My Awesome Week

I seem to be having the best luck lately. I s'pose I'll start with the beginning of last week.

My college, like the rest of the world, is very low on funds. It is an extremely small college, and therefore tuition/room/board have all gone up. Faculty and staff salaries have been cut and cut and cut. Finally, they made the decision to let some faculty members go. They did this without consulting or even notifying the students.

My involvement with this bull**** started way back in February or March when one of the Sisters, formerly the president of the college, died, and no one notified us (the only way I found out was because Hillary got an email about it, since she is a staff member). I was so rip**** thatI bitched and bitched until they sent out a student and alum-wide email (I felt particularly strongly about this because this particular Sister, besides being a sweet woman whom I had seen many times in the gym and the cafeteria, was the president of the college when my mother attended). Then the Dean of the School of the Arts and Sciences resigned, to move on to a new position elsewhere, and students again were not notified. This time I did everything I could to spread the news and alert students to the fact that we were all, basically, being lied to by omission. Then I found out about the professors being laid off and s**t really hit the fan. Last Monday I helped organise a student run protest/forum to start spreading the information that was being with held. I really pissed a lot of people off, but I feel that, we are paying enough money to go to college that we should be told the truth and kept informed about decisions made regarding our education and the college itself. One of the people who helped organise it with me got fired from his on-campus job and lost his housing. Another person was threatened that, if she attended to event, she would not receive the award she was schedulued to receive at baccalaureate. Another person was told that if she wanted to keep her position as president of the senior class, she would not allow the event to go on. They tried to get to me through Hillary. These people are monsters, and I will do everything in my power to make their lives miserable. Threatening 20 year olds, really mature. The event was very successful, and we are well on our way to open communication. But as long as the slimeballs who run this college are still employed, I still have work to do.

I connected with an alum of the college, who lives in the same town as the college, who also has beef with the "big 4" (the big admins of the school). She's very intelligent, and also very funny, and she graduated a year after my mother, which is really cool. She offered me a job this summer helping her out with office stuff and working with the GSA in the town, which she started and runs. I am SO pumped! This happened on Tuesday.

I've been applying to tons of jobs lately. I recently got a call from one place, and I had my interview yesterday and I basically have the job. It's in retail, and I have no retail experience but I'm pretty friendly and it will be great to have something to do this summer (and to be saving money for grad school).

I got a call the other night from the new pastor of my church (she's the temporary pastor, but she's a really nice lady) and she wants me to be one of three representatives (voting members) of our church who attend this year's Synod Assembly. It's basically this huge church meeting that takes three days. I think churches from six states will be attending (the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America), so there will be lots of people and it's a really big deal. I am so honored, and unfortunately it's the weekend right before my 21st birthday so I won't be able to have beers with the rest of the New England Lutherans, but I will totally be there and it's going to be amazing.

Tomorrow is my last final exam, and then at 5:30 tomorrow night I'm flying to Florida. I'll be there until Saturday, enjoying the 2010 Flower and Garden Festival in Disney. We're going to see Dave Matthews Band on June 8th, Brandi Carlile on July 30th and LILITH FAIR in HARTFORD on August 1. And, of course, I turn 21 on June 12, which happens to coincide with the Boston Pride Parade. Oh it's going to be a great summer.

Hope everyone else has had a good week!

Just Another Manic... Tuesday?

I woke up this morning around 10 and my mother was still around the house. In fact it was she, walking into my room and dropping a hamper on my bed (exactly where my legs were, thanks mom) who woke me up. "Is it Sunday?" I mumbled almost incoherently. She laughed and said "Yeah, you slept for a whole week" and then proceeded to tell me about how her front axel fell apart this morning in the driveway so it was in the garage and she couldn't get to work. Bullshit, my car is sitting in the driveway, if she really wanted to get there she totally could have. But I'm glad she didn't because, for some reason, I always seem to have more fun when that crazy madre of mine is around.

So I said I was going to quit my job and well... I'm not. I got my pay check today and I discovered how much I really like money. I have to go talk to my boss about putting me on the schedule again. Blah... I'm not very good at grovelling... sadly. But whatever, such is life.

So I went to visit my pal Rob today at his college, we had lunch, discussed quitting smoking/quitting my job/nature, things like that.

My friends and I also decided that we will be going camping on the cape in a few weeks, also. I'm VERY excited about that, but I hope it happens (with work schedules and all). Le sigh, things were so much simpler when we were younger.

So I took the madre to the garage and she got her car, $2,000 later. We also opened the pool today and it's awesome. I haven't been in it yet but it looks really good.

So it was a pretty good day, a pretty busy day. I'm going on a bike ride with my best friend in a little while. I love taking bike rides with her cause, well, we're best friends and it's just awesome. We get to be all bikey and talky and ridey and things like that.

And I love sitting on the swings with her when we arrive at our destination (which is usually the playground of our old elementary school) and talking about everything in the world. She's pretty amazing, that best friend o'mine. I'm incredibly lucky to have the people in my life who I do have in my life. They truly are gifts.

The economy, the coming weekends, et cetera

I'm eighteen years old, almost nineteen, and I'm actually afraid for our country (and my future). I went for a job interview today at a coffee chain that will remain nameless, and there must have been 20+ other applicants, all from various walks of life. One man was older, clearly mentally challenged (maybe borderline unemployable as a result). One women explained that she lived in a motel nearby so getting to work would be no issue. One girl was going to school in Rhode Island, home for summer vacation (very similarly to me). One man needed a job in the morning on the way to his afternoon/evening job to add to his already meager wages. It's a sad day when all of these people have to put themselves out and basically beg for employment. It was clear that most of the people there NEEDED the job, had reached the end of their rope and had nowhere else to turn. It's when people become desparate that something is wrong, and something must be done.

Gas cannot be $4.15 a gallon (maybe it's a cent or two less at this point). I paid $50 to put 12ish gallons in my car today, my car that needs to get my friend and I to Boston and back this weekend (Boston is about 2 hours from where I live, about 1/4 of a tank of gas both ways). It is unbelieveable, and the prices just get passed along to the consumer. It's enough to make ya want to stay home, lock your doors, and pretend the world isn't going on around you.

I hope I get the job, in any event. More then that I hope all the rest of the applicants get the job. The only way to survive in a capitalist economy is to create capital and keep it circulating. Don't hide your money under your bed, that won't help you. And don't send it off to Swiss Banks where it will be safe. It needs to be spent, it needs to circulate, or else people become desparate. Keep looking out for the little guy, because some day you may find yourself feeling small and needing someone to look out for you.

So I'm going to True Colors in Boston this weekend, so excited!!! P Town last weekend, True Colors this coming weekend, and Pride Week in Disney World the following weekend. I don't even know where to begin with my elation, I'm having a wonderful summer, hope the rest of the world is too.

Of course I'm going to have a lot to say about True Colors. I'll try to sneak a camera in, but no promises.