today was a very busy, busy day. not only did i run around the city from about 10am till almost 9:30pm, but i also made interesting revelations about some personality traits.
mark got to my apartment at about 10ish, we hung around in davis till almost 11, then we ventured to the boston common via beacon hill. we sat and chit chatted while people watching till about 12:30. after that, we walked back through beacon hill to the charles MGH T stop. we waited to meet up with ho yin... and eventually all 3 of us ended up at anna's taqueria (one of my absolute faves!!!). we got there around 1:30 and didn't leave until a little past 5. we sat there talking about life and what we've been up to since last spring.
we are usually together for 3 events during the year... fall state leadership conference in november, the community service holiday party in december, and the state leadership and skills conference in april/may. during these skillsUSA events (what is skillsUSA you ask? too long to explain... educate yourself here www.MAskillsUSA.org and the alumni... www.MAskillsUSAalumni.org ) we are usually working our tookuses off running around, running workshops, doing security, or any other of the 7,398,563 jobs that need to be done so that the kids that come to our conferences and workshops get the most out of it. sleep is a rarity. we wear really dorky gold windbreakers. we carry walkie talkies and usually wear the earbuds and microphones that go with them. we rock out and get nostalgic to neil diamond at the opening ceremony video.... shoot, i was even elected as the vice chair of the MA skillsUSA alumni association. oh. i'm also a fucking pro at TQM. skillsUSA conferences are really quite an experience. we also call it a cult.
in the rare times we do get together, conversation almost always eventually reverts back to skillsUSA . we get nostalgic and talk about the "old days" revel at how long we've been involved (this is my 13th year... for serious.) we talk about how small the alumni association used to be and how young the "new recruits" are. we geek about about picking music and photos for the year in review videos. we also dream up new ideas as to how we can make the alumni association both better, and how we can better fundraise for our costs. those 4 hours flew by, i believe that if ho yin didn't have class, we would have sat there longer.
i love the people i volunteer with. i fully consider them to be family. if it weren't for them, then donating the time wouldn't seem completely fully worth it. i've been asked a million times "why do you still do it? thats alot of work for no pay." my answer: "because someone did it for me, and it made all the difference."
the other big organization in my life is the girl scouts. 4 years i've been staff out at bonnie brae. the women i've met and worked with have made such an impression on my life. not only is camp beautiful and my absolute favorite place on earth, but i will always consider it to be another form of home. this past summer made the biggest impression so far. in the past 3 years i've never made such a connection as i did this summer. there was not only an amazing friend connection, but i had so many artistic connections with so many people... i remember one night, it was the night before the banquet, and we were making the staffbooks. some gals came back from a night out, duckie popped up behind me and gave me a huge hug, she said "i love the sheila divine too!", she had seen the bumper sticker on my van in the parking field.... honest to goodness i started giggling and shreiking like a crazy person. i spent 3 years trying to get some of the other gals to just give them a listen... nope. this year... casper is playing local boston stuff and other awesome indie music... i'm making all sorts of plans to trade music with duckie.. we were listening to the killers and loving it... so many unexpected connections!!! i miss them all so much!
its making this fall really hard. i find myself somewhere in the city.. i'll see something or hear a song that reminds me of someone at camp and it makes me want to cry. it was so easy to talk to someone when my mom got sick again, or when my aunt died. now i just kind of feel alone and stressed out. there isn't that support system there and with my mom in the hospital again this week, it's hitting me harder than usual.
back to the busy day.. after 5 i headed back to davis square for a "pre-housewarming party" bbq with some scouts. i spent most of the evening drinking margaritas. we were so silly we all ended up putting flowers in each others hair. it was cute, silly, and a little drunk all at the same time.
all of this time spent with skillsUSA people and girl scouts...i've kind of come to a realization. i'm a bit of a dork, but.. so are most of the people i care about. while i love living in boston, and i love the friends i have here... i don't really think there alot of people who have seen that weird, silly, dorky side of me... at least.. not to its full extent.
isn't that odd?
whis weekend looks to be awesome. tomorrow, i head for lynn to sit for my little cousins kaitlan and amelia, while my cousins head for a wedding. saturday looks like it might be a wash in terms of weather... some tropical depression may be making a debut in MA... it may be a "make cookies, pom-pom critters, play games, and watch movies sort of day. sunday, kaity has her first soccer game of the year... i'm super excited to take her too it. i'm going to attempt to video some of it for carrie and corey.. if i can find my little digital recorder.
No comments:
Post a Comment