Candidating Week: A Study in Blue

Hello, cookies!

PeaceBang is quite exhausted, having just spent an intensive week with her new congregation. The end result of the process is that I was called by unanimous vote on Sunday to be the settled minister, put an offer on a house that evening, and was informed today that I am the owner of a lovely 3-bedroom house.

I know this all seems very sudden, but I have been readying myself for this transition for a long time. I have been in discernment with lay people in several denominations, friends, family and colleagues, a spiritual director, therapist, an Alban institute coach, professors and some of you. I have had a tremendous amount of support and encouragement to get to this new phase in my life and I am profoundly grateful. As soon as I felt the unmistakable sense of “yay!we’re a match!” with the congregation, I spent every spare moment (not a lot of spare moments, but I made them count!) investigating real estate. By the grace of God and Facebook, an old Div School friend hooked me up with her wife, a realtor who turned out to be an angel. I call her my Fairy Godrealtor. If not for Beth I would never have had the first idea how to navigate all the details of buying a home. I knew what I wanted: I had thought about that for years, prayed about it, envisioned it, and researched the area once the invitation came to candidate with the congregation. But that’s not the same as knowing how to make the deal!

Over the course of the week (plus two weekends), I had eight days’ worth of events to attend. I decided to stick to a palette of blue, black and white for my week, with teal accents. That made it very easy to pack and to mix and match outfits.

Other choices I’m glad I made were to bring everything on hangers and pack the rest of my clothes in a laundry basket. It made it so much easier to move everything out of the car and into my lodgings.

I am also incredibly glad that I brought not only my computer but my printer/scanner. I used it a lot (especially for unexpected real estate transactions) and was very happy to not have to bother the church staff to do any of that sort of thing for me. They were busy enough as it was dealing with the hectic schedule and my arrival.

I’m very glad that I brought my Kindle and its charger, because it turns out that my new church doesn’t use the pulpit very much, but the minister leads the service from the chancel floor. I love the relationality and closeness of that, the freedom to move around while preaching. I was really happy to be able to send myself parts of the liturgy on my Kindle and just hold my Kindle in my hand in its pretty little tooled leather cover. It worked great. Yay, technology!

I’m certain that I gained at least five pounds this week — I ate like it was going out of style (there’s a reason my colleagues and I refer to candidating week as “trial by potluck”) — but I did bring smoothie fixings with me so at least I got a dose of greens and vitamins every morning, plus my immunity-enhancing extras. I found the closest Starbucks for my daily dose of java.

So now for some of the outfits. It’s not my favorite thing to put photos of myself all over this blog — believe it or not, I’m just as self-conscious and insecure about photos of myself as you are!– but I am an accessible model. And since I get a lot of requests for help preparing for week-long conferences and job interviews, I thought I would just go ahead and share some of what I put together. Because I had already spent one weekend with the Search Committee, I had a good idea where the community is on the formality scale, and was very happy to see that my own formality level was a good match for theirs. That was an early point of compatibility, and it’s one you should watch for. It’s always a good sign when your personal style blends in well with the community you aspire to serve.

If anyone can explain to me how to take a flattering full length self-portrait, please do. I have seen many very heavy fashion bloggers manage it so I know it’s possible for me, too, but all my efforts wind up looking just atrocious! Do these gals have photographers living in their linen closets or something? And while I’m asking ridiculous questions, wouldn’t it be great if each denomination had a cadre of volunteer hair stylists who would do ministerial hair on Sunday mornings of Candidating Weeks? Wouldn’t that just bring such ease to your stressful morning?

Arrive in town. Meet Search Committee for coffee and check-in. Floral sweater from Macy’s. White t-shirt with pearl beads from Talbot’s. Warby Parker specs. I wore black pants and taupe boots. The drop coin pearl earrings dressed this look up a bit.

First Sunday meeting congregation. Bad hair day!! Check it out! Alien Head! Black pencilMagic Marker skirt, black and teal floral blouse with draped neckline. Black blazer with silver Art Deco pin. Black patent leather wedges.

First day of meeting church staff. Office day. Striped shirt, navy blazer, white denim pants, blue and white rockabilly Hush Puppy Oxfords. Tired and wan already! Haven’t hit my stride yet. Need more blush.

Regular church day, luncheon with group of elder parishioners at someone’s home. I am wearing a white pants, a floral sweater and blue tank top, and shiny blue blazer (slightly dressier than my other navy, which is more nautical). The sweater and blazer were both shorter than I had remembered and more floppy, and I wound up feeling very fat in this outfit, as the tank top clung to me in the worst possible places.
Oh, well.

Choir potluck and rehearsal. Talbots cardigan, black jeans rolled with boots, and this scarf from somewhere.

This isn’t blue. It’s a plaid blazer that I really like, and I found this sleeveless white blouse with an awesome collar by Raffaella from Macys.com. It’s really cool with ruched sides that give it really good shape. I wore this with jeans and crazy 4″ blue Fluevog platforms for an evening presentation to the church. Another bad hair day. That was the event during which I felt that special zing you get when the energy is flowing in a fantastic way between you and a group of people. I felt that way all week, but this night was the one where it really hit me and I went back to the hotel giddy with excitement.

Here I am on my way to church for the Mother’s Day service and vote. Nervous face! Cold day and I will be going directly from church to Open House for the house I want to buy. Black trousers, black wedges. Royal blue cardigan from Talbot’s Woman, pearl/silver necklace from Brighton Collectibles, black patent leather wedges. Hair teased and put up into French twist. Full make-up job.

Too tired to write more. Lots of love to you all.

Just me, day off. Pashmina scarf a gift from pigeon Karen Karpow and my walking shoes a gift from pigeon Kathleen Hunter. See? I always have you with me. xoxox