work

I've been working a lot. Well, actually I've only been working about 40 hours a week - but it feels like a lot. Plus if you add my commute (at least 20 minutes one way) then it is more than 40 hours a week, but not much more. I had just forgotten what that was - or perhaps I never knew. I've never worked for 40 hours a week where I was on my feet the whole time. I mean the WHOLE time, there are no seats in the kitchen and it would be weird if there were - but still I feel like I'm working a lot.

It also seems like everything comes at you at once. I am feeling overwhelmed about working and then on top of that one of my coworkers quit so I'm working two extra shifts this week (go overtime!). Plus, I'm looking for an apartment to move into by May. I'm also doing research on buying a scooter, because a car is just too expensive! I tried to go to three different scooter shops today, but apparently Monday is the day all scooter shops are closed. Now, it looks I'm going to need to buy my own computer soon too. A lot of money to be spent, I guess should be happy that I'm working all this overtime so that I can afford to buy all these fun things I want.

I guess this is just a rant about feeling like I don't have any time - of course when I wasn't working full time I felt like I had all the time in the world and I didn't do much with it. I suppose I'm being more productive now that I have to squeeze more into my day. Perhaps it is useful to have parameters like 40+ hours a week of work to make sure that other things get done.

Easter

It doesn't feel like Easter to me. Maybe that's because I haven't been very disciplined about my Lenten discipline. Maybe that's because I didn't go to Church on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday or Good Friday. Maybe that's because I'm going to work this afternoon (with break for the Easter vigil). Maybe it's because I'm planning on spending my Easter Sunday working.

I don't feel like I'm ready to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps we're never ready, but God is always ready. As we say at Church, God is more willing to give than we are to receive. Easter Saturday. Holy Saturday. Today just feels like a normal Saturday. Perhaps after Church this evening Easter will be more real to me. Maybe I'll begin to think that I understand the mystery of Christ.

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.

Spring and my new job...

I had forgotten what working was like. I mean I'd been working in France for about a year only 12 hours a week, then I worked here - but never more than 30 hours a week, and then Geneva, but my work didn't really feel like work, and I didn't work quite 40 hours a week (a full time job in Geneva is 37 hours a week). Now I have a job where I am working 39 hours a week - plus the 1/2 hour drive to get there. So that means I have 9 hour work days, which start at 6 am. (and I'm still working almost 10 hours a week for the WCC doing this awesome project!) Needless to say, I am much more tired than before and I'm feeling the stress of having a job and working and all that stuff. Yet, it is hard to feel bad for very long when it is so beautiful outside!

Spring arrived officially last week and brought with it the last (I hope) cold snap. Now it is amazing here. Austin is such a great place for being outside! Last week I took one of my days off and went hiking with some friends and my dog. We went to a State Park and walked for about 4 hours. We only ran into one other person on the trail. It was beautiful! Today is just as beautiful as a day. It is days like today that make me grateful to be alive and happy that nature is so pretty. Flowers are so bright. I don't think I've ever seen anything as blue as the bluebonnets on the trail this morning or as yellow as the flowers that were blooming in the grass. It is amazingly verdant here.

Life is good.

After all the craziness

I had two friends in town visiting for SXSW. It was an intense festival. We did not have any sort of tickets, but just decided to see as much free music as possible and get as many free drinks/food as possible. In addition to the free boat ride, we went to many other events! On Thursday we saw Cocoon, this really amazing French Band. We saw them at the "France Rocks Austin" party. This party started at 12 noon and included free cheese and crackers, champagne, and beer. Oh and free burritos. The three bands we saw were pretty good. Then on Friday we went to a house party where we saw Seryn. They were so great! We bought their album (it's a demo, but I'm still super excited about it!) They also had free beer and free vodka at this party.

I didn't do much else for the festival, because I was working on both Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday, my friend and I decided to go to the Alamo. The Alamo itself is pretty cool - although not as amazing as you think it would be. However, the worst part of the trip was our lunch. We went to the River Walk in San Antonio. This is basically a tourist trap for people in downtown San Antonio. After attempting to find an open restaurant that was not on the River Walk we settled for a decent looking place called Rio Rio. Mistake! The hostess was incompetent and so we ended up sitting outside in the shade, and it was just a few degrees too cold for this. Then our waiter was okay, but did not seem very interested in being our waiter. Finally, my food was not that great and my friends' food might be been spoiled! He said the consistency of the chile (in the chile rellenos) was like that of rotten spinach. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

My life is now back to normal. Only working and volunteering and hanging out with friends. I am so happy that my friends from college came to see me, though. It made me remember how much I really love them! I hope we don't wait another three years before we see each other.

It started as a rainy day....

Monday night the rain started. Tuesday it continued to poor. I was keeping my hopes alive that the rain would stop before 5:30 that afternoon. There is nothing as refreshing as listening to the rain fall (drop drop drop, pitter patter) on the deck of my coffee shop. I love working on rainy mornings, when you can only tell that the sun is risen because the clouds are slightly less gray than they were ten minutes ago and you can begin to make out the sign of the restaurant across the street.

It continued to rain and became a fine mist as we became tacky tourists and walked the Capitol grounds to see and hear about the history of the great state of Texas! Did you know that Texas had a female governor in the early 1920's? Inspiring stuff. Did you know that the Texas legislature was part time. They only meet for six months every two years. That's it. The clouds were beginning to be slightly gray blue, but were still doling out the oppressive raininess. We had to hope it would stop in an hour or so, just before 5:30.

The rain continued to come down and we walked towards the docks, not sure where we were going exactly. We stopped at a coffee shop for a little pick-me-up hoping that the rain would stop and that we could find the boat. As we left the shop and headed out into the cloudy, but not raining, evening we overhead two young hipsters (one of whom I later found out was named Cotton) discussing where the boat might be. We followed them.

As we reached a fork in the road we saw a boat and a small crowd. This must be it! As we reached the head of the line the young man gave us two $1 dollar bills with numbers 172, and 173 written on them. We were among the first 200 people to show up. We were about to be part of the epic Daily Juice SXSW Boat Party.

Epic it was. The boat launched onto Lake Austin at 5:30 pm. There were bands, free mixed drinks (mojitos, ginger martinis, and jalapeno margaritas) and free beer and free food. Along with the ubiquitous live music of SXSW. It was an amazing evening on the boat. The rain had indeed finished, just in time for our evening ride on Lake Austin.

health reform in the US

This is a video the Rachel Maddow Show, which I love.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I wanted to share this with you because I think it is so important that we really see the anti-reform movement as what it is, a profit-driven anti-american people movement. The people behind this are for Insurance companies and not for the American people. Companies are only driven by profit, if more profit is good business than they do not want regulations that require them to actually pay for medical care. This is so obvious to me, yet perhaps it is not obvious. Medical care should not be a for profit industry!

I say this as someone who does not have health care coverage. I do not have it because I cannot afford it right now and my job does not provide coverage. I would like to have coverage, but I do not. This means that I am not going to the doctor to get regular check ups, I am not going to the dentist, when I'm sick I'm not going to go to the doctor unless I'm on my death bed. I am constantly afraid that I might fall and break my leg, causing untold debt that I cannot afford. I am thinking about going back to school and if that happens, I couldn't afford it. (I probably can't afford it as it is, but education is for another day.)

Health care reform seems like a no brainer to me. Not only do we need reform, I believe that we need a public option in this reform. I do not want the Federal Government to require me to buy something from a for-profit company. If this reform passes, I don't think I'll buy insurance. I would opt into Medicare, if I could. However, that does not seem like it will be likely.

In another segment of this show, during an interview with Michael Moore, he says the Democrats need to do what they were sent to Washington to do and I could not agree more. They need to buck up and start legislating. Come on Democrats!

update on the job thing

I always do the "right" thing. I am going to quit my job in just a few minutes today. Last week I was offered two jobs. In my bright wisdom I decided to try and to do both. This is not working, even though I have not yet even started one of them. I start there on Friday.

I'm definitely nervous - but I think I need to do this for my own sanity. I need to be able to walk away from something, simply because I want to. I have to look at myself and say that my mental health and happiness is more important than the obligations that I have to this place where I am quitting. I know that this will let some people down - but sometimes you need to do this. I know this sounds weird, but I need to do it.

It is also purely selfish. I have two friends coming into town this week (one arriving tomorrow and one arriving a week from today) and I was scheduled to work when they were arriving. I know that is not a good reason to quit a job, but it is one of the factors that put my over the fence.

I also decided to quit sooner rather than later to save them the time and money of training me. I got my schedule and all of my shifts are still "training" shifts, this means that they won't really miss me because I am not being depended on to cover any responsibilities. I think it is better for me, and for them to quit now before I am a "real" part of the team.

Perhaps I am being silly, but I think it will be good for me, mentally and physically.

The conversation was less than one minute. I did it.