What an incredible summer! What an amazing ride…
On Friday, August 15 2003 we said goodbye to the legacy that was the white striped house in Albany, just hours before its new occupants, the Sakai family began moving things in.
Throughout that week, things were removed from 709 and transferred to their new home at 1170 Richmond Street. The Country Bear poster which greeted me on my arrival was taken down, along with the Ansel Adams portraits. Two things we left were the “Welcome Home” banner and “709 Spokane” sign from our Albany Hill adventure. Our "battle board" living room mirror which held so much of our camp planning throughout the year was erased and cleaned as well as every mirror in the house. The bathroom mirror was the only reflective surface left untouched by dry erase markers although occasional messages were found there as well.
The floors were vacuumed and swept (thanks Peter!); the refrigerator (except for the freezer which still has ice cream and at least a ton of mochi) was emptied and cleaned. Blinds were dusted, spiders smashed or chased away, closets emptied and windows washed. The yard got a much needed weed wacking but claimed all of the rake's teeth in the process.
I said goodbye to the neighbor lady we hardly talked to in the time we were here. She wished me luck and asked if any children were moving in. I told her they were older, to which she replied, "Oh good, babysitters!" =) After taking some final digital shots, it was off to settle into the Richmond house.
It's hard to believe how much has gone on in such a short amount of time – there were hardly any moments to sit down and process it all...until now.
My first night here was spent with Charlie and Tomio watching “Set it Off” starring Queen Latifah Jada Pinkett and Vivaca A. Fox. Reception is bad if you don’t have cable and that was the only thing on at the time…seriously.
In the days to follow, Charlie and I hung out while Tomio went to work. We’d have adventures at Costco (the greatest store in the whole wide world) and watch DVDs of Friends, Robotech and Transformers until Tomio got home later that night.
We weren’t allowed to get DSL or a cable modem until I got a job (Tomio’s rule) so on October 21 we eagerly awaited for our connection to be activated via computer (thanks Marge!) At 12:01 we had DSL. It was a proud moment for the residents of 709, one that was magnified with the addition of a wireless router which we purchased from Best Buy the day we placed the call to SBC. We later found out (as in mere MINUTES from placing our order) that had we gone to Best Buy and ordered the same service from the kiosk, we could have received a $50 gift card to boot. But we didn’t, so we missed out since we couldn’t cancel it. Booo to bad timing.
Being wireless and semi networked in the house allowed us the ability to IM each other and file share in seconds. It was nice not having to wait for one of us to get off the phone line in order to get online, and watching Homestarrunner (www.homestarrunner.com) was much more enjoyable with a fast connection. Oh the life of the privileged!
I ended up coming home more often than planned because of funerals and it was a wake up call for me not to be at the National Youth Worker’s Convention even when everyone else was. I started to realize there were some things I might not be a part of anymore and I had to come to grips with that. I was able to visit for a day and help out at Lifestyle’s Zoe booth (www.zoewear.com) where my friend Erin asked me if I was interested in working with them. It was cool seeing everyone and I was rather proud they received a “I know Brandon Gee discount” and even prouder I got a discount for actually BEING Brandon Gee. Oh yea, and I bought Louie Giglio’s tape about becoming a disappearing leader and becoming less because God has to become more. So that stops my bragging from here on out ok?
I worked at the Richmond Costco located on Point Isabella. Not only is it a great place to work, the location has some spectacular views of the City and Golden Gate bridge. I’d go down to the bay on my lunch sometimes to take in the view and scout for any cool dogs who might be wandering around in the adjacent leashless dog park.
I was thankful for being able to attend the post-camp rally in November even though I was scheduled to work. Thanksgiving was spent with the Nakamuras and Christmas quickly rolled around with my family, complete with grandma and Ty coming up to visit. Peter lent us the Showtime Rotisserie for prime rib which was sooooo gooood!
We got some good use out of the Showtime and ended up keeping it for longer than Peter expected. It finally went back when it was time for roast beef at youth group.
December also marked my first visit to this imaginary place called “House of Prime Rib” which turned out to be a copycat Lawrys. We went to celebrate Tomio’s birthday and topped it off with a traditional English triffle!
Christmas wasn’t the only reason to go shopping for Tomio who purchased an iceberg and popped the question (will you marry me?) to Alice on December 25. (She said yes by the way).
The end of the year meant mid-winter and mud football at Redwood with Buzzy Ennis. Everyone went to Tahoe to snowboard and ski right before mid winter. Conditions were snowy and at the end of the day it took two hours to get out of the parking lot. I was told that inspite of the blizzard like conditions and psycho tire chains, “a good time was had by all.”
Camp planning officially began in January along with our once a month trips to SoCal. This was the first of many rental car experiences although our only TAURUS! It’s a 6 seater car (can you bewieve it?) and there are 6 people in it. We actually came down twice that month, the other time for Jarod’s wedding!
I was introduced to my future house in January as an employee of Nakamura Inc. Our highly trained crew took to the pink walls of 1170 Richmond as experienced interior house painters (see below photos). If your house is in need of a new coat (or two) of paint, call 1-800-NTA CHNCE.
Actually it was great working with everyone who came out. I realized I’m not a details person – I like project managing things but if left to do this by myself, I’d be sitting in a half painted room to this day. Much props to Pat for coming out so much to help as well as Chris, Jon, Greg (spray crazy hound!), Charlie, Helen (good job on the bathrooms!), Lynne, Rob, Tomio, Bryan and Wayne!
We finally finished the house in February in time for the carpet to come in. Charlie, Greg and I went down to SoCal where Charlie and I helped deliver flowers at Season’s Florist (www.seasonsfloristav.com) in Aliso Viejo. After a hike to Mount Wilson with Pastor Arnold and the MV people, we spent time in San Diego where Jarod and Eugene met up with us and we feasted with the UCSD people at Tadashi’s in La Jolla. The Great Eating Tour of ’03 concluded with Charlie and Greg’s first trip to Lawrys for some great prime rib, courtesy of the Katayama family - mucho arigato!
  
February also marked the launch of our Xanga site which brought much joy and laughter into the sad and lonely world of blogging sites. We had our first local food contest around this time with everyone’s favorite…hot and sour soup.
Staff selection for camp was held in March and I started substitute teaching, using candy from Costco as my weapon of choice for obedience. Thankfully it worked. We got to see Shane and Shane in Woodland where we met Jacob’s Well for the first time too. I think this month was the debut of Charlie’s website : www.cfujikawa.com. I rented another car (Nissan Sentra), to come down for the prayer retreat we had with Pastor Shin in preparation for our training sessions.
In April, Charlie, Rich and I went to the Call SF at Candlestick 3 COM park to fast and pray for the city. Eugene and Linda came up for the Call and we went to Tahoe with them for snowboarding and skiing later on that week. Conditions were awesome and the day was topped off with a beefy meal at Cattlemans. Our first camp training session started this month where we went to Hertz again this time for two Mazda Proteges. PROTÉGÉ! Food contest #2: Banana Cream Pie was held and although its not shown, Marie Callendars won hands down in a ruling from the three guys of Spokane. Check out our April 28 entry for a play by play of how it all went down.
   
May was countdown to Tomio’s wedding and for his bachelor party Andy found a bear suit which he wore proudly around town on his way to fulfill his shopping list at Safeway. Check out Charlie’s website (www.cfujikawa.com) for video highlights. We spent the day playing ball and then football after which we feasted on tons of food which Charlie spent hours cooking. Mmmmmm! Charlie became a proud new member of the Honda family (of cars) when he purchased his 2003 Accord EX. Tomio and I completed another item on our "Things to Do Before We Leave Spokane" list by tackling AND conquering mysterious Albany Hill.
     
June was Tomio’s wedding, our retreat in Clovis in 100+ degree weather, Pastor Arnold and Gary’s last Sunday at Mission Valley and New Life and I turned 30. The search for a new housemate started and ended in June with Foster/Addison/Tomio / Butters/ Chester going home with someone else. We had our last official food contest with ribs from Piggy’s, Embers and Everett and Jones (hands down the best ribs!); our official triffle night complete with the Friends’ episode; Caroline and Phil got married.
  
July was countdown to camp with our last Clovis training session, Jacob’s Well concert at Mission Valley, moving preparations, a visit to Davis for all you can eat sushi, a trip to the outlets, Vacaville Costco and Charlie started his new job!
 
Which pretty much brings us to the end of the 709 Spokane era. We moved out at the end of July but I stayed until pre-glow on August 2. We had a goodbye to 709 party on Friday where we ate the “best of” foods and watched of course, Friends with the triffle episode. It was a great way to end a great journey of fun, food, laughter and fellowship.
     
It was a great ride and I was glad to be a part of it. Tomio is married now, Charlie has a job which is closer to his “other” home in Oakland and I just made the decision to go to Thailand to teach for the year.
Thanks everyone for being such a fun part of our lives and for making our house your home to hang out, talk, play games and hopefully draw closer to Him through all of it. Blessings on your great God journeys. We’ll see you here, there or in the air!
Signing out - Bg
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