someone broke my face!

Hello AmeriFriends. I can't believe it's been well over a year since our time in the ATL. That's legitimately crazy.

I'm doing well. Riding my bike a lot. Theatre-ing. Livin' la vida loca. You know, that sort of thing.

I just did a play about zombies. It was great fun. Awesome cast and a really funny script. I got to play the leader of a San Francisco theatre collective that interviewed the survivors of a zombie attack in a small Texas town. And that theatre collective member portrayed the people from those interviews Laramie Project style. So I really got to play five characters. And *spoiler alert* the play ended with my dying screams. So, awesome.

Right after the play ended one of my students fractured my cheekbone. Ahh, the joys of being a behaviorist working with special needs students with severe behavior disorders. I'm ok though. They originally thought I may need to get a face plate put in, but it turns out it's not that bad. So great. Plus, two days after that happened my full time assistant started - so I'm not in those dangerous positions nearly as often anyway since he's taking over that stuff.

I have a boyfriend. We've been seeing each other for about a month now. He's super cool. He's getting his Master's of Social Welfare at Berkeley - with a focus in child welfare. He looks like Gael Garcia Bernal. And his name is Nicolaus. Yes, it happens. It's not that confusing, or nearly as hysterical as my roommate thinks it is.

It's almost Thanksgiving, and I'm off of work for the next five days. Super excited.

Oh hiiiiiiiii!

This post is in honor of my new, tiny computer. With a tiny camera on the top, which I used to video chat with Sterling just a few minutes ago. Video phone calls seemed so amazing and alien when I heard about them on some Disney tour when I was four years old, and now THEY EXIST. It's awesome, too bad no one predicted how shocked we would be by looking at ourselves while chatting (that's what I look like? right now? yikes).

I started my jobbbb two weeks ago. Only two days of training for this one (take note, Americorps). Aside from waking up way early and driving a lot it is really great so far. Also I have started to listen to books on CD which I am enjoying much more than I predicted. The kids at the school are all pretty nice/respectful. It is certainly different than what I have done/expected myself to be doing, but I can't help but really enjoy it. I lucked out getting the opportunity, so I am happy that it seems easy to be grateful for it.

I started classes again last week. Along with work it's going to be a stacked year. However if there is a time to fill up your life to the brim with stuff to do I suppose it is when you are young and unmarried and with no kids. It will all get done. I have to go into buckle down mode, and get as good at writing in a planner as I was for some of our service year.

Hope everyone else is doing well--let's keep each other posted.

Food is my life!

Wow! I haven't posted on this thing for quite some time but Erinn sent me a text and when I looked at it, it was too late to reply so I am just going to post something on here instead.

So, I am super busy right now. First, I am now working with the Real Food Challenge as a Regional Field Organizer, which basically means I help contact schools and get them interested in campaigning for better food at their school. I am also working on the audit program we have called the Real Food Calculator. I have been working really hard on it and now the Real Food Challenge is going to fly me to Denver in October to present on it at the AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) Conference. It is a great opportunity so I am really excited and a little nervous.

At the same time, I am also still working on all this stuff on my campus. I helped to form a committee to start a garden and I am currently auditing the school's food purchases. I also got ahold of some other colleges near mine and we are going to have a conference in September about food on our campuses. It is all really exciting. I even was interviewed by the local newspaper about the stuff that I have been doing (It won't be published until school starts again in September).

Anyway, I am really busy but it is a good busy. I am doing work that I really love and makes me feel like I am accomplishing something. Everything else is great! Carli and I have been married for 8 months already and we are very happy!

Everyone else should update with what is happening in their life. Also, if you haven't heard Tom was moved up to administration and Sadi was named his replacement as drum instructor at Inner Harbour. It is really great news for Sadi and he has made a bunch of positive changes in his life. We talked the other day and he sounded absolutely great, which was really exciting to hear. Just thought I would share that and you should definitely congratulate him and encourage him because I think he is filling a bit overwhelmed with the huge jump.

Miss you friends.

-Alex

i'm still here.

In two and a half weeks I'll have been living in California for one full year. Really? That can't be right. That doesn't feel right at all. Our AmeriCorps year was less than a full year, and yet it seems like it was so much longer. So much more full of moments. Highs and lows. It still feels like I just moved out here.

I think in my last post I wrote that I was eligible for two more levels of promotions - that they just didn't have the openings. I actually skipped those two levels and got promoted above all of that. So all of the people who were above me a couple of months ago I'm now in charge of in some aspects. I write their employee evaluations. I train them. I have to tell them what they're doing wrong and how they can do it better. That sort of thing. I'm now a Clinical Specialist - which basically means that I'm in charge of all things behavioral. I write the students' Behavioral Intervention Plans, I advise classroom staff on how to deal with behavioral challenges, I work on teaching the kids more positive behaviors. At Inner Harbour I was terrified of ever having to do a restraint or having to put hands on a child. Now I walk around with a walkie-talkie and any time a child is having serious behavioral problems I get called in to help. So any time there's a restraint on campus - I'm there. I take behavior data on students, data on how the staff are doing, I can drive one of those big white vans to field trips. I do all kinds of shit now.

I like it. There's definitely a lot of responsibility, sometimes I feel like I'm walking underwater and I just have to fake like I belong there. But it's working. I was hand picked for the position - so at least they believe in me. They told me this position normally only goes to someone with a degree in Applied Behavioral Analysis - or at the very least Psychology - but they still thought I'd be really good for it. So that's nice.

Some guy tried to mug me in San Francisco, and I talked him down and got away safely. When the school's director heard the story she said, "Oh yeah. You're perfect for this position."

Let's see. My friend just got attacked by a homeless guy in San Francisco this past weekend. It was her birthday. Right after her party. She was pretty drunk - so my roommate and I were walking her home. She wanted to stop to get something to eat. We were in Carl's Jr. at like 2:30 in the morning and this homeless guy just walks in, hits her really hard from behind, and leaves. My friend was really upset/scared, the police came and had him in custody, we had to ID him, we may have to testify in court. It was not a fun way to end her birthday. She was having so much fun at her party too.

I went out with this guy from Trinidad/the UK. I like him. He has a cool accent. We're going out again on Friday.

I like it out here in California, but I feel like I'm spread too thin - people wise. I have several diverse groups of friends, but the groups don't intermingle. I spend a little bit of time with each one, and am therefore kept from getting really close to any. I prefer to have a small but close group of friends - you guys were really good for that. I have a few friendships that go deep, but they're spread out amongst groups. It's not the same. I know that AmeriCorps style friendships can never be duplicated - so really I wish you guys could just all move out here.

July, july

Wow it took forever to get to July last year. This year it seems like I arrived at it in no time. I do miss sitting around with Bear and Tilly while we did summer planning, and I'm happy to say I'm not addicted to large iced coffees this summer, but in some ways I am nostalgic for last summer. Incorrectly nostalgic, of course, because at the time I was in super ohmygod I miss New Jersey mode, but nostalgic for everyone I guess. Also it is unbearably hot here this summer, so in a way it doesn't feel meteorogically different.

I think I may have talked to everyone individually about getting the job I wanted for the school year. The people seem really cool, especially the head librarian I'll be working under. It's also an amusingly different environment to work in than Inner Harbour. There is free lunch every day, which I am praying is better than IH. Although I wouldn't have traded in working with Wicasa for anything, I am happy to be working with high school kids. And also to not have to wear t-shirts to work every day, although my clothing hasn't evolved much from my winter bum look (just fewer layers of bummery now). I am looking forward to occasionally reading a young adult novel while doing schoolwork. But mostly doing schoolwork. I am cutting back my schedule but I'm sure it will still be a busy semester

And then there's the book. The only thing I can really be proud of right now is that I am keeping up on writing things down. It would have been easier if I had written things down continuously last year rather than doing it piecemeal by consulting e-mails I wrote and drawings and scribbles in my sketchpad and listing every service project, but slowly by surely I'm getting it down. I don't really think it's good. Maybe I write too late at night, but sometimes when I go back and look at it, I have major ehhh feelings about how I put things. Also I'm not sure of how much I can legally say in some cases (so far I am using real names but I assume at some point I will have to hit some 'replace all'...carefully. Dwigt?) And I haven't delved into things I have some shallow negative feelings towards. August. August will be the solid write-down, cake-bake last hurrah before crazytime school/work starts.

Like I said before, I miss y'all. Mostly I miss sitting on my deck and reading, and seeing different people depending on the time of day. Emily on weekend mornings, Nick on weekday evenings, Alex as we both talked on the phone at night. I am a weird person, and I hope that I'm not the only one who feels like they happily reunite with people who they missed, only to feel pangs about other people they left behind elsewhere.

All Things Ordinary

So! I made all those cupcakes and did all that schoolwork and then I made some MORE cupcakes for my sister's 17th birthday party. 17 is old. Especially when you are one of three sisters who are much older than the fourth sister. Sometimes I read that 17 year old blog and it makes me sad. High school is hard, and ugly. But she has good friends. (Like Americorps friends level good? Maybe...) It is weird living here and watching her grow up, since I was in college and Georgia for the past five years. Luckily she is still 5 inches shorter than me. If she grows those five inches by next May 17th I owe her 20 dollars.

On the topic of cupcakery and schoolery being over I have been plunged into an impressively soul-sucking fatigue. I don't wake up early, I sometimes fall asleep mid-day, and I go to bed by 12:30 almost every night. I know this because I rarely make it through the Law and Order SVU episode that comes on at 11:30. Last night the Yankees game that was rain-delayed preempted L&O and I had a quick panic. I don't like admitting that I am a creature of habit, but clearly...I am. I remember last year a few times I said to Nick "I just want to go home and watch Law and Order on a TV near my bed." I like making good on my weirdo desires from last year. But I don't cook enough.

I am looking to start that librarian related service group. Soon. Also I am looking for a summer job, possibly with test prep. This restaurant/bar near me is hiring (I have only been to the bar part) and that is tempting, seeing as they don't require experience and I've never had a tip-related job. But it would be hard to convince them that I know a lot about food I don't eat. I wonder how the statement "listen, I watch a lot of Top Chef" would go over.

I wonder if Jay still watches LOST. I do. And I am super nerdly excited for the finale. I introduced Brian to the show back when he was Salge, which is what friends called/call him and it will be nice to watch the end together. I would probably be upset if the last episode happened last year and I had to watch it on a computer, or with Jay (no offense Jay, if in some crazy way you have found this blog). The fact that the show will be over will be a blow, cushioned only by the Back Pockets performance live at the Raconteur in Metuchen. Billy remember when you said you would buy the french fries and beer? I am guessing that is not an option as you are required to be in Chapel Hill, NC the next day. Laaaaaaaame.

I guess that pretty much sums it up. I am going to do some leisure reading, which I miss doing in tandem with Nick. Happy Birthdays to all and to all a good night.

oh, life

I always feel like I need to update this site, but I get worried that I'll update too much. So then I put it off, and by the time I actually do update I realize that it's been months and that so much has happened. So here goes.

Erinn, in response to your song of the moment, I thought I would share the song/video that I just can't get enough of right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM1RChZk1EU

I'm officially done with the car now. After it was stolen and then abandoned a few blocks away - I decided that I'm over it, and that life will be better without that hassle. So I've been solely working the public transit system for a few months now. I need to sell it for parts or donate it to charity or something. But when my parents (who thought it was a smart idea to keep the title in a lock box in Indiana) mailed the title to me it got lost in the mail somewhere. That was back in January. So now I have to get a new title or something, and the registration is expired. I'm just ready to say goodbye to my car.

I got a promotion at work. So now I'm making a little bit more money. I'm still qualified for two more levels of promotions too - and they would have already bumped me up there if there were a position open. Cross your fingers for two steps up because then I would be making some real money. I still love the kids and people I work with. And I'm starting to get quite a few good stories. Not IH level stories, but more of the kind where I try to keep Jack from pooping on the floor.

I've been talking to this really cute boy. We were supposed to go out this weekend, but that got postponed until next weekend. So we'll see how that goes. I super like him a lot so far.

I have two cool roommates (the boy that was living here moved back to Philly and we replaced him with a really cool girl that actually hangs out with us). We all get along really well. So that's good. Even though I'm sleeping on an air mattress in the living room - I really like my living situation.

I miss you all terribly. I'm starting to get my feet firmly on the ground out here, but it would be much better if you were all out here with me. I hear that there's some sort of New Jersey reunion happening sometime soon. Draw a picture of me and set it down next to you so I can feel like I'm there.

My name is Nick. I'm happy that the sunny and warm weather is symbolic of my life in California right now (as were the cold and rainy winter months), and my favorite Sesame Street character is Grover. Go one.