Jan 28, 2009
What I did this morning...
Hola todos,
I hope that everyone is having a great day. Brooklyn is a winter wonderland right now, with 4-5 inches of freshly fallen snow that (by the time of my morning commute) had already turned to brown/black slush. I stepped in a puddle on my way to work that soaked me up to mid-calf. Unpleasant!
I do love snow, but oh how I hate walking/sliding on it in the mornings. In total I walk about 10 blocks 2 to my bus-stop and then approximately another 7 to my office, and when it snows this quick walk takes me forever! F-O-R-E-V-E-R. A plus about the weather is that whenever it's bad none of our members come to the office. It's like a ghost town, which today had its benefits.
Why do you ask? Well let me tell you! For the past 48 hours our office Internet was down, coupled with the loss of our server 24 hours ago. The loss of technology makes Se Hace Camino Nueva York (Make the Road New York for your English speakers!) impotent... I made a list of the phone calls I needed to make this morning, and then finished them in 15 minutes. Then I mailed a letter and sent a fax. And then I was done! Without the database my tasks were significantly decreased.
Luckily an opportunity presented itself for some good-old-fashioned-roll-up-your-sleeves manual labor! Apparently while I was gone on my JVC retreat last week, a baby mouse made a home on my desk in a bag of cereal that Manny (the 40-something, flamboyant, receptionist) left on my desk. Finding out about this today, I also noticed a mountain of mouse shit. People...I'm talking a MOUNTAIN! Imagine my dismay to see that this desk that I keep my files on, place my mugs, and EAT MY LUNCH is covered in fecal matter. BLECH! So I spent a goodly hour this morning taking everything off and giving it a good scrub down. My boss, John, even came over to help. We took pictures with a camera phone, and if I get them e-mailed to me I'll make sure to post them.
So yes...that has been my day thus far. I hope all of you are doing well. I miss you all a lot, and I look forward to posting again soon!
Peace and Love,
Kate
Stales--I'm going to be in your house TOMORROW! That is so damn exciting...
Sean--I'm so proud of you for passing your exam. It's good to know that after all this work you're becoming almost as smart as me (that must make you feel good inside)...
Mikey--I'm glad your junk is doing well.
Alicia--Mi espanol fue muy malo ayer en mi clase de espanol. Necesito practicar mas con tigo! Necesitamos SOLAMENTE en espanol en g-chat, y si no se una palabra entonces puedes ayudarme. No pressure though!
I hope that everyone is having a great day. Brooklyn is a winter wonderland right now, with 4-5 inches of freshly fallen snow that (by the time of my morning commute) had already turned to brown/black slush. I stepped in a puddle on my way to work that soaked me up to mid-calf. Unpleasant!
I do love snow, but oh how I hate walking/sliding on it in the mornings. In total I walk about 10 blocks 2 to my bus-stop and then approximately another 7 to my office, and when it snows this quick walk takes me forever! F-O-R-E-V-E-R. A plus about the weather is that whenever it's bad none of our members come to the office. It's like a ghost town, which today had its benefits.
Why do you ask? Well let me tell you! For the past 48 hours our office Internet was down, coupled with the loss of our server 24 hours ago. The loss of technology makes Se Hace Camino Nueva York (Make the Road New York for your English speakers!) impotent... I made a list of the phone calls I needed to make this morning, and then finished them in 15 minutes. Then I mailed a letter and sent a fax. And then I was done! Without the database my tasks were significantly decreased.
Luckily an opportunity presented itself for some good-old-fashioned-roll-up-your-sleeves manual labor! Apparently while I was gone on my JVC retreat last week, a baby mouse made a home on my desk in a bag of cereal that Manny (the 40-something, flamboyant, receptionist) left on my desk. Finding out about this today, I also noticed a mountain of mouse shit. People...I'm talking a MOUNTAIN! Imagine my dismay to see that this desk that I keep my files on, place my mugs, and EAT MY LUNCH is covered in fecal matter. BLECH! So I spent a goodly hour this morning taking everything off and giving it a good scrub down. My boss, John, even came over to help. We took pictures with a camera phone, and if I get them e-mailed to me I'll make sure to post them.
So yes...that has been my day thus far. I hope all of you are doing well. I miss you all a lot, and I look forward to posting again soon!
Peace and Love,
Kate
Stales--I'm going to be in your house TOMORROW! That is so damn exciting...
Sean--I'm so proud of you for passing your exam. It's good to know that after all this work you're becoming almost as smart as me (that must make you feel good inside)...
Mikey--I'm glad your junk is doing well.
Alicia--Mi espanol fue muy malo ayer en mi clase de espanol. Necesito practicar mas con tigo! Necesitamos SOLAMENTE en espanol en g-chat, y si no se una palabra entonces puedes ayudarme. No pressure though!
Jan 27, 2009
I Passed!
Well, I passed my evil qualifying exam that I talked about in my last post! Woohooo!
Shout-outs coming soon... Stay tuned!
Shout-outs coming soon... Stay tuned!
Jan 25, 2009
Annoying people in a coffee shop
Okay, so when I'm like 50 years old, and I go into a hippie coffee shop in a neighborhood comprised mainly of young professionals and graduate students, and I talk incessantly loudly in "the back room" full of people who AREN'T TALKING but instead are on computers and pouring through books, please punch me in the face. Okay, so now that I've explained the title of this post...OBAMA! So this cardboard cutout of our new President, assaulted my vision coming up the stairs to my office last Wednesday. Centro has three floors, and the second floor includes my office along with several ELL classrooms and the director's office. Upon seeing this slightly too-short replica of Obama, I burst out laughing. Of course, our English students (half Latinos and half East-Africans) loved the cardboard cutout, especially the East-Africans. Random "Obama!"s could be heard for the rest of the morning through my office door. The ninos in my after-school program loved it too. I was working with four of the younger ones who were starting to get antsy so I told them to follow me upstairs because I had a surprise for them. They got a kick out it if. "Look, he's hugging me!" "He's really tall!" It was cute.
So I spent inauguration day at work, but I was able to watch the whole ceremony because Sr. LouAnne had brought in an antenna from her house to put on the TV in the resource room. I sat glued to the television surround by ELL students, so that was rather interesting. I was too engrossed in the ceremony to really look around at their faces though. Not quite as good as being in D.C., but I did get to see it.
In other news, I am heading to Cleveland (well, final destination Erie, PA) at the end of February to visit one of my friends from high school. She had gotten married over the summer, and at the beginning of the month suffered a miscarriage at nine weeks. She was devasted (it didn't do much for her physical self-esteem issues that she had been struggling with over the past year), and it just killed me to hear how sad she was while talking to her on the phone. I decided to look up and see what it might cost to go visit her since she has no family or friends out there, and as it turns out, it wasn't that bad. That'll be my February adventure. So if you could remember her and her husband in your prayers, I would appreciate it.
These past few weeks have been filled with winter activities. Well, namely ice-skating and sledding. I've decided that the cold is most definitely tolerable when the high for the day reaches at least 15 degrees. At that point I can ride my bike! And if I bundle up enough, I don't feel cold at all. It's just those icy blasts below zero that really test my tolerance. I really liked ice skating though. At several of the Minneapolis parks/lakes, skating is free, and they even have free skates for you to borrow. I will definitely take advantage of that again before winter is over (that leaves me plenty of time, unfortunately.)
MLK, Jr. Day was a special day. My program had a training day, which started at 6:45am. Insane. But as it turns out we went to a breakfast at this church in St. Paul that was a host site for the MLK, Jr. Day breakfast, broadcast from the Mpls Convention Center. So it was delicious food, awesome break dancers, and then a decent speech by Colin Powell, followed by a rousing chorus of We Shall Overcome. Okay, he had really good speech except for the parts where he gloried war, but he is a General afterall. After that we headed back to the nun administration building where we had an awesome speaker/professor at St. Kate's who talked with us about racism and white privelege. Overall an excellent day, except for the whole having to leave the house at 6:15am thing.
Well, that's about it for now. I hope you all are doing well. Miss you tons!
Love,
Alicia
Shoutouts:
Mikey, keep hanging in there. I hope your recovery is speedy.
Stales, I totally hear you on the missing Ohio (and in my case Ohio/Indiana thing). For me at least I think it's the people, so I'm hoping that with some more time I'll build a base here as well.
Kate, espero que tus estudios de espanol te vayan bien. Me gusta hablar contigo durante el trabajo. Oh, y en nuevas noticias, posiblemente tengo la oportunidad de ir a El Paso, TX este verano por un mes para trabajar como voluntario en una casa de bienvenida para immigrantes. Pero vamos a ver. Nesecito mas detalles primero.
Sean, thanks for letting me use your computer while you sit across from me trying to do your homework.
Jan 18, 2009
On the Eve of Another Semester
Hello, my friends! (and I really mean that, not in a McCain sort of way.)
So I have also been absent from this blog for too long. Grad school has been a lot of time and a lot of work, but I refuse to let that be an excuse from now on.
School Stuff
I had some struggles adjusting to the level of work in grad school, I guess, as my first couple of test scores were not what I would have liked them to be. I got into the groove better as the semester went on (for the most part), but my grades didn't live up to what I've been used to over the course of my academic career. I can live with the down semester, and grades don't necessarily matter in grad school, but I'm definitely going to use it as motivation for my work this coming semester.
Even though my first tough semester of grad school was in the books, I couldn't relax completely. I had this little thing called the qualifying exam hanging over my head. The GWE (graduate written exam), as it is known, is quite simply the hardest, most grueling test I have ever taken. It's a two-part test spread over two days for a total of seven hours. It covers anything and everything from the standard undergraduate physics curriculum. At least, that's what it's supposed to be. Of course, the test is designed by graduate professors who seem to have forgotten what is reasonable to expect from freshly minted physics grads, so there was plenty of stuff on the test that I had either not learned at Xavier, or spent very little time on.
Fortunately, they let us have copies of the old exams (sans solutions) to study from. I was able to devote a substantial part of my winter "break" to reviewing my undergrad textbooks and working on problems from these tests. Oh, I neglected to mention that the usual passing line on this test is about 50%, which sounds nice at first. But it's pretty demoralizing to prepare for such a test, because when you do the practice tests, you start to feel stupid and semi-freak out a little bit. Fortunately, by this past week, I was feeling all right about my chances.
The test was held over Thursday and Friday mornings this week, and despite being late on the first day due to frustrating bus issues, I feel like I did sufficiently okay.
The majority of the first-years who were taking the test this week then went out to lunch to lift a glass in celebration of being done with that vile test. (At least for now. Keep your fingers crossed that the angels of partial credit will smile on me and I don't have to face the pressure of a do-or-die re-do in August.) It was a good time going out with them, and good to feel like we're starting to build some camaraderie within our group. Nothing like a common enemy of the GWE to bring you together, huh?
And with that done, I now have complete freedom with nothing due and nothing hanging over my head for a whole long weekend! For the first time since August! It feels great.
Fun Stuff, Like Actually Enjoying Winter Break:
Don't let me give you the false impression that I actually studied over all of winter break. (And yes, after finally getting used to calling it "Christmas Break," I'm back in public school, so it's winter break again.) I was able to relax a lot and spend some good time with my family and friends.
After finishing grading finals (which makes me sound a lot more important than I probably am), I hopped a flight home to the new airport in Indianapolis. It's weird. I've spent almost all of my time since August within a two mile radius of downtown Minneapolis. I've only left the city limits a total of seven times: four times to St. Paul, once to the Mall of America, and twice to go home for the holidays. I now have a very distorted sense of distance these days, since I don't have a car and I don't really go anywhere very far.
Anyway, being home was good, of course, but my room is weird, since all of the furniture I had there is now in Minneapolis. I do have a twin bed to sleep on, which is almost comically small for someone my size, but it's comfortable enough, so I can't complain. I did my Christmas shopping in the span of about five hours, and got ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas at my house, where I got to see all of my relatives on my Mom's side of the family that I hadn't seen since the summer.
On Umoja, the first day of Kwanzaa (Dec 26th, in case you don't know ;) ), I got up early and headed to Ft. Wayne to visit Alicia and her family. I spent a nice couple of days up there before heading home. Then Alicia came down the next day, and we went to the Colts game with her sisters. It was fun (I haven't been to many Colts games in my life), even though the starters didn't play a whole lot. I also got to catch up with some of my good friends, although unfortunately only once. (By the way, my favorite day of Kwanzaa is the third day, Kujichagulia, or Self-Determination.)
My family and I went to Tampa for a few days after New Year's, which was a lot of fun. Indianapolis felt warm compared to frigid "Minne-snow-ta," and Florida was just ridiculous. Highlights from the trip included swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, making sand castles with the ridiculously easy-to-pack sand that they have there, seeing dolphins from the boat tour we took, watching pelicans dive for fish, and kayaking in the Gulf, where I also saw a sting ray.
Then it was back to the Land of 10,000 Ice Cubes (which is what the 10,000 lakes become in the winter) to see Alicia and do some serious studying.
A Note About the Cold:
It's cold here. No really. I thought I knew what cold meant coming from Indiana, but I really had no idea. It hasn't been above freezing in a month, and the snow's been on the ground basically since Thanksgiving. Highs below zero. Windchill of -30 while waiting at the bus stop. Alicia's actually considering riding her bike over here for church tomorrow, because it's gonna warm up to 20 degrees. It's amazing how fast you get used to it, though. You know how when it warms up slightly, to like 40 degrees in someplace like Cincinnati, you might feel like it's actually kind of nice out, and maybe not zip up your jacket when you go outside? Yeah, I found myself doing that when it warmed up to the high teens. It's cold. But at least I have radiators, so my heat is free.
Okay, that's all I can think of for right now. I will save the stuff about the upcoming semester for a later post, to give myself incentive to write again soon.
Peace and love to all of you! Let's all vow to do a better job of keeping in touch in 2009.
YES WE CAN!
I crack myself up. Peace.
So I have also been absent from this blog for too long. Grad school has been a lot of time and a lot of work, but I refuse to let that be an excuse from now on.
School Stuff
I had some struggles adjusting to the level of work in grad school, I guess, as my first couple of test scores were not what I would have liked them to be. I got into the groove better as the semester went on (for the most part), but my grades didn't live up to what I've been used to over the course of my academic career. I can live with the down semester, and grades don't necessarily matter in grad school, but I'm definitely going to use it as motivation for my work this coming semester.
Even though my first tough semester of grad school was in the books, I couldn't relax completely. I had this little thing called the qualifying exam hanging over my head. The GWE (graduate written exam), as it is known, is quite simply the hardest, most grueling test I have ever taken. It's a two-part test spread over two days for a total of seven hours. It covers anything and everything from the standard undergraduate physics curriculum. At least, that's what it's supposed to be. Of course, the test is designed by graduate professors who seem to have forgotten what is reasonable to expect from freshly minted physics grads, so there was plenty of stuff on the test that I had either not learned at Xavier, or spent very little time on.
Fortunately, they let us have copies of the old exams (sans solutions) to study from. I was able to devote a substantial part of my winter "break" to reviewing my undergrad textbooks and working on problems from these tests. Oh, I neglected to mention that the usual passing line on this test is about 50%, which sounds nice at first. But it's pretty demoralizing to prepare for such a test, because when you do the practice tests, you start to feel stupid and semi-freak out a little bit. Fortunately, by this past week, I was feeling all right about my chances.
The test was held over Thursday and Friday mornings this week, and despite being late on the first day due to frustrating bus issues, I feel like I did sufficiently okay.
The majority of the first-years who were taking the test this week then went out to lunch to lift a glass in celebration of being done with that vile test. (At least for now. Keep your fingers crossed that the angels of partial credit will smile on me and I don't have to face the pressure of a do-or-die re-do in August.) It was a good time going out with them, and good to feel like we're starting to build some camaraderie within our group. Nothing like a common enemy of the GWE to bring you together, huh?
And with that done, I now have complete freedom with nothing due and nothing hanging over my head for a whole long weekend! For the first time since August! It feels great.
Fun Stuff, Like Actually Enjoying Winter Break:
Don't let me give you the false impression that I actually studied over all of winter break. (And yes, after finally getting used to calling it "Christmas Break," I'm back in public school, so it's winter break again.) I was able to relax a lot and spend some good time with my family and friends.
After finishing grading finals (which makes me sound a lot more important than I probably am), I hopped a flight home to the new airport in Indianapolis. It's weird. I've spent almost all of my time since August within a two mile radius of downtown Minneapolis. I've only left the city limits a total of seven times: four times to St. Paul, once to the Mall of America, and twice to go home for the holidays. I now have a very distorted sense of distance these days, since I don't have a car and I don't really go anywhere very far.
Anyway, being home was good, of course, but my room is weird, since all of the furniture I had there is now in Minneapolis. I do have a twin bed to sleep on, which is almost comically small for someone my size, but it's comfortable enough, so I can't complain. I did my Christmas shopping in the span of about five hours, and got ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas at my house, where I got to see all of my relatives on my Mom's side of the family that I hadn't seen since the summer.
On Umoja, the first day of Kwanzaa (Dec 26th, in case you don't know ;) ), I got up early and headed to Ft. Wayne to visit Alicia and her family. I spent a nice couple of days up there before heading home. Then Alicia came down the next day, and we went to the Colts game with her sisters. It was fun (I haven't been to many Colts games in my life), even though the starters didn't play a whole lot. I also got to catch up with some of my good friends, although unfortunately only once. (By the way, my favorite day of Kwanzaa is the third day, Kujichagulia, or Self-Determination.)
My family and I went to Tampa for a few days after New Year's, which was a lot of fun. Indianapolis felt warm compared to frigid "Minne-snow-ta," and Florida was just ridiculous. Highlights from the trip included swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, making sand castles with the ridiculously easy-to-pack sand that they have there, seeing dolphins from the boat tour we took, watching pelicans dive for fish, and kayaking in the Gulf, where I also saw a sting ray.
Then it was back to the Land of 10,000 Ice Cubes (which is what the 10,000 lakes become in the winter) to see Alicia and do some serious studying.
A Note About the Cold:
It's cold here. No really. I thought I knew what cold meant coming from Indiana, but I really had no idea. It hasn't been above freezing in a month, and the snow's been on the ground basically since Thanksgiving. Highs below zero. Windchill of -30 while waiting at the bus stop. Alicia's actually considering riding her bike over here for church tomorrow, because it's gonna warm up to 20 degrees. It's amazing how fast you get used to it, though. You know how when it warms up slightly, to like 40 degrees in someplace like Cincinnati, you might feel like it's actually kind of nice out, and maybe not zip up your jacket when you go outside? Yeah, I found myself doing that when it warmed up to the high teens. It's cold. But at least I have radiators, so my heat is free.
Okay, that's all I can think of for right now. I will save the stuff about the upcoming semester for a later post, to give myself incentive to write again soon.
Peace and love to all of you! Let's all vow to do a better job of keeping in touch in 2009.
YES WE CAN!
I crack myself up. Peace.
Jan 6, 2009
Hello everyone,
I know...I know...it's been far too long since I've last posted. But, I thought this delightful picture of Ghanaian children watching Jake from Chicago juggle might distract you from my post-less-ness. Did it work? What if I told you to try to find me in this picture? I'm there somewhere. It's kind of like a fun "Where's Waldo?"-esque game to play.
I hope all of you are doing well, and that you all got my Christmas cards. One of my weird childhood goals was always to do Christmas cards as an adult, and I can say with conviction that I have achieved that goal in my first year post college. Woo hoo! Don't worry...I have many more difficult goals that I have yet to accomplish. I'm not resting on my laurels just yet.
Things are going well for me in New York. Today an old man walked past me and blew me a kiss. I wish it was as sweet as it sounded, but the man was staring with boring holes into my head with his eyes, and his kiss was not cute but CREEPY. Yuck. It happened right as I was walking past the live poultry store--there are 4 of them in a 2 mile radius. It was double blow of gross-ocity.
Today has been kind of a downer day in the social service realm. Right now I'm working on finding housing for a family of undocumented immigrants who have one citizen son--a 10 month old with Down Syndrome. They're currently living in a homeless shelter, the dad is unemployed, and the worry is that if we apply for Public Assistance under his son's name, the father, mother, and older brother will have difficulty applying for citizenship at a later date. A hearty boo-urns and a fistshake to that!
I will say that working with immigrants is a very rewarding thing. It is constantly humbling to me how many struggles so many people must overcome not only to GET to the United States, but then to live decently once arriving. I have a co-worker who immigrated from the Dominican Republic, where she was a lawyer, who was only able to get jobs as a house cleaner for her first 12 years in the United States!! Plus, add on the fact that so many people are proficient in two (maybe more!) languages! It makes my head spin--and fills me with envy because my job would be MUCH easier if I was better at Spanish! I'm working on it, though. Alicia is very helpful by conducting our g-chats in Spanish (hers, excellent-mine, mangled).
Home was very good for the holidays. My mom is doing much better since her surgery and started work this week. It was nice to be home and spend time with her. She knitted me mittens and a hat! Because of her influence, I began knitting again and I made a headband. Cool, no? I'm even a member of a knitting website called ravelry.com, which showcases different patterns. Try not to be too jealous please!
I need to start wrapping this up, but I promise to post more about what's going on in my life. My next post will probably deal more with JVC as a whole, which I'm sure you are DYING to know about!!!
Peace and Love mis amigos. I hope you are having a very good 2009 so far.
Kate
Jan 2, 2009
"Cleveland"
Howdy y'all,
I won't offer any excuses for not having posted in many, many months. As Kate said in her email, I am also not great at keeping in touch with people. A major flaw. However, you should know that I have a picture of all of us at Naz Farm in a frame on my dresser, and I gaze longingly at your beautiful faces daily.
I've settled into life in DC very well, and life has once again become routine. Work has been good, although I'm starting to get sucked into the whole "what next?" mindset. I have two friends from work with whom I've become close: Lily and Ean. In general, most of the people at my work are pretty great, but I am especially thankful for these two for their support and humor and for preserving my sanity. They make work fun. I am beginning my first real investigation at work next week. Basically one of our clients, a 7-year-old girl named Terriah, is moving toward living in the custody of her father. However, there are a lot of suspicions about abuse occurring in his home, so I have to visit the home, talk to the father and other family members, etc, and try to get a sense of whether Terriah should live with him or seek adoption with her current foster mother. I feel grossly unqualified to make such a recommendation, but I am glad that work is bringing some new challenges and opportunities for personal growth.
Living at 932 Westminster St. with Anne, Katie, and Kari has really given me a sense of peace and comfort. I feel a wonderful sense of relief when I come home, like I can just say ahhhhhhh and relax in the companionship of good friends, specifically good Xavier friends. I love them very much. Throw Julia into that mix, as she rides her bike through the city to our house often. In fact, she cooked lunch for Anne, Lily, and I today (work was slow, so Lily and I decided to "work from home" for a bit). All in all, I'm thankful for that particular group of ladies being a constant presence in my life.
Moving right along. I had a great time at home over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving is my very favorite family holiday, and I actually woke up to help my mom cook this year. The other big Staley family holiday event is the Christmas party at my Aunt Ronna and Uncle Barry's house. I made it back to Ohio just in time to shower and enjoy some wassail and a "Happy Santa" (my uncle's traditional holiday beverage). Despite the fact that I feel really great about where I am at this particular time in my life, I am realizing more and more that my heart is in Ohio (for those of you who are fans of 30 Rock, think "Cleveland"). This is mostly due to the issue of proximity to my family, although I do think I prefer the pace of life in the midwest as well. I'm waiting to see if these feelings are merely a result of home-for-the-holidays-esque nostalgia, or if I really want to move back to the midwest at some point in the future. No rush to decide that now. I'm thinking grad school in 2010, so by then maybe I'll have a clearer idea of where I want to be (and what I want to do, for that matter). Now for some Christmas-time highlights. The first annual Staley cousin pub crawl occurred in Cincinnati. Nothing like getting wasty with your cousins. Tomilyn and I finally braved a bar in Wilmington called Uncle Louie's Lounge. It's attached to a bowling alley. We've been talking about going to this place for at least a year and a half, so the fact that we actually followed through was momentous indeed. Also, Dave Kruska made his introduction to Wilmington (and to the fam). I took him to see our infamous "glowing grave." Scary stuff.
On the horizon. Inauguration Day. This city is going to turn into one giant clusterfuck, for lack of a better word. Speaking of Mr. Obama, being out on U Street, historically the "Black Broadway" of DC, right next to Ben's Chili Bowl, on election night was what a certain theology professor would have called a "peak experience" in my life. It was incredible. People flooded the streets, horns were honking, strangers were hugging and kissing each other, people began to climb telephone poles... it looked like a scene from Latin America after a successful election (i.e. one that wasn't rigged). And I loved every minute of it. Also, I have made a New Year's intention (none of that resolution bullshit) to get out of the house and do more DC-specific activities (mostly the free kind). Julia has agreed to help me with this and brought over a couple of event calendars for different places today. She rocks.
Well, that's my story. Look forward to hearing from the rest of you soon.
Love,
L.Staley
And now for some personal notes:
Alicia: My fingers are indeed crossed for your grad school application. And I've never heard of someone taking "grandmother leave," but that sounds like possibly one of the best work benefits ever.
Sean: Your little park sounds beautiful, and I am picturing you shooting some hoops out there (although not in any of your really snazzy basketball shoes, of course). Keep it up in grad school at the U. Don't worry too much about bad grades.
Mikey: What happened with that phone call? I was trying to see if you wanted to catch lunch the next day, but the call dropped and then went straight to voicemail after that. Weird. Hope things are well with you, and thanks for that email detailing how you heard some of our fave tunes back-to-back.
Kate: Just want to say that I love you.
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