Moving

For my birthday, we celebrated with wine...



...and cheesecake.



This week I gave a presentation at the Canadian consulate...




...and decided to move into this apartment.




Don't worry, I'm not up and leaving the country, state, or even my current city. I'm headed closer to work and to a bigger apartment.

This means I'll have almost beat my record for having stayed in one place... I was at Gold House for just about 9 months, at this apartment for 8. One of these days I'll be able to actually commit to a place!

10 Years

10 years ago, I was a freshman in high school, living in Hudsonville, Michigan.

Now, I am a college graduate, living in Chicago, Illinois.

10 years ago, I studied German and wanted to stay in America forever.

Now, I study Arabic and can't wait to get back overseas.

10 years ago, I had a Kid Rock phase.

Now, thank God, I listen to good music.

10 years ago, I was starting something new and wasn't really sure what it was going to look like.

Now, I am in the same boat.

10 years ago, I had no idea who I was.

Now, I've made progress, but get the feeling that this is going to take a while to figure out.

At some point in the last few months, I transitioned into finally feeling like an adult. I kind of like it.

Future Options

This is mostly so I can process "out loud" as I think through these...

I'm about two months in to my AmeriCorps year and I've been tossing around options for what to do next. For those of you who know me, this is not any form of a surprise to you... :)

Options include, but are definitely not limited to:
-Working for the Red Cross in any capacity possible, just to stay in the organization
Location preferences domestically are: Chicago, NYC, Phoenix
-Go to Yemen to teach English/study Arabic, if I can make the finances work
-Peace Corps, anywhere they'd send me
-AmeriCorps again, with the Red Cross, possibly at another chapter
-Grad school
-Teaching English somewhere just to make money and get more international experience


A paying job is preferable, but Peace Corps and AmeriCorps are great back-ups and do a lot with regards to opening doors to resources and networks for future career options. Too bad I have 50 grand in student loans to pay off...

And again...

I just got hit with another wave of I-want-to-move-to-Yemen-itis.

Projects

Part of what is expected of me in my job is that I come up with a "special project" to work on aside from my primary responsibilities with the disaster response team. Initially, I wasn't sure where to start because I wanted to get involved in as many places as possible so.... I decided to do all of them.

I've met with numerous people and gotten a chance to get involved with a handful of projects that include a sheltering drill, international tracing outreach and now... I'll be helping prepare for and facilitate a conference for law students!

I love my job.

New season resolution

Tonight is a night of dreams and what-ifs and maybe-somedays.

Tomorrow will have a morning of gliding through Chicago on a bicycle toward the consistency of a nine to five.

Eventually the little dreams will be realized but today has far too much that is going unnoticed and unexperienced.

Real Weekends

Now that I'm out of school and working a supposedly "9-5" job where I go into the office most days, I've come to realize that I love having real weekends. No papers to write, no weekend shifts at work (aside from being on call for fires) and a real pair of days off to just do whatever I want.

Speaking of, today has involved an early breakfast out, a trek to downtown with Lindsey to window shop and explore, a sports store that stands 7 stories high, buying handle bar tape at a bike shop in Rogers Park, walking around the neighborhood, a LOT of coffee, and locating Daley Plaza thanks to Ashley Bovin and I watching "The Lake House" the other night.

The next plan is to put the tape on my bike and take it out for a spin in this amazing weather just because I can. I love living in the city.

Football

Have I mentioned that I love watching soccer? I really miss playing so I bought a ball the other day and have big plans to try and get some people together to play some night soon. The checkout guy referred to the soccer ball as a "football" and I just grinned.

Start work full time a week from Monday so, until then, I plan on enjoying my last bit of "vacation." Today will involve taking my dog for a run and then wandering through the city with him, people watching.

I love Chicago, but I can't wait to get back to the Middle East. (You all know this)

Sometimes you just have to love YouTube

American Dream?

My roommate is out watching the All Star game before heading to the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie with friends, both events I opted out of. That gave me the chance to get work done at the apartment and eventually to take Israel out to the park for the day's second attempt at frisbee. (Earlier he got distracted by another dog and just sort of wandered around the park for five minutes before returning to stand next to me)

We managed to get out there before they turned the lights off and after whatever sporting event that was happening had wrapped up and the people cleared out. As we were coming down the block, I noticed another black dog and three people in the park tossing a giant frisbee between two of them, but far enough over that I could still run Israel without an issue. What I hadn't expected was the little black dog to come tearing across the park as soon as the frisbee left my fingers.

Her name is Anne, according to her owner who came over to apologize and then to ask if they could run together. Israel was more interested in her than the frisbee, so that became the evening's event. Joe introduced his daughter Olivia and his wife (whose name I forgot!) and we stood there chatting for a bit. Olivia asked if she could throw the frisbee for them, and then giggled at the way they chased each other around after picking it up off the grass where it landed. After a few moments, they decided to leave and Joe called, "Have a good night and... be safe!" Olivia said, "It was nice to meet you" with an adorable grin and her mother echoed a combination of the first two farewells.

I have no idea why this seemed noteworthy, but I didn't want to forget it. Olivia was incredibly polite and was obviously well loved by her parents. Joe is African American and his wife might have been HIspanic and there was something just so... genuinely American-dream about the three of them. Not the traditional American dream, but definitely one that I'd like to pursue.