So there I was was, in Tucson, on the waiting list for Minuteman when I get a call to go to Mesa AZ. One of the members of a family didn't show up. I got there 10 days after the rest of the family did. We have a straight laced Coordinator with a HOT newlywed wife. A guy named John and me. We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment for about 4 weeks then John and I got an unfurnished apartment in the same complex. The Coordinator was more interested in his wife and running our lives than doing the word. John was never really there. Like he was living almost on another plane of existence. Made things tough the first few months. No TV or Music in the apartment. All He and I did was play chess every night. Most of the time i won. But he had a habit of conceding the game when he could see he was trapped. I honestly don't think I did an end game the entire time. 20 moves in and he would resign. So I got tired of that. Borrowed a motorcycle from a friend in Jan. Started hanging out at the Corp Leaders house. My old band mate was living with him and we played a lot of music. It helps to have Paul Cuoco as the Branch leader if you like to play music. We had a blast. I was home for twig every night then gone. My coordinator made it clear that he was not to be bothered except during twig. So every night after twig I drove to the Branch leaders house and jammed until I had to go to work. I worked 12-6 AM at Jack in the Box. I can understand how John doesn't remember me being there as I wasn't really there a lot. My year was great! had fun, got some people in the class, but not at my twig. Learned the entire PDSTRO catalog. Dated a really cute wow sister. The strangest thing that happened was one morning on the way home from work the delivery driver gave me a 5 lb block of cheese. amercian sliced cheese. I got home and was really tired so I went to bed. Got up at 4 pm and looked in the fridge. The cheese was gone. I asked John and it seems he ate the entire 5 lbs! To this day I don't understand the concept of eating ALL of the only food in the house. The pretty much ended it for me with that family. I was there for twig and when I had to for a family meeting. I am amazed someone could eat that much cheese and not get sick, in about 8 hours no less! In any situation you get out what you put in to something. I had a good year. The rest of the family not so much. My fault as much as anyone else. I stopped putting forth any effort and my time with them suffered. But to be honest Id do it again. I took that year for me to grow and not worry about the rest of the family they were all WOW vets and knew how to make things happen but it seems, they chose not to.
So flash forward to here and I find my wow brother is here. I contact him a few times and nothing. So I wrote my version of the year we had. I would do it again and the same way. it prepared me for my 3rd and final year in Racine WI. That was a good year too. I met a wonderful woman. we got married, last week celebrated 30 years together. We left the ministry soon after we were married and got out before things were really bad. For me it was not a bad time. I learned a lot and grew a lot. But ya know, I still wonder how he ate all that cheese so fast.
:)
Michael LaPaglia
Good Measure