Post Thanksgiving

So, it's now Sunday night and tomorrow will mark the return to normalcy. At least for awhile until I head back home for my sister's wedding.

I worked a lot for the holiday, but not at City Year. I pulled more hours than normal at my new second job, Gap. It's funny, because for most of the day, I actually like this job (please knock on wood). I finally got it through to the management that I would rather work on the men's floor even though they constantly stick me in the kids' level. It's easy working with the kids because I have so much experience with it, but that's not where my interests lie, if you get my meaning.

Thanksgiving itself ended up being pretty fun. I went with a guy on my soccer team to his family's get together and it ended being a lot more fun than I was anticipating. Not that I am trying to be mean or had low expectations, just that I was very very unsure about imposing myself onto an established family. The house was extremely nice. I won't go into details because it's not my place, but the family that lived there owned two pure bred Doberman pincers. Now, these are the first dogs like these I've seen in real life. My only experience with them has been their movie representations which are not very friendly. That being said, these dogs were amazing. The food was also fantastic. The man of the house (I say this loosely, as clearly the female was in charge) kept force feeding me wine when I got there, so by the time dinner was ready and I switched to rum & coke, I was already buzzed. I kept my cool though and just proceeded to eat tons of real food (I don't get much while on foodstamps) and to enjoy talking to other people. These people rocked, and I am so glad that this guy on my soccer team had me come down with him.

The rest of everything else has been pretty normal. Save for this dude that I met recently who I have been hanging out a lot with. I am still trying to figure the entire thing out, so be ready for an update on that.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This is the first big holiday that I've spent away from some aspect of my family. It's a bit weird but also kinda cool. I like that I am adult enough now to be able to be on my own but I can't lie and say that I don't miss my family, because I do.

This is something I better get used to, because Christmas is going to be the same.

Be safe out there, folks. Eat a lot and have fun.

Later gators.

Eventful

So this has been an eventful weekend.

First, Thursday night, the only night that I have off at my second job, I get roped into going to a middle school for a recruitment hit but instead, one of my teammates gets hit by a car right in front of our office. She is okay and is staying home now in a lot of pain, but it scared a crap load of people.

Saturday we had another service event with our students. The rain made everything very unsafe for our students so we had to call it early. It was hard as hell to get parents to come and pick up their kids. I ended up getting left at the park with one of our students whose mom wasn't picking up her phone at all. The mom ended up coming at the regular end time which was over two hours after we had ended the day. I had to bus back through Seattle to my house soaking wet, hungry, and angry. It was not fun.

Saturday night, however, I got to go to a club in Seattle called: R-Place. I like that place only because I like hip hop music. Some of my friends surprised me there and we ended up at Neighbors, another club in Seattle. I had never been to this one before but I was too drunk to really take it all in.

Sunday, I had my normal soccer game, but this one was our Over 30 vs. Under 30 game with my team, Ripple Effect, playing with another team called Savoire Faire. During this, I ended up getting two invites to play with more competitive teams that I am seriously thinking about doing. I will need to start up some training over the winter if I do decide to do it.

We also had a Thanksgiving shindig with all our players tonight on those two teams. I decided that I would bring something that I call "Amy's Fruit Salad" to the dinner. It's basically a watermelon hollowed out and filled with other types of fruit. It looks cool, and that's what I was going for. I made two out of mini watermelons and they were a huge hit.

I also found out today that I somehow was given the Alumni of the Year award from my fraternity. It's crazy. I had no idea I was even up for it. It's cool, I just wish I was back in Kville to celebrate with everyone for it.

For now, I am staying extremely busy and lamenting not being able to see mi madre for Thanksviging.

Cool, not

Holy shit, I haven't posted on here since October 20th. What a slacker I am.

I've been busy. Yeah, I know, easy excuse but it really is the truth. Like I have already mentioned, I work a lot for City Year. This job definitely keeps me busy (which has been surprisingly good for me) and only seems to be getting busier.

Tomorrow will be the culmination of one of the projects my team has been working on for a week now. It is something called a Community Meeting and we are the first team out of the entire corps to host our own Community Meeting. Our theme is going to be Superheroes. Each of us picked two sets of superheroes as table decals and coloring pages for the members to play with while we are meeting and I picked The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Power Rangers (original five, thanks). Through some sick twist of fate, only us team members will be allowed to dress up as superheroes for this meeting. I decided upon dressing up as Super Kewpie. My high school mascot was a Kewpie and as such, I will be going as... basically a naked baby. We'll see how that goes over. No one else in the corps is allowed to dress up because of some issues in the past with "unprofessional" costumes. Yeah, that's what I thought too: W.T.F. mate? In any case, I will be hitting it hard as will the rest of my teammates.

I also, somehow, accidentally volunteered myself to do my Life Works during our Community Meeting. I'm going to be the first regular corps member to do their Life Works and although I know all of the material by heart (it is all about me, after all) I am a bit nervous. I've never been a fan of public speaking and this is going to test my comfort zone a little bit. Especially since the entire thing will be me talking about me and exposing myself to a lot of people. Which is also something I don't like to do. Really, everyone, or almost everyone, has heard the biggest controversies that make me who I am so the rest of the Life Works will seem kind of bland. At least I think it will, I can only really speak for myself. While working on this project, I went through a ton of pictures. Mainly pictures off of facebook and myspace as I don't have much here in Seattle as far as tangible pictures of friends and family. Wow, that was probably a mistake. Going back through years of pictures and memories hit me pretty hard. I went to bed a few nights ago completely down and wondering what the fuck I was doing in Seattle when everyone I cared about was somewhere else. I kept thinking: "We had so much fun. Is that gone? Can I bring that back?" There are tons of people I miss but most of them are no longer in Kirksville or Columbia, the only two places I really know in the Midwest. As far as Columbia, only my family is there that I actually think about or miss at all; and David and Abbie, of course. Kirksville... geez, there are a few people there who I can't believe I don't see anymore, but a lot of people that I'm glad I don't see anymore. And that's being honest, you know me if you are reading this, so you know how I am about honesty. Everyone else has moved away and is continuing with their own lives. I think that's one of the things that kept me strong through my little break down (stupid, I know) was knowing that everyone else had plans and was acting on them. I know that what I am doing in Seattle is bigger and more meaningful than myself so in my heart, I know that it is a good thing. I want to be an example for those I am not around anymore. Plus, I am not a quitter. I will finish City Year and do what is meant to be afterwards. If it's staying here, cool, if not, that's cool too.

We finally got moved into Meany Middle School. Now I can say I actually tutor and mentor middle school students instead of just "engage" and do service with them. I was assigned to two different classrooms, a reading and writing class and a science class. Both classes have 8th graders in them. For some reason, I like being around the 8th graders the most - I like their personalities and their minds. They are so cool.

Other work projects are still ongoing. My Substance Abuse LDD is coming along and will be presented at the end of this month. It's finally all coming together and looks great. My Dreams Committee is just starting its business and I am still not sure what will be involved with it. As far as Team Leader recruitment goes... that's a bit rough. I haven't had much luck lately, but I'm still trudging through everything. I was able to talk to the guy in L.A. who has my same position and he had some really good ideas to use.

I got a second job as well. It's at the GAP and I am now working in the Men's department as a salesman. I have very little retail experience, but I can make this happen. This is a very good opportunity for me as it will give me some income flow outside of City Year as well get me into situations where I can meet more people in Seattle. I'm pretty excited about it. And yeah, some of that is probably because I was able to get some much needed new clothes.

However, as a side effect to getting that second job, I will not be able to go visit my mom for Thanksgiving or to visit my dad for Christmas. That is going to blow pretty hard. I'm not going to be the only person here that I know, however, so I will at least be able to do little things while still in Seattle. I will, however, still be able to go back to Columbia for Ashley's wedding in December. I will only be in Columbia Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night (Saturday being the wedding on the 15th) so I plan on making some rounds while I am there. I am pretty sure (although I haven't checked yet) that Truman will be out for Christmas break, so I don't think I will be going up to Kirksville. But I can still do a lot of things in Columbia that will be fun. I would like to go back to Soco just to get that experience again. Maybe compare it a bit to Seattle's nightlife. As well as to hang out with the fam and anyone else I know who is in Columbia at that time (Abbie, David, your asses better be ready to do something - we are not old yet).

My soccer team has been going great and my toes are healing up nicely. I have even joined a running club of City Year employees. The hills here are a whole new experience to the predominantly flat Missouri. They are hard, but I push myself through them and get it done like I normally do. My ipod has become one of my greatest allies here. It and I run a lot of Beacon Hill everyday. Whenever I am at work, I look forward to getting off and being able to run my route on Beacon Hill. I used to hate running, now, that's changed for some reason. I think I blame Dan. That little fucker must have rubbed off on me before we both left Truman. Or, I just keep it as a way to remember him and everyone else.

I've noticed lately that my attitudes and personality has taken a bit of a slip back towards the old Josh. The Josh that was while I was finishing college. Opinionated, stubborn, and fiercely independent. I like that Josh and I'm glad that he's back and the one that arose when I came out here is going away. My heart is made of ice.

I've made the plans and am definitely sure that I will be going back for the next Alumni weekend with Phi Sigma Pi. It will be fun to be on the outside looking in and I am sure that if I go, I can convince other old people to come with me. We can show these new kids what partying is like. None of this stupid shit I am reading about on facebook. Yeah, I facebook-stalk. It's easy and informative. Along with that, a bit, I checked out something out of curiosity and it turns out that someone still harbors some ill feelings towards me. Yeah, you need to find something else to think about. Really. The whole turning me into the bad guy thing is getting very old.

Speaking of thinking about! Last week we had this training called UIR. Or, Undoing Institutionalized Racism. The seminar was abrasive to the max. I took pages worth of notes and am in the process of putting together something cohesive and typed out about the entire experience. I think I'm going to put it up on here, or maybe not. I don't know how long it will be, but I am sure that it is going to be a lot longer than I had originally thought. Plus, I still need to think it all out and by writing about it, I hope to accomplish that. Racism. What a delicate subject.

It's late. For me, at least, since I have get up in time to bus from Beacon Hill to downtown. Plus, I'm 24 now, have been since October 23rd. Does that make me sound old?

OIhsoihsgslhgh

That's the only way I know how to describe everything that's been going on.

I work my butt off, everyday of every week. My team and I are always busy and always doing things with City Year. Aside from that, I try to stay social with the people I have met here so I do a bit of going out in addition to working.

Work has been crazy. We are still putting in about 60 hours every week but now our team is starting to get the hang of things so we are much more efficient. Our morale has been bottoming out a lot, however, as people are started to get burnt out on lunch visits and too many things being required everyday from us. We are working on fixing that which has required us to have a lot of meetings with our boss and the team as a whole. Which, looking back on it, causes us to only get more behind. Every Friday we do events with the entire corps. This past Friday (aka yesterday) was good. But traditionally the Fridays have sucked. Normally, every Friday I will question myself as to why I'm even in City Year. Yesterday was the exception. We had the first LDD committee presentation on Domestic Violence. LDDs are put together and ran by corps members, so the entire day is different than normal and was a lot more interesting. My LDD presentation is November 30th on Substance Abuse. Woooooo.... yeah, not so much.

Soccer hasn't been happening. Mainly because of my damn toe injuries from a month ago. However, last Monday a clinic I went to decided to just pull the toenail out. They gave me a few shots around the toe to numb it and then had me lay back. The lady asked me about what I want to do after City Year and by the time I was done telling that I am interested in getting my PhD in Physical Therapy she had my toenail out. I didn't even feel it happen. But the pain was gone. All of it. I was in a little bootie for a few days and then tried shoes. Shoes were fine so I tried running. Running was fine. Now tomorrow I am going to retry soccer. We'll see how that goes. I am really excited to get back out there though. I wish that the toenail that was also injured but that didn't get infected would just come out as well. That would make everything perfect. The one good thing about this is that the clinic I went to (a walk-in by the way, I had to be there by 630am by bus) gave me a note that will get me free healthcare until April 9th because of my low income and the things I still have to pay out every month.

We also go out on the weekends quite a bit.

I've also been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do after City Year. I know that I don't want to do another term at CY. It's just after that where I am unsure. A big part of me wants to go on and get my PhD in Physical Therapy and return to what I've always said I was going to do. I love healthcare and serving people, so that seems to be a very safe bet. Another part of me is very worried about going back to more school. I've also been throwing around the ideas of fire paramedic or even a cop as a jump start to something like the DEA. But I dunno. I hope that it all becomes more clear soon.

I also finally have my EBT food stamps card. They gave me money from all the way back to when I applied, so I have more than enough money for food now. But the system they have in place is horrible. I have a job that knows we need food stamps. Allows us to go get the EBT card and to go to our appointments. Allows us to use work computers for the app process and also allows us to use the fax machine to fax in forms for it. Now, the average person who needs food stamps isn't going to have many, or even any, of those options. How are they going to be able to accomplish the entire process? Not to mention that if something is screwed up your app gets denied and you have to wait until the next month. I really wish that entire process would get reworked. I swear that this entire experience is so eye opening in so many different ways.

I'm only one month in. That means there are nine more to go and already this has been an experience I wouldn't trade out.

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.

My car, your yard

Never, in all of the cities I have ever lived, visited, passed through, flown over, or slept in (haha - get it? No? Okay) have I seen so many vehicles parked in yards. Honestly... why? What's the point or the benefit to parking your ride in your grass? I understand that Seattle is cloudy and gray most of the year and therefore the grass gets little sunlight, but why kill even that by parking your huge, stinking, drippy, exhausty vehicle in your front lawn? I honestly don't get it. Besides the frequent "Grass Parkers" there are those who deign to just park their rides half in the street and half on the sidewalk. Fuckin tards.

Fuckin christ, it feels so good to be able to just let loose with the verbal abuse.

As you know by now, I work with kids. Or well, I will be. My team "Young Heroes" will be working with middle school students in a service learning and community building type of environment. Right now we are going through a lot of planning and recruitment needed to run a successful program. So, I've definitely got to start watching my word usage. Anyone who knows me also knows that I like to cuss. It's just there and it's natural. Sometimes there's nothing better than a powerful exclamation of the word FUCK. Or shit, or bitch, or bastard, or damnit, or cunt, or any other verbal attack you can think of. I'm working hard at curbing my tongue while at work. I still slip occasionally but I am getting a lot better at not cussing. However, sometimes I just need to let it out.

Sunday, I had tryouts for a gay league soccer team. I got asked to come back, which is fantastic, but it was a bit of a weird experience. I wasn't allowed to play rough (what the fuck, right?). A lot of the guys are also out of town in Argentina for a tournament so when they get back, the scouts get back for the more competitive teams. I'd love to play on a team that is a challenge. Sunday wasn't really that hard. My only problem was overworking myself. I also ended up getting beaned in the face with a soccer ball, a twisted knee, a blood blister the size of Texas, and a black toe-nail that I am sure is going to fall off.

Aside from that, I've been doing a ton of recruiting. Recruiting for Young Heroes means going to middle schools during special event nights and running a table while engaging students or going to schools during their lunch periods and basically ambushing students while they are eating lunch. The lunch thing has been the easiest for me so far. I actually enjoy talking to these kids, the 8th graders especially. I can't wait for the program to turn from recruitment into service, however. I think that aspect is what I really came here for although I can see how I will grow extremely from what I am doing now.

Library is kicking me out. Finish later.