Nov 5

God is so good to me!  He heard my pleas, He saw my tears and looked into my heart and chose to comfort me.  How can I not love Him?

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I'm nearing a month in California now.  I'm pretty much settled in my little room.  I'd like to make it more livable but that requires a job.  Ok for now.  I know my way around, I can go anywhere I imagine, no problems, easy driving in Cali :)  Been learning lots here and there, and from people on anything from the terrible state Cali is in to the little gossips of Citrus Heights and Sacramento.  Very interesting, I don't dwell on it, obviously, but I'd like to be versed in.. everything :)

My DMV journey should conclude tomorrow I hope.  All fees are paid, I just need to finalize the registration and retake the driving test.  Then just wait for the plates and the licence to come in the mail.  I think that's how they do it here.  All is so different from PA...

For now I'm making friends in Roseville church, but I'm nosing around Sac Central as well, as I'm aching to get involved in one of their ministries.  I talked to Jimmy the other day, he said he could put me up with the right people.  I just may take him up on that.  So maybe that's where I belong?  But I still want to explore other churches. 

For not having a job yet, I sure been busy.  Time just flies, and because I don't really need to be anywhere, I get up way too late.  I'd love to be up and running by 7am at the latest.  I've gone up to 6 most annoying alarms my phone can muster.  Still doesn't work... :/

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So after my terrible Friday night, in which I stayed up till past 2am feeling beyond miserable, I get a text early morning on Sabbath with a lunch invite.  How lovely.  The whole day was one big blessing!!!!!  We had an amazing choir come and do some numbers with such a loving sermon; basic, but bringing one so much closer to Jesus.  I was like 'what do you mean you're done, you just started!'.  Then lunch at Linda and David's with 4 other people, inluding the pastor and his wife, nice :)  What a blessing that was! Then I ran to another church half hour away for a full blown men concert.  Wooooh, that was something, had me sitting on the edge of the pew, such praise, so beautiful, I was tearing up sometimes.  Huge church too, with loooooooaaaads for people and not enough parking spots :)  Got home before 9pm, and edited some jpgs. 

Sat nights are a bit hard, because I'm in a city now, and that fully reminds me the city sat nights I used to have, with friends, always doing something together.  Or going out with guys, dating, that's the time to hang out and do fun stuff... tough!

Sunday had me just as busy as we (church group) were going to Yuba City for indian festival early in the morning.  It was fun, I of course, went with my camera.  How could I pass up this chance to shoot their colorful outfits? It turns out that the Sikh indians believe that the more they do for the community (salvation by works!  where did I hear that before!) the more they gain in heaven.  So they had tables and tables of free food and drinks, and people flocked there just for the food.  Well, I went for the pics; most of their food was fried and plain unhealthy! But it was so interesting! There was gonna be a parade, but the people I went with had to leave before the parade, but that's no loss, since i got some cool pics.  Some of the indians thought I was working for a paper (my telephoto does look impressive to an untrained eye....) and they were asking me to take pics of them and making sure I put them on the front page!  Lol, I had a good time!

I chatted with Nancy in the afternoon, sharing my story and my current struggles with her.  I so value her opinion, she gives good advice too.  So blessed to be friends with her.  And God is good, helps me to put certain issues at the back of my head.  If I don't pray and ask for His help, I may as well go mental sometimes.  My life seems so checkered right now, sometimes I'm all over the place not knowing what am I doing, not focusing... praying to Jesus helps every single time!  After the festival I felt so off again, I wanted to read and couldn't concentrate.  An avid and fast reader like me, it was a joke! I couldn't believe it.  Hard! But with God's help, He gave me my focus back and I finished the book by 8pm - amazing true story of a black slave girl, depicting the life during the slavery time.  Horrible!  I am so happy that these terrible times are over, poor people!!!!  Giving glory to God and praying for freedom to all people, no matter the race, color or religion!!!!