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.