You want him when?!

As I write this, I'm on a train that's taking me back to Baltimore.

Rob and Mike returned home yesterday evening. I was a little concerned that they might be delayed due to the weather, but their trip was uneventful.

I don't think I made this clear in my earlier entries, but Rob is going to be the new rector at an Episcopal church in Martha's Vineyard. They want Rob to be on the job the week after his last Sunday at his church in DC, so they'll be making the move on January 16, giving them a little more than a month to pack up all of their things and put their affairs down here in order.

Both of them are a little anxious. They're both moving to a new community and that community sounds a little insular, although they're both being welcomed with open arms. Rob will be at a new church with entirely new personalities to become acquainted with, and Mike will be in a more visible role as his partner.

Mike told me that the news about the new gay rector and his partner was all over the island almost instantly, so there's the added pressure of the expectations (real or perceived) of the community. In fact, the church is now considering whether to ask that Rob and Mike get married, since it is a legal option in Massachusetts. (My personal feeling is that the congregation should have hashed that out before asking Rob to be their rector, although I also feel that they can be forgiven — this is the first time that they have had this kind of situation, and there can't be much precedent.)

Mike is retired, so I think he's going to feel a little adrift unless he can find some way to anchor himself, unless he find a role for himself that isn't imposed from without. I don't think he wants to just be the "rector's wife". He has some skill as an electrician from his time in the Air Force, and there was some interest among the folks he met for those kinds of skills. He could get certified and have some work of his own. Otherwise, I'm concerned that loneliness might be a problem for him.

I had written about how they were thinking about purchasing a retirement home in Texas (all of their housing expenses in the rectory will be paid, including high-speed internet). Last night, I suggested that they might consider getting a little place in Boston instead, and they both seemed quite taken with the idea. That would give them a little escape from the demands of the community in a city where they can be more anonymous. Like a little vacation, always just three hours away. Besides, Rob will be making regular trips into Boston for meetings, so a home base there would be useful. When it's time for Rob to retire, they can sell the place in Boston and then get the place in Texas.

I'm sure that they will both make the move just fine. Changing jobs, moving to a new area, meeting new people, finding how they fit in with the community — all of these things can be overwhelming, but the anticipation is more frightful than the actuality, in my experience.

Update

As I write this, I'm still on the train back to Baltimore.

I made dinner for Eric and me Tuesday night — leftover baked ham, green beans, and cauliflower with a homemade cheddar cheese sauce. The cheese sauce was an experiment and could have been a little better, but Eric told me the meal was delicious. Then we soaked in the hot tub and went to bed. He left for work Wednesday morning.

(Note to self: "lightning bolts". ;-)

I went into DC Tuesday to meet up with Mike D., the guy who laid me off from my previous job. Robyn is subcontracting me to Mike for a FileMaker Pro job for a company in Lanham, MD, and Mike and I were supposed to meet at 9 a.m. to head to the client's office. Because of the snow, I was twenty-five minutes late (I had forgotten that there would be snow on the car in the morning). Because of sleeping late and the snow, Mike was three hours late. :-)

I went back to the client office yesterday afternoon to get a walk through of the system and some data files so I can do some work from home. I'm still going to have to figure out how to get to the site without a car. There does seem to be a bus leaving from the New Carrollton station that will drop me off about a quarter of a mile away, so probably not a problem.

Last night, Mike (of Rob and Mike) asked me if I would consider making the trip up to Martha's Vineyard with them and staying a week to help them unpack. I readily agreed — I'm going to Martha's Vinyard! Mike tells me that it is absolutely beautiful. I'm looking forward to taking my camera along!

I finally got to show Mike my photos from the GMCW holiday concert and he was very impressed. I made sure that he got copies of all of my photos and I got a few that he took. I'm going to be burning them to a CD and sending a copy to Stephen S., another chorus member. Since we were on the subject of photography, I also showed Mike my photos of the lighting of Baltimore's Washington Monument, and he was impressed with those as well. :-)

I suggested to Mike that he and Rob should start a web log of their own. They have a lot of friends here that would be interested in hearing about how things are going for them. He seemed intrigued. He plans on taking a lot of photos himself; they would make a neat addition to a web log too.

Monument Photos

dancer44 wanted to see the set of photos that I took at the lighting of the Washington Monument in Baltimore, so I've put them up here.

Flickr-ing

Okay, so I've finally set up a Flickr account. Rather, I activated it, since Flickr is part of Yahoo! now. I also downloaded the iPhoto plugin to make it easier to upload stuff.

Anyway, I uploaded the entire set of my photos from the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington's 2005 holiday concert, "FabYULEus!", as a photo set here.