a few words on simple living

I am so excited this week, and you would be to if you lived in my house.

Admittedly, I was a bit worried about that whole "food" thing when I moved to Chicago. We are allotted $100 a month for groceries each. That's $600 for the house for the month. Michael and I were spending more than half of that before we moved up here. We really weren't sure how that was going to hold.

But, well, last night, Michael made chicken terrioki with vegetable rice, corn, and baked potatoes. It was so good, I can't even tell you.

Tonight, Daena is making gnocci. Based on its spelling, and the spelling of Daena's last name (Tamborini), I'm guessing it's an Italian dish, that has been described to me as "little potatoe dumplings". Daena's a vegetarian, and boy can she cook some Italian food.

Tomorrow is my turn. I'm making Tarragon Chicken with grapes, steamed broccoli, and spagheti with some sort of tasty sauce.

Wednesday, Fabian is making home made potato soup.

Thursday, Val is making chicken and vegetarian lasagnes.

Granted, last month we over-spent a bit. But it was only our first month of budgetting, and we only overspent about five dollars. And yes, this is how we eat, all the time.

and the fun begins...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabirgde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a tatol mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Fabian received that in an email forward yesterday, and we all oohed and ahhed over it.

He's been receiving a lot of mail lately, including two anonymous love letters from 8th graders who can't stand that he is no longer teaching them, but is with 5th and 6th graders now. The second one was especially bad, calling a good-looking teacher our age... well, a bad word, and saying, "so don't like her, like me."

We've been making fun of him a lot. He's been taking it gracefully.

On the next subject, this week is Banned Books Week. Everyone go to the American Librarians Association webpage, ala.org, and check out the list of banned and challenged books. Then go to the library and read one.

At Elizabeth's prodding, I checked out Captain Underpants' First Adventure (or something like that). Even though it is written for boys much younger than myself, I laughed good and hard, an wished it had been in my school library when I had been on the brink of puberty.

I've been telling all the teens at Holy Cross about Banned Books Week, encouraging them to go read books they're not supposed to. I talk about censorship and keeping your mind open. They look at me like I'm weird.

But a lot of them smile and wave and know my name now. Classes officially started on Monday, but we're not registering people for another coulple of weeks. For now, it's all word of mouth. So no one has showed up yet. I sat in the reception area and the computer lab and talked with every high school kid that came through. They all nodded. Most of them had been planning on going to the classes, but didn't have a date and time set in their heads, so they didn't show up anywhere. So, Friday at 6:00, I should have a small crowd in my drawing class. It will be awesome.

Tomorrow, before RCIA, there is going to be a rally downtown for immigrants' rights. We're all going. There are buses leaving from Holy Cross to take anyone who wants to go, for free. But then Michael informed us of a small snag. At 8th Day, they got word that a "right wing" group was going to be protesting. Michael was thinking, okay, the Young Republicans... but then they found out it was going to be some white supremicist group. So it is sure to be a fun morning...

Off the subject completely, I ran the 5K last week, in support of people with HIV/AIDS. When we set out, my goal was to run more than half of it. But I just kept on. My time wasn't great, but so what. I doubled my goal. Way to have low expectations, Kati! Yay me!

I started a new "Lent" last Friday as well. No hooved animals for awhile. This Lent lasts until I complete my training for Project Hope, at some point in the forseeable, and yet cloudy future.

Michael and I are starting to learn Esperanto. It's a language designed just over 100 years ago to be learned by everyone on earth (except for some people in still "backward" nations) (no, our book really did say that) as a second language, so that everyone can talk to everyone else. It's really interesting, and really simple, and you're supposed to be able to learn it fluently in six months. We'll see how that goes.

Which leads me to the question we've all been waiting for...

^Ce la viro staras apud la grandaj bonaj pomoj?

Is the man standing near the big, good apples?

Monday, Monday...

Back again...

I haven't really had much to write about recently. I've been here just over a month, and I haven't gotten to start my programs yet. I got bored with writing entries that say, "and today I went around and met people. And tomorrow I'll go around and meet people."

The new twist this week is that I'm actually going around and meeting the teenagers that I'll be working with. They're awesome. I really can't wait to get started.

Two days ago, I went ahead and created a lesson plan for the first week, even though I didn't know when exactly that was going to wind up being. Yesterday, we decided to go ahead and begin on Monday.

Here's what happened: My first week here was orientation for me. My second week here, Sr. Angie was out of the country with the Marumba (sp?) band. That's the children's choir. They play Sunday masses, and go on tour from time to time because they're just that good. I went around and met people that week. My third week, Sr. Angie was on vacation. I went around and met people that week. My fourth week, the church was going through and audit, which turned out to be somewhat similar to hell on earth for a large number of people who run the large number of programs at Holy Cross- IHM. They said that sometimes it goes really smoothly, and sometimes they tear open everything. This time it lasted all week. So everything I was going to do got cancelled. I went to Kid's Cafe and fed kids. I wrote a lot in my book. I met with Yesica about Project Hope. Nothing much happened.

But this week. This is the week for getting things together. This is the week where I am not just meeting people who work at the Church, but I meet the kids I'm going to be working with. I tell them about my art and writing classes. See what they're interested in. Offer my services for tutoring (I will be doing both after all). See what they're interested in. I'm meeting with Sr. Angie tomorrow to get the starting schedule down. I"m making flyers to distribute in various groups and places.

My schedule, starting out, is going to be Monday Wednesday Friday, 3-ish to 8-ish. Plus whatever days Yesica needs me to work (but there's not a lot I can do with Project Hope until I am certified, and the training people are nearly impossible to get ahold of. So that will come later. I'll also be working with Fr. Bruce on RCIA on Saturdays. No, I won't actually be teaching RCIA. My job is actually to be personable with the young people. When we break off into groups to discuss issues, I go with the teens. They have different things to talk about than the forty year old mother of five, for instance. Plus, Fr. Bruce said something vague like, with your art, you may be interested in working with the altars for the Day of the Dead. Ever since then, I've been in charge of getting all that together.

In Mexican communities, All Soul's Day is a really big deal. They build altars for their ancestors to put up in churches, in their homes. They'll stay up in the church for about a month. It's a way for people to feel connected to they people they have loved who have died. I've learned this in the past week. I don't know anything about these altars. I don't know what they're made of, what they look like... I guess me job here will be to say, Hey, let's do this. And then we will.

Also, I'm in a training program right now called Advancing Youth Development. This program is for youth workers to become aware of issues in the field, as well as to develop a common vocabulary to work with, as well as to come together as a community to share experience and ideas, as well as make connections because no one does everything- so it's good to know others. It's an eight-week program on Tuesdays. I've met a lot of interesting people through this so far. I met one woman whose organization, among other things, develops traveling opportunities for kids who couldn't normally afford to travel for the sake of travel. She went to Fisk University in Nashville, and she used to know Dr. Jonathan Farley, whose congressional campaign I worked on last year.

Oh, and I think I had said that Michael will be lobbying the UN. He has since found out that the way I had put it is not entirely true. He will be lobbying the UN through letters, emails, and phone calls. He will be lobbying Congress in person. He's been spending most of his time thus far doing research on many interesting things. For instance, perhaps some of you have heard of Project for a New American Century? No? Well, you know how people talk about this evil conspiracy by the guys in the White House to take over the world? Well, that's it. It was think tank group in Washington that made it into the White House when Bush was "elected". Cheney's in it. Jeb Bush is in it. Rupert Murdock is in it. I want to say Rumsfeld. But anyway, look up information. This is not made up. This is real and it is scary when you realize their agenda. Project for a New American Century.

I don't have much else to say right now. Hopefully more will come soon...

balance

Well, it's starting to look like I'm going to pay about $85 this next year for the priviledge of running with large groups of people.

One of the things I want to do in my life is run a marathon, and there's going to be one in May. The LakeShore Marathon of Chicago.

Plus there will be an AIDS Run/Walk nearer to the end of this month in which six out of six of the people living in this house have expressed interest.

I'm in no great shape myself, but I have been- even recently. And the way I look at it, 27's a pretty good year to run a marathon. I started training today.

Speaking of which, Happy Birthday, Joel. I'm a triplet now with my older brother and sister. Funny how things work out.

But here's what's going on with me.

I spent the week meeting with people at Holy Cross. I've learned a lot about the church from the people I've met with. One of the most important things I've learned is that when I had said before how amazed I was at the number of things this church does, I had no idea what I was talking about. There is so much more.

I'm meeting with more people this week- learning more yet about what goes on. And I'm going to begin to try to put a schedule together of the things I will be doing in the coming year. When people offer me advice, they say to keep my schedule bare, because things will pile up on it no matter how full it is. It's best to start with a laid-back life so that perhaps I can wind up with a merely super-busy one, as opposed to a pulling-your-hair-out-haven't-slept-in-four-days-stressed-out-state-of-confusion.

I want to have about a forty hour workweek, so Sr. Angie says I should schedule about thirty. That's going to be really hard. I've narrowed myself down to four programs, and that could easily take me to 45 if I don't schedule well. So this week, in addition to meeting more people and talking about many things, I'm going to be scheduling.

There is a lot of gang activity in the Back of the Yards. We've had several kids of Holy Cross killed by stray bullets this year. The neighborhood is close. 150 kids per block. These kids have a lot that they are dealing with. My job this year is going to be to help give them an outlet, and to help them with their studies. And to help them learn how to avoid STDs.

Project Hope I think I have mentioned. It is the organization that works with young adults, educating them about sex, STDs, AIDS, etc. I met with Yesica, the leader, and felt so good at the end of our conversation. The program is state funded even though it runs out of the church. This means that there is kind of a fine line to be walked, but it seems as though they walk it well, and that Holy Cross is quite supportive. Simply put, when Project Hope is at the schools, they are allowed to educate about safe sex and condoms and even pass out samples. At Holy Cross, they have to be a little more discreet, but they are not kicked out because they do not adhere to the "abstinence only" policy that is pushed. They are allowed to educate. It is common sense to them. I love it.

Holy Cross does not currently have a tutoring program for high schoolers. I want to change that. The problem with this is that I also want to have art and writing programs for jr high and high school kids. Because these kids don't just need education. They need an outlet. They need a safe place to go and a safe way to express themselves.

I listened at Mass to an eighth grader talk about her religious experience in seeing the mountains in Mexico. She's a writer, I though. I was right. Sr. Angie told me later that she's had a rough time this year because a friend of hers was killed by a stray bullet of a gang fight this spring. Hurt and anger like that can't sit. That's why I need to figure out a way to also get the art and writing programs started up again.

I have two weeks to figure out how to do all of this while I talk to everyone at the parish. I can do it. It's all about balance.