INSANELY BUSY. INSANELY STRESSED.

Earth Day

So the great city of LA closed off about 10 blocks of Wilshire Avenue, a main artery into downtown, for an Earth Day celebration. The point, of course, was to encourage people to avoid driving. However, from what I observed, all it did was bog down the 10 freeway as people who usually take surface streets ended up having to take the freeway as an alternate to get to work. Now, the irony is that heavy traffic on the freeway means lots of idling cars which = more greenhouse gas emissions. Hmmm, that was thought through well.

If my head wasn't screwed on....

1. This morning walked out of my house to go to school with NO PAPER.
2. I'm on two campuses on Tuesdays. I left my lunch at the first campus in the fridge, and didn't remember until I was already all the way to the second campus.
3. I left my water bottle in the car, so I had to buy water at the convenience store with my snack since I forgot my lunch.
4. I went grocery shopping after school. When I got home, I turned off the car, grabbed my backpack, and went inside. 45 minutes later I remembered I had groceries in the trunk. Good thing the weathers cooled off.
5. I'm sure I forgot something else, but now I can't remember what it is...

so, most of you california friends saw me and my lovely new 'do yesterday, but for those of you who have asked and who live further away, here is the new haircut:











not really that different, just a few inches off, some new layers, and some highlights. i'm just happy that i was able to refrain from chopping it all off. good thing the heatwave (it was 95 today!!) struck AFTER the cut was done.

More Social Work

This weekend was consumed by social work.

First, my trip to Skid Row was informative. We visited a bunch of service providers. Its always somewhat depressing to see the poverty there and realize that places like Rodeo Drive exist less than 20 miles away.
An interesting factoid is that Skid Row has actually been around since around the 1870's. It was literally the end of the railroad line, so people coming to work in California would often end up in the tenements there. The pic on the right is of The Midnight Mission, a big homeless services center. Our 'tour-guides' for the day were from there.
Hillary commented in my last post that I should remember to "stop, drop, and roll." Fortunately no fires or gunshots (another time with dropping and rolling is useful, at least according to action movies). We did think that my friend Mandy's car had been stolen from the parking garage. For some weird reason the structure we were in had two floors labeled Level 2. So, when we went to Level 2 on the car wasn't there, understandably there was panic.

Second, I spend the better part of my weekend Thursday evening, ALL DAY Friday (10 hours) and All Day Saturday (8 hours) at the National Association of Social Work Conference. There are several extra classes I need, in addition to my degree, to become licensed in the state of California.
Friday was a fun 10 hours on Human Sexuality. Let's just say I'm very happy to be monogamous... After hearing about all the STD's out there I wanted to wrap myself in cellophane and live in a bubble room. We also had a fun talk about fetishes. Plushies, anyone?

Saturday was a class on Sexual Abuse. Really happy Saturday topic. Actually, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. At least there were no pictures. We watched an interesting video called "The Orphan Trains" interviewing now older people who had been taken from the slums of NY and sent to live with families in the country.

Now I am brain-dead and DONE with anything to do with my profession in the weekend. I am eating sushi and chocolate and having a massage.

Something Social Worky

Going to "Skid Row" for class tomorrow... should be interesting. I'll keep ya'll posted :)