Playing with the Kiddies

I have had more fun at work this week than I have in a good while.

I'm working with the youth again. My theatre group has eight people in it, all very stoked about the project. We have had so much fun getting things together. My art class is full. I don't have any more clay to give to a new member. And they are all loving it. It's an entirely new group, too, (save for one student) than the group I had in the evenings during the school year.

We're also doing sports two nights a week now. Last night we played volleyball, but we didn't have a net, which made the game ... interesting. I got to play too, and the guys from my old art class stood on the sidelines cheering for me (like, doing cheers). I said, "Come on, guys! I want a human pyramid!"

And they made one!!!!

It's a fantastically good feeling to realize that they young adults I work with like me enough to make me a human pyramid while I play volleyball.

I say tomato, you say tomate

Summer flu sucks.

Been sick all week, and still tried to go into work most days, because, hey, that's me. The women I work with said that I should fry a tomato and put it on the soles of my feet, and wrap it all up. They said it would pull the fever down (and, separately, each one of them did the exact same hand gesture to indicate this) and they also said that it would help my throat.

So I did. Not so much because I thought it would work, but because I had told them I would when they kept pestering me about it. Right before I went to bed, I cut a tomato in half and fried it (which everyone agreed smelled really good) and then wrapped it onto the soles of my feet. About 3 that morning, my fever finally broke. And the next day my throat didn't hurt anymore, although I was stuffed up so that I couldn't breath. I guess you need something else for that.

Other things have happened too, but I don't feel like talking about any of it just now. So you'll have to wait.

Another day off

Off the subject completely, Michael once told me the story of a walk home from the L one evening. We live in a Mexican neighborhood--Pilsen. In fact, some official pamplet or other that breaks Chicago down into 'where to go for the best...' said that Pilsen was the best place to go to find Mexican culture.

But a one-block radius of our house holds close to a dozen Italian restaurants.

So, during this walk home, Michael encountered a Godfather (or perhaps Sorpranos) scene. This large Italian man was standing in the doorway of a nearby building talking on his cellphone about how he needed some guy whacked, but ____ (insert assassin-esque name here) was in prison again.

Which is a nice prelude to a conversation Michael had at work with one of the nuns about how, while Pilsen is a pretty gang-heavy neighborhood, our area has really only had one shooting in the year that we've been here. The nun said, "Well, of course your area is protected by the mafia."

And Michael thought, "Huh."

And then he told me, and I went, "Huh."

And he said, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

But back on topic, I spent Saturday in my PJs. I ventured out of the house only to the mailbox on the corner, and I wore my Ernie slippers as I did so. And lots of people were staring at me as I walked through the Carnival in pajamas.

Did I mention there was a Carnival right outside our house this weekend? Yes. There was a large Powerpuff Girls bouncy room at the bottom of our front steps, and a loud and annoying shoot-the-star-win-a-prize game right across the street. It was the Italian Eatery Festival, or something like that, and it was kind of strange to see so many white people walking around in our neighborhood. This Festival apparently draws quite a crowd. It was interesting to leave for work wondering why some guys were erecting a large, fake-stone fountain in the middle of the street, and then come home from work to find a smiling Bubbles of the Powerpuff sort smiling and blocking the sidewalk in front of St. Michael's.

But that is neither here nor there. The point is that I spent Saturday resting. Then I got up early Sunday morning and headed to Holy Cross-IHM, where I hit three of the eight masses and recruited people for the Theatre Program, which starts in... a little over an hour.

And then I went home and went grocery shopping, and Michael and I were both feeling tired and ill. And I thought, Man, I need another day off.

I checked my schedule and found that for my remaining time here, I will get no more (and sometimes less) than one day off a week. Well, at a time, at any rate. There are days I only have to work maybe three or four hours. But there are weeks in which I will not get to spend an entire day in my pajamas.

But during this time I get to do theatre and art and sports with young adults with nothing better to do, and I can't say I"m all that bothered by the schedule. I just feel compelled to complain.

So I am.

One thing at a time

So, granted, it's me.

And I really oughtn't be surprised, but I've kind of gone and spread myself too thin.

Again.

Every time I hit a lull, I add in new projects rather than waiting for more stuff to do to come along. So then, when more stuff to do comes along, I also have all these new projects to work on as well. Then I can either drop everything and go on with the sense of a job not done, or I can complete everything in a harried, frenzied manner (which, granted, is fun-- and probably the reason why I just never learn).

And so it is that this is the week where every day feels like Friday, but that blessed relief of a day off to get stuff done is still just so far away. I'll have a whole weekend to mark things off my list, and I fully plan on getting that list down to a more manageable level so that I stop feeling so random and unfocused.

Too many swords in the fire. I heard that one recently. That's what I feel like.

Today's Thursday, but I hardly believe it any more. We must still be somewhere near the beginning of the week-- because the beginning of the week has just lasted so friggin' long.

So here's what I'm going to do to help myself get focused:

Step One: Complain about it on my blog.

Step Two: Type out an official-looking list, with headings and everything, of everything I need to get done by Monday

Step Three: Take extreme pleasure in scribbling things off the list

Step Four: Conveniently lose the list by Sunday night so I don't have to look at a list of things I didn't get done on time.

...one down, three to go.

When Work and Play Collide

Not that I'm one to condone mindless stereotypes, but Mexicans sure know how to party!

Back of the Yards had a street festival this weekend- closed down the main drag and set up booths with food and games and info and music and drinks public service stuff. The streets were packed all day and into the night both Saturday and Sunday- and I got to work it.

HOPE Program had a booth and we did a lot of community outreach- giving out information on preventing HIV/AIDS and free condoms. We were set up right between the music and the alcohol, and we made a lot of young men happy with their free goodie bags, and a lot of those young men then offered to make us happy (offering drinks, asking us out), but it was all a one-way street, metaphorically speaking. Their happiness and safety was important, not our drunkeness or social engagements.

But man was it a blast! They had Marimba and folkloric dancing and music with full costumes. They had a pretty famous Mexican band, and a heavy metal sort of punk-ish band for the kiddies. I had some great food, and I drank cantaloupe juice and watermelon juice, and I bought some books because I'm a book junkie, and I worked really hard out in the sun and was so friggin tired when I got home both nights.

So I took this morning off. Would've taken the whole day off, but I needed to get some stuff done for the theatre program, and it really can't be put off any longer. Starts next week. I'm so excited.

I'll take Wednesday morning off too. That'll add up to a full day, so it counts. I don't get to take Tuesday off as usual because I'm on the scholarship committee at Holy Cross, and I"m interviewing scholarship applicants Tuesday and Thursday. I thought I was also going to wind up in a workshop this weekend, but that was postponed, so a full day off (all in one go) is slated to happen soon. Yay!

And the Claretians have a new Provincial for this province. Fr. Eddie de Leon. Cool guy. I like him a lot. But all the priests and brothers and novitiates and everyone was in town and we had a big banquet on Thursday to welcome 'the new guy'. I met Br. Tom, who is serving down in Jamaica, and got to be friends with him, and saw Fr. Steve again, who was at Holy Cross when I first got here, but was soon reassigned to Jamaica. It was great talking to them and hearing about all the things they are doing and want to do. I guess it's not completely certain, but Michael and I are planning to go to Jamaica with the Claretians after our time is up here.

Anyway, I"m going to graffiti some sidewalks with Theatre Workshop propaganda in a minute, so I'll catch you guys later.

peace out yo
kati

Sweating

It's really not that hot here. It's only say, high eighties. I think we dipped just slightly into the nineties yesterday... maybe again today. Really not that hot.

And it IS humid, but I like it humid.

But I"m also really used to there being air conditioner everywhere, and there's just not here. And in the computer lab, there's not even windows, so it's really friggin' hot.

But enough about that.

I want everyone to go to...

www.sportphoto.net

And then click on the Lakeshore Marathon and Half-Marathon, and then type in 762 in the bib number box.

And then admire me.

Things have been cool at work lately. I've been busy, although not doing stuff I"m used to doing. Most of what I"m working on now is setting things up for summer. So I'm not working as much with the youth currently, and that kind of sucks. But I"m really really excited about the theatre program. Have I mentioned that yet? A couple dozen times? It's gonna be so cool. My main concern is getting people there- because sometimes people just don't know what's going on in the neighborhood. But it's gonna be way-cool.

And I've been working on the HOPE Program Posters. I got to a point where I just didn't know how to go any further with photoshop, so I recruited Rolando, who does graphic designing things for the church's website and stuff like that- and he did a spectacular job finishing one of the posters for me. He was going to finish the other too, but word now is that he is perhaps no longer working here, and I'm not quite sure what to do about that.

I've also been gardening with some of the youth here in this garden lot across the street from the church. I don't know when the next date for that is. Need to talk to Sr. Angie about it.

I've also been (surprise) writing like a mad woman lately. It's fun. New story 1/3 way done, further development on other long term projects, and two new songs. Good ones, too, I'm told.

And I got to go see the Prisoner of Azkaban yesterday afternoon. Fabian and I went to the theatre that offers free popcorn on Tuesday Matinees. It's a great movie for the book. Michael said he was jealous because I had this fantasy escapism world that has been translated well on the big screen, but comic books- the movies all suck. He said, "They ruined the Punisher! I mean, how the hell are you going to ruin the Punisher? It's just a guy who shoots people!"

Bad luck there. But really, if you don't want to see the Prisoner of Azkaban, just send me the money you would have used to see it, and I'll go see it in your place. It's kind of like charity, except that I benefit, and not people with real need.