Since so many of my friends have done this thing over the past months, I decided I would do it too.
I'm pretty sure that I look nothing like any of these people. Whatever. Back to boxing up books.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Procrastination at its' finest
I'm moving, which means I'm packing, which really means I'm checking my email every 3 minutes, reading my friends blogs, downloading music of itunes and basically finding every way possible to not do what I need to be doing.
Since so many of my friends have done this thing over the past months, I decided I would do it too.
I'm pretty sure that I look nothing like any of these people. Whatever. Back to boxing up books.
Since so many of my friends have done this thing over the past months, I decided I would do it too.
I'm pretty sure that I look nothing like any of these people. Whatever. Back to boxing up books.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Because It's Been Awhile...
So I'm going to work on blogging more often. It's kind of like going to the gym, taking my lunch to work, and getting out holiday cards BEFORE New Years. It's a growth process, and I'm working on it. This will be a life update, consider yourself warned.
Things that have happened in my life in the past few weeks:
1. Election Day in Santa Barbara
2. Student of Color Conference
3. Regents Meeting at UCLA
4. Me Realizing I don't ever want to be a teacher.
1. I took vacation days to head down to the place I still feel is home to help my former boss & friends get reelected to the city council. This was the most fun thing I'd done in several weeks, and basically solidified that I want to move back when my pseudo-contract ends in July-August-ish. It also solidified that I pretty much like campaigns more than anything else about the political process, which might make me a hack, but I'm ok with that. This decision was made after several glasses of wine out of a styrofoam cup, but it seems to feel right whenever I think about it now, so I'm going with it.
2. SOCC was amazing, and so were the 700+ students that attended it. Aside from some crazy Santa Cruz tree-sitter white people protesting the LRDP (which plans to build 5 new residential colleges on the SC campus in the next several years, crazy) everything went pretty smoothly. If I ever see a case of Costco water again in my life, I will scream. Same goes for a chocolate muffin. The rest of the UCSA staff sympathizes, I'm sure.
3. UCLA is my 2nd favorite campus in the UC system (architecturally and geographically speaking.) My favorite campuses in terms of students, however, are kept private. I will admit that UCSB wins my heart in both catergories, as it should. Anyways, to get to the point, I had never been to a Regents meeting at UCLA before and thoroughly enjoyed it. They postponed raising fees until the January meeting, putting the ball safely in the Governor's court and making it my responsibility, which I'm ok with. The entire experience would have been more pleasant if a) the Regents would run on schedule and b) I wouldn't have been deathly sick. See above two segments for descriptions of my previous weekends and why I was susceptible to my boss' cold.
4. Today, I woke up at 5:30 am to head back to middle school with my lifelong friend Neil, who is a first year teacher at El Sereno Middle School in Los Angeles. Talking to energetic 11 year olds about the state budget process and what it means to be a lobbyist was fun, but I certainly couldn't get through the day, everyday, in the company of only sixth graders. Bravo to teachers, all of them should get paid more.
I'm about to sit in LA traffic for 2.5 hours to go approximately 67 miles. Yet, when I say I can't wait to move back to Southern California, I couldn't be more serious.
Things that have happened in my life in the past few weeks:
1. Election Day in Santa Barbara
2. Student of Color Conference
3. Regents Meeting at UCLA
4. Me Realizing I don't ever want to be a teacher.
1. I took vacation days to head down to the place I still feel is home to help my former boss & friends get reelected to the city council. This was the most fun thing I'd done in several weeks, and basically solidified that I want to move back when my pseudo-contract ends in July-August-ish. It also solidified that I pretty much like campaigns more than anything else about the political process, which might make me a hack, but I'm ok with that. This decision was made after several glasses of wine out of a styrofoam cup, but it seems to feel right whenever I think about it now, so I'm going with it.
2. SOCC was amazing, and so were the 700+ students that attended it. Aside from some crazy Santa Cruz tree-sitter white people protesting the LRDP (which plans to build 5 new residential colleges on the SC campus in the next several years, crazy) everything went pretty smoothly. If I ever see a case of Costco water again in my life, I will scream. Same goes for a chocolate muffin. The rest of the UCSA staff sympathizes, I'm sure.
3. UCLA is my 2nd favorite campus in the UC system (architecturally and geographically speaking.) My favorite campuses in terms of students, however, are kept private. I will admit that UCSB wins my heart in both catergories, as it should. Anyways, to get to the point, I had never been to a Regents meeting at UCLA before and thoroughly enjoyed it. They postponed raising fees until the January meeting, putting the ball safely in the Governor's court and making it my responsibility, which I'm ok with. The entire experience would have been more pleasant if a) the Regents would run on schedule and b) I wouldn't have been deathly sick. See above two segments for descriptions of my previous weekends and why I was susceptible to my boss' cold.
4. Today, I woke up at 5:30 am to head back to middle school with my lifelong friend Neil, who is a first year teacher at El Sereno Middle School in Los Angeles. Talking to energetic 11 year olds about the state budget process and what it means to be a lobbyist was fun, but I certainly couldn't get through the day, everyday, in the company of only sixth graders. Bravo to teachers, all of them should get paid more.
I'm about to sit in LA traffic for 2.5 hours to go approximately 67 miles. Yet, when I say I can't wait to move back to Southern California, I couldn't be more serious.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
In the words of President Bush "It's hard work."
I promised Hillary a blog weeks ago, so here it is.
This might be a bit effed up, considering that President Bush was referencing the Iraq war, and I'm referring to getting the CA Legislature to spend money on decidedly unsexy higher education, but my job is hard. I've just returned from 8 days "in the field," (I'm not a field organizer, mind you.) and my brain is completely fried, so that's why the previous was a run-on sentence. Watch for more.
Anyways, I've long contemplated writing about work. I'd include code names for the students I work with and mix up the campuses so it's less obvious. I'm no con-woman, however, and this type of ploy has backfired on too many before me. In the past 8 days I've been at San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Berkeley. I love my job in Sacramento, but it doesn't allow me to be on campus much, so I was grateful for the opportunity to get out of the office. Santa Barbara is my favorite campus, if only because I went there, was involved in the community and most importantly still feel like its home. The rest are equal in my eyes, sort of like how mothers feel must about their children. I spent the past week doing the best I could to help prepare the amazing students I work with for a long and arduous fight for the budget and the California Dream Act ahead, and I'm not sure if it will change the outcome of this year's legislative cycle. I knew how hard it was to accomplish anything before I got to Sacramento, but I wasn't prepared for how hard. Nowhere near prepared. When I took this job, I called a friend who responded "It's going to be harder than you think." I said "thanks, asshole." Now I know he was at least sorta right.
Today I was asked by a colleague if I blogged, and I said "sort of." I worked with her on the CA Dream Act, SB 1, and she was starting a post about it. I can't post about the bill, because I'm still mad as hell about the veto. I take my work seriously and attribute a lot of losses to personal failure, so I'm sad. That bill is so insanely important, and I feel is more deeply each time I hear the story of another undocumented student who has to work harder than most people can understand to pay for school a quarter at a time. It's ridiculous that financial aid access wasn't included in AB 540 to begin with, but that's another issue.
I'm tired, and not sure if any of this made any sense. Off to watch Grey's Anatomy-don't judge me.
This might be a bit effed up, considering that President Bush was referencing the Iraq war, and I'm referring to getting the CA Legislature to spend money on decidedly unsexy higher education, but my job is hard. I've just returned from 8 days "in the field," (I'm not a field organizer, mind you.) and my brain is completely fried, so that's why the previous was a run-on sentence. Watch for more.
Anyways, I've long contemplated writing about work. I'd include code names for the students I work with and mix up the campuses so it's less obvious. I'm no con-woman, however, and this type of ploy has backfired on too many before me. In the past 8 days I've been at San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Berkeley. I love my job in Sacramento, but it doesn't allow me to be on campus much, so I was grateful for the opportunity to get out of the office. Santa Barbara is my favorite campus, if only because I went there, was involved in the community and most importantly still feel like its home. The rest are equal in my eyes, sort of like how mothers feel must about their children. I spent the past week doing the best I could to help prepare the amazing students I work with for a long and arduous fight for the budget and the California Dream Act ahead, and I'm not sure if it will change the outcome of this year's legislative cycle. I knew how hard it was to accomplish anything before I got to Sacramento, but I wasn't prepared for how hard. Nowhere near prepared. When I took this job, I called a friend who responded "It's going to be harder than you think." I said "thanks, asshole." Now I know he was at least sorta right.
Today I was asked by a colleague if I blogged, and I said "sort of." I worked with her on the CA Dream Act, SB 1, and she was starting a post about it. I can't post about the bill, because I'm still mad as hell about the veto. I take my work seriously and attribute a lot of losses to personal failure, so I'm sad. That bill is so insanely important, and I feel is more deeply each time I hear the story of another undocumented student who has to work harder than most people can understand to pay for school a quarter at a time. It's ridiculous that financial aid access wasn't included in AB 540 to begin with, but that's another issue.
I'm tired, and not sure if any of this made any sense. Off to watch Grey's Anatomy-don't judge me.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Stop Hating on SENATOR CLINTON...NOW.
I am sick of hearing people trash talk SENATOR Hillary Clinton. And by people, I mean Democrats. The numerous slurs that Republicans, conservatives, chauvinists, sexists and others obviously afraid of her are to be expected.
As an (almost) immediate disclaimer, I'm not a supporter of SENATOR Clinton's. Aside from a $10 donation I made a few weeks ago, prompted only by Senator Barack Obama pissing me off, I'm not committed to her campaign in any way. I've been a staunch supporter of Governor Bill Richardson from day one. Knowing the Governor Richardson has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination at this point (though he is by far the most qualified and experienced) I've always known I'd have to pick another candidate eventually- and am almost ready to order a John Edwards bumper sticker. I'll keep holding out that my favorite Southwestern Governor will be a leader on the Veep shortlist- whoever wins the nomination.
Also, to be fair, I don't have any major problems with Barack Obama. I watched his DNC speech in '04, right alongside every other Democrat in America. "We play little league in the blue states and we've got some gay friends in the red states," may have even been one of my facebook quotes for awhile. I was inspired, I was pumped, I was excited. The party lost, Obama won and apparently became the de facto progressive leader of the the United States????
Whoa.
I'm not sure when, I'm not sure how, but I am sure he hasn't been in the Senate long enough to be the leader on much of anything. The man voted for the bankruptcy bill! And if I hear that he was opposed to the Iraq war from the beginning one more time I might just scream. YOU WEREN'T IN CONGRESS!!! You don't get to set yourself apart from the others in the field when you didn't face the same circumstances.
Senator Clinton impresses me. I know that my most liberal friends reading this blog (oh wait, no one reads my blog.) will be calling me a sellout and a mod before I can "John Edwards for President," but she does.
Now, I'm sure people are commenting on the "I'm Your Girl!" statement, and have a wide variety of opinions. I, for one, think she's fucking fierce, and is clearly sick of every other candidate in the field talking about her, in part because they don't have enough substantive policy to talk about for themselves. Senator Edwards excluded, of course.
As an (almost) immediate disclaimer, I'm not a supporter of SENATOR Clinton's. Aside from a $10 donation I made a few weeks ago, prompted only by Senator Barack Obama pissing me off, I'm not committed to her campaign in any way. I've been a staunch supporter of Governor Bill Richardson from day one. Knowing the Governor Richardson has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination at this point (though he is by far the most qualified and experienced) I've always known I'd have to pick another candidate eventually- and am almost ready to order a John Edwards bumper sticker. I'll keep holding out that my favorite Southwestern Governor will be a leader on the Veep shortlist- whoever wins the nomination.
Also, to be fair, I don't have any major problems with Barack Obama. I watched his DNC speech in '04, right alongside every other Democrat in America. "We play little league in the blue states and we've got some gay friends in the red states," may have even been one of my facebook quotes for awhile. I was inspired, I was pumped, I was excited. The party lost, Obama won and apparently became the de facto progressive leader of the the United States????
Whoa.
I'm not sure when, I'm not sure how, but I am sure he hasn't been in the Senate long enough to be the leader on much of anything. The man voted for the bankruptcy bill! And if I hear that he was opposed to the Iraq war from the beginning one more time I might just scream. YOU WEREN'T IN CONGRESS!!! You don't get to set yourself apart from the others in the field when you didn't face the same circumstances.
Senator Clinton impresses me. I know that my most liberal friends reading this blog (oh wait, no one reads my blog.) will be calling me a sellout and a mod before I can "John Edwards for President," but she does.
Now, I'm sure people are commenting on the "I'm Your Girl!" statement, and have a wide variety of opinions. I, for one, think she's fucking fierce, and is clearly sick of every other candidate in the field talking about her, in part because they don't have enough substantive policy to talk about for themselves. Senator Edwards excluded, of course.
From Here to There...and Back Again.
For those of you who have noticed the existence of my (short, but adequate) list of things I don't like on the side of this page, you would have noticed that the Interstate 5 is on the list. Now, in short freeways are important and the 5 in particular provides a key route from Seattle to San Diego and Beyond. However, I've spent entirely too much time on it recently.
I *think* I've spent approximately 3 weekends at home in Sacramento since a work retreat the weekend of June 23rd. To be fair, I've spent a fair amount of time in much cooler and more pleasant places, including a fair amount of time in Santa Barbara, a place I generally prefer over anywhere else. This weekends trip was made down the 101 as I was coming from a meeting in the city (ie San Francisco for those outside of NorCal) which meant I exchanged Santa Nella and Los Banos for Salinas and Gilroy on the trip down.
For the record, of any of you think that this post will have a point soon it won't, so stop reading. I mean it. Stop it right now. I will, however, comment on my increasing hatred of traffic outside of rush hour. I AM FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. I am not bothered by traffic and have come to accept it as part of life in the civilized world- plus I love driving my car. In SoCal I generally hate the toll roads and would probably feel disdain for most of the people who drive on them. Oh, and Fastrak---don't EVEN get me started on Fastrak.
If, however, one is to make the trip from Northern to Southern California or vice versa on one of our lovely highways- please learn to drive without causing a traffic jam in Morgan Hill at 3pm. According to MapQuest.com (how did people get around before this creation?), it should have taken me 5 hours and 15 minutes to get from Daly City to Santa Barbara on Friday. Hmmm...try about 6 and a half. Granted I can't get away from gridlock in San Jose on a Friday afternoon, even at 2 o'clock, but I will not tolerate people who are so intent on keeping me from my destination that they must slow down to watch a minor fender bender as though it were legitimately something interesting. We've all seen a car accident before people-nothing new here, move along.
When I first moved to Santa Barbara from the Inland Empire for college, I thought the 3+ hour trip was too long of a drive for just a weekend. Now, I regularly make the 6+ hour drive from Sacramento- occasionally just to drink tequila and catch up on gossip. I flip through the radio static and daydream about the trip that I'll someday make in less than 6 hours.
As I don't anticipate Southwest Airlines offering a $49 flight from Sacramento to Santa Barbara anytime soon- I'll keep driving, and hopefully buy a hybrid car before all my friends move away from the central coast.
On another note- someday I'll be able to make it to the Inland Empire without worrying about Group A, B or C. (State map) Oh wait, the ballot initiative process is a mess.
I *think* I've spent approximately 3 weekends at home in Sacramento since a work retreat the weekend of June 23rd. To be fair, I've spent a fair amount of time in much cooler and more pleasant places, including a fair amount of time in Santa Barbara, a place I generally prefer over anywhere else. This weekends trip was made down the 101 as I was coming from a meeting in the city (ie San Francisco for those outside of NorCal) which meant I exchanged Santa Nella and Los Banos for Salinas and Gilroy on the trip down.
For the record, of any of you think that this post will have a point soon it won't, so stop reading. I mean it. Stop it right now. I will, however, comment on my increasing hatred of traffic outside of rush hour. I AM FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. I am not bothered by traffic and have come to accept it as part of life in the civilized world- plus I love driving my car. In SoCal I generally hate the toll roads and would probably feel disdain for most of the people who drive on them. Oh, and Fastrak---don't EVEN get me started on Fastrak.
If, however, one is to make the trip from Northern to Southern California or vice versa on one of our lovely highways- please learn to drive without causing a traffic jam in Morgan Hill at 3pm. According to MapQuest.com (how did people get around before this creation?), it should have taken me 5 hours and 15 minutes to get from Daly City to Santa Barbara on Friday. Hmmm...try about 6 and a half. Granted I can't get away from gridlock in San Jose on a Friday afternoon, even at 2 o'clock, but I will not tolerate people who are so intent on keeping me from my destination that they must slow down to watch a minor fender bender as though it were legitimately something interesting. We've all seen a car accident before people-nothing new here, move along.
When I first moved to Santa Barbara from the Inland Empire for college, I thought the 3+ hour trip was too long of a drive for just a weekend. Now, I regularly make the 6+ hour drive from Sacramento- occasionally just to drink tequila and catch up on gossip. I flip through the radio static and daydream about the trip that I'll someday make in less than 6 hours.
As I don't anticipate Southwest Airlines offering a $49 flight from Sacramento to Santa Barbara anytime soon- I'll keep driving, and hopefully buy a hybrid car before all my friends move away from the central coast.
On another note- someday I'll be able to make it to the Inland Empire without worrying about Group A, B or C. (State map) Oh wait, the ballot initiative process is a mess.
Friday, July 20, 2007
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