California Here I Come!

Thats right! 

Monday I am flying to California, and I wont leave until the 14th woo!!

My last day of work was today, and I am working my last helpline shift tonight for 2 weeks! I am stoked! I miss cali, I miss Blake, and I miss friends and family...so lets get together and exchange hugs, stories, and drinks!

WOo

DONE!

well the first year of grad school is officially over. ahhh....so nice, and wonderful to sleep in, watch movies, and read whatever I want. Did I mention sleep? I havent had any coffee in about a week cause once again, I've been sleeping! ah, so nice...

I started my new job on Monday, I am the new graduate assistant in the Dean of studies office, which i think will be awesome! Clerical work, letter writing, answering phones, blah, blah, you get the idea. But the cool part is that I am working with a lot of the faculty, and I will learn a little bit the ins and outs of Sarah Lawrence, and working directly with some students. Those are the things that I think are pretty cool with this job.  I also, had my first volunteer experience with Planned Parenthood working with their Smart Wheels....now that was fun! I was talking to people at this fair, I was talking with adolescents and little kids, I was playing games, and hanging out offering people free condoms.  I had such a great time talking with people on a whole range of topics, it really felt good, and made me happy to be there.  

Now I am counting down the days till I see Blake again, sigh...I miss him tons! And now that school is over I want to see him more than ever.  Our two year anniversary passed, was April 27th, which was a little sad that I wasnt able to be there with him on that day, but now I get to spend two whole weeks with him!

I am also hoping that I can see some of the other people that I love, Dina is graduating from college! woo!!! I am so proud of her, and so extactic for her! Married, college degree, awww.....and she deserves it all, she has worked so hard! 

I want to meet Lauren and Steve's new kitty, and find out what name she took! I miss Lauren so much! and cant wait for her to come out here!

I am going to spend about 3 days with my family! and hopefully Shannon, Andrew, Blake and I will be able to celebrate Andrews birthday. I get to see my brother who is on honor role, straight A's back in college! He is doing so well, he even called me last week for research tips! I almost cried! How cool is that to discuss research stuff with your siblings, okay, maybe I am a bit dorky...I dunno...

And then I get to see Grandma, Pat, Ted, and hopefully Brian, since I think he is leaving on my first day out there....

I am so happy, and so excited that I have made it this far, and its only 1 more year till I have my degree and move back to california, cause I miss it so.... 

My Day In Brooklyn

What a wonderful thing spring is and warm weather...

Saturday April 18th I spent all day long in 

Brooklyn with my friends 

Anne Louise and Megan.... 

And it was fabulous!

  

My friends sister lives in Brooklyn, whom was out of town for the weekend, so we decided to spend all day there, and sleep in her apartment over night.  The first thing we did after riding the train into Manhattan, then taking the subway all the way down to Brooklyn was head on down to the Brooklyn Botanial Gardens- which is where I want to go when Lauren comes and visits me, FYI... There are so many colors in the springtime, I was blown away, all I could really do was take pictures, take in the smells, enjoy the sun on my face and look at all the beautiful trees bursting with color. 

What a lovely day...I cannot wait until I go back, there 

were many trees and flowers still not yet in bloom. 

     

          

Afterwards we went to this cafe across the street basically from the gardens and had the best, and cheapest food that I have had in New York.  I had a glass of wine, a pest, tomato, mozzarella cheese, basil, sandwich - amazing!

Then after saying goodbye to Megan, since she had to work that night, Anne Louise and I gathered up homework, a blanket and headed to the park.  Since this was one of the first days that the sun was shining and it was warm outside, everyone was at the park.  We found a nice spot, where the boys were playing volleyball and Frisbee (eye candy of course!) we settled into our blanket, read a little, napped a little, and talked a little....nice and peaceful! 

  

after about 2 hours laying around, we were really aching for some wine.  So once again we gathered up our belongings, made way to the apt, to get some warmer clothes, got some wine, some cups and headed back to the park to watch the sun go down, drink some wine, and relax some more in the park.  

It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday and a perfect break from school work....

So once the sun went down, and the coldness crept upon us, we gathered our belongings and this time headed to the bar.  After one bottle of wine we were ready for some more.  We sat at the bar talking and after one drink wanted to sit outside still. We moved our bodies to the back porch area where we sat at a table venting about school, friends, work, and life.  On our second to last, or final drink Anne Louise was sifting through her back looking for something and accidentally knocked out our other bottle, and it came crashing on the floor! After we both shrugged it off with a laugh, and I felt relieved, as I now know that I am not the only klutz in the midst. We finished our drinks paid the bill, and headed back to her sisters apt. 

Once there, I settled in on the couch, and reminisced with Blake until I fell asleep, while Anne Louise disappeared into her sisters room.  A perfect end to a perfect end. 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Okay, so I know that I am a little behind in my posts, but I have two weeks left of classes and I am entering into one of my busiest weeks where all the major papers are due.  But, I am bored reading my last book for my Visions class so I thought I would take a moment to catch up on my blog.  There will be 2 others to follow which are formed in my head, and pictures downloaded onto my computer, now I just need the time to type it into blog-formation for all of you out there in California, whom I am missing more than ever at this moment. :D

So, April is sexual assault awareness month, and for those of you that I sent that AWESOME email about how Obama made it official, you know, and for those that don't: it is, and it was a busy month for those involved with sexual assault 

awareness and education.  On my campus I am involved in the sexual assault awareness board which is apart of the student life commitee, and during the month of april we did tons of stuff!  

Our first project was to orchestrate a SLC Service Day in which I created the flyers to post around campus.  During the Vagina Monologues back in Feburary we managed to raise over $500 dollars to make "comfort kits" for Victim

 Assistance Services (VAS) the organization I currently volunteer for as a Helpline respondant.  Comfort Kits are provided to victim/survivors once they have been taken to the hospital for a foresnic rape exam by a special nuse.  Their clothes are usually taken for evidence, and thus these victim/survivors would generally have to leave the hospital in a hospital gown, talk a

bout re-victimizing! So, comfort kits provide clothing, underwear, brushes, tooth 

paste, tooth brushes, mouth wash, soap, and lotion (if we have the funds that is).  VAS usually has about 150 victims a year, and about 50 kits, so we raised the money to donate about 140 all together kits to them.  Our service day was an opportunity for SLC student to go to VAS, assemble the kits, then learn about their organization and sexual and domestic abuse.  If was a fun day: we were able to assemble the kits in 15 minutes, then had a yummy lunch, which included an introduction to VAS, rape, sexual harassment, and domestic abuse.  All in all it was a nice way to spend a saturday morning and afternoon. 

Next was Take Back The Night and the clothesline project.  Take Back The Night is about not being afraid for women to go out at night, and it is a way to bring awareness about the rates of violence on women.  Breaking the silence, joining together in a safe space to talk about experienes and bring awareness to perpetrators that we will not be afraid to go outside at night.  The whole event began early in the afternoon with the Clothesline Project and a tabeling event.  The Clothesline Project is when victims of abuse create art on t-shirts; either by displaying their own stories or, words of advice, anger, injustice, hope, or confusion in their experiences with violence and abuse 

It began as a way for women to "air their dirty laundry" and break the silence that blankets domestic and sexual abuse.   We hung the shirts around the main dorm areas of the campus.  Our table was equip with information about Take Back The Night, information on sexual assualt and domestic abuse. We also had information from Planned Parenthood, condoms, lube, stickers, and information about safe sex.  It was fabulous.  The interesting aspect of it was the students response.  

We didnt have much attention from the students, and most thought that the shirts were there to be purchased, which was the first time I have come across that notion.  The students that did come up and ask question were able to form part of the dialogue that comes with breaking the silence about these abuses, and we passed out some fact sheets, so that alone makes it worth it.  The Take Back The Night portion began at 8pm when we tried to create a fire in the bbq pit on campus. Firemarshall "bob" as he is lovingly called came and attempted to start the fire, to which he replied,

"well, girls, I am real good at putting out fires, but not so good at starting them..."  hmmm.....So we all worked together to light that sucker up, to no avail.

With our candles intact, and the wind threatening to end that nights festivities, we prevailed.  There were only 8-10 of us, but we walked in silence all around the main grass area, and had a candlelight vigil and open "mic" ending to the experience.  All in all, it was very nice, and students came to share their stories, or experiences, or the silence that were not on the commitee so that made the night worth it.  One girl even created a shirt, which was beautiful! 

And now I am in May, the festivities are over, and I must get back to my homework.... But I am coming home June 1-14th, so I hope I will be able to see many friendly faces when I am back in California.