That's "Tukwinja" to you, thank you.

It was a pleasant evening, despite my raging fever and the dreary rain outside. Alex had just gotten home early from work; his poor sickie wife needed sustenance. The phone rang.

"Hello?" responds Alex.

Not one, but five other people said in return, "Hello!"

I sat back trying to make sense of what sounded to me like static on the other end. I hear fevers'll do that to you. All the while Alex said nothing more revealing than:

"Oh!"

"Wow..."

Laughing, "Well....uh...."

and

"How soon do you need to know?"

I stared (not glared) from him beneath my pile of blankets on the couch. A Popsicle stick was poking into my side. Reaching over to move it out of the way as Alex hung up the phone, I said:
"So?"

He proceeded to inform me that the five voices belonged to a few of our close friends from the Seattle area. They wanted to know if we wanted to move to Tukwila (WHERE?!?) with them to home-front pioneer. They needed to know in two days.

At this point in time, Alex and I had been married for a whole of four months and had only recently finished putting our art up on the walls and had finally decided which direction the toilet paper roll would go (I joke). But, really, to have finally settled in and move again so soon?! Not to mention, our lease wouldn't be up for another two months!

Regardless, our interest was piqued. Live with five amazing people, in a house filled with a spirit of perseverance, and dedicated to supporting grass-roots community development endeavors?! When ya put it like that, all else seemed moot.

We called our landlords that night to verify the lease-breakage policy. People rarely leave their building (being that it is in fact located in prime-lake-side/Whole Foods territory) and, clearly, they were surprised by the question! After a few minutes of realizing their concern that they had done something wrong, I simply described our reason for asking.

"Oh," said our land-lady. "Well, regardless, you'll be responsible for the months of your lease."

The next evening, after a lot of consultation between each other and our financial "spread-sheet," Alex and I decided to go for it. When else would we have this kind of unique experience, and why should typical expectations for the life of a married couple (i.e. living in their own place alone) dissuade us from this adventure? We would take the risk.

We moved in one week. Pretty good for two people working and going to school full-time. Needless to say, when all was said and done, we were tiiiiiiired.

Since then our house has been the venue for a housewarming party with 130 people in attendance (through no fault of our own, might we add),

a Children's Class Teacher training, our local Baha'i community's Feast, a brand-new weekly devotional gathering addressing the topic of Social Action and the Baha'i Faith, a Junior Youth (middle-school aged youth) retreat,



and countless (countless) late-night get-togethers with some amazing people.

(Where, and with who else would you sit around talking about the relationship between justice and mercy, life-after-death, or the brilliance that can characterize middle-school aged youth? ...yes, yes, of course. You're right; my apologies. Your house.)

You should come by - any time. We'd love to have you. :) Though, I should warn you - you just might want to start calling yourself a "Tukwinja."