baaah

I am really bad at updating this. Alright, here goes.

Well, since Halloween, it has essentially been work work work, sit sit sit, work work, sit. I have been busy with work, putting off my paper and all that good stuff. I just recently hosted my first visit for the international visitors program at our office so I got to practice my presentation skills and suck up to a few big wig foreign officials. This past week, I had visits from both the UK and Spain so that was pretty exciting and Andy, the other intern, and I finally finished our HUGE powerpoint presentation that we've been working on for the past month. What a load off!

In other news, Adriane came to visit last weekend so that was great! We didn't do too much touristy stuff because she's been here a few times, but we had great weather and it was wonderful to just relax, go out for dinner and see some movies. She left on Sunday and with her went the nice weather.

This week was a major drag--loooong and busy, powerpoint work (had to stay 2 HOURS late on Thursday night... boo), rainy blah blah blah. BUT my daddy was out here for a work meeting Wednesday night so we got to have dinner at a great seafood place on King Street called The Warf. I had scallops for the first time in FAR TOO LONG. I will never go that long without having some good seafood. Despite my toying with the idea of becoming a vegetarian for awhile, I don't think i could abandon fish and seafood with everything else. At least not yet. I just love it toooooo much.

Last night, we finally had our volunteer project for LIFT. After a whole 3 months of headaches, we ended up organizing a group of students from the washington center to go and volunteer at a shelter across the street from our building. One thing that has been a frustration for me throughout this whole process is how ingorant some people about what goes on in a city. I have to keep reminding myself that the majority of the students on this program are from smaller schools than me, and in turn, their views of the world are a lot different. But it frustrates me when some of the kids even IN LIFT assume that the people at The Carpenter Shelter (the shelter we worked at) can "barely read" (direct quote) and are sleeping on the floor of some ratty building. In truth, all of the residents of the Carpenter Shelter are required to have a job, and may just be there during a transitional period while they are trying to find permanent housing. I know that not all kids have had the experiences that I have had, and in the end, I must hope that this trip to Washington and their experience with the Carpenter Shelter has changed their view of what homelessness is and motivated them to help out where they can in the future.

As far as my experience volunteering, we did a lot of cleaning of closets and sorting food donations but the high light of my time there was children's hour during which I worked with the 3 and under crowd. :) Kayla, the little girl that I was playing with, was the most precious kid I have ever laid eyes on. She smiled all the time, had beautiful big brown eyes, and was generally just a joy to be around. By the end of the hour, she had gotten pretty pooped and fell asleep in my arms. I almost took her home, but alas I'm sure they would frown upon that. Having that time with those kids last night really put into perspective the importance of working with kids early on and giving them good role models to look upto. So many of the women at TCS are struggling to balance jobs and their children and everything, and so what little we did to help I hope will go a long way. Anyway, there is my uplifting sidebar for the day.

This week, K and G will finally be gracing DC with their presence. It will be absolutely great to see them, and I'm kind of interested in how spending Thanksgiving somewhere other than a grandma's house is going to go. But we'll figure something out, I'm sure and I know it will be a great time. :)

THEN, three more weeks and I'm home..! Just long enough to sleep, bake cookies and repack to begin leg two of my adventure... I just feel so lucky to be able to do this and lucky to have people like you in my life who support me. I can't wait to see all of you and catch up (and I can't wait to see you so so so SOOON, Megkins for our wifey reunion!)

Listening to...The Times They are A Changin- Bob Dylan

Reading...In Cold Blood- Truman Capote

xoxoxoxo.

Love,

Amy