Khareem and Internet

So begins a new chapter in the lives of those who live at the Pimp Party Palace, AKA P3: Khareem and Internet.

I completely stole that title from Ian, one of my roommates.

We got another roommate, Khareem. He moved in last week and is using the dining room of our house as his bedroom. It's all good with me as that means cheaper rent and utilities. Everything is going pretty good so far. He's pretty knowledgeable about technology, which has really helped us out. He is also how we ended up with the Internet at our house and was responsible for 99% of its setup and fixing. There's something about where we live that just makes signals shitty.

I have been ridiculously busy with work pulling normally around 60 hour work weeks. And yes, still getting paid pretty crappy. It's a good thing I like working with kids or I'd be out in a heartbeat.

This past weekend we had a retreat with some of the middle school students who did our program last year and were interested in doing it again this year. The rewards for them are greater but so are the expectations. These students were fun as hell to hang out with. Yeah, they were difficult to get to cooperate but we still had a blast working with them at our retreat.

It's just now becoming fall in Seattle. There is road near my house that has a huge golf course on both sides all the way down it. The road itself is lined with various types of trees that are all changing colors at various rates. It really is an awesome sight.

Last Saturday was my first time at a gay club here in Seattle. I had a lot of fun but apparently I intimidate some people. Some guy came over to me and asked me if I was gay or straight. I told him, "gay, why else would I be here?" And he said that I didn't look gay but that there are some dudes over somewhere to the side of the dance floor who were too chicken to come and talk to me themselves. I didn't sweat it. I wasn't there looking for anything, just for a fun time so I went back to hanging out with the people I came with and had a friggin blast. The walk home, however, wasn't so blast-tastic. I had looked up a late night bus route that I thought could get me close to my house and I even made it down from the club to downtown with enough time to catch the last two pickups from that bus. But it never came! I definitely didn't want to pay for a cab (getting from downtown to my house costs well over $25) so I just walked home. And yeah, it was typical Seattle - raining. I walked all the way from downtown Seattle to Beacon Hill where I live a little inebriated a lot wet. I didn't get home until about 5:30am but I also stopped to talk to a homeless guy along the way and listened to another homeless guy rap to us. Not so safe, eh? But still fun and interesting. I kept passing out along the way home but somehow kept my balance and kept walking. Go figure.

My soccer team is also doing pretty good. I am having a lot of fun with those guys. The only problem is that for the first two games my cleats were too small and screwed up my two big toes. Or rather, my two big toenails. But nails are white and black with the left one having some yellow thrown in. The left one is also puffy around the edges oozes sometimes. It's definitely infected and I have an appointment on Wednesday that should have happened a long time ago. We'll see what comes of that.

I also was able to go down to the food stamp office today and check to see how that was coming along. It turns out that they never got my faxed copies of my forms and that my EBT card has been pushed back yet again until I can bring all of the forms in myself. Which is a bit difficult right now because I left my binder at the retreat place and I am hoping that it just got mixed in with my boss' stuff who was also there. Here's to hoping. All of my completed food stamp stuff was in that folder along with two magazines I wasn't finished with and all of my progress with my Team Leader Coordinator position. I really hope that binder isn't lost.

Today, I did go the Pike Place Market. I got to see the place where they throw fish and all of the little interesting shops there as well. It was really cool and I kept thinking about how much my grandparents would probably like to walk through it.

I really can't think of anything else to add although I'm sure a ton has happened. I like this city, but I haven't come across anything yet that will definitely keep me here after my term at City Year is up.