To everyone,
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a chance to talk, and
that has been a direct result of the craziness present in the last few months.
At first, I thought I’d write an e-mail to a couple of people explaining just a
few things, but then the list of people got longer and longer, as did the list
of things to explain. So
I’m writing this letter, to you, and to whoever else
wants to read, and yet still I don’t know where to begin on the list of things.
Contrary to what logic dictates, I think I will start at the end.
I’m living in Overland Park, KS, a suburb of Kansas City
(which is in Missouri). I work at a place called Quidsi, which is an Amazon
subsidiary that runs many different websites, including diapers.com, wag.com,
and soap.com. Essentially, we sell everything a family needs. I found out about
the job from my friend Nate, who is the lead singer of Attic Wolves. I met
Attic Wolves through my college friend Matt, who plays mandolin, accordion,
sings, and is overall just an awesome guy. When my parents moved out to St.
Joe, MO I got the chance to hang out with Matt and the Attic Wolves during my
visits out to see my family. After hanging out with them for a while Nate and
Logan suggested that I get a job at Quidsi and becoming their touring bassist.
I thought it all sounded crazy, but here I am. We leave for the tour today,
which means we’re leaving a few hours before the biggest storm in the last 25
years is supposed to roll through town, so hopefully that all works out.
I live in a one bedroom apartment that Katie and I rented. I
have her cats (our cats really), her furniture and basically all of her stuff
but she’s still back in California. A little over a month ago her mom went into
the hospital for a pretty standard procedure that resulted in an infection and
that kept her in the hospital for about a week, during that time her dad, who
had a heart valve replacement a few months ago, started getting pretty sick and
then had multiple strokes. He was in the hospital and for a few days both parents
were in hospital beds, one in Whittier, one in Long Beach… it was no fun. At
this point Katie and I decided to postpone our wedding so that she could stay
back and watch over her mom and dad, and that I would still move out here and
start the job.
Luckily, Katie was still able to join me for the road trip
out there. We got a budget rental car and towed her Corolla through Vegas, up
to I-70 and then all the way through Colorado until we got to Kansas. We had a
little bit of trouble along the way and ended up getting stopped in Colorado
for 2 days longer than we expected and then driving from Denver to Kansas all
in one day. It was crazy. The wind in Kansas makes The Wizard of Oz seem
entirely plausible, and we had to get to our apartment before 5:30 or else we’d
have to stay in another hotel and return the rental truck late, which means we
were driving for about 10 hours, and lost an hour cause we switched time zones,
and when we arrived, literally RIGHT on time, we still had to unload the truck.
It was terrible.
But luckily we got to eat at Sheridan’s Unforked that night,
and that made everything better.
Also on the road trip, I got an unexpected email. As many of
you know, I originally wanted to find a job in ministry and then move, but as I
prayed about it more and more it became clear to me that God wanted me in
Kansas City, and he wanted me there now. So, I decided I didn’t need to work in
professional ministry to still be a minister and that I was content to preach
the Gospel wherever God sent me, even if that meant lifting heavy bags of dog
food for 10 hours in the middle of the night. I had applied to multiple
churches and actually decided to turn a church down that was in Indiana because
I was so sure that I was supposed to be out here. The one church I really
wanted was called Lawrence Heights Christian Church. It’s in a little college
town called Lawrence about 30 miles away from OP. A week or two before I left
my mom called to tell me that I had gotten a letter from LHCC that said they
were going with someone else for the job. Still sure of my calling to Kansas
City, I hit the road, and then bam! I get an email from the head pastor, Steve,
saying that the first guy didn’t work out and that they’d love to talk with me
more.
I e-mailed him back and told him I’m already on my way out to
Kansas City cause I was sure that was where God was leading me. After sharing
some great BBQ at Oklahoma Joe’s and meeting with the elders, I’m set to preach
on March 10th, after that, the congregation votes and I’ll officially
be the Youth Pastor at LHCC!
A funny aside to that story: during my interview with the
elders, it started to snow. Like, all of a sudden the outside looked just like
a Thomas Kinkade painting. Perfect blanket of snow, big old fluffy clumps of
flakes falling from the sky. I had to
stop the interview so I could go see it, and that’s when one of the elders hit
me with my first, official, Kansas snowball. Driving back home in it was
terrifying, but other than that, it was majestic.
So, quick end-of-letter recap: I’m in Kansas City, I’m
leaving to play bass in the band Attic Wolves on a small tour starting today,
they’re actually gonna be playing one of my songs and are interested in
learning a couple of others, but probably not for this tour (to see more about
the tour look up Attic Wolves on Facebook, good stuff). I work in a warehouse and soon I’ll be
working as a Youth Pastor out in Lawrence (coolest town ever, they say Kansas
is a big red state with a little blue dot, and that’s Lawrence. Politics aside,
it’s artsy and weird, like the good parts of LA). I’m getting married on March
23rd and that’s when I’m bringing Katie back here to Kansas City
to stay with me for good. No more of this long distance bull.
I know there is a lot more stuff going on, and a lot more
stuff that happened before all of this that is left a bit unexplained. But
think of this letter like a perfect Hollywood blockbuster. There’s plenty of
room for sequels AND prequels.
I’m sorry for not being able to talk to all of you more
frequently, and keep you guys up to date. But in all honesty, after moving in
to the apartment, I’ve only gone to the band’s house (the wolves den), the
church out in Lawrence, and my work. I haven’t even seen a movie and the AMC
headquarters is out here in Kansas City. Guys! I HAVEN’T SEEN A MOVIE YET! I’ve
had a little bit of time to visit my parents and that’s all. But hopefully when
I get back from the tour I’ll have a bit more time to talk with everybody and
send out some more texts. Maybe it’s out of laziness that I’ve written just
this one letter and addressed it to all of you, but it’s like Bill Gates says,
hire a lazy man for a tough job, because they’re always going to find the most
efficient way of doing it. I love you all (unless of course I don’t really know
you, this statement was arbitrary but it will remain in the letter because the
few that it does apply to make up for the randos). There is talk of touring out
west, in which case hopefully you’ll be able to see the band live. Otherwise, I
will see you all soon because I’ll be out there, ever so briefly, in the end of
March. Happy Belated Chinese New Year and President’s Day.
-Alex
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