...the past 22 days...

Life has been quite full to say the least!
In the past 22 days, some of the things I've been up to are...
-began doing weekly outings to 'tackle' trafficking
-had Mom visit me in LA
-decided to put a new small-block Chevy engine in my Stude
-decided to stay in my house for the next 6-ish months (Kim's wedding is post-poned a little)
-saw the new Harry Potter ;)
-skateboarded by the beach on a Sunday...nearly gleeful experience!
-introduced a couple of neighbor ladies to chocolate chip cookies (can you believe it...chocolate chips are not a Latin American staple!)
-spent 2 days working at the Beverly Hills Hilton where FOX was doing promotion for all their TV shows...I got to see lots of "famous" people...and I decided...they really should write a TV show centering around the life of a sex-ed teacher....I think the possibilities are brilliant!
-chatted with some of my 7th grade students at a community fair, it was fun to see them out of the classroom - they're so adorable!
....and all the other wonderful in-between stuff that life is made of!

And, currently I'm visiting Las Vegas for a quick weekend. It's good to go home on little jaunts. Since I have way too much to cover in an update...I'll just let a few pictures do most of the talking. Mom and I at the beach in Santa Barbara













A view of the city via Echo Park (not far from my house) with the lotus flowers coming into bloom. (They're pretty neat, they come in every summer)















my friend Lulu and I got to have a quick time of catch-up in Las Vegas (and might I add...nightclubs are just weird)

But in short...life has been very full - not always easy, but GOOD. I feel like there's so much momentum building up towards something. I feel like life is happening and I get to be included. I appreciate so much the extended network of people that I get to have be part of my life.

an interesting fact

I dropped by the library earlier today...which I haven't done for awhile (you may notice my booklist is considerably short this year...not that I've really been keeping up with it either...but all in all, my reading is down. In part because I had $30 in library fines and in part because my work takes alot of my brain/mental energies!) The library is so glorious. Libraries in general are - but the Main LA Library is particularly glorious. When I'm in a library I don't think about anything going on in my world - but rather let my mind wander into many interesting nooks and crannies...it's both mental vacation and exercise :)

Anyhow - today I stumbled across a book entitled "Heroes, Rogues, and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior." Ever researching about anything having to do with sexuality and also interested into a look at the hormone which is said to govern much of males behaviors...I picked it up. It's both a biological and social study and should be quite interesting.
In the Introduction the author (James Dabbs) was going over some general hormone-related topics and I came across this interesting tidbit...

"Alfalfa and clover produce estrogen. The estrogen helps the plants by acting as a birth-control substance, holding down the population of grazing animals. Alfalfa and clover produce enough estrogen to make sheep and cattle sterile. In Australia, a million sheep each year fail to have lambs because they eat too much clover."(p.18)

Isn't that brilliant! It is just so amazing to me. Our world is so mysterious and interesting - one could never know enough to cease being amazed.

I would've written many things...

Hi all! Internet's down at my house for some reason...haven't figured out why. Life has been full though and there's much to say!

This Sunday was the art show - which was a success. There were a couple of bands playing, so it almost seemed more like their event, but that's cool. On Saturday me and a few of the other art group members hung out at the cafe all day and actually painted IT. It's pretty cool...the owner wants the concrete floor painted, so we've all done blocks of it. I spray painted in the back parking lot and did some stuff on the back entrance. Will's doing a large mural in the back. Pretty fun. It was cool to hear comments on my paintings. I've gotten alot of compliments on Blue Boy for the week that he's been up. We decided to keep him up for this show too.

Saturday evening was spectacular. After being at the cafe painting all day (and sweaty since there's no air flow in that place and this weekend was the first Hot one!) - I decided I'd go for a jog since I was already so sweaty. When I came home all the neighbors were out - using the closed-off street as our own personal park (which goes to show the starvation for open space there is in my neighborhood.) Two girls were riding bikes, who I've never seen riding bikes - mostly becuase their parents don't allow them to because of the dangerous street. It ended up that I took the girls out with me on my jog, while they rode their bikes. We went down to the park and it was just so fantastic. Although the park is only a 10-minute walk away, my neighbors rarely go there. The girls and I had a blast. There was a carnival with music going on. We saw some people catching fish, which completely enthralled the girls. And they were both so excited to tell their parents how well they'd rode when we returned home.

It's times like this that make it evident to me why I chose to live where I do. As I've been thinking alot of where to live come September when I lose my roomate Kim, I've been very much considering moving out of the neighborhood. But now I'm not so sure. Not to say that one magic night warrents a complete change of mind...but it has prompted a re-evaluation.

On other fronts - I got my car, the pup (or pinkie...and on) out to the DMV today and inspected and everything. However, she did break down on the way back. It seems like once she really warms up the motor doesn't like it so much. So, I don't know where I am with that. I need to consider alot of things.

It's felt like summer, both because it's getting hot, and because I don't have to be at work so early! Weee! It's so great driving to work at 9!!! I'm a much happier person with this schedule...if only all the schools would change - because I do love and miss my students too!

The weekend before last I went on a lil' trip. First to Bass Lake to go camping with my friends. We had a great time hanging out around the lake and taking it easy. The kids who had never been camping (3 and 5 years old) loved it (although they had some trouble sleeping with our noisy neighbors!)

After that I drove over to San Fran since I was close, and spent Monday and Tuesday there. It was super great! I got to hang out with most of my special people and it was terriffic. Not really home anymore, but I'm very glad to have it as a part-home. I realized as I was there that my roots are being made with people - not in places. As I've felt quite uprooted this year and still questioning how one makes roots in LA...it was a good thing to realize that its all about relationships! (those of you who know Bart can appreciate that even more!)