UPDATE - 28 February 2013

Hi, all. It’s good to be back from India. I had a great time with the students there. I taught another batch and now I’m home, and they consistently contact me sending me love. I love it!

I then spent a week in Blacksburg visiting my mentee and spending time with one of my dearest, oldest, and most beautiful friends (hey, BF) as she works through her PhD. I stopped in DC on the weekend to surprise Kristine for Valentine’s Day. We were able to do a really cool cruise on the water and I got to see her bruises healing slowly. Unfortunately another tooth cap came loose so that had to be redone but she seems to be in good spirits, in general. Or at least seeing me helped. J

I’m now back and about to head out for another fun-filled two weeks. Then hopefully I’ll be grounded for awhile as I start up some music classes, try to join the North American Actor’s Guild here, and run a Sparks session. Wish me luck because I’m having trouble with all three of those, but I believe it will work out as I continue trying.

I’ve just finished my stint at the homeless shelter I was working at, so I’ll miss a lot of my people there. The funny thing is people ask me for jobs all the time when they find out where you work. It’s just part of working here. Students ask me, people I meet in pubs ask me. Even the woman I see each week at the dry cleaners. I thought she was joking with me and flashing that smile at me because she was interested in me. Turns out she just wanted to work with my company. I should have known after she commented on how tall I was! I didn’t think it would be the exact same thing at the shelter. So at the shelter, I was helping one girl with internships and studies. I was helping another man who was trying to shop a new product idea to my company. He asked me to check with them. I did but of course, they weren’t interested. It was the first time I got job requests even at the shelter. I’m still working on helping one guy out and need to talk to the shelter administration.

Otherwise, things are good. I’m going to go rest now, but hopefully you enjoy the rest of this update. If not, just close the tab on the browser, delete the email, or navigate to another page away from this blog. I’m never offended. Have a great week and weekend.

DC SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Some of you know I was reluctant to leave DC. This was due to the fact that I was helping to launch 3 initiatives with my partner Andy. I wanted to describe a bit of the three initiatives because I am now looking for someone to hire to carry them on.

First, within faith communities I became tired of the false dichotomy between secular and sacred. One manifestation of that is that many churches will spot out someone they think has “talent” or “spiritual” talent and ask them to help serve in a ministry. If they think the person is doing well, they ask them to help lead a ministry or program. If they think they are really impacting, they then invite them on staff because implicitly they are saying that’s where the impact is. But there is no understanding or recognition of the fact that if someone is good or doing good work, maybe they should continue working outside the church. This is exemplified in the fact that churches often expend financial resources and human resources (releasing part of their congregation) to go and plant another church elsewhere, a church that will be led by someone that is identified as a rising star or an impactful person within the parent church. At Redeemer Church in New York City, a group of church goers complained to Pastor Tim Keller and said it’s not fair how church members get all that money and are supported financial for a year or so to do a church plant, but if a church member wants to open a restaurant that employs ex-cons or start an orphanage or establish an urban garden they receive no funds. I don’t credit Pastor Keller and his staff for coming up with the idea, but I do credit them with being amenable to the suggestion and creating the Faith and Work Center. Part of the Faith and Work Center is an Entrepreneurship Initiative that holds a competition to award a grant to one for-profit, one non-profit, and one arts venture being started by a church member.


Andy and I wanted to do something similar in our church community. Imagine it. We had a sermon series called “All In” about being totally committed to the cause. Can you believe that other that 2 examples, every other example used throughout the sermon series was an example of a church clergy member or a missionary? And the two non-clergy examples were extremely wealthy people. The implicit message is that if you are going to be all-in, you need to work for the church or be rich. What we need are churches that have an understanding of the Divine everywhere in the every-day alongside every person. We need churches that see the sacred in extra-church work not just church work or parachurch work. We need to break the sacred-secular divide.

So we started two things. We started a quarterly event in which we came together to discuss such issues. Our first was in September 2011. We had a church member discuss this very issue as it is the topic of a book she is writing. She talked about the examples in the “All-In” series, and she spoke about growing up in church and only being taught how to be a good Christian wife or a good Christian mother. She was neither of those and often questioned “Does my faith have no relevance to my situation as a single businesswoman in the work place or to my job?” It was a good event. And we broke u pinto small groups based on different sectors—military government, non-military government, arts, non-profit, for-profit, other. We plan to do one every quarter, break into small groups, and those groups continue throughout the quarter inviting people to meet to talk about the work they do in the world and the relevance their faith has on such work. (I was not worried about this continuing without me. I knew, if I took the London job, it would be fine and continue.)

Second, we realised there was a need for seed funding for social entrepreneurs in our community. This need felt especially poignant when we considered all the people who took part in our second SPARKS series (hope you followed that series in the updates). We had 100 people in our group, and 30 regulars at the meeting; all were asking “What Next?” They felt empowered to challenge themselves weekly to take new positive timely risks, but what seemed most natural was to come together to do a communal risk for the community and city. So Andy and I began plans to create a community of people who came together and pooled their resources to solve problems local and endemic to D.C.

A good example of this is Plywood People. Plywood People is run by a friend named Jeff, an Atlanta social entrepreneur. Jeff doesn’t convene people in the same way we want to do; he convenes people who are already social entrepreneurs or who are working on ideas to talk and share and network and meet. But let me give you an example of the power of this and what Jeff has done. Jeff and his group were trying to figure out what to do about the refugee situation in the States and in their community. It was hard for refugees to find a viable livelihood and provide for their families. During that time, he was driving and noticed the billboards along the roads. He wondered what they did with billboard paper when the ad was over. He called and asked. They said they threw it away. He asked if he could have it to reuse. They told him yes. Since most billboards are owned by a few companies it wasn’t hard to get the billboard paper from other billboards. Jeff started an organization, subsequently, that employees refugee women to make bags from recycled paper. When Andy and I visited Jeff and his organization in August 2011, they had 10 women working for Billboard Bags and 2 women had already transitioned from Billboard bags to other jobs. Plywood people intends to be an incubating group that continues to launch further initiatives like Gift Card Giver.


So Andy and I set out to do the same thing, but the end of my fellowship and a London offer seemed to be complicating things. So I have been looking for someone to work for me and with Andy in DC to carry on the work. Because this was in the initial stages when I left, it has stalled somewhat, and I would love for someone to continue the work.

Third, and most importantly, Andy and I decided to start our own social enterprise/entrepreneurship incubator. We wanted to start something in between Redeemer Church’s Faith and Work Center’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (that hold an annual competition to give a small grant to one arts, one non-profit, and one for-profit venture from among church members) and the Awesome Project (that gets 10 investors to give $100/month for 1 year in order to offer monthly $1,000 cash prizes to the best idea that month to use the money). Instead of monthly prizes or yearly prizes we would do quarterly prizes. We would also have investors, some who give $100/month for 1 year, some who give more like $200/month. And we asked our church to be a much larger investor in the program (on the order of thousands per month). With this money we plan to offer prize ever quarter and to work on business plans with the finalist and provide mentoring.

The incubator had a second part. We also plan to open up a for-profit business, a shared workspace. If you were running start-up and preferred not to work from home or a coffeehouse, you could rent shared workspace from us for any number of hours a day and any number of days a week. You might also come to us if you had a small company (for instance 2 employees) and it was cheaper to rent shared workspace from us than to rent permanent office space. Social entrepreneurs would benefit from networking with other social entrepreneurs who used the space and they could speak with Andy and me for mentoring help. We would also offer workshops both to renters and outside people on topics such as “starting a business,” “creating a business plan,” “forming a board,” “creating a social pitch,” “finding seed funding,” etc.

This was in the initial stages though Andy and I had found a potential location. The initial location didn’t work (physically it was not the right size), so we were on the hunt for a better space, and then I had an offer and left to London. So I’m currently looking for someone to carry on this oh so important work in DC for me.

Additionally, I hired an intern this past summer 2011, one of my former students, to help do preparatory work in restarting the programme that sends high school kids abroad to do international summer service work for 1-2 months. We were restating it as its own stand-alone organisation. Both Houston schools and one D.C. school pulled out of the program and didn’t end up going on the trip for the summer of 2011, so my intern was helping to prep work for schools to go in the summer of 2012. We now have one school signed up to go but they will go in the summer of 2013. Many thanks to Audrey McKim who is doing hard work on the ground in Houston while I’m off doing other projects. If you would like to help or to take over any of the above 3 projects or this international summer service programme, please let me know. Thanks!

LABYRINTH

One contemplative practice I like and have never done is labyrinth walking. Now when I first heard of this I still was thinking of a labyrinth with life-sized walls where you could possibly become lost, like a maze. And I’ve been in one in Europe. These labyrinths, however, are normally associated with a cathedral or church and they are created with intent to engage the body, mind, and spirit in the act of prayer.

A labyrinth is a prescribed patter on the ground that you slowly and contemplatively walk. It leads to its center and then back out again engaging your body in prayer itself. My DC pastor would always talk about “your body mirroring the posture of your heart” in reference to lifting hands. But this has been an exploration for me into something generally called body prayer in which you do physical body postures or movements that mirror what you are talking about. For instance if you are praying forgiveness and mercy you might splash cold water on your face exemplifying the cleansing power of forgiveness and mercy. If you’re listening you might be in a child’s pose. If you’re praying defiantly in unbelief at a God who would allow the situation you see before yourself you might raise your hands in a fist or shake your head. Kneeling is also a common body posture some take.

Here in a labyrinth, the walking is type of posture as well. Some walk a labyrinth while thinking about a certain issue. Others simply walk as they meditate. Started in Algeria in 350 AD, it’s an act of deep reflection especially at the center of the labyrinth which is where people usually pause and stop to reflect, think, and pray. Many continue to sit and reflect after reaching the outside of the labyrinth and exiting.

National Cathedral Labyrinth

DC Labyrinths

Labyrinth Locator

WHEN IN DOUBT, REGENTRIFY!

When looking at the changing demographic patterns in urban centers across the United States, I rarely use the term gentrification. I tend to always say “regentrification.” This may or may not be correct depending on how you define it. But, in part, the reason I say it is that these migration patterns into and out of the city have happened before. If you go further back in time, you find that the demographics had changed again, earlier. Let’s look at DC.

The District of Columbia is poised to lose its Black majority probably sometime next year in 2012. This is interesting to me, especially in a city known to African Americans as “Chocolate City.” The loss of the Black majority is due to gentrification—the process where majority/white or richer people move into an area dominated by poorer people and the poorer people begin to decline in numbers or percentages. Suburban people are moving back into the city of Washington, D.C. in seemingly record numbers. Neighborhoods that people would never have gone into 10 years ago are now attractive hubs for dining, clubs, events, and meetings. Neighborhoods, that were once majority-minority, are now majority-majority or an even mix of cultures—white, brown, black, and others.

And here I am. I arrive and end up in a gentrified part of Capitol Hill that used to belong to the domain of middle class Blacks (not lower-class) according to neighborhood lore. The process is so dynamic that I can actually see it sweep through the neighborhood. To the west of my house towards the Capitol, the houses are majority-majority; however, east of my house the numbers of minority slowly increase until you have neighborhoods with beautiful mix and continue to rise until you arrive in Anacostia where it is majority-minority. Just as the changing colors of the trees literally sweeps north through the trees of Maine in autumn, you can actually see dividing swirl-lines of demographic changes in my neighborhood. People will actually tell you “Do not go pass this street. It’s dangerous there. There is a quadrant inside of which you are safe. But if you go pass the borders of it, you’re on your own.” The only thing I don’t like about such statements is that usually the unsafe neighborhoods to which people refer are neighborhoods full of people that look like me; the second thing I don’t like about such statements is that some people actually do live there. It’s not that everyone stays away; some call it there home. And some don’t have a choice. My a capella group rehearses in Anacostia (a place where people tell you to avoid).

The debate over regentrification seems to revolve around whether it is good or bad or has been good or bad. The problem or confusion is that it is both. There are definitely benefits, and there are definitely curses. It depends on your perspective. Some of the poorer people who were able to retain their houses benefit from nicer-looking neighborhoods with new businesses and services. But the overwhelming negative aspect of it is that poorer people eventually are forced out through a variety of mechanisms. The one most talked about is the gradual raising of property taxes to the point where poorer people can no longer afford it and are forced to leave or sell.

There are benefits to gentrification and urban regentrification. But whatever the benefits, whether nicer looking and cleaner neighborhoods with new businesses and restaurants, the benefits only deal with a symptom of the problem—the lack of businesses like grocery stores, the unsightly buildings, etc. Urban regentrification does nothing about the plight of poorer people. They simply end up moving elsewhere. And the plight of poorer people is something that concerns me more and more as my lens and perspective of the whole human family widens and I learn what love is. It’s a bit similar to a mice problem we had in our house in the winter of 2009-2010. We spoke with neighbors two houses down about it, and they told us they had the same problem.

“Yeah, we put stuff in the pipes and drove them out of our house down to your house.” They laughed. I wasn’t laughing.

It’s similar to the police lieutenant in charge of the precinct in which our house lies. In our annual neighborhood meeting after 2 attempted break-ins, we had a special security meeting with him. He explained how the problem used to be worse. He explained where the kids come from who are committing these acts.

“We need your help. These criminal acts are mostly due to youth from the Potomac Gardens area. If everyone one of you takes action, keeps your lights on, is vigilant, and notifies us when you see an open garage door or someone strange, we will do our best to take care of the problem. We don’t care about actually stopping them or eliminating the problem. Our only concern is that we push the crime further southeast. They used to be west of us, and then those people pushed the crime into our area because they got smart and used great community coordination and action. We need to do the same. We want to push their activities east of us, send ‘em elsewhere. And we’ll be fine.”

This was the police, mind you. The police. Coincidentally some of his statements backfired on me. Someone in my housing association called the cops on me when I was outside of my own house. A second time while waiting for the police to come inspect a neighbor’s house with an open garage, the police thought I was the suspect even though I tried to explain I was there to show them the house. It didn’t help that it was cold and my hands were in my pockets. They asked me to remove them slowly.
The mechanism that most interests me these days is the regentrification-related process in my neighborhood. The nice version is that a prognosticating person who recognizes regentrification earlier (or just has knowledge of city development plans) will offer to buy houses. The price might seem really good, but the unsuspecting owner doesn’t realize how much the house will be worth in a few years as the area undergoes development and a renaissance. So they sell their house, and the buyer reaps the benefits of renting it out as the demand for housing in the area increases.


The nasty version looks like this. Someone walks around my neighborhood looking for elderly people. This someone may notice an elderly person and take note of his routine, or he may approach him on the day of notice. This person will offer to help the elderly person with his bags. The elderly man agrees as his muscles are not what they used to be. So she helps him with his bags. They talk briefly and she leaves. She walks by another day and sees him trying to mow his lawn. She offers to help again. He remembers her from before, and he enjoys the company. He talks to her about D.C. and about her brother that she mentioned when helping with groceries. Slowly but surely this chance occurrences increase, until she agrees to just help him regularly with shopping or other errands. Finally one day after they have known each other for a good while and developed a solid relationship, she brings a piece of paper to him. She explains that the paper is an agreement that the DC government is requiring of all people who want to take advantage of new low property tax laws in that area. His eyesight is bad, and he tries to read the gist of the document ignoring the fine print and missing a lot of the big print. He profusely thanks her for her attention to D.C. news and for her consideration of him.

“A lot of people are out there to get you and cheat you. So it’s just nice to know that someone cares and is looking out for your interests. My wife used to do that before she passed, and my kids and grandkids are so busy these days. So I’m really thankful for you and your friendship. Thanks, Lucy.”

What he doesn’t know is that Lucy had really drawn up a contract that transferred ownership of the house to Lucy upon his death. The man dies, the funeral happens which Lucy attends, and then there is the reading of the will. The expecting children believe they will get the house, but there is a catch. Lucy has a contract that overrides the will and she even presents it to the lawyer officiating the will proceedings. It’s legal and true. And it’s signed by Mr. Woolover. So there’s nothing the family can do. And Lucy has a house that she can rent out for increasing value as urban regentrification continues.

No lie. In fact, on the day I wrote this section, I got a call from someone I don’t know asking if I would be interested in selling my house. . . . I don’t even own it.

PRACTOR'S PROMISE

In the past two or three months, I have been approached by 4 girl friends (2 married and 2 single) asking me if I would be willing to “meet” a female friend of theirs. Now, I’m not sure why this is all happening at once or at this time, but it is. Strange. I wonder if I have that kind of walk and head bob while I walk that says “Me. ME! That’s ME! I’m the one you read about in the paper that will do whatever it takes to get married!!” Actually, I’ve had women come up to me or my roommate and say “Find me a man!”

And many people in the last update were confused about the dating service. So let me tell you how it works.

A woman in DC (I say woman because no men have come to us either because men, on average tend to be more insecure about such things or the fact that DC has large amount of men compared to women in the 20-30 and 30-40ish range) will contact me (or us) and say, “I’d like to join your service.” Then we meet up for dinner, and the only fee we charge is the meal. So over my free meal (I don’t enforce it of course) she tells me what she wants. I take notes. At this point she has the option of using our personality assessment which includes the same 29 dimensions of personal compatibility as Eharmony but we include 6 more for a total of 35. In fact, the 6 dimensions are personality dimensions of incompatibility because, as our motto goes and as grandma taught us in woodshop, “You’ve got to rough up two pieces of sandpaper before you can glue them together.” She doesn’t have to (and no one has used it to date).

We then set her up with someone in one of 7 ways.

1. The traditional Blind Date
We call you up and say “Hey, be at Farmer’s Market at 7 PM on Saturday. He’s wearing a blue shirt and looks like me.”

But sometimes that’s a little unnerving for people. So we offer a low-stress version of the same thing.

2. The Blind Group Date
This is the same thing but it is a blind double date or a blind triple date. I and/or Praj will take another girl or two and join you. Or you could invite two friends or four friends you know to join you in your blind date to ease the tension.

Still, the fact that you are paired with some person (man or woman) whom you just met makes some people unsettled. So we offer another option.

3. The Group Outing
In this case, there is not an equal number of guys and gals (I didn’t say girls) or men and women. For instance, it will be 5 gals and 6 boys or 7 women and 4 men. So the feeling of being paired romantically falls away (hopefully) and you can get to know someone in peace.

Yet again, some people are unhoused by the prospect of meeting the person face to face even in a group outing. They prefer something else.



4. Faceless Communication
In this case, you are put in contact with a potential date through e-mail, telephone, videophone, text-message, and instant message (any other instant, e- or video- methods you can imagine). This is quite comfortable for some because they want to get to know someone in a hyper romantic state before a personal face-to-face meeting.

But for those who think love is so superficial and they think they are really into the heart of a man or woman, have we got a test and option for you.

5. The Literal Blind Date
This is where you come to our house for dinner and you dine. The only difference is that the windows are all blacked out and no light is let in. The lights inside are off and we use infrared goggles to serve you your food. You get to know the personality and voice of your date, but that’s about all. We have ways to black out the bathroom so you can be guided there and use it in peace with the lights on but without light escaping into the room. It’s phenomenal. Let’s see if love really IS blind. :-/

Nervous are you? Well, we have another version.

6. The Literal Blind Group Date
This is the same blind date at our house, but it is done as a double blind blind date or a triple blind blind date. It’s quite fun!

7. The Mixer
In this case, let’s say you’re a boy. You enter our house and there are 12 or 13 girls. People don’t like this scenario and prefer the gender-reverse. So let’s pretend (or maybe it’s true that) you’re a woman. Then you come to our house for drinks and talking and schmoozing with 12 or 13 guys. At the end of 1.5 hours, you choose one guy with whom you can go out on a funded date (did I say this was a non-profit. We might even be in the red!).

Even with a funded date, some women find too much focus and energy directed at them, and it is hard to handle. So if you prefer, we have another option.

8. The Mixed-up Mixer
This is the same thing but if you are a woman meeting 12 or 13 guys we throw in 3 or 4 other women to help defray some of the energy. So the guys have other people to talk and mingle with while waiting to meet you. This makes some clients feel better and not as anxious about the whole affair even though she has her pick.

In general the name of the game is personalization. We personalize the experience. In other words, it’s what the client wants. If the client wants a service we don’t offer, we start offering it. But we do whatever the client finds comfortable. Because it’s not about us; it’s about you!

Update August 1, 2010

March 7, 2010


My neighborhood is somewhat rich. My neighborhood is so rich that if I stand outside my house too long, the neighbors call the police. . . True story.

My neighborhood is somewhat rich. My neighborhood is so rich that when my housemate calls the police because someone may have broken into a neighbor’s house and the police arrive and see me waiting outside, they tell me “Sir, slowly remove your hands from your pockets and back away.” . . . True story.

While walking to work, within 5 seconds of each other, I was both complimented by a homeless guy asking if I was lawyer, and I was also handed information about how to get a job. I had on one of those outfits that could go both ways.

Whenever one of my housemates does number 2 in the bathroom next to the kitchen he leaves the door wide open.

One of the mice exterminators that came to my house was telling me how he had mice problems in his own house.

These are actual names of people.

Penny Dollar
April May (by marriage)
Paige Turner (by marriage)
Bill Board
Dr. Looney (psychiatrist)
Candy Bar

I’ve seen them.

While walking down the street in San Diego, I happened upon a man at a stoplight. While waiting for the walk signal he said to me, “You look like one of the guys who likes to get really freaky.” That was the longest walk signal for which I ever had to wait. This always happens when I dress nicely.

UPDATE

Ok, people have been saying they missed my updates, and they just want one more. To be honest, I did say that I would give you my itinerary from the orientation in September. So many people asked me how the job was my first two weeks in September; I realized people didn’t understand that we had a fellowship program orientation to government that happened before we ever started working in our specific placements. On top of the, the part of government I work in requires a type of background investigation. Mine took so long that I didn’t start at my placement until November while others started mid September after orientation.

I won’t go into what I’m doing because no matter how many times I write it people e-mail or call individually asking me that, so I know it doesn’t matter if I write it here or repeat it. I will say that I work in a particular part of government where we deal with securing the homeland. To read more about my fellowship program. I will again put the link.

http://fellowships.aaas.org/

I’ve also attached the orientation itinerary so you can see what it looks like.

During the current year 2009-2010, I was assigned to a department that deals with security. I deal with chemical and biological (and explosive) weapons detection; I help in making detection machines if that makes sense. I’ve renewed my fellowship for a 2nd year, and next year, Sept 2010 - Aug 2011, I’ve been reassigned to do work for USAID as a science policy advisor and development engineer doing health, water, sanitation, infrastructure, transportation, construction, and urban planning technical advising. My travel budget for the year is $15k, so I know the plan to send me on the ground for at least 2 trips. We’ll see.

http://www.usaid.gov/

LIFE

People want to know what I do in DC. Well, I guess I do a few things. First of all I sing in a choir. I’m a member of a 120-member professional concert (classical) choir in town--the City Choir of Washington.

http://thecitychoirofwashington.org/

I also sing with a subset of the choir, the City Singers. We do outreach events. There are 30 of us, but you usually get no more than 20. For instance yesterday (Feb 27th) we sang at an elderly folks home, a half-way house for men recovering from issues, and a community home for young people trying to get things together (I think).

I sing in a 7-member a capella group that was just restarted and has only met once before the restart due to people’s schedules. I’m not sure it will work already. The first rehearsal in the restart was canceled.

I’m a mentor in a program for students that teaches them about environmental science. It’s called Environ mentors. My mentee is an 11th grader Guyanan-American.

http://www.cnie.org/Environmentors/

I tutor teachers for their courses in a masters program that prepares them to teach physics in high school to 9th graders. My only mistake is that I tutored them too well. Their actual instructor is a former fellow of my fellowship program, but she has never had K-12 teaching experience. The roughly 5 teachers I tutored told the program administrators and they asked me to be an instructor for their next course. So now. . .

I’m an adjunct professor of physics at George Washington University. Don’t ask me how it happened. It just did. Right now I’m teaching “Energy and Momentum” to 20 teachers getting a masters in physics education. I’m just doing this one course. Their program is 3 years. I don’t know if they will need me again. At the time of the current sentence I’m writing, I’ve found out that they do need me again. My course “Energy and Momentum” just finished, and I’m teaching another in spring of 2011. I still keep my adjunct professor status throughout, and it’s cool to have a university card again, I’m going to check out the university gym.

http://www.gwu.edu/

I usually attend National Community Church. My location currently meets in the largest coffeehouse in DC. They are very technologically savvy and instead of having different people preach in all locations broadcast the same preacher each week to all locations.

http://www.theaterchurch.com/
http://ebenezerscoffeehouse.com/

Another church I really like is Cedar Ridge Community Church. I just wished they were in the city. They actually have an organic farm for the homeless. But they are in a rural community. I love how they combine communion, prayer time, music, tithing, written prayer, prayer for each other, and art all in one time through stations at the church. I’ve never felt like tithing was an act of worship until I was there. Other churches have tried, but this one feels like it.

http://www.crcc.org/

I volunteer with a homeless shelter that offers lots of services such as case management and transitional housing. Michelle Obama has visited before! It’s always interesting being there because it reminds me that I’ve done the social work that the case managers are doing. II should look into using my counseling training back here in the States.

http://www.miriamskitchen.org/

I have been unsuccessful being accepted into a community theatre production so far, but I’m not worried. I haven’t been able to audition for all or even most opportunities. Many have occurred when I have choir rehearsal. Plus I’ve had visitors many times. I’ve only auditioned 3 times, but I’ll do more.

I also sing with an a capella group of men. We’re actually starting this Saturday (the 6th of March). We’ll see how it goes. It’s rather informal, but it should be fun. I have a friend who runs the human rights and science program at AAAS. She and I are working on some four-hand piano pieces. That’s fun as well. I do some song writing still in collaboration with a few different people, but I’ve no equipment. I’m still very saddled with lots of bills so that my money is used up quite quickly but I have enough to do what I need, so I’m ok.

I have four roommates--one is a AAAS Fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency, another is a AAAS Fellow at the Department of State, and the last of the roommates are mice.