This One's for You, Col.

Alright, so apparently more people read my blog than I think.

So it's time for an update.

The House (not Haus):

Intergenerational living is rad, difficult, but rewarding. The chore system is way different from Ferry's and it's really annoying/difficult. Essentially, you have to do way more work because there are messy kids who don't do any of the chores and adults who have to clean up after them. Plus we do our own yardwork, trash, maintenance, etc. It's a completely independent house, unlike Ferry. I don't like the amount of work, or the fact that it's a first-come first-served signup.

There have been a number of days where I've just wanted to climb into my room on the top floor and never come out. Sometimes the workday is really damn long, and I have a tendency to have depressive and anxiety episodes, which really doesn't help much. Over the past couple years, I've been hovering in this strange struggle between introvertedness/isolation and extrovertedness. I consider myself to be a nurturing person, and am genuinely interested in the wellbeing of all the people with whom I cross paths, so cooperative living seems to make sense, even though I do have those down times when I have a tendency to isolate. Fortunately, my housemates often support me when I'm feeling weird or shitty, which is awesome. I feel connected here to a lot of my housemates (there are varying levels of commitment, like any cooperative), and have become good friends with some of them. It's nice to come home to a cooked dinner, and great people. Coop: 1. Mainstream Society: 0.

The Job:

Working as an outreach intern has its boring times, where I'm sitting at the computer, editing vegetarian restaurant guides for hours, but I get to leaflet, and write weekly letters to the editor, organize future events, and do generally rad stuff. I've gotten pretty good and leafleting and really feel like I'm finally coming into my activist skin after my 3rd year post-enlightenment. (Thanks, Tom(?)). Working in a vegan haven like that seems feel pretty basic to me and my mental well-being. Trying to figure out whether I'd want to do non-profit work post graduation (probably will.)

Strokes of Luck:

There have been so many strange serendipitous events accumulating over the past couple months that I'm questioning my hesitation around spirituality/my usual athiesm. It was a hard semester, what with my sister's near-fatal car accident and my grandfather's death, but the goodness in life is beginning to thaw me back into reality. This is probably way too personal for a public blog, but whatever, we're all going to die anyway and I have nothing to hide from anyone.

Examples:

-finding a great guitar half off in a random mall in New Jersey that I had never been to before and will probably never go to again the day after I decide I seriously want to learn the acoustic guitar

- finding an intentional community less than a mile away from my job

- finding a housing scholarship through my hometown (of all places!) to pay for that housing

- finding an internship semi last minute with an organization I really support after everyone else was like 'fuck you'

- Dumpstering skills! 'nuff said.

- Randomly running into a fellow Vassar activist at the Capital Pride Festival (where I was tabling for COK), and finding out that she's doing an animal rights internship this summer! She was only in the DC office for a week, and I managed to grab a vegan meal with her.

-opening the Takoma Voice paper for the first time ever on an otherwise banal metro ride and seeing that Amy Goodman would be speaking that day two miles away. After serious disbelief and confirmation calls, I went and bought a $10 ticket to hear her speak. When she signed my book, I mentioned Vassar and she mentioned Joe Nevins. I drooled. I love her.

- Randomly meeting the supposed founder of the organization I work for, and finding out that he used to go to Vassar and take class with Bill Hoynes (Bill told me about this guy who "dropped out his freshman year for animal rights") What are the fucking odds I would meet this exact guy? Small world

- Randomly making an amazing Swedish vegan progressive friend in a vegan bakery in DC who I talked to for many hours about politics, culture, and language-- who was only in DC for 2 days. (Life is fleeting but beautiful.)

- running into an awesome floormate/previous classmate from Vassar on the metro (who was only coming into town for the weekend)

- being able to attend 2 amazing animal rights conferences in D.C. later this month / having free housing because I'm already here, bitches.

What the fuck. So much interconnectedness. So much awesomeness. When I look at it all like this, it makes the banal shit seem actually bearable. Everything is fleeting, but there's so much beauty, too. Count your blessings, folks. It's not cliché, it's how we survive.

Alright, this was a sufficiently personal post. Hope you enjoyed crawling inside of my mind. Make sure you shut the door on your way out.