Write It Down

Last night was the Haley House volunteer appreciation shindig and it was a total blast. I was worried that I wouldn't really have fun because I don't really know the other BC volunteers well... but it turned out that I was quite wrong!

While I was walking there, I ran into this group of three kids about my age and they asked me where the Haley House was. They said they met DaHye (the BC senior in charge of all the Haley House volunteers) at a park the day before and she had invited them to come to the dinner. Good thing they didn't turn out to be sketchy. They're doing this year of travel thing before they go to college, going around the country and doing social justice work and what not. They seemed nice enough but left pretty quickly.

I also got to hang out with Axe, my supervisors 2.5 year old, and he kept talking about Bob Marley, John Mayer and the Cookie Monster. I asked him what color the Cookie Monster is and he said "Blue and a half."

We had the dinner on the third level balcony, complete with christmas lights, patio furniture and pasta salad. Delish. I won all three rounds of Egyptian Rat Screw, which we renamed Mongolian Rat Trap. The other pulsers were totally awesome and I'm really disappointed that I didn't get to know them earlier on.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. And I can't wait to go home.

20 days until Ireland! I am so so so excited. We still haven't heard back about which placement we'll be at, but my first choice is this teen club place called Slí Eile (literally "Other Way"). The other placements are a preschool and a family center, with parenting classes, daycare and all that good stuff.

What with fundraising, Relay for Life, Haley House and just regular old school-y things, these next few weeks are going to be crazy...

Haley House yesterday morning was pretty good... it was SO cold on the way there, though. My little weather dashboard widget said it was -2 degrees when I left at 5:20 and boy did it feel like it. When I was walking through Copley Square on the way there, right by the train station, I saw a guy approach a man sleeping saying "You okay brother? You awake? Wake up, brother!" and it was kind of reassuring... it usually freaks me out to see the guys who come for breakfast sleeping on the streets, covered in a only few blankets and tarps.
I had my hair in french braids from the night before and everyone kept telling me they liked how my hair was "decorated," kind of a funny way to put it.

We talked in PULSE discussion about that article I posted the other day, about the Nazi doctor. We're supposed to be a collaborative class, so each discussion is decided on by a vote (how democratic) so I suggested we talk about redemption and forgiveness as related to this Dr. Death fellow. It was pretty interesting to hear what everyone had to say... I really love that class, there are a handful of us that are always talking and sharing, so the discussion can get pretty lively.

I'm supposed to be writing my FDR paper right now, but I'm about halfway finished so a little break is alright in my book. We're supposed to write about what we think of Roosevelt's presidency based on this book, Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt's Foreign Policies 1933-1945 by Justus Doenecke (what a name) & Mark Stoler. It was a good book, comprised of two essays, one arguing that he was messed up and his foreign policy reflected that, the other saying that sure, he made mistakes, but he was better than anyone else around at that time (Churchill, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, etc).
The essay prompt asks "Was FDR a warmongering interventionalist? A hypocritical isolationist? A...?" and I'm taking up the third option, arguing that more than either interventionalist/isolationist, he was a "Rooseveltist" i.e. his reputation/public opinion of him/america's standing domestically &internationally were what drove most of his decision making.
I feel like I'm being a little risky here, especially because I really want to do well on this paper (new professor with seemingly impossibly high standards)... but as Kelsey pointed out to me, it isn't about regurgitating information. I'm feeling pretty confident about the way it's turning out so far, so hopefully it'll be okay. Also I plan on bringing it into the prof's office hours monday.

With all the paper writing I've been doing lately, I've been thinking about setting up a little peer review/writing circle group amongst my friends and classmates... I really found classmate feedback handy last semester in my creative nonfiction class, so maybe some people will be up for it.



In the meantime, I've become addicted to Pandora. I'm currently listening to "Oxford Comma Radio" based on, you guessed it, Vampire Weekend's Oxford Comma.

also, check out this youtube vid... Hilarious.

Okay, back to FDR.