so many things to say...so little time to say it...

I've been slacking lately on my blog - but there's so much I want to say! This week it seems I had much to say, but my phone and internet went down at the house which kinda puts a damper on blogging...somehow I just don't feel in the right space while I'm at work!
Speaking of work....this past Monday I got my first ever official business cards! It's so exciting! I'm officially grown up! It seems somewhat odd to say that at my ripe age I'm just now getting business cards for the first time.
I really have been loving my work the past few bits. It may not pay much - but I really do think it's very important, worthwhile work. While I awknowledge that the ability to choose what sort of work one does is a priveledge of the affluence I live in - I really believe that people should find joy and meaning in whatever sort of work they do.
I've been completing my first round of classes...and it's just so neat to see my students learn so much and to be more intelligent and thoughtful then they were when we started. On Wednesday I said so long to my first completed class of 7th graders and next Tuesday I'll have to say goodbye to my beloved 9th graders!
It's nice coming up on my second round, it's giving me some chances to try out a few more methods with some new classes I'm starting, and they've gone really well so far. Such as this past Monday...to illustrate the way media affects us all, I wore a vintage outfit myself, but also brought some outdated clothes for the students to model. They had alot of fun with it, and I really think it demonstrated for them that they personally are affected by media.
On a different front...I'm in Las Vegas this weekend. Kim was coming over here for her brother's wedding...so I hitched a ride. It's been nice to hang out with family. It feels good to be able to come home for the weekend!

what's a name???

Yes, it's Friday night, and I'm enjoying a fabulous night at home alone! I did venture out this afternoon for a bike-ride to the record shop (my first visit.)...and of course a jaunt to the laundry mat! (it's been about a month!) I'm really excited about the record store because I got these little "donuts" that go inside of 45-rpm records so I can play them on my record player, since the adaptors that came with it don't actually fit on the middle spindle! Anywho...on my jaunt I also went to a new coffee shop which was fab-u-lous! I felt like it was a cozy-new-i-fit-in-here-better-than-san-francisco coffee shop. It's all 50s of course, and they play fabulous music! All their tables are 50s kitchen tables and chairs and there's a little 50s lamp at each table, and they play great jazz-western-swing music! It's just a couple miles from my house.
Anyhow...what prompted me to blog this evening was (I'm supposed to be doing my taxes but they're somehow evading me!) I was looking on this super cool website that has lots of free fonts to download, and I'd typed in my full name to see the samples of each font. So I've been scrolling through pages with my name typed out many times over in different fonts...and it dawned on me, it's a little odd...the names we're called by and given. Kristin...I'm known as kristin and I always have. What if my parents named me something different. Come to think of it, a friend was telling me the other day that he knows some people who had a baby about 4 days ago...and they STILL haven't chosen the baby's name!! They're just calling it "baby" for the time being....doesn't that seem somehow wrong?! It's as if just because it doesn't have a name, it doesn't have an identity. In all reality...it does in fact. But it doesn't seem like it does. It's like if I suddenly decided to change my name to marge...I think something about my identity would change also!
Okay...this is all very random ramblings...so I should get back to other things also evading my IRS-duties!

for your perusal

I've been more in the creative vein as of late...which has been really fantastic. There's this art group of some folks in my neighborhood area, called LA Street Productions, which is really fantastic. Everyone in it is really talented and encouraging - I appreciate their versitility. Anyhow...thought I should showcase some of my current projectings.

This is a fabulous art project, teaching a couple of 7-year-olds how to draw a cat. I love doing art with the neighborhood kids! (as long as there's not too many of them, that's a little overwhelming!) I was super impressed how into this cat project these two were...they very carefully added everything until they were very proud of the end results!
This one's just a little pen/painting on fabric. I'd like to do some more work on artistic representations to make human trafficking become more recognized and thought about.








I've begun to make these simple drawings on old book pages. It's been super fun for me. I really think it looks cool, it's really easy, and I've been able to feel less pressured about the finished product.



Okay...so this isn't a painting...but I think Kim is quite a peice of art! Here pictured with my Thai sticky rice cooker atop her head.

And again, not a painting...but this night out was also quite a peice of work...as well as the fabulously sparkly sweater I'm wearing! Our friend requested we met her out at a swanky Hollywood bar for her birthday. It was something else...Hollywood-ers are a species of their own kind, it was interesting to observe and even better to convene to an old basic for late night eats...mmmmm Mr. Beardy's French Toast is so delicous!

i left this out

A couple weeks ago I had my first counseling session at work. Being a health educator at the clinic...this is in my job description - particularly for teens coming in. However, seeing that I'm not actually AT the office all that much, it's not like the clinic staff really thinks to send anybody my way very often. But...I was there after school got out this day and a girl came in very worried that she could be pregnant.
I had been looking forward to this sort of one on one contact - but when it showed up I was caught a little off guard! This girl was still in middle school. She had just started having sex that same month. The day before, the condom broke. She was terriffied. She didn't know she would be dealing with this. She didn't know she could come to the clinic for birth control either.
The reality of the situation really hit me.
I've been spending the past few months in junior high and highschools talking to kids about sex/sexuality. Proud of some because I can see they're making really smart, mature decisions - and unsure of others because they're trying to come off like little players. As I've been spending so much time in the classroom - perhaps I've forgotten a little the reality of why I'm there...kids are having sex and they don't know what they're getting themselves into.
Argh - if they all could have more positive influences in their lives! If the media and our society didn't degrade sex so much! From views of the kids in my classes - it's as if they have the impression that pleasure and fun is the most important thing - there's no need for true restraint or true respect/consideration/protection of the one you love - it's something that everyone is doing and why think of denying yourself that pleasure, or even that "need".
Well...that's my rant. I think the girl that came into my office was probably in the clear as far as pregnancy went, this time. She said she wouldn't have had sex if she'd known this would be the consequence. Reality hits.
What is it about sex and sexuality that runs so deep? It has such far reaching affects in our lives, ones that aren't readily identifiable even. We need to be able to see what it means to have a healthy sexuality. We need to be able to celebrate what true, real sex/sexuality is and means.

one fantastic weekend!

Well...I didn't get to reassemble my apartment this weekend, but the time spent was well worth the ensueing mess at home (truthfully...my roomate picked up most of the shambles, I was very bad and left the house a mess...but I'm still feeling scattered)
Anyhow...I left LA Friday afternoon and met my neices and we headed up towards Big Bear to spend the weekend at my old church camp. I had been trying to find a place for us to stay up near there and then the place where I used to go to camp came to mind. They said they'd love to have us join a camp group...so that's what we did!
Alyssa and Madison were very excited to be heading up into the mountains and had very high hopes for snow. They've never really spent time in the snow. As we were driving up, I was afraid there wasn't going to be any. But then, as we pulled up the mountain and into camp there was just enough snow to have fun with! It was perfect!
There was a kids camp for 1-4th graders (Madi's in 3rd and Alyssa's in 4th)...and depending on what the girls felt like - we were going to join in the activites or do our own thing - but they ended up having a blast with the other kids and all the activities...games, chapel, dirt-buggy, zip line, giant swing, etc.
It was great just to be able to hang out with them for awhile. It's fun to watch them grow up, interact with one another and others, and become their own little people. I'm very lucky to be able to spend time with them!
Alyssa said her favorite part was the dirt buggy. She tends to be a little quieter and low-key then Madison...who's favorite thing was going down the zip line...she's very adventuresome and even made a few friends. I couldn't get either of them to stop eating snow...just like me when I was a kid!