So, last Monday I didn't get arrested...

Talk about an interesting time... shortly after my crazy busy week working at the FIRST Robotics competition in Annapolis, I decided to take Monday as a personal day and go to DC for a march/act of civil disobedience. The goal was to deliver a coffin to Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon (insert laughter here - man, that idea is great!) to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the war in Iraq.

I chose not to climb over the fence (and in so doing - get arrested). It was kind of a difficult decision. I mean, it raises the question: how far are you willing to go for something you believe in. I decided that keeping my federally-funded job doing service work actually does more for the cause of peace and justice than climbing over a fence to "risk (in this case, certain) arrest".

Peace,
Ali

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I woke up at 4:45am - I'd like to point out this should not be a waking up time, it should be a going to bed time. However, that didn't stop me from living St. Patrick's Day up in the evening. Totally missed my family though. All in all a good holiday.

Peace,
Ali

Ahh the flu

So, I've had the flu this week. Which is really not fun... although not entirely without it's perks - namely three episodes of TNG on in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, I totally feel off my game... not much gets done when a person spends all her time sleeping. Hopefully I get my game back all the way pretty soon, cuz Friday is St. Patrick's Day! Get your Irish on, man.

Oh, in other news: I found my burger!

Peace,
Ali

What I've been up to...

So we are about to start in on Week 2 of our first project round and I figure it would be nice to give you a brief update regarding what I've been up to.

In reverse order:
Today 3/5 - Potluck fun with my team and Skipp's team (Fire 3) and our neutral STL Michelle

Yesterday 3/4 - ISP (Independent Service Project) helping out with the Bel Air Chocolate Festival - just an observation: when carrying things, there is a huge difference between the "normal" definition of "heavy" and the Ameri-definition of "heavy"; Our first night with all the other teams gone

2/28 to 3/3 - Our first week at Phillips; Yea for leaving at 6am and getting back at 5pm... On my first day of observation an elementary kid systematically went through and turned over all the desks in his classroom. That was interesting. I, however, am working with the high school kids; they seem less violent and more... I don't know, disruptive. It all depends on the day.
2/28 - Most of the other teams left for the Gulf Coast region.

2/27 - Mostly a whole lot of nothing; my first time shopping by myself - let me tell you, $31.50/1 person is somehow a lot less than 2x$31.50/2 people.

2/26 - I finally found a church I like well enough to go to on a weekly basis - Wesleyan Chapel - they have a 6pm praise service with communion every week; you can tell what my priorities are. Plus, I think I am totally going to join their online Bible study, so I can have some accountability for my One Year Bible reading.

2/25 - Atlantic City, baby. What a trip. Let me just put it this way: under the table hotel room booking (13 people + 1 king-sized bed + 1 roll-away twin + alcohol + gambling - sleep - money = priceless).

2/23 to 2/24 - Local project working with the Baltimore "Believe" Campaign to clean out school storage rooms. Lots of heavy lifting of random junk, including a room full of elementary text books from the 70s back in this cavern of a room that we had to get to Indiana Jones style. If anyone knows a good way to work out the muscle or tendon or whatever that is on the palm side of your lower arm, let me know.

2/21 to 2/22 - Transitioned to prepare for our first round

Which brings me back to the last time I posted... Hope that's enough info for a bit.

Peace,
Ali