C and K need not apply

I grew up in a culture that really supported the idea of marriage, much to the neglect of the idea of singleness. As I get outside that culture, I become more and more okay with the idea of being single...as a good thing. Still, if I ever get married, I will probably turn down suitors whose last names start with C or K. K would give me the initials KKK, and C is probably the most boring capital letter in the whole alphabet. It puts you to sleep to write it. Also, the following names all rhyme: bea, dea, gia, leah, mia, nia, ria, tia.

Dear The Person Who Invented Salsa,

I love you.

Take a glorious bite of the whole world

"Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world." -Ammon Hennacy

So the hamster woke up a bit groggily and did a few laps today. I'm not saying I'm in some deep thinking pattern again, it's just nice to be thinking a little bit. It's also nice to have a break from the nonstop, can't escape it thinking of my last semester at school. Syd inadvertantly started a discussion forum about shopping. Most people at least have a vague buzzing in their head about some store or another. We all can think of a store that's been cited for labor rights, child workers, sweatshops, environmental issues, etc. There's the extreme that says boycott, stop shopping at those stores. Then there's the other extreme that says that boycotting said stores doesn't actually do anything to help the laborers that produce said goods. And there's yet another extreme that says I'm only one person, I can't think of anything to do, so I'll do nothing.

This all just reminded me that this process of learning to give a damn is hard. <-I just stared at that sentence for a long time trying to figure out what to say next. I had two realizations today when I was staring off into the distance. Two of them were things that I've known for a while but they took some time to slam into me. 1) There is more good going on than I know. I've been surprised to find stuff, even in this town. More people care than I realize. 2) Said people are not coming to me anymore. There will be no more invites to campus clubs, to small groups. They aren't going to send an informative brochure to my mailbox to tell me how to change. It's instantly overwhelming to begin to see how much change is neccesary in our Valley, in our state, and our country, and then you look at the world. I was talking to my mentor about how ignorant I felt. How I understand that I need to know what's happening in the world but I have no clue where to start. She told me to pick one country and follow it in the news. Obviously this is a good idea because I will learn about other countries through their connection to the one country. I think the same idea is true, in one sense, about issues. Perhaps in the beginning it is good to start with a focus on one issue. But that doesn't mean ignorance is excusable elsewhere. If I become a recycling fanatic, traveling to parks across the nation to pick up litter, that doesn't mean it's okay for me to spend extravagantly and run over homeless people with my Prius.

Hmm.

I decided today that if I ever go to a naughty costume party, I will design a character called Dr. Spankenstein.

This is how we do.

Fortune smiled upon me and I ended up with a free plane ticket to Portland. After a lengthy period of working my ass off (okay, I say that, but it's not always true. But I do work hard.), I was PUMPED to head out for some R&R. The R&R capitol is located at the Austen homestead.

I got to visit my aunt and her incredibly fat cat. Pan could double as a footstool. But, Pan and I are great friends and we had some good bonding cuddles. (Dun dun dun, my true inner cat lover is revealed.) I later bonded with Julio, who is not a cat, over some good lunch and coffee.

In true Portland style, I met up with Julianne in the pouring rain, and even remembered to grab the bridesmaid dress I left at my aunt's house in March. The next few days were spent laughing, cooking, watching movies, etc. And then we had a blackberry war. Many of you know that Julianne usually spends her days playing the piano, working, cooking low-fat desserts, and being otherwise mild-mannered. What many people do not know, is that, when provoked, she will scratch your eyes out. Okay, so that's never been documented, but it could happen. When we went berry picking, I warned her that we should wear old shirts in case we got messy. This should have translated into, "I will annihilate you with blackberries." She insists it did not. So she got a little pissed, in that way that quiet people do when they secretly want to kill you, when I threw the first few overripe berries. Eventually when we were covered from head to toe, she had fun. And plastered nasty berries in my hair.

Lunch and bubble tea with Grace topped off the trip. I realize this is kind of a boring list of events that only a limited number of people participated in. I did have some epiphanies about friendship. Small ones, about how I'm still friends with people I was around for less than three months, and some of those friendships are the strongest I have. Other small realizations about how even when I feel so crazy and how I feel all over the place and not knowing who I am, there are some friendships for which the craziness just doesn't matter. Drifting apart is a normal and healthy part of life sometimes. There is, however, a very beautiful thing about friendships that learn to change and adapt together.

One size fits...no one.

That awesome title came from my boss's husband today. He came into work and saw the ill-fitting rubber gloves and the rest is history.

Whamo slammo. A lot has passed since the last time I blogged, so if you don't like long posts, get a new life at this time, please. Okay. Some events.

The day camp I worked for (I am done as of the 15th, sadly) took 66 kids to the zoo. My group wanted to be called, "Monkey Funky." I led them to the first exhibit. That exhibit then had diarrhea. 2 hours later and lots of whining about why our group didn't go to the gift shop, we left. It was a good time. Other highlights of this summer included: the same amount of kids, only a water park. My group buried my legs in the sand and made it into a fin. My first experience as a mermaid. One of the girls became concerned about my personal grooming habits. She interpreted the stiff gel in my hair as lack of washing and worriedly/mildly disapprovingly asked when I took a shower. This continued for a few days.

Our last day of summer was the 15th and the kids had a talent show. There were a lot of awkward moments, let me tell you. The grand finale was a staff rendition of Hannah Montana's "Best of Both Worlds." And you will know without being told who was Hannah Montanta. Hopefully I can post a video. We threw the whole routine together in 45 minutes in a small room. A room so small that I didn't realize how close my backup dancers were...until my hand karate chopped my boss in the nose. Forcefully. When we all recovered from near-death laughing attacks (or laughing/crying intervals for my boss), she said, "the show must go on" and performed the next sequence with a Kleenex hanging out her nose.

The money making continues. I accept all kinds of odd jobs. House cleaning, babysitting for farting one-year-olds, dogsitting for small old-man-looking chihuahuas, babysitting for hilarious nine-year-olds, making coffee, and working at a day camp. I also plan to have a yard sale.

I'm really going to miss the kids. I worked hard this summer trying to learn new techniques, new ways to say no, new ways to love them when I want to send them to another planet, new ways to see their world. Some of the ones that wouldn't listen to me at all now fling themselves at me when I get to work. It has been a good job.

Lady raid

There's this part on the movie Never Been Kissed where Drew Barrymore's character decides to dress fashionably to go back to high school. In order to fit in, she consults Seventeen magazine or something. She eventually ends up dressed in white from head to toe, including white jeans. The cool girls all laugh her off and shun what she thought would be awesome.

I have this fear about fashion in Spain.

Those of you who know me are aware that while I am no outcast, I am not exactly a trendsetter. Dressing up sometimes rocks my world, but then again, so do Chacos every day of the week. Oregon really screwed me up...I had to relearn that Chacos are not an acceptable form of footwear with dresses.

Last Wednesday the twins came over and we had a slip 'n' slide in the back yard with Syd. Was it awesome? Yes. We did belly flops, backslides, olympics, and the twins came up with bowling. Naturally we accidentally flooded parts of the yard, but I hope it is recovering nicely.

I still love my job at the day camp and I will be really sad to leave. They didn't really make me an offer to stay, but I would have refused it anyway. I'm making headway with kids that drive me nuts sometimes. And I always feel a little shifty about leaving kids who have just grown to trust me. Plus, you can't really get 20 hugs a day anywhere else. :)

If anyone knows about fashion in Spain...let me know.