driving me nuts. I asked our building manager to take care of it. He just laughed at me, over and over and over. So then one day he was in my office, and he said "wow, that fly is really annoying" YEAH, NO KIDDING. But still he did nothing. So then I started kinda jokingly harrassing him about it. So finally yesterday I came into my office and there was fly paper hanging in my window!!! He thought it was funny, I was SO EXCITED. But at the end of the day, no dead fly. So this morning when I came in, the fly was hovering around the fly paper. I closed my door to keep it from escaping. I was out of the office for most of the day and when I came back this afternoon, this is what I saw

I know it's blurry, it's the best I could do. I call it VICTORY!

Taiwan... OR COLUMBIA (South America)

Last Thursday I got a call from Shannon at Athletes in Action. The long and short is that I will no longer be travelling with them to Taiwan, instead I will be travelling with them to Columbia. People keep asking me which one. Several people have asked if I mean South Carolina, one person asked me if I meant Columbia, Ohio. I didn't know there was a Columbia, Ohio. Anyway, I will be going to Columbia, in South America. So to get excited about this fun change of plans here are some fun facts:
1. Spanish is the official language (Cate does not speak spanish)
2. They use 110 volt appliances (that means I don't have to take converters)
3. They use the metric system
4. Their currency is the Columbian Peso
5. We will be there during the "less dry season" which means it won't be the wet season but it won't be extremly dry either
6. Bogota, one of the cities we will be visiting is a mountain top city (yay for mountains!)
7. Cartagena, another city we will be visiting is on the Carribean ocean
So basically we will be in two of Cate's favorite places, the beach AND the mountains!

We're going dancing

So we won the OVC championship!! We won our first round game at home against Morehead on Tuesday night. On Wednesday night we headed to Nashville for practice and the awards ceremony on Thursday. Player of the Year was a member of our team. We won our semifinals game against Samford University on Friday. In the other semifinal game Eastern Illinois University beat Southeast Missouri University. SEMO was the team that beat us last year in the final. So we met EIU in the finals. We were down a couple points early in the first half, but we made a run, and led the rest of the game. It's kinda of surreal to work so hard for something and want it for so long and then for that to happen.

Now we are headed to the NCAA. It's pretty exciting. We had this crazy police escort back. Once we crossed the Calloway County line we were joined by 2 police cars with all the lights flashing. I think that by the time we pulled up in the loading dock at RSEC pretty much every cop in Murray was surrounding our bus. It was pretty awesome. Then there was a fire truck with it's lights on and crazy chanting fans when we pulled into the loading dock. It was a lot of fun. I am also excited for a pretty low key week before getting back out on the road again.

March Madness

So I hate uncertainty. I am a planner. I like to have everything ready well in advance. SO this whole March tournament time is one of mixed emotions for me. It is fun. There is a lot riding on each game, emotions are high. Each win is celebrated. Each loosing team walks off the court with tears.
One of my job responsibilities is coordinating the travel arrangements for our team. It is not my favorite thing but most of the time I have everything done well in advance. I have the hotel contracts done in July and August. The bus contracts are done in September. I have worked through everything with the caterers and those contracts are done at least a month before we travel. The week before we leave the itinerary is finished and sent to the appropriate people.
But all that isn't possible when it's win or go home. The travel arrangements for Wednesday (as in tomorrow) are tentative based on the outcome of tonight's game. If we win I will be finalizing it all late into the night tonight and early tomorrow morning. If we don't win, I will be canceling it all.
In some ways I wish that I could just hand all of this travel stuff off to someone else. However this responsibility has taught me some important lessons over the last two seasons. There are things I can control, and things I can't. I can't control it if the sandwich place messes up and forgets to bring someones sandwich with the other 22. I can't control it if the bus has issues or the driver can't go for more than 2 hours without stopping to pee. All I can control is my attitude when those situations arise. This is a message I feel like I have been hearing all my life. It is only recently that I have come to understand it.
So I hope we win tonight, and keep winning. Even though the uncertainty of the travel planning is stressful to me. Because I would rather be up all night finding restaurants and printing driving directions than up all night leaving messages to cancel our plans.

New YEAR, New POSSIBILITIES

Christmas is over, and New Years is over. Both were awesome. Christmas was so quiet and peaceful out at the lake. New Years was a ton of fun, even though I had to leave in the morning for Eastern Illinois, it was a joy to spend time with friends here in Kentucky. It's been a while since I really got to spend some quality time with my new friends here in Kentucky, and they are wonderful. They are fun and funny and most of all, is that they know who they are in Christ, and they are okay with who they are. There is no performance, there is no competition. It's just fun to be able to hang out with people who just delight in each other. One thing that was rather strange was watching the New Year on TV in the central time zone. I am so used to watching it in the Eastern time zone so it was rather anticlimactic to watch the ball drop in times square at 11 pm. We are home from Illinois and it is great to be on a 4 home game stand. Then after that we have some away games that are day trips. Tonight will be the 3rd night in a row that I get to sleep in my own bed! And I think the most exciting thing!!! is that a couple of the athletes I work with have asked to go to church with me!! How exciting as it says in 1 Timothy that God has appointed me to this ministry. So pray for them and for me, pray that they would not just come to church, but that they would be able to see that it's about a relationship. That going to church is something we do in order to worship the Lord not because it's "what we're suppose to do" but rather that we choose to do it because of our relationship with the LORD.

the "DEEP" south?

Well school is out around here, basketball is NOT. We leave tommorrow for the "Southern swing of the Ohio Valley Confrence." We are going to Alabama. I must first admit that I have never been to Alabama. I am a little nervous because I have heard several interesting stories about the state as a whole. And on top of that people around here call it "the DEEP south." Well golly I thought Kentucky was the south, apparently it's not really the south because it's not the DEEP south. Then when I arrive home on Tuesday night/wed. morning I am going to have to totally clean my apartment at lightening speed because my mom will arrive mid morning. My apartment is currently tidy, it's just not mom clean if you know what I mean. And then I step back for a moment and realize how very easy it is to get caught up in the daily mundane stuff. My to do list seems miles long before my mom and my brother and grandmother get here. I drove out to the condo on the lake that we are staying for Christmas after work today, and I decided that I am grateful beyond explanation that we are staying out there, the phones are turned off for the winter, no cell phone reception, no television. Just peace and quiet, the lake, the wild life, and no one around for miles. And now I am off to church for the carol sing before I head into my office to finish packing for the "southern swing." Christians wonder why we as a society have forgotten the meaning of Christmas, and then I think to myself, maybe they have forgetten because we Christians have so much to do that we forget ourselves, and we forget to live it out.