Summer in the City

Wow, where to begin. I've not posted anything since the beginning of May, and here it is, nearly July.

Well, I guess I should start with my internship. In May I'd been hunting for and applying for internships, and only one of them panned out. It's at American Friends Service Committee and I'm working with young people about the DREAM Act, which is federal legislation that allows for students or military personnel who were not born here to gain legal permanent resident status. It's been waiting 10 years and probably won't pass, unfortunately for these kids. Anyway, the job is 10 hours a week and interesting. I have been networking a lot in the Latino community and I am really looking forward to my first meeting with the youth.

I moved from college to a relative's house. I'm staying here until tomorrow and then I am going home for the 4th, and then moving to a friend-of-a-friend's house. I have had a lot of fun living here with 2 little kids and a puppy, plus this house is in a great location for the city. Looking forward to the new place, though, because the woman does all kinds of interesting things, and I hope she will become a mentor of sorts to me.

I have done a lot of interesting things since I moved here. June 9th or so I went to my first Open Mic night to see a college friend play her guitar and sing.

June 11th I volunteered at the State Historical Building, and at the end of the day, they offered me an internship! I was really surprised but it turns out they really need me there. They're not terribly organized... and I'm an organizer! :)

June 12th I had my first Pride experience. The gay pride parade went through downtown and it was quite an experience. Bigger than Homecoming, and they even passed out bottles of pop during it! Crazy. After the parade I went to watch the entertainment on the stage, which was definitely something different from my previous experiences. The drag queens were really over-the-top. My favorite was "Lady Gaga"- she had one of my college's alums as one of her backup dancers. I got rained on but I didn't care, it was really fun to be in an excited crowd. Afterward it was hard to get "Born This Way" out of my head- they played it several times.

At some point in June, I met up with a friend of a friend who is traveling abroad now. We had ice cream at Maggie Moo's and had a looooong talk about our experiences being "different" (disabled but I don't consider myself disabled). It was fun to hang out with someone I'd heard a lot about and whose blogs I'd read faithfully. This guy is now traveling through Asia and absolutely geeking out about it.

A couple Tuesdays ago I went to Music in the Park with my relatives. The kids didn't want to listen to the band, so I played with the little girl, while their dad played with the boy. It was fun to teeter-totter with the girl and chase her all around. She's a pretty smart cookie and she thinks everything is funny, and it's great to hear both the kids giggle. :)

I brought a bike with me to the city, hoping to ride it around. I discovered a beautiful trail and I rode for a long ways on it as the sun was starting to set. The bike, being a piece of junk, was just not a good bike to ride. So I went to a bike shop to see what they could do about it, and they told me it wasn't really worth fixing, and sent me down to the Bike Collective. I donated my bike to the Collective and then bought another. She's a beaut and I have taken her out a couple of times- one trip was over 12 miles, round trip. Discovering the city by bike trail is an adventure and I am quite enjoying it. It's good exercise, and I have also been doing some light yoga to stretch myself out after the rides.

After buying the bike I went to the Art Festival in town. Bought myself a $6 smoothie and went around looking at all the art, listening to the music, and watching a documentary called Train to Nowhere, which is about the 11 immigrants found dead in a railcar in Denison, IA. It's a complicated story and terribly tragic. We have GOT to fix our immigration system so people aren't dying to get here.

At another time, I went to a pro-immigration, anti-ICE rally at City Hall. After the rally they had the Zoning Board meeting, which was why the rally was there in the first place. ICE wanted a permit to have a detention center in the city, in an area that was in the revisioning plan. After at least 3 hours of debating, questions, etc, the Board voted against the ICE center, which was what the ralliers wanted. I am concerned that ICE will build outside the city and then there will be NO ONE to oversee what is going on.

Just this Sunday I went to a TEDx event in the city. It was at the State Historical Building (where I work). TED is awesome and this event was great. There were many inspirational talks and some cool technology. They are planning to have more TED events here because they think that 1 event a year is not enough.

While I have been here there have been some absolutely beautiful days. I have sat out on the back deck and done work in the shade. It's pleasant, with a cool breeze and a tall glass of water. There have also been crazy thunderstorms, but I have been blessed to not have any flooding in the basement (which is where I sleep).

There have been some rough times, but nothing that couldn't be handled. I am having a grand time in the city and I am glad I have the chance to be here. If I hadn't gotten this internship I would probably just be lazy at home, which would be nice, but it's better to have a job than not, especially since I am saving up to go to Argentina in the spring of 2012.

This post has been plenty long enough now, so I'll end it with a thought- Exiting the comfort zone can be exciting.