the simple AAR: deviantly Abby style

Pre-trip arrangements:
Ride to airport. Cost: my running partner insisted on taking me.
Flight from Mpls to Dulles. Cost: $140
Borrowed my sister’s car for commute and travel to and from all locations below. She insisted that I not rent a car. Cost: Dedication to familial oneanothering—mind you, she is my younger sister, which means I was involved in rearing her!
Snacks and water purchased for the week: granola bars, bananas and a six pack of bottled water $8.58

Schedule:
Fri am – Train pass from the Vienna commuter lot. Cost: $10
Fri noon – Talked myself into the last sessions of the ETS for $10
Fri aftnoon – Fought with my computer wireless hook-up at the local Caribou—cost: dead phone battery and $2 drink.
Fri 7-8 pm – Mennonite Scholars and Friends Reception (good food, boring company)
Fri evening – gathering of Bethel students and alumni at local burger joint (great company and recommendations for the days ahead) Cost: 10.39
More train pass and parking fees: $20
Night spent in the car in a parking lot. Temperature: 38 F Slept well. Woke up early.
Sat Breakfast: free at the Renaissance (Starbucks coffee ran like a river from this place—the additional spread was amazing: cereal, soda, pastries, tea, fruit, muffins. I had to refrain from gaping and stuffing my pockets.)
Sat 9-11:30 am Karl Barth Society of North America: debate with Hart on the analogia entis. The Bartian arguements were terrible.
Sat lunch – Lunch buffet at a Lebanese dive. $8 (good company—books and the Arabic chatter of customers)
Sat eve – sister’s going away reception at Mt. View. Great 4 part harmony and my brother gave a short meditation.
Night spent at Mt. View. The bed felt great on an aching body. Cost: my cousin and sister’s service at the nursing home
Sun am – to church with my cousin, brother, sister and sister-in-law at the outreach church in Charlottesville
Sun lunch – at Mt. View Cost: hospitality received/hospitality given
Sun 5-6:30 – Science, Technology and Religion Group: Interpreting Quantum Mechanics—Christian and other perspectives.
Sun eve – crashed numerous receptions—Princeton’s was the most memorable. Bag check: $5
Sun night – rode the subway to the end of the line with new friends going the same direction
Night spent in the car in a different parking lot. Temperature: 35 F
Mon am – sponge bath in the restroom at a very nice suburban mall.
Breakfast: scouting out the free Starbucks and breakfast spread at the Renaissance.
Mon session – Latino Religion, Culture and Society Group: Legacies of Colonization
Mon noon – book hunting
Lunch: Fuddruckers in Chinatown—cost: 12.18
Afternoon and Evening: travel to SMBI with a telephone booth stop to transform minor but significant details into the image of a 5 years younger aspiring SMBI student.
Night spent in the girls dorm at SMBI.
Tues am: breakfast at SMBI—cost: participation in generational line of Amish Mennonite community (thorough knowledge of the Mennonite 5 points of separation game.)
Classes attended: Urban Evangelism and Theology I: Doctrine of God
Lunch at SMBI—cost: more Mennonite connection games with the administrator—score: one degree of separation (my sister taught school with him)
Tues afternoon and eve: Travel to Lancaster. Looked up an old friend in Ephrata. Accepted a dinner invitation with a new friend and his wife, who I met at the conference. They bent over backwards to find a local lady who sold coverings out of her basement. The Mennonite lady opened her shop after-hours for me, so I could fit on coverings and then trusted me to pay her when I discovered I had no means of payment with me. Absolutely amazing! Cost: mutual love, grace, generosity and trust from those in the community of God. (Who would steal coverings anyway?) Oh, and the new friends wanted me to, and I quote him… “meet their son so he could fall in love with me and then I could become their daughter-in-law”—potentially expensive? or an investment of substantial returns?—depends on one’s perspective.

Cost of gas to and from all the above locations and returning home to Minnesota: $103
Total cost of trip not including books purchased or membership fees: $329.15

definitions:
covering—that white thing I wear on my head
ETS--Evangelical Theological Society
AAR—American Academy of Religion
SMBI—Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute
Mt. View—Mt.View Nursing Home, A facility for the aging, staffed entirely by Amish Mennonite youth doing voluntary service or pursuing nursing degrees.