My first real week

So, I have survived my first week as a senior corps member in Chicago!!! It has been a lot of fun. I am the only person who was not on the CY Chicago corps last year, so it is a little weird, but the other eight people are truly wonderful and welcoming, and I think I am fitting right in. They are giving us a lot of power in shaping how the year will go, and we are all excited about it. We had our first service day on Friday. It was only Senior Corps members, staff had a special meeting or something. We painted a school. And now I am seriously sore, ouch. It was funny though, cause we all have different talents and abilities. Most were big picture, get the job done people, and then there was me...Doing all the little touch ups, making sure no orange was peaking through the hunter green. I think this year will be good.

And the weird thing is though, that in some respects, CY Chicago seems a bit more lax. Well, there is no JWaite keeping them in line. For example: many of the staff swear, a lot; they do not recite the pledge at PT; they did not have to earn their uniforms, and other little things like that. It's hard for me to fully comprehend to be honest, but I am making due. So, that was my first week in CY Chicago's corps. Oh, and I have been exposed to TB, and have a nice long process ahead of me. Just thought you would all like ot know.

Cheap thrills and a rabid raccoon.

Ok, so this post has absolutely nothing to do with cheap thrills (sadly) or a rabid raccoon (fortunately). I decided to take a page from the Michael book of blogging, wherein the title of your blog has very little to do with the content. Although, if you want, I could say that my cheap thrill of the weekend was giving in to road rage on the way back from the wedding I went to in DC. I shook my finger (not my middle finger...just my finger. Like a grandma.) at a lot of bad drivers who were blocking the fast lane and found to my joy that I had a magic power to make them get out of my way. The magic finger! Yay! And I really embarassed Joey by my antics, which made it that much more fun.

Meanwhile, I am excited to hear about Christine's first day at City Year. How does it compare? Are there as many crazies there yet? I mean crazies like people who leave rotten apples in their bag for an entire year. Or something less serious than that kind of insanity.

My job is going well. I'm starting to get really excited about some of the programs I'm working on, especially the South Carolina Book Festival and this adult reading program in public libraries. I get to think about authors and books for large portions of the day!

So does anybody know the status of City Year Cola? They should have started by now, right? Maybe? With one staff member and one PL?

Oh the joys of City Year

Warning: This is a rant.

So, I thought that Chicago would be different than Columbia, but I am wrong. It is Friday, and I am supposed to start work on Monday, and do I know what time I need to be there? NOOOOOO. I found out yesterday that i needed a TB test, which I found out in March, put it in the back of my mind and went on my business. I didn't really think about it until I looked at the paper yesterday when trying to find the number so I could call City Year and find out when I had to be in on Monday. Sigh. (sorry for the long sentence) I have called twice now, still have no clue when I need to be in, went and got my TB test, which I get the results on Monday morning, so hopefully we don't start before nine. I can make it to the office by nine, but not much more than that. I just feel unprepared, and you know I hate hate hate to feel that way. I just hope this is just a bumpy start, sort of like a bad dress rehearsal but a good performance. Who knows. And the whole TB thing was such a hassle since I don't have CHicago id. BAh. I never had this much trouble getting things done in DC or Columbia. But even to get a supermarket card you need a stupid IL id card. Why? The upside to the whole thing is I have been walking a lot, so I am getting exercise, and the guy who gave me the TB injection was cute. I just had to rant. Sorry.

In the Windy City

Hello All!!!! Yes, Danielle and I made it to Chicago. It was a lot of packing and unpacking in the course of three days, but we made it. Danielle and her dad were awesome. They helped to move me into my third floor apartment on the hottest and muggiest day Chicago has had for a really long time.

I really like my apartment, so you all should come and visit. I have pretty much gotten my room in order, and I am trying to decide how to set up the sitting room. My roommate travels a lot for work, so I have the place pretty much to myself. All is good. The past two days I have walked a lot around the city, exploring and shopping for things for the apartment. It is a great city, and I am just excited.

So, I just wanted to let you all know that Danielle and I made it here safely and soundly. K Done.

A Hitchhiker's Guide to my City Year Bookbag

I just found, under the can of coke, a red delicious apple that appears neither red nor delicious. Nor does it, for that matter, appear much like an apple. I surmise it has appeared exactly unlike a red delicious apple for some time now; this inference being drawn on the evidence that it now looks and smells like a rotten plum. And it is almost common knowledge that there is quite a long transition period between appearing like a red delicious apple and appearing like a rotten plum. A taste test would, most likely, provide conclusive evidence that the sticker proclaiming the fruit, or vegetable (because now we really can't be sure), to be of the red delicious apple genus and species is currently exactly false and the fruit (or vegetable), along with the integrity of the sticker, expired quite a long time ago. However, because the conductor of the conclusive test, I, would, most likely, expire a short time after such a test is conducted, the certitude of the fruit (or vegetable) being exactly unlike a red delicious apple would again be thrown into question and left only to surmise. This creates quite an appalling Catch-22- whereby the only way to truly test the fruit's (or vegetable's) exact unlikeness of a red delicious apple would result in a need to truly test the fruit's (or vegetable's) exact unlikeness of a red delicious apple; and I would be dead. And, at least from my point of view, that is really the most appalling type of Catch-22 there is.

quick update

i just remembered the name of that summer boston thing - academy (in my comment about katie's dream i referenced it). i remembered concurrently with finding a can of coke from academy in my first city year bookbag (which is now chilling in my fridge). this all happened after i found some anarchistic propaganda in my second city year bookbag (which was very persuasive, as propaganda tends to be).... well, thats all the time i can spare; i have to get back to my busy and important life.

I'm going to be in Columbia

Hey all. I will be flying in tomorrow, and be arriving in Columbia around 4:30. I hope to be able to see some of you. I really miss y'all.

I'm going to be in Columbia

Hey all. I will be flying in tomorrow, and be arriving in Columbia around 4:30. I hope to be able to see some of you. I really miss y'all.

Dennis Update

Just in case any of y'all were worried about the safety of my beach house, I am happy to announce that it suffered no major structural dammage during the recent hurricane. Just a few shingles off and some siding down and a broken window. So that's good news. After all, without a beach house, I would do a lot less frolicking around in my bikini, and the world would be a darker place.

The Peruvian Revolution of 1892 and its implictions for the indigenous peoples of the Western Andies region of Argentina : a prologue

So i still don't trust this thing al gore calls the "internet" but im gonna put blogger to the test. There is gonna be a party, not a shin-dig or get together, but a legitimate party, at my house tonite (thursday). the 'rents are outta town, and even though im 23, throwing a party when the parents go outta town still doesn't seem like a bad idea. anyway, i am gonna be callin everyone i know in town tomorrow to invite you all, but it'd be helpful if i didn't have to get in touch with everyone, so if you read this before i call you, give me a call to let me know ur coming. or give me a call with a better excuse than "it's our 6 month anniversary," if your not coming (excuses such as the aforementioned one require a minimum of stopping by for a drink or few).

i still don't like the idea of anyone in the entire world reading this and judging me and my thoughts on pre-1940 peruvian revolutions. so if i don't know u and ur reading this and don't like it, piss off.....

besides, everyone knows that the peruvian revolution of 1892 had only minor implactions for western Andies peoples, it was really the eastern economies which suffered unspeakable hardships.

seriously though, if ur in town and can come, give me a call.

also, just so everyone knows- batman begins is a really really good movie, and war of the worlds is kinda weird and almost not worth seeing.

i just joined blogger

just to let you all know... i am now, sadly, a blogger.

Fireworks

Ok, so how many people watched fireworks tonight? And how many people heard that wonderful piece of music, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture? Well, I did. And all I could think about was us, dancing and marching proudly to our international piece of music in front of everyone. Now at least once a year we will all think about each other, how nice :) Just think, we can all tell people that the piece was written for the 70th anniversary of Russia's victory over Napoleon. I love y'all!!!

Happy Independence Day!

Hello All. I am watching that wonderful classic, 1776! It is very appropriate for our nation's birthday. It chronicles the struggles of our budding nation, and of course John Adams plays a very important and prominent role. He is great. He pushed Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, and he continued to fight for our independence. Some of the funny lin

"Most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor." Dickinson of PA

"You must remember that rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as our rebellion. It is only in the third person, their rebellion, that it is illegal." Ben Franklin of PA

"It's a medicinal fact that rum gets a man's heart started in the morning. I'm surprised you didn't know that." Hopkins of Rhode Island

I hope these whetted your appetite. Enjoy the Fourth