Last Post of 2006!

I want to take a moment and reflect on the December I've had. I was sad to leave Ocean Springs, Mississippi, the friends I've made and the work down there, but I had to come home for Christmas. I had a lot of great experiences working on the Gulf Coast, and if not for the Peace Corps I probably would have stayed down there.

I had a great Christmas and it was really nice to spend time with friends and family and I was very blessed to get to spend time with many of those who are dear to me, including reunions with some old friends. Part of that is my trip out to NYC where I sit in Queens right now as I type this.

The plan was to go to Time Square for New Years but as no one seems to want to get off the couch and I'm coming down with a bad cold, I don't know if that's going to happen. It's all right, however as I came here to see friends and not the city, so much.

I'm still preparing to leave for Romania in February, and will get a lot more serious about working on that as soon as New Year's is over.

In the meantime I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Mother of All Surveys

Describe a typical Sunday for you:
Sleep in till seven. Get up, dress, eat cereal, put cereal away and clean up the kitchen. Read til I fall asleep wake around 10:30 -11 to make lunch for volunteers, serve lunch, read til I fall asleep for an hour and a half, make dinner, serve dinner, clean up after dinner, do nothing for an hour, volunteer orientation for which I am present so I can stand and wave and be introduced to the volunteers.

Any odd routines you follow when you wake up?
Set my alarm for ten to six, turn it off, get up at six, try to do four sets of Sun Salutations, wash off face with no rinse cleanser on a cotton ball, dress, eat an enormous breakfast so I don't get sick from my medicine, drink a glass of green tea while I check my email, go back to bed for an hour, get up again a little before 8:00

If alcohol was banned worldwide, what would your reaction be?
Probably be one of the last to know.

When was the last time you cried?
...shit I don't remember. I always thought you should know the last time you cried and the last time you threw up. One time I didn't eat enought breakfast so I threw up in my coffee mug.

Your CD collection is going to be repossessed. You may keep one.
I don't have an ipod so I guess it's whatever's in my CD player so Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Do you believe world peace is possible?
If it's not possible we have to work to make it possible.

I'm a genie. Name your wish. (Money and Love cannot be granted).
I would wish for racisim to be obliterated then we could concentrate on all the other isms. My second wish is that someone else would pay my phone bill for three months.

Name one thing about the OPPOSITE sex that automatically turns you off.
Republicans

Name one thing about the SAME sex that automatically turns you off.
Shallow empty-headedness

Speaking of SAME sex, what do you think of Brokeback Mountain?
I can't believe this actually a question! See blog entries for December 05 through June 06

Where are you?
In Matt's office. More specifially, Ocean Springs Mississippi

Leatherface is in the kitchen. Will you fight to victory, or hide?
I'd whip out the Wolverine claws and take that bitch down!

Do you feel that people underestimate you?
Not as much as I underestimate myself.

When you're in a bad mood, what will always put you in a better mood?
Writing a long email or calling my mom or a friend to bitch.

Honestly, do you talk about MySpace in real life?
I don't do MySpace.

Have you met someone online in person?
Not that I know of.

Do you believe minimum wage should be raised?
You try living on roughly $10,000 a year. You're still more than $12,000 below poverty level.
(calculated to a $5.15 minimum wage.)

If someone at a bar gives you "the look" how do you respond to it.
Wouldn't recognize "the look." Probably think this person is a creepy stalker. He or she will have to come over and start a conversation before I leave if they want me to respond.

Desperation happens. Do you take advantage of desperate people?
Probably not since. I deal with desperate people every day and my job is to help them as much as I can.

Pretend you're 15 deep in beers. Describe what you would be doing now?
I would never get 15 deep because well before it I would be drunk enough to decide it's time to drink something much more foul like absinthe or pickle brine and then I would shortly be vomiting with my eyes.

Does everyone in your life know the real you?
It seems to be irrepressible.

What is something you're afraid of?
Apathy.

You have two weeks to live. Would you tell anyone?
Maybe not. I haven't thought about it.

A band you thought was cool when you were 15.
They Might Be Giants. ...Still do. But when I was in 7th grade I was really into Billy Joel and Meat Loaf.

You have a nightmare, who's the first person you think to call?
My mom if I call anyone. Usually I don't.

Wanna have kids before you're 30?
Not before 30.

A memory from high school
We were supposed to have a big snow storm and everyone thought school was going to be canceled but it wasn't so I came to school dressed as a snowman and I wore boots and a scarf all day, but you couldn't wear a hat so my snowman looked pretty dumb because it was just my stupid greasy hair on top of a snowman body.

Ever had a crush on one of your friend's parents
No. No.

Naughtiest thing you've done at work.
Read online slash fiction...then left to go donate platelettes.

Do you look more like your mom, or your dad?
My dad.

Something you've always wanted to learn how to do:
Fencing.

Where you'd like to be in 10 years?
In a really fulfilling job directing a nonprofit that keeps me busy and that is either helping people or allows me to express myself artistically and thinking about running for office in the future.

Something you learned about life:
The things you get the most worried about (like money) are usually not worth it.

What do you want for your birthday?
Have someone take me out to dinner, preferably at the Mellow Mushroom.

Describe your favorite weather using a noun?
Book weather

If you could be alive during any time period, which would you choose? Why?
The 1920's and 1930's. Dependng on where I was it seems like it would have been an exciting and important time to be alive and I'd like to see if I could have risen to its challenges and made a difference. Also I don't know a whole lot of history further back and I'm afraid to go further back in time as a woman.

Your favorite line of poetry?
I'm having a lot of trouble with this one. For now I'll say "then he says America should switch to the Metric system because its so much more logical. Go Away we like our rulers! Thomas Jefferson said You always get the rulers you deserve." - from a poem called James Joyce by a Milwaukee poet who's name I can't look up right now.

Book that you’ve read more than once:
Watership Down and all of Harry Potter except for the first one.

Worst traveling memory.
Flying home from Germany for about eight hours in a plane with a raging yeast infection but I didn't know that's what it was. I wanted to shoot myself!

What fictional character do you most resemble?
I like to think Samwise the Brave, but probably Schmendrick from the Last Unicorn

Due to Bush not signing the Kyoto Treaty, the ice-caps have melted and the sea level has risen. What mountain range do you go live on?
The Gangees. It just seems like the mysteries of life could be uncovered there.

If you had a daemon, what would it be? Name?
A black fox. Not sure of its name. Hallet, maybe? Never named my D&D character's "animal companion" or familiar either.

Your favourite nail polish colour?
Any, as long as it's on a guy.

How do you express yourself creatively that pisses off the neighbors?
Discssing esoteric things on the phone with my friends while in our room or speaking to them in movie quotes which don't make sense to them.

Did you think the Beast was less hot at the end of Beauty and the Beast?
Who doesn't!

What’s your comfort food?
Grilled cheese sandwich or macaroni and cheese

What song do you sing in the shower?
Fancy Meeting You Here from the musical Lucky Stiff

Your favourite word?
Lunch. My favorite swear word is Hell.

Do you wear lipstick? Where do you wear it?
on my lips. No I wear lip gloss - or I would wear Burts Bees lip gloss if someone gave me upwards of $3 to buy it.

What’s your favourite part about your favourite holiday?
Easter. the pastel colors and spring flowers.

What kind of music are you listening to right now?
the hum of the pop machine next to the table in the computer lab and the rustle of someone filling brown paper bags with groceries.

Have you ever streaked?
No, but I'm willing to run naked through the Parthanon. I must research the punishment for this.

What’s your favourite way to travel?
By train

Have you ever gotten a scar from doing a load-in? Where and how?
I don't think so, but I have mutiple scars from steaming the costumes from South Pacific. Steam burns. Also I burned myself with a hot screw while helping build a set for a summer school production of South Pacific. I have South Pacific scars.

Your favourite way to end a piece of writing?
Nothing else happened. The End.

The Storm

This is not an entry about Hurricane Katrina. This is an entry about the thunderstorm we experienced yesterday, Wednesday in Ocean Springs Mississippi. Yesterday was supposed to be my first full day off in twelve days, and like any day off it's beauty was in the fact that I had no particular plans except to maybe go work out, and hopefully do some writing and reading.

However sometime around four o'clock in the morning a thunderstorm began and the sky opened up and rain poured fourth like I have never seen before. There was thunder and lightning - which didn't really phase me except to wake me and inspire me to quietly Thank God I had shelter and a warm bed to sleep in during the storm.

Normally, I really enjoy thunderstorms. I think it's somehow romantic to listen to the rain. But right now in a Hurricane Relief Volunteer camp it's not so cool. There is a tangible difference in the energy of the camp when the sky is cloudy and it thunders and rains. People walk around all ashen faced and jumpy as though another hurricane could sneak up on them at a moment's notice. The atmosphere in town is of morose resignation as though - The weather will kill us ... or not.

Around 7 a.m. (the lights didn't come on as they usually do at six because we had no power at about that time I realized the emgergency lights were on in my room) I sat up and thought Wow! It's really Raining! My dorm room (with no ceiling so you can hear any conversation anywhere in the building) is right next to the back door which was being slammed repeatedly from 6:00 on as people ran in and out to look at the rain and remark loudly upon on it. It was through these loud conversations as I tried to sleep that I learned:
The roads were flooded
No volunteers were able to go out on construction work that day
School was canceled
A tornado hit and damaged 10 rooms of the middle school building a block away (which has not been used as a school since Katrina). (Mississippi has tornados but it doesn't have tornado sirens. I think people figure what's the point since they don't have basements anyway. On the bayou the watertable is so high, you can't have a basement.)
A screaming woman who saw the tornado hit the school ran up to our back door seeking refuge

Finally I decided to get out of bed and check out this rain. I should have stayed in bed because visability was absolutely zero as white sheets of water poured off of our roof. I thought to myself This is what it was like when it rained for 40 days.
I know know what Arthur Miller meant when he wrote in The Crucible "I will fall like an Ocean upon that courtroom"

You would have thought it hadn't rained at all since last year and that this was the result of all the evaporation in Mississippi over the entire summer for it to rain like this!
It was the closest thing to a Monsoon I have ever seen!

After visiting the kitchen for a muffin and being surprised and releived to find volunteers sitting at the cafeteria tables with emergency candles lit listening to a worship band sing songs like "I praise you in the storm" I decided being helpful was over-rated and that I was going back to bed. On my way I ran into a staff member and Mississippi native in the hallway who muttered "this is the deep south no one wants to know about." I turned to her and said "Is this a tropical storm?" having never experienced anything like this before, I was unsure, but confident it wasn't a hurricane or we would have known about it (and probably evacuated) ahead of time and because there wasn't much wind. (Katrina had winds of 175mph).

"No," she said. "this is just how it rains down here."

The long and short of it is that ALL the volunteers were routed into the distribution center yesterday, but it was my day off so I was not about to jump in and work at structuring their activities. We have had a lot more volunteers than usual lately and are seeing a lot fewer clients. Plus no one comes out - not even for free groceries - when it's raining, so you can imagine what it's like during a torrential downpour.

These volutneers had nothing to do but reorganize things then express their frustration at not having enough work and then they eventually gave up and took up reading or napping. Many found productive tasks to do in the kitchen or placing buckets under the many MANY leaks in our roof. For the most part - it was like indoor recess in a Kindergarten classroom.

Needless to say my day off was unproductive because I couldn't leave the building though I did manage to sleep for nearly 10 hours.

I believe we got over 4 inches of rain in one day.

A Striking Discovery

I was recently reflecting on the work I'm doing here in Ocean Springs and how seemingly complicated it is, but also how much I enjoy is challenges. Every day it reminds me of stage management. (If you ask a stage manager to lock doors at 10:00 - they're locked at 10:00. I'm standing there at 9:58, and counting).

I think the work I'm doing now, training volunteers to work in the distribution center, and working with a new group of people every week is a good preparation for the Peace Corps. I need to be able to communicate effectively with all kinds of people and find tasks that fit their needs and what needs to be done. It can be hard, but it's also fun. One of the hardest things is letting the volunteers do things that I know how to do faster and more effiecently (after seven weeks) but I can't do it all, so I have to show them how to do it and then stand back and watch for ways to help them.

It can also be frustrating to have people coming up to you all the time saying "I need a job" "Tell me what to do" and you point to an area and say "Reorganize this so I can ..." and they look at you blankly and say "Tell me what to do." I guess I've always been someone who can hear "reorganize this" and then run with it, but some people just need to but q-tips in plastic bags when there's nothing else to be done.

Mostly what surprises me about the work here is that I look around and realize I've been given a lot of responsibility. I don't know if that's by design or by default, but everyone I was working with left so now I'm in charge of the distribution center. I lock up at night when I need to and I help cook for the volunteers on the weekend. I've welcomed a few groups and given them tours of the facility, sold volunteers t-shirts and answered dozens of questions. I can even speak with some presumed authority on economic situations here in Mississippi.

Basically I've made myself available and when someone asks me if I can do something I do it. If I tell someone I'll be there, I'm there. I've made myself reliable and am surprised to see how relied upon I've become. I've been given a lot of responsibility here because, strangely, I've discovered, I am responsible.

It's weird. I think, How did they know I could handle it? When I got here I was told they had plans for me because I was a long term volunteer and someone said "It's not that we don't get long-term volunteers but not all of them are responsible or sane." I thought, what have I done to lead you to believe I'm either sane or responsible other than show up when I said I was going to?

So far, to my knowledge, I've not let anyone down. It feels good.

What's the weather like...in Romania?

I got my Peace Corps assignment and my mission, should I choose to accept it is in Romania where I will be working for two years on helping to develop NGOs (non government organizations).

I'm very happy to be stationed in Romania - a beautiful country with rich history I'm told- because Peace Corps has been well established there, and my only preference was for some place where it's not too hot. I was very lucky to happen to get stationed in Eastern Europe where I would have requested had I stated a preference.

My official title will be Community Developer. I don't know exactly what my job duties will be day-to-day but I get the sense that it's the kind of job where you never fit all your duties into one description and often find yourself doing things not in your job description. The job description the Peace Corps sent me sounds right up my alley - accept I'll be doing all these things...in Romanian, the language I have to learn.

Of course right now I don't know too much about my assignment or anything. My mom is going to send the materials to me here in Ocean Springs and then I can look them over in more detail. The most important thing that I know right now is that I leave for training in D.C. on Feb 19th.

Why rebuilding the Gulf Coast is like working on a show...
(really, it's like every week is tech with a whole new crew)

Because most of my friends all have one thing in common - theatre - I thought I'd use some common terms to describe give you an idea what I'm doing -

The people who know what's going on carry keys (and after two weeks, I'm one of them -!?)

You'll be covered with bruises and not know why.

Coffee is important (and you have to get up at 5 a.m. to make it).

The hours suck (sometimes 12 hour days, usually six days a week. Although I'm often in bed by ten.)

There's always a huge build going on (try 75 houses and 400 on a waiting list).

You lift with your legs and not your back.

There's no such thing as a typical day.

You learn not to assume things about people - like don't assume that 76 year olds don't have email or cell phones (or that they can't work 6 or 7 days a week).

You meet interesting people from all different backgrounds (from all over the country).

Every day the "audience" we serve changes.

There's yoga every morning before the "performance" (starting at 6 a.m.)

People make their own t-shirts with inside jokes on them.

There are naps on the couch in the "common room" (it's like a green room) (although it's strange when your day starts and you find yourself "napping" between 7 and 8 in the morning.)

There's some hurry up and wait, things move by quickly but the hours are slow. You get a lot done in a day, but there's always more to do.

You always go to bed tired!

Why rebuilding the Gulf Coast is like working on a show...
(really, it's like every week is tech with a whole new crew)

Because most of my friends all have one thing in common - theatre - I thought I'd use some common terms to describe give you an idea what I'm doing -

The people who know what's going on carry keys (and after two weeks, I'm one of them -!?)

You'll be covered with bruises and not know why.

Coffee is important (and you have to get up at 5 a.m. to make it).

The hours suck (sometimes 12 hour days, usually six days a week. Although I'm often in bed by ten.)

There's always a huge build going on (try 75 houses and 400 on a waiting list).

You lift with your legs and not your back.

There's no such thing as a typical day.

You learn not to assume things about people - like don't assume that 76 year olds don't have email or cell phones (or that they can't work 6 or 7 days a week).

You meet interesting people from all different backgrounds (from all over the country).

Every day the "audience" we serve changes.

There's yoga every morning before the "performance" (starting at 6 a.m.)

People make their own t-shirts with inside jokes on them.

There are naps on the couch in the "common room" (it's like a green room) (although it's strange when your day starts and you find yourself "napping" between 7 and 8 in the morning.)

There's some hurry up and wait, things move by quickly but the hours are slow. You get a lot done in a day, but there's always more to do.

You always go to bed tired!

Deputized!

At the end of my third day here in Ocean Springs Mississippi, I have been informed of some of the additional duties I'll be taking on as a long-term volunteer (about two and a half months - I'll be coming home some time in December). John, the "house manager" here is making me his assistant. I'll carry keys, lock up at night, turn out the lights, be available to answer questions, give directions, ring the bell for evening prayer. On Saturdays and Sundays I'll cook meals for all the volunteers here. I'll have a desk, access to an LSS (Lutheran Social Services) computer, and an LSS cell phone so I don't have to use my own minutes if people need to get a hold of me. Did I mention keys?

In addition to being a John's part-time assistant (I'll have mostly evening shifts) I'll be working most mornings in the distribution center which supplies food, water, personal hygiene items, diapers and some other things to local people displaced by the hurricane. For the last three days I've been working in distribution, filling orders for people and loading them into cars (we have for this task we have a collection of reappropriated shopping carts.)
I'm told I'll be in charge of organizing the distribution center when the two main people working there now leave later this month. I'm not sure what that means yet.

So far I'm having a good time and meeting a lot of interesting people from all over the country. I'm learning new things every day, and working with people with a variety of work and communication styles is a great experience. I go to bed every night tired, but I'm also excited to see what this new position is like.

John, the house manager has been here since January. For a long time he's been working 12 to 18 hour days and has a lot of amazing stories about this place. It's a lot different from the last time I was here in March. I haven't spent much time in town yet, but we're no longer living, eating and working out of the church. We're in a huge warehouse, most of which houses construction supplies for our operation and other hurricane recovery operations. Then there's the distribution center, the "lounge" a room with tables couches, tv/dvd player, computers (iMacs) and a pop machine and a refridgerator, a kitchen and cafeteria, showers, laundry and the dorms (rooms with rows of wooden bunk beds). I live in a room with 24 bunk beds but not all are filled right now.

Camp Victor can house 208 volunteers, but in November we'll have 250.

Interestingly, I'm sharing my room (or they're sharing it with me) with a group of Americorps volunteers from NCCC) (It's another branch of Americorps - like I was a VISTA). This group has been here two weeks, will be here three more, and in two weeks another NCCC group will come in. More Americorps people. Huh, small world!

"This Greyhound is Delta bound..."

This Saturday I'm getting on a bus and heading to Ocean Springs, Mississippi for at least two months. I have no idea what I'm doing down there, but I'll be volunteering with a Lutheran Church through Lutheran Episcopal Disaster Relief. It's where I went when I went to Mississippi in February. This is their new disaster relief webpage www.campvictor.org And I thought I had put dorm life behind me!

I am, in fact, going greyhound, but the above quote is from a song on a mixed CD one of the girls on the last trip made that we listened to in the van. I should say it was THE mixed CD. Katie Luther, if you're reading this, Props to you and thanks for coming to my blog.

And since my ticket is purchased and I let the volunteer coordinator I'd need someone to pick me up at the bus station in Biloxi on Monday - You guessed it!
I was able to schedule my tests last week. Yesterday I had a breast ultrasound - turns out I don't even have a cyst! Here, I thought I'd had a harmless cyst for four years and it turns out it's just a hard spot of tissue. I bet you'd never even notice!

Today I had my psychiatric evaluation and was given a clean bill of mental health. Apparently the doctor thinks I have good coping skills should I get depressed far away from home. Let's hope he's right.

With those reports collected today and faxed to Washington D.C., dare I say, I expect to be accepted into the Peace Corps sometime in the coming months! And when the time comes you, blog readers, will probably be the third or fourth to know!

So the DANGUMIT of the week goes out to my new shoes. I got them online at a New York shoestore that charges no tax and no shipping and they were on clearance for only $49.99! That's $40 off the suggested retail price, and this style is nigh impossible to find in regular shoe shores! The shoes were delievered yesterday, and I should say the only size on clearance was 7.5. Usually I wear an 8 but I purchased a pair of sandals by the same company over the summer (you may remember my agonizing over Can I justify spending this much on sandals once in my life becuase if I ever cross the deserts of India these will be the sandals I will be wearing?) and one woman in a shoestore told me to get a 7.5 only they didn't have a 7.5 so I went to another shoestore in the same mall and bought an 8 and then continually agonized over whether I wasted my money on sandals that were too big.)

Well, that's not the case this time. These shoes pinch something awful! I suppose a lot of women suffer through buying the wrong shoe size for a baragin. I just didn't think I was one of them. But they already feel better than they did yesterday. I actually think I can wear the 7.5 but it would have been better if I'd gotten a 7.5 wide. Don't worry, though, I'm going to stretch them out. I decided today and I already wore them outside once so there will be no returning them.

Just learn from my mistake, people and always be wary of buying shoes without trying them on.

so...I guess it's Wednesday

Let me tell you a little about my life right now. I would be on my way to the Gulf Coast this week, a willing volunteer ready to do whatever they tell me. My bag is packed. But I need additional medical tests for the Peace Corps. Mind you, I'm not yet accepted to the Peace Corps and my acceptance - and hopefully my departure in February - hinges on these medical tests.
If I don't get them in ASAP - they might not have time to issue me a medical clearance in time, and I might have to wait another year.

But I don't have insurance anymore since my term of service with Americorps ended.

So, here's what I've had to do so far - after much calling the hospital, I found out you need a doctor to order a test. You can't just call up the hospital and schedule it. So I went to the county free clinic and waited four hours with no guarentees that I would see a doctor, to see a doctor who ordered the test (but first I had to see a social worker and explain that I have no money and I want to see a doctor and that's why I was at the free clinic).

Then I went to the Billing Office for paperwork I need to ask the county to help me pay for the test. This paperwork asks for copies of three of my most recent pay stubs ( I have three but their in no particular order) a copy of my 2005 tax return (lucky I filed) and answers to questions about how much debt I'm in, how much savings, investment, retirement blah blah blah, I have. All of this is zero - plus I'm not working right now - no income, living with my mom, no rent, and I'm not looking for a job because I'm planning on going to the Gulf Coast when all this is done.

And then it asks me what I think my monthly payment should be.
I don't know. I just told you I have no income.

So then I had to go to the Workforce Development office and get a Denial form to send in to the hospital with my paperwork - so the hospital can process my paperwork and call me and tell me it's ok to schedule the test. But to get a denial I have to fill out an application for medicaid after meeting with another social worker. All the same questions as on the Financial Questionaire I already filled out for the hospital except for confusing because everthing is coded (enter your ethnic hertiage - see page five for codes. White - 5, Black- 2, Biracial-6, Who cares- 3). I filled out the application in 15 minutes before thier office closed on Friday, but rather than just pick up a Denial form like whoever it was at the clinic lead me believe I could do like they just had a stack behind the desk - they can take up to a month to process the denial before they send it to me in the mail.

However the woman behind the desk promised me processing mine would be a priority, and my social worker called yesterday and said hopefully I should get it today. But it didn't. So hopefully tomorrow it will come and I'll have a complete set of forms to mail to the hospital for additional processing, so then I can Schedule my test!

All this leaves me in the very awkward position of getting up each day for the sole purpose of checking the mail, and then proceeding to wait until I can check the mail again tomorrow. I've been doing way too much internet shopping (for things I can use in the Peace Corps, but don't necessarily need to buy right now, like a radio with a hand crank - but you can find some good deals on Earth Shoes). Anyway, I'm posting now to put off cleaning the bathrooms, and to distract myself from more internet shopping. (Hey, this t-shirt is organic!)

None of this has to do with the psychiatric evaluation I also found out I need for the Peace Corps, and that I'm just going to have to pay for because the county has sent me back and fourth between the same two offices so many times I don't even want to open that can of worms!

The mail comes again tomorrow morning at 10A.M. Until then my salvation has been reruns of Scrubs every night on Comedy Central for an hour. I'll let you know if I get some new shoes.

My Favorite Year
I'm so far behind in this blogging thing, that since I just finished posting the Buffalo Hunt, I still haven't reflected on my year of service with Americorps. It seems weird to be writing about it now that I've been home for so long. When you move so dramatically from one part of your life to the next, the last chapter kind of ends, and you tend not to remember it without concious inention. Does that happen to anyone else?

Well, what I wanted to say - and I know it's what I wanted to say at the time since I was thinking about it even before my fabulous goodbye party in Moorhead - is that, Has anyone seen the musical My Favorite Year? I saw a community theatre production of it once and what made the biggest impression on me was that my choir director cast himself as the lead, and he had to kiss an actress who was a junior! Yeck!

But what made the second biggest impression on me was that the main character begins the show by saying something along the lines of "this is a show about my favorite year. Not the year I had the most success or made the mose money, but my favorite year."

That's how I feel about my time in Moorhead. It was definately the year I met the most people at one time, made the most friends at one time (face it, making friends in college is easy. How many of you guys did I meet because we sat next to each other in class or lived on the same floor?) and made the most interesting connections in an interesting community away from home.

Moving to a new community you know nothing about for a job you know little about to work with no one you know - doesn't work out for everybody. But for me it was a great experience and I learned probably the most I've ever learned - and I can honestly say I'm not exactly the same person I was before.

I'm trying to describe all this by using less than stellar descriptors like "great experience" and "learned a lot" so I don't think I'm doing it justice. If I think of anything else radically intelligent to say, I'm sure I'll post it on here, but I wouldn't expect too much.

Also I haven't kept track of how many postings I've made here, and I know it's probably less than 100 - I haven't yet reached 1 year of blogging but I've noticed some of my early entries HAVE BEEN EATEN BY THE INTERNET! I find this distressing because I thought once something was posted it was - you know- permanent. Or at least it would be archived somewhere somewhat permanently so I could go back and read it in the years to come while I'm in the Peace Corps, to say nothing of showing my grandkids how the Academy Award winning film Brokeback Mountain was so wildly anticipated ... by me. (notice, I had to say Academy Award winning. You like that?)

So I guess this is an entry that is a half reflection on the past, half staying in tune with the present, because once it's over - it's gone, baby. All you have is what you learned and who you choose to be as you are shaped by your experiences. Make the most of it.

Laura's Buffalo Hunt - Fin
I believe that's the French word for The End - or Italian, or something like you used to see at the end of art films.
As promised, here's a shot I like better of the "Punk" bison, or Don't Judge a Bison by is' Cover. It is behind bars in the courtyard of that art museum. If you can't see it here, he's got a blue mohawk, a nose ring, and a portrait of an Old Timer waving his fist and shouting "those young ...Punks."

"The aim of art is to present not the outward apperance of things, but their inward significance."
- Aristotle.

I chose to end with this bison because we're back in Moorhead now, but it should be no surprise to most of you that I'm posting from Wisconsin - where I've been for about two weeks. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the buffalo hunt and got to see some of these two amazing towns that have been my home for the last year.

If you really liked the bison, you should check out www.herdabouttheprairie.org You can see more bison there. These are only the ones I shot and there are actually 74 of them!

Laura's Buffalo Hunt- Part Seven, I think

This picture looks like one of those where you have to find hidden objects in the picture. See if you can find the Buffalo tiltled Home on the Range hidden among the scorched July grass. Then see if you can find a) my bike, and b) the other side of the Energy Buffalo that looks like it's on fire.
Tiaglo - This is on the Fargo side of the Main Ave bridge. This shot is a recreation of the orignial shot I took on Memorial Day. I took it while sitting on a bench because I shot 20 bison in one day while walking everywhere in Fargo and Moorhead and was extremely tired. In fact I walked so much I was sore for two days afterward and for some reason the buffalo's face didn't show up in the picture so I had to come back and shoot it again. Maple Leaf Bison - on a different day, after work, I went exploring to try and find this bison in Lindenwood Park, and after an hour or so I found it but the bison wasn't there! THey moved it and it showed up later in the month here in front of the Civic Center.
This guy reminds me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He's really realistic looking from one side, and pure metal on the the other. I hope for his sake Magento doesn't show up!
This Beach Buff - buffalo lives next to the Fargo pool in Island Park. The detail on his towel and shorts are amazing. I love his flippers and rubber duck inner tube too!
'cept he appears to have some kind of wacky comb-over. Why, I'm not sure!
The natural side of Industrial Bison, from before.

Laura's Buffalo Hunt -Part Six
There wouldn't have to be so many parts if it would just let me post all the pictures I want at once.

This picture is bad because of the shadow, but this is Mica Star Boy outside of the NDSU's equivalent to the Performing Arts' Center, and the design on him in white is actually little triangles of something glued down to his painted body.
Surprise! These are some of the middle school students of the Linking Up Summer Leadership Program outside the stadium where we went to see a RedHawks minor league baseball game. This bison stands alone, further down. It's a mosaic decorated bison.
This buffalo titled A Foot in the Past, and Eye to the future is prominently displayed on NDSU's campus. It might be feeling a little schitzophrentic though because if you look closely at it's feet you can tell that...

this is the other side of it: flip flops, cell phone, an earing. I don't know what's up with the shorts, they appear to be made of burlap... makes me nostalgic for college though. Just looking at him makes me want to run out for Ben & Jerry's at quarter to twelve.
Bob.

Laura's Buffalo Hunt part five - "Fargoside Story continued"

Look what it did! It put two pictures next to each other. Weird. I didn't ask it to do that. But now I can't type under these two. - !
This beautiful bison, featuring a Buffalo Head Nickel on her flank is Heart of the Prairie, pictured here in her original location outside the historic Fargo Theater which has a real organ and someone plays it before a movie! You can barely see Heart of the Prairie in the first picture although I was standing in the middle of Broadway to take it, because I was trying to get in the entire marquee, so I took another picture before they moved her due to vandalism, even though I almost ran over a woman on my bike on my way to take that picture. (Like how was I supposed to know she was going to walk out of a shop at that instant. I said Excuse me. It's not like she was paying attention.)

This sunflower Bison has Starry Starry Nights on the other side and a portrait of Van Gogh for a face. It's cleverly titled Gogh Bison GO! Did you ever hear the Art Garfunkle song about Vincent Van Gogh? I like that song.
This colorful and cartoonish bison is named Heartbeat of the RedRiver Valley and is at the base of my favorite street in Fargo - you guessed it! Broadway! Where everything is, including Bab's coffee shop's new location, around the corner from this bison!
This peice of artwork is called Spirits of the Prairie (are you sensing a theme?) and she's right up broadway from Heartbeat who is across the street from the one about the Fargo Fire. (I can draw you a map.) I'm just trying to give you an idea of how many bison one sees in a day.

Laura's Buffalo Hunt - Part Four "the Fargo side of the bridge"

(Grumpily: in no kind of order) This shiny bison, commemorating the Pony Express stands on Broadway in Fargo near Dempsy's Public House - my favorite Irish Pub in Fargo - and the only bar in Fargo it can be said I "frequent." Anyway, I like the Pony Express bison.

This little guy lives in front of the Fargo Civic Center. (yes, those are the Ten Comandments in the background.) I believe his painting was sponsored by Excel energy - or some energy company because one side is an illustration of Wind Power - very important in North Dakota, and the other side - what looks to me like a picture of Hell - is an illustration of Coal Power. I also appreciate the portrait of Earth he wears on his forehead.

This Bison stands at one end of Broadway. One side of him commemorates the Fargo Fire of 1893. The other side the Red River flood of 1997.

This Texas-Hold'em playing Bison with the shades stands outside the very large and impressive Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre building which is in my favorite park, Island Park. It took me a while to find this one even though the map said there were two bison in Island Park. It's a big park. The sign should be advertising the summer production of Anything Goes but for some reason that didn't show up in the picture although I tried to get in in there. Maybe it blinked or something.

And why not, after all put this bison next to the Welcome to Fargo sign last? I don't know his title, but he's got a beach scene with two little kids painted on one side of him which reminds me of the innocence and venture of childhood summers. Isn't it sweet?

Laura's Buffalo Hunt-Part Three "Now that Buffalo's Gone"

We're coming up on the last of the Moorhead Bison, but I've tried to save the very best for last. This is "Now that the Buffalo's Gone" by Timothy Ray.


This buffalo features four versus of a song by artist Buffy Sainte-Marie, who I am very interested in learning more about since being introduced to her poetry by this fine bison. More information on Buffy Sainte-Marie can be found at http://www.creative-native.com

Can you remember the times
When you have held your head high
And told all your friends of your Indian claim
Proud good lady and proud good man
Your great-great grandfather from Indian blood sprang
And you feel in your heart for these ones

When a war between nations is lost
The loser we know pays the cost.
But even when Germany fell to your hand
Consider dear lady, consider dear man
You left them their pride and you left them their land
And what have you done to these ones?

Has a change come about Uncle Sam?
Or are you still taking our lands
A treaty forever George Washington signed
He did dear lady, he did dear man
But the treaty’s being broken by Kinzua Dam
And what will you do for these ones?

Oh it’s all in the past you can say
But its still going on here today
The government now wants the Iroquois land
That of the Inuit & the Cheyenne
It’s here and it’s now you must help us dear man
Now that the buffalo’s gone

Copyright Gypsy Boy Music 1965

I love this majestic Bison where it stands in Moorhead overlooking this bland stretch of road rather close to bar watching the cars pass by and reminding us of the lost prairie. And as I was admiring it, a train happened to pass. (well, actually I came back and waited 20 minutes for a train so I could take this picture.) But still...it is haunting.

Laura's Buffalo Hunt - Summer '06 Part Two

If this is how this is going to go, you're going to have to scroll down and read part one first. It's taken me a long time to create these posts, because it will only let me post three pictures at a time - or at least thus far. But stay tuned to the results of my Fargo/Moorhead Buffalo Hunt and my ongoing battle with posting pics on Blogger.

Ok, not the order I would have them in, but apparently I have no say-
This one is called Wacapi Wanagi (Ghost Dance) and is designed and painted by Laura Youngbird. The webpage says Laura used a process called acrylic transfer, incorporating historical images. The images are related to the Ghost Dance, the slaughter and the near extinction of the American Bison, the massacre at Wounded Knee (mostly women and children), due to the fear of the religious movement (the Ghost Dance). The premise of the Ghost Dance is that if you prayed, sang the songs and danced (which is also praying), lived a good life, the suffering would end, the oppressors would leave and the buffalo would return. It is one of my favorite Bison and it's very powerful up close. In Moorhead this bison stands in front of the Hjemkomst Heritage Interpretive Center.

Bi-Sun, is the title this colorful Bison stands outside the Moorhead Center Mall and looking at it reminds me of the hottest days of summer when it got up to 104!

This one looks the most like a natural bison, from the front and he's got a nice scene with the American flag down his side. Stood in the middle of busy main avenue to get this picture.

This guy is called Sam. No idea why. No clue what's up with the Christmas lights either, but it was nice to see some blue in the Main Avenue area. It's not a color you usually see unless you're looking up at the sky... You can see the main avenue bridge and the railroad bridge that lets you know we get a lot of trains coming through...quite often.

Ok, at long last here's my updated post. You can see fron the date on this (probably) that I've been working on this one for a while and saving it as a draft. Most computer's don't want to let me post mutliple pictures.

Laura's Buffalo Hunt - Summer '06 Part One

Tatonka - is the Lakota word for Bison. A sacred animal, the legend has it that Tatonka was once part of the earth and looked up from within the ground and saw the people suffering on the land with no food, no shelter or clothing. And so Tatonka came up from the earth to give the people what they needed. This summer in Moorhead and Fargo there have been Bison statues all around town as part of a Lake Agassiz Arts Council project called "Heard about the Prairie". People from the community of all walks of life have designed and decorated Bison with different themes. Starting on Memorial Day, I made it my project to go on a Buffalo Hunt and photograph as many as possible. Here are the results of my quest so far.


This buffalo was painted by students at Horzion Middle school, the same school where my Linking Up program takes place. This specimen is titled "Spudicus Maximus" because the Moorhead Middle School "Spuds" designed it based on the artwork of Peter Max, an artist from the 60's. From the design of the buffalo I take it his work was really similar to the way Dr. Teeth and the band painted Fozzie's studebaker in The Muppet Movie. Here it is pictured in front of Moorhead Public Library.

This bison is located in front of an art museum I've never been in. Watch for it, it will come back later because I didn't really like this picture.

Buffalo Borealis shows the Native people of the plains gathered on one side to witness the northern lights. I also tried to capture the medicine wheel painted on the buffalo's forehead and a little girl running in the park in the background. I think I over reached.

A Few Words

I promised to update today, so here's a few words:

"nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak."

- In Memorandium

Nominated!

For all you out here in the blogsphere, I thought I'd post on the results of my interview: which is that I was nominated to the Peace Corps. This means, as I understand it, my name is temporarily joined with a program and my file now goes to the Placement Office for further consideration. Right now the program I am nominated to is in Eastern Europe and I would leave in May of 2007, but that can change. I still have to get physical examinations and issued a health clearance and a legal clearance (gov't background checks and the like.) As always, I will keep you updated on the process. It looks like I will be leaving to serve in the Peace Corps sometime within the next year...and hopefully sooner than May, but we'll see.

I'm off to see the Wizard!

No, but that's what it feels like. I'm bound for Minneapolis tomorrow for my Peace Corps interview so everyone wish me luck! The interview should take an hour and a half and will determine if my file gets sent to Washtington D.C. for further review.

Because there's nothing more I can say about the interview because it hasn't happened yet, I thought I'd update my readers once again on all things Brokeback Mountain.

Specifically I'd like to congratulate Jake G. and Heath Ledger for winning Best Kiss at the MTV movie awards, and to inform some people that it's not the first time a male-male kiss has won the award. Jason Biggs and Stifler won for American Pie 2 but that was kind of a high school - isn't it funny that two guys kissed- nomination. This was different because as far as I know it is the first time a male-male kiss with actual attraction between the characters has won. This time it is a real honor, and true to honesty and brutality of the film, not making fun of the situation of two men kissing in a movie, and I just wanted to say I love how Jake G acknowledged that with his acceptance speech.

And now, forever Up On My Soapbox, I present you with another link: www.walkforjustice.org you can use to sponsor me and the People Escaping Poverty Project in the Walk for Justice on Sept. 17th. For more information about the walk or about PEPP you can email me or see the June 12th blog entry below.

Happy Birthday to PEPP!

Last weekend I celebrated the 20th Birthday of the People Escaping Poverty Project with a folk fair in the park! There was music, free food and tie-dying, although I was one of the face painters who spent a day at a table adorning all kinds of children in colorful hearts, rainbows, the occasional peace sign and the frighteningly complicated tie-dyed “Hello.”

I know I’ve mentioned PEPP before on this blog with a casual – I’ll have to explain more about that later. PEPP for instance is the group that offered the free community organizer training I attended every Saturday in April. PEPP is a community nonprofit organization in Moorhead and I am on their board. To be on the board of a nonprofit is usually a big deal. As Duke who’s worked at PEPP for some number of years pointed out to me, I’m technically his boss. It’s a great experience getting to see the inner-workings of a nonprofit, and PEPP’s board is really involved so I also get experience doing fund raising and loading chairs on and off trucks for events like PEPP Fest.

I should say that PEPP is not part of my job with Americorps. It’s just something else I’m involved with in the community. And how I got to be involved was the last person who had my job with Americorps was involved, so when I came into town they called and asked if I would be interested – and what am I not interested in?

Her Story of PEPP

PEPP was founded in 1986 by a small group of women who received financial assistance organized, fighting a 30 percent cut in Minnesota’s Aid to Dependant Families with Children program. These women started a grassroots movement in the Moorhead community fighting the welfare cuts. The group organized and collaborated with others groups and individuals throughout the community, and ultimately defeated the cuts.

PEPP’s work is focused on developing a shift in power, resulting in real and immediate changes in people’s lives by impacting the issues at the policy level, rather than the individual being assisted by direct service. PEPP’s goals are to be a powerful organization led by people with low income and to develop alliances and partners to working together as a collaborative community force to creating positive changes in Fargo Moorhead and regional areas.

PEPP’s Vision is committed to building community, empowering people, and uniting for power justice and equality.

PEPP’s Mission is to strategically challenge the power dynamics of systems and institutions, by organizing powerful people and resources through intentional relationships.

The best thing about the important work PEPP is doing in this community is that you can be a part of it!

I am counting on my friends to sponsor me in the Headwaters Walk for Justice on September 17th in Minneapolis. Headwaters raises and distributes money among nonprofits like PEPP that are dedicated to social justice. For every dollar the PEPP team raises we keep 70%! The rest goes to Headwaters so they can continue giving organizations like PEPP grants like the $10,000 we just received to start a Tenants Action Network in Moorhead.

Just go to www.walkforjustice.org and click on sponsor a walker, then type in my name! It’s that easy! Help me reach my goal or raising $300 for this worthwhile organization!

And if you have any questions about PEPP please email me or check out our webpage at www.pepp.org

Rogers for State Senate 2016!

I know it's been a little while, but I wanted to give my gentlemen readers a chance to contemplate how their lives have been improved by the statements on the below poster. (See "I'm not a feminist, but...")

So I went to this awesome Women's Leadership Conference where I met a lot of cool people and felt a little bit like I was at summer camp - staying in the dorms at NDSU, but it was fun. Let me say too that I now finally understand what it meant by networking. I always thought before that networking was something scuzzy self-promoters in wing-tips did in bars with martini's in one hand and business cards in the other. That might be someone's version of networking, but I like my version better.

Networking is also when you meet someone and hear about what issures they're passionate about and think "hey, I should connect you with so-and-so." It's also when you meet a campaign manager for a candidate you support and say "I need a job in August! Do you have any long-term volunteer opportunites?" It is especially cool when networking can be a woman you met four days ago announcing she will run for office in her community and you say "can I make a campaign contribution." That's what made this conference different than summer camp. There was a real sense of mutual support among all the participants (which I've also experienced at summer camps) and with a higher purpose. I found myself quoting Arlo Guthrie's song Alice's Restruant from time to time.

"They'll say it's a movement. Because that's what it is."

I do find that business cards help.

I could say more about NEW Women's Leadership Institute but I'm hungry and I don't want to bore you with details of what I learned about public speaking, public policy, fundraising, campaigning, what it was like to hear Winona LaDuke speak (if you don't know who she is - when I voted for Nader, I voted for her for Vice President. Once.)

Instead I'll just say that this conference did make me think more seriously about seeking office one day - which I was already thinking about - but now it's not just the school board. It's the state legislature. As I put it to one person (you know who you are) Who do you want voting on issues in the state that affect your life? Me, or some other guy? So watch out state of Wisconsin and watch out friends or as I like to think of you - future campaign contributors!

Can I count on your vote in 2016?

Chew on this!


I was going to post something about my anti-racism training on Wednesday, but so much conversation has happened around it afterward that I was inspired to put up this. Hopefully I'll catch up with typing out my anti-racism training observations after my Women's Leadership training this weekend and next week. However, I thought maybe posting this would help me start off the conference on a good note!

P.S. This poster and clever shirts and stickers are available at www.oneangrygirl.net

Say Goodbye...

It's one of those times when I know I need to update, but I suddenly feel like I don't have anything to say. I guess I can comment on how crappy the weather has been lately (cold and rainy) and that I've been doing a lot of reading lately.

I should say that this month (man, April flew by in a hurry) I'm trying to organize about 8 weeks of fun activities for middle school kids over the summer. We're going to go to a ropes course, a minor league ball game, do a fundraiser - and what I'm most excited about - host a carnival for the A Child's World day camp kids, so our middle schoolers get to put on a fun day of water balloon tosses and finger painting for 6 year olds. It's going to be an exciting summer. I'm just hoping that more kids sign up for our program!

-And that we get our funding. This is the time of year when we're in a mad scramble to find the funding to keep our program alive for one more year -hopefully funding will be more solid after 2007. Right now I'm calling every civic organization and church group in town and asking them to pitch in some dollars.

When looking for funds, I tend to start out slow and then kick into over drive. I've taken on few extra fundraising projects at the same time. The organziation People Escaping Poverty Project - which I am on their board - is also constantly fundraising. One of the ways they get money is the Headwaters Foundation Walkf for Justice - which is in September, but watch for that because I'll be looking for sponsors. My goal is to raise $300 for PEPP. PEPP just got a 10k grant from Headwaters to start a Tenants Rights group hear in Moorhead, and we're really excited about it. (I feel like I'll have to explain more about this at a later date.) And Churches United for the Homeless needs a new coffee percolator, so I've made it my personal mission to find away for my church to come up with the money. Those are my side projects.

Highlights of the week: This week Wednesday I get to sit in on the Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI) level 1 anti-racism training I helped to organize. Not really organize, but I was the point person who communicated with catering and reserved the rooms. I printed the nametags. (shut up! It wasn't easy. Word didn't have that particular template.)
So I'm looking forward to that. Then - starting Saturday I get to go to a NEW Leadership Conference for Women about bringing about positive change in the community - how to be an instigator, if necessary, but basically how to be a leader and influence things in the community for the better. It's at North Dakota State University and it's 5 days long. I'm excited about attending, but not too keen on staying in a dorm room. I'll let you know how it goes.

Finally - the bad news. Two things have happened recently to throw my entire live into upheaval! Or at least my comfortable pattern of existance: 1) school ended at Concordia - changing the gym schedule, screwing up my evening work out routine and making it more difficult for me to watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. 2) Tonight: is the Series finale of the WEST WING!! (now I don't even feel like I want to work out Sunday night - if the gym were open!)

I know, such an event deserves a post unto itself, but its still too fresh. Perhaps I will write something more about it soon.

Vital Stats:
Musical of the month: Mama Mia
Working out: at 5! (ug! there's nothing on tv)
The Daily Show: miss it!
The WEST WING: (sob)
Weather: >: (
Movies: I wrote in the newsletter for the church I've been going to - Anyone interested in a Da Vinci Code matinee Sat. the 27th followed by pancakes and discussion should contact me. We'll see if I get any takers.
Plans for the weekend: I'm going to be at a conference. Everyone call me this weekend so I'll seem like I'm really cool!
Recipes of weeks past: Greek salad as per Nicki's description, fennel basil salad with tofu and couscous, and a really worthwhile recipe for sundried tomato and asparagus fetticuine. This weekend I ordered a pizza.

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

"You won't admitt you love me, and so
How am I ever to know,
You only tell me
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

A million times I ask you, and then
I ask you over again
You only answer
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

Ok, for those of you who've been talking to me on the phone, this post is at last the final answer to the most recent Brokeback Mountain conterversy plauging me, and therefore also plauging those who converse with me regularly. To those of you who don't speak to me regularly on the phone - I promise to try to make this my last post about Brokeback Mountain ...for a while.

The question has been, since I recently saw the movie again on DVD over Easter - in the scene where Jack goes to Mexico, a song is playing in the background in Spanish. I thought I recongized the song. (I would like it noted here for the record that one can be obsessed with a movie and just because you happen to know a song that happens to be in the movie is purely coincidence and doesn't necessarily make you a freak.)

After the scene I would find myself humming the Spanish song, and with shock I thought that Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps? Cake released a CD in 1995 on their album Fashion Nugget (which was a highly influential album for me in my 10th grade year and I really recommend it. For a while it was all we played in the high school journalism office. Perhaps... has special meaning for me because of that year and a prank involving an answering machine.)

It struck me too, that the lyrics are stunningy appropriate for that scene. If you don't know what I'm talking about see the movie again - and you should see the movie again no matter what. (C'mon, seeing a movie once is like not seeing it at all.)

"If you can't make your mind up
We'll never get started
And I don't want to wind up
Being parted Broken Hearted

So if you really love me, say Yes
And if you don't, dear, confess
But please don't tell me
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

My intense research has revealed that the song Quizás, Quizás, Quizás was written by Osvaldo Farrés in Cuba in 1947 and recorded by Nat King Cole in 1958, therefore making it non-anaronistic to the film (we call that "Period") and rerecorded by Cake in '95.

If you're interested in this it's easy to find a direct translation of the lyrics online. Posted here are the English lyrics as Cake sings them.

Being someone who cares about movies and loves, LOVES, when a film is done well, I hope this new knowledge of the lyrics to the incidental Spanish song brings you to deeper understanding of the charcter and closer to the message of the film.

I don't think it's a mistake that the lyrics reflect so well the character's state of mind and situation. As a friend said to me recently while embroiled in this discussion "everything in a good production is a choice." So you film and theatre fans who want to shrug at me and say to yourselves - "Man, she needs to get over it!" (and I do) is it possible that what's playing in the background in that scene has no impact on the greater movie? Could it be that I am over-analyzing this?

"Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

But I feel better knowing and sharing that knowledge with you.

You are Ennis Del Mar. Fair, strong, and willful, you take time to consider your decisions and you stand by what you believe in.

It had to happen....
Among all the things I've wasted my time doing today, I finally found the What Brokeback Mountain character are you? quiz that I (ahem) approve of. Even so, it's not very good, so someone should show me how to make quizes on this machine and I'll make you a quiz that will knock you flat on you're, well, you know.
Also, you can guess that I scored 100% correct on the How Obsessed are You with Brokeback Mountain quiz - and the person who wrote it doesn't know how to spell Alma.

Just so you know - I'm probably nowhere near done with this topic, but I will move on because this is going to be a subject of much discussion for probably, say...the rest of my life.

Vital Stats (I'll try and keep it brief and update more frequently)

River Report: the river crested the Wednesay after my last post and we didn't get as much rain as expected so all's well. Now it's a matter of mobilizing volunteers to take down the sandbags.

Weather Report: Gorgeous and sunny! A little windy and chilly if you're outside without a jacket but BEAUT-IEFUL! Like butter!

After School Program: Over for the school year! Aww! I'm going to miss those kids, but I've got a little over a month to figure out what's going on next year - and pull together the summer program! Oi vey!

What else am I doing: Community Organizer training with the People Escaping Poverty Project...it's really exciting/interesting. I'll have to tell you more about it some time.

Musical of the Month: Jesus Christ Superstar! Duh!

Easter: Went home and saw my mom and brothers and spent a little time with the puppies. Talked politics, movies, movies and movies, it was good.

Train Status: Dropped me off in Fargo at 4 a.m. this morning!

Movies I'm looking forward to: Da Vinci Code, X3, Pirates 2, and Thank You for Smoking. Right now no solid plans to see any of them.

Recipe of the weekend: Oh, I don't know but I recently experimented with Sam's Enchilada recipe and modified it to include spinach, brocoli, tomatos, peppers, shallots, corn and some black beans. It actually worked too! They were quite tasty!

Oh in other news: My Peace Corps application has been submitted. So in about a year from now I should (hopefully) be getting stationed somewhere?

Got something to say? Sure you do! Post a comment!