Post I wrote for TLCV

Below is a post I wrote for TLCV. There aren't any apostraphies because blogger kept messing them up.

Last week, the TLCV staff went to the Environmental Leadership Institute (ELI), a conference for nonprofit environmental workers which was held in Austin. ELI isnt always in Austin, so we considered ourselves very lucky to get the chance to stay close to home. I dont know about James, but I foolishly thought we might be able to go for scenic walks around town in our down-time. I was so wrong!

I think Im getting ahead of myself. The way ELI works is to take environmentalists from all over the country and put them in one of four groups working on mock campaigns. All of the campaigns are different. During the day, there are all kinds of presentations given by experts on various parts of a campaign and how to make them successful. At night hellish assignments are given to put the lessons dutifully learned into practice and to torture the members with lack of sleep and controversial tasks until they finally finish the assignments at 3, 4, 5 in the morning and fall into bed like so many dominos, to rise again before 8 to return to their lessons.

You can see what I mean about not having free time to explore. In some ways it was refreshing during this intense week to come out of the hotel where we spent every minute of every day and to realize that we were just down the street from the university, and our houses were close by. Im a mass transit kind of girl, and I would gaze down the street and picture all the buses that could have brought me home…

Part of the reason Im writing all of this is that this mock campaign was very realistic. The point of being overworked and under energized in some ways was to show just how much hard work goes into a campaign. Working with a group of people we didnt know was also realistic, in that this happens a lot in campaign projects, that people come together who have never worked together before. And theyre told to put together a complicated plan while learning each others quirks at the same time. Im sure under those circumstances the thought that ‘I could just go home and everything would be back to normal’ crosses everyones mind at least once, but theyre all there for a reason and if one leaves it hurts the morale and strength of the group.

Besides learning about the realities of working campaigns, though, there was another strong message we took away from this conference. Even while being torn between the haze of sleepiness and inner hum of productivity and raw, work driven energy, we began to appreciate each other. It was fascinating the first day to meet people from all over the country and have them all in one room (“I dont think Ive ever met someone from Alaska!”). By the end of the week, it became a far deeper admiration. It became, “Look at all of these people I didnt even know who care as much about the environment as I do.” It was the feeling that suddenly I wasnt one of the only ones fighting the battle against the corrupt, and working to conserve. It was a group effort, with invisible allies everywhere, and just a small fraction had just gone through the crazy experience I had.

We were better armed for the upcoming battles with everything we had learned, as well as each other there to make sure we make it through. The non profit world can be frustrating when every day is a struggle to convince people the environment is important so they will help the organization keep moving (a sure-fire way to feel like a lonely voice) and constantly battling for conservation. Its hard at times not to go home and decide not to come out until global warming is over. This conference armed us with the rejuvenating knowledge and a clearer grasp on what needs to be done to make a successful campaign, so we could go back to our world beyond the hotel with a firm grasp on our full binders and confidence for the road ahead.

Also, now we know who to call to hear someone talk about why they care about the environment. That kind of a reminder is even better than hiding under the covers.

Stolen from Juanita!:) It looked fun.

1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names)
Elisabeth Reed (hmm...not too far off from now...)

2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
John Aaron (or John Babe :) )

3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 2 letters of your last name, first 4 letters of your first name)
Sceliz

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Puffin

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you live)
Allison Austin

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite alcoholic drink, optionally add "THE" to the beginning)
The Yellow White Russian (Hmmm....)

7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Eltz

8. GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie):
Peach Pie Oatmeal Raisin (Gangstaly DELICIOUS)

9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pet's name, current street name)
Trouble West 38th (Well, trouble was a good start)

10. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
Ping Pong Cypress (Oh dear Lord.)



We just finished making holiday plans! Work is going well, we've been playing guitar hero a lot. I...guess...that's...it!

Life Update from Texas

My friend Pam (aka "awesome-and-sexy-Pam") reminds me that I haven't actually updated about my job or life in general. I'm taking a short break after a wonderfully successful (and lengthy) interview, so I will take a needed 5 minute break to update my friends (or those who read this, anyway).

My job is Director of Special Projects at the Texas League of Conservation Voters Educational Fund. It is a nonprofit, and I do have to say most of the name when I answer the phone. I'm currently working on the Telenovela Project (the name is currently fluid), a project to create a media mechanism to convince unregistered but eligible Latino voters of Texas to vote and to consider enviromental issues when voting. The project is going very well, though we are still in our initial stages. I'm also just starting to work on a new project involving environmental clubs in Travis county public schools.My boss is awesome, which is good because we work back to back in a tiny office.

In general, things are going really well. Matt and I are almost completely settled in, though we had a huge cleaning Sunday in preparation for our first game night (which went very well! I made a friend on the bus and she and her boyfriend came over and we had a blast.) and now the house looks alienly clean. It's a little creepy, after being used to the cozy mess we had been in. On the other hand, a big part of that was that we weren't completely unpacked, so I'm sure once we're used to it it'll be a good thing.

att is working at the University of Texas' English Department, and is doing very well there. He wrote about it in his blog. We've both been pretty tired after getting home each day, but we're gradually getting used to the working week.

Thank you, Pam, for reminding me to update, and I also just want to say that I do miss all of my friends, and I hope you're doing really well.Please call me whenever, though today I misplaced my phone so it may take me a while to get back to you but I'd always love to hear from you.

On a final note, I don't think it's a secret anymore that Mat and I are engaged (although it is still kinda secret! Just not particularly well kept. It's for real public facebook level around Christmastime) and so we've started reading wedding magazines and thinking about other preparations.

So...yia! Hopefully not too many people found out this way, but I guess it's slightly more personal than facebook. We're very excited.

And with that...back to work! :)

I GOT A JOB!

There's a project a couple politicians are working on, which is to create a telenovela (soap opera in spanish) to inspire hispanic residents of Texas to vote, and to care about environmental issues. Apparently I impressed one of the organizers of the project with the work I did in Peru, since it's basically the same idea. So not only do I have a job, but it'll be involving topics I love, and will be an educational experience. That said, I have no idea what I'll be doing. I have my first meeting Monday, so maybe I'll know then.


That said, of course I still miss all of you. I hope school has started out great.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I don't know how I'm going to do this last essay! It's driving me crazy and I just want to be done and I can't pack or do anything or focus and I'm SO STRESSED and AHHHH!!! I know I just have to write it anad then edit it and put in all my Jew references but I can't even work on it for too long or I go insane. Blahhhh.

AIM

I've recently noticed I really can't put up with aim anymore. Too much happens at once and it's so far removed from real life it just makes me nervous and feel fake now. So...I'm sorry if you've missed me because I'm not on ever. For whatever reason I just can't cope with things like that anymore. And, honestly, I think I'm a lot healthier for it. I just wish it didn't mean I had to cut down on opportunities to talk to my friends.

Stolen from Sarah

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - Various Authors
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (hated too much to finish...)
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (currently reading in spanish, except that I lost my bookmark grr)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Only haven't read 56! Yayyy! Sorry the bold is hard to see...

Well, I've been here a month. It's cool and all, but I've been getting more and more lonely and less easily distracted. It used to be when I got homesick I could randomly go hikeand see some amazing nature, but now I've seen everything that's easy to get to. It's not a problem, I guess, and i know other people have been away longer...I dunno.

I'm ok with wanting to come home though as long as I stay active and not in my room. It's just kinda hard when there's nothing to stay active with. And as cool as it is talking to odd crazy men in the plaza, cause they tell me lots of interesting things, I'm not really up to dealing with the creepiness factor that sometimes is included.

Ah well. Tomorrow's Monday and classes and work start up again to distract me. Yayyyy.

On a lighter note, yesterday I was in Cusco and got to see the festival for potato day. There were people dressed like different kinds of potatoes, women carrying potatoes, and traditional dances which involved the harvesting potato motions. This country is awesome.

Gradumacation!!

Everything was really great. All of my family just left, but it was wonderful seeing them again. Both graduations were nice. Not a lot else to say except that it was wonderful and that I was really, really happy to see and spend time with them.

Thank you sincerely to them for all of the food and fun.

Now I'm making my list of what to pack for Peru! Goodness, goodness.

Hey everybody,

I'm officially a graduate of the RC. Both ceremonies were today, but the LSA ceremony didn't mean anything to me really...I kept thinking, "maybe this just won't hit me until I'm gone. That would be horrible, to not be able to truly say goodbye to my friends because of denial!" Then I went to the RC ceremony...

Each graduate had a minute to say something. There were 120ish graduates, and all of them took at least part of their minute. Honestly, it was amazing. Even though they weren't my year and I wasn't in on any of their jokes, it was so personal. The speeches the staff gave were moving and funny. Everything was such a lovely goodbye. Then it hit me. The most wonderful beginning to my college years I ever could have had, where I made my longlasting friendships of college (even if some weren't RC I still made them at East Quad), everything I had become was so shaped by the RC, and the quirkyness that made me finally feel like I belonged somewhere.

When I got out of the ceremony, I just cried. Usually I'm able to control myself in front of other people, but I couldn't help it. And, in true RC spirit, this girl walking past who I didn't even know came over and gave me a hug, and said, "Congratulations."

I love you all so much. Thank you for the difference you've made to me. I could never express to you what everything has meant.

Update: I wanted to put what I said in my speech here, but I was going to dinner with my grandparents and had to go. It's paraphrased, but not changed too much.

"The RC has a magical power. For the class Moral Choices in Context, we had to do a project that would make a change in the world- or something like that, I'm probably misrepresenting it but that's the gist, anyway (<- that was added by the nervousocity). Another stdent from the class and I decided we wanted to make a play group about raising awareness for religious misuse. This wouldn't be attacking the religious or atheists, it's really just showing people how they view religion, and having them think about it because a lot of times people don't. I was a freshman at the time, and really didn't know anybody. The people I found to work with me were incredible, and became some of my best friends. I know that it isn't just the RC, because they weren't all RC- it was just being around East Quad and asking random people to help and finding the most amazing people who were actually willing to help. They were so enthusiastic and so creative that we actually managed to write and perform a whole play together. It was a wonderful experience.

"I think that East Quad must have some mystical power fueled by the RC. Besides this occasion in which wonderful people just seemed to be drawn to it, I have another example. The first time I explored the basement, I went around in what I swear was a circle three times. The third time, there was a computer lab. Thank you."

I miss hiking and rock climbing real bad. I miss having the rush that comes of accomplishing something tangent. I have a lot of intellectual challenges which is great, don't get me wrong, I just miss the open air and getting scratched and mosquito bitten on my way to the top of a mountain where I get to sleep on rocks all night and wake up feeling wonderful. Or something in the water, like white water rafting...just some kind of adventure. 

I get stir-crazy so easily.

Well, I'll get to explore Peru. That'll be an adventure. 

Finals start tomorrow. I apparently have 2. I studied for one and totally forgot about the other. I've been doing homework all weekend, interspersed every few hours with a bit of net surfing.

Ugh, this wasn't meant to be a whiny post. I just wanted to write about the great outdoors:

I'd just love to canoe down a lake by the light of the stars sometime... if only so I can sing that horrible song:P

RC Senior Dinner

Today was the graduating Rc student dinner thing. It was really wonderful...great food, a few people I know (like Martin and Jeff Ham). On my way out I started to cry, though... I just kept imagining all the people who weren't there, and thinking about missing out graduating with them. I've been so busy and drained and...I don''t know. It's more just that even though I don't spend a lot of time with you all, I really care about you. It really hurts to know I won't be there crying with you at the end. Not that any of you probably read this...cept Pam, cause Pam's fucking awesome.

Graduating early is the right choice though, it's just that nothing's that clear cut in the real world.

I really, really miss Nora.

I've been going a little bit crazy lately...all this planning, and all this planning I should be doing, and homework, and who knows. It isn't really so bad it can just be a little overwhelming. The strike really threw me off too in terms of work, but I guess I'll just go to class with some things half done. That's what I gt for not keeping up enough. Oops, oops.

I should be sleeping. I'm gonna get on that.

Sorry for the pointless update :P I'm still going to post it though, because I don't post often. At least it's something.

I feel so locked up sometimes.

Can't really get motivated to do work.

I went to a talk about money management today, and it was interesting. 

Not much else to say.

yayyy

I am recovering nicely from my surgery. I got humus to celebrate. It is very yummy.

Yaay.

Not thinking about school tomorrow; still haven't done a pretty hefty chunk of the homework. Whaaatever, I still have time... *WORRIED FACE WHICH QUICKLY BECOMES YUMMM HUMUS FACE*

TODAY

I had some trouble deciding what to get for lunch, but in the end i got a $1.00 amazing breadloaf from Cottage Inn, came home and made a natural peanut butter and blackberry preserve (from the Valentine's day gift from my parents :) ) sandwich. DELICIOUS. I made the right chioce.

So I was thinking about neopets today. Now you're all nodding to yourselves knowingly, thinking how right you were when you said back in the day that I was obsessed. I'm not. So there.

Anyway. Neopets is really great because it actually is  a fun imitation of real life with a working economical system. i thought of this today because I was thinking about buying...something...checks. That was it. I don't need any yet though (this is a rambly post, apparently). But yes, so I was looking at an ad for checks that say "only $5.00!" and wondering how one knows that's a good price. Then I realized a viable way is to go online and search for checks and compare prices...LIKE YOU DO WITH THE NEOSHOPWIZARD!

In conclusion, you should all play neopets.

Next week is our Spring break. On Monday I'll be getting surgery, woo. I'm really seriously considering taking this next year off (my original plan!) because it's been way too stressful trying to figure out which groups to trust and which not to. Besides, I'm still working on getting through the semester.

Sorry this post is rambly. Hugs to all, and to all a good night.

I decided to start my teach for america app for this year instead of next year, and since the deadline is the 15th, I did a lot of it today.

Today was a crazy hectic day.

I've learend so much and had such and incredible life already...if the aliens DO take over, I'll have enough good memories to keep myself occupied.

I love how my conversations with Joeston continue to keep me occupied long after I've had them. I don't think Joeston was actually the new nickname we agreed on.

Procrastination station!

My family sent me Valentine's Day treats! It was so sweet (no pun intended!). I'm excited to try all the jellies. They are the best:) I love you guys!

Another 8:30-5 Monday awaits. It'll be fun though. Work is always fun:)

This post is scaaattered. I made myself a profile though! Woooot!

Anyway, I'll update again soon.

German is the best language ever because every compound word is a bad pun.

Shwinefleisch=pork. Hee hee.

Apparently I can't put cyrano's meme here, because I don't know how to copy-paste in blogspot yet.

I am tired, and have been alll week. It feels like it should be Thursday. How is it not Thursday? German is getting tougher, but it's still fun. 

I;ve been really touchy about stuff lately cause I feel a lot of the times like I'm on the brink of not caring about school again and I have to keep pushing... I don't know. Whatever.

Everyone's been saying Spanish is an easy language. I don't really know how to feel about that. I haven't known how to feel about a lot of things lately... I just feel kind of lost. Whatever. I'm starting to think I should become certified as a math teacher just to show myself I can. It seems like every step I take someone's saying (even if it's just me), "Well, it's lucky that wasn't actually hard, or I don't know what you'd do." And someone else is always saying, "How do you get it all done?" I kinda feel like the latter is just a nice thing to say and the former is closer to the truth but... I don't know. I don't think I'm dumb. I could be wrong. 

I'M SO INSECURE. It's hard to fight against it when you think you're probably right.

(In an aim conversation)

Alan: Sometimes, i feel like you're not really communicating with me but instead are trying to write a poem

Alan: No wait. That's most of the time.

That made me laugh hard. The best truths make the finest jokes. Or somesuch.

Today I said I was doing wonderfully in German class, as a response to "Wie gehts?" and when asked why I said "Heute ist Montag!" (today is Monday). Luckily he knew I was full of something that isn't equivalent to truth.

I have moved to Blogspot in the hopes that my entries will no longer be eaten. THIS IS A BORING ENTRY BECAUSE IT IS LATE.

Funny thing was, I was looking through all of my old entries from livejournal, and because so many were eaten it got back to 2005 in just two pages. It was odd to see how similar I think, no matter what else has changed about me. 

Hopefully I'll keep updating about my life and ramble again like I used to, but either way if you're reading this I figure you're just doing so because you know me anyway. As long as no one actually expects me to be more interesting than I am.