Its overwhelmingly apparent to me that I will not be able to update my blog daily, as I had previously interjected. My life is in a seemingly assiduous array of constant activity. For the past two days, I've been struggling with finishing my short-lived career at the Rutland Natural Foods Market, beginning my work for the Vermont Freedom To Marry Task Force and somehow finishing last-minute events with the Student Peace Alliance of Rutland County. I'm starting to see why adult life isn't as ostentatious as it appears in the movies.
On a lighter note, I hiked up to the Deer Leap outlook last saturday before my life got so hectic suddenly. It was beautiful and surreal. Its so refreshing to be in a place where the destructive elements of human "civilization" have not yet taken over. It was great to look up to the sky and see only trees and wildlife; not buildings and noise. The smell of pine was particularily "arousing" as we reached the top of the outlook. I did however manage to keep my clothes on. I do have to say, however, that I am quite out of shape. It has been a few years since I've attempted to scale that rock, as evident in inconspicuous breathing pattern (i.e. I could barely breath).
So Vermont Freedom To Marry seems like it will be an intense job. Or maybe it just seems intense at the moment, because I'm in this crossroad where I'm trying to juggle the imminent move to burlington, with a few commitments here in Rutland, my financial situation, my license needs renewing, sizzle is still fat, etc. I'm just stressed at the moment in trying to make this transition smoothly. Sheryl Rapee-Adams, who will be colleague in this job, brought me down to a volunteers dinner in Bennington last night and I have to say I was blown away by the cohesiveness of their movement down there. So much energy and so much hope. It was inspiring.
Sheryl is a quirky but cool lady. She loves cats and is a massage therapist. She's also one of the first relatively privileged white women that I've ever met that can admit she has a prejudice and bias because of her class position. That was really cool to know, because a lot of people who advocates for certain areas of social justice tend to be a littel full of themselves and are usually living a cushy life-style as it is. However, alot of these people are the only ones who can make the difference, because they have the time and money to do it. So its definitely a double-edged sword.
I went up to Burlington on tuesday with my sister intending to search for cheap-ass apartments and I was marginally successful. I spent the bulk of my time, however, rustling through Pure Pop Records and Downtown Discs, looking for cool "slabs-o-wax," but surprisingly fell short. I settled with a soy-latte at starbucks and a collection of essays by Howard Zinn, called "A Power Governments Cannot Suppress." Just as Allyson (my sister) and I hopped into the car to go back to Rutland, that girl Marla called and said I could come over and check out the apartment. Luckily it was only a block away on Pearl St.
I found it surprisingly clean for the three female inhabitants and found Marla modest and wholesome. She was really laid-back and kind of had a hippy zeal going on for her. I couldn't tell if she was one of those poser hippies or not, but at this point its not important considering the low-cost of rent. She said there was only one other perosn she was considering and they were a "maybe" anyways. I hope Marla picks me, because 1) she's young 2) the apartment is in a great location and 3) they get some free utilities and its right above a pizza place and laundramat. It doesn't get much better. However, she says the move-in date would be July 1st, meaning I would need to find some temporary housing for my job, because I'm not driving back and forth between Rutland and Burlington, considering the cost of dead dinosaurs (well thats part of what fuel is, but I think it sounds funny to say that).
There a quite a few complexities with the VFTM job and that is mainly the fact that they use excel for the timesheets and reimbursement sheets, which puts me in a pickle because the lates version of Microsoft office for MAC is 2004 and I've already had trouble trying to open files from Sheryl, who has the 2007 version. Beth Robinson (the chair person of VFTM) said that there is a computer and phone that I can use in the Burlington office when I get all situated. Not to mention the phone issue. Part of my job requires that I call an extensive amount of volunteers (sometimes 300), when there is a house party coming up or some other event that they may be interested in. VFTM will pay for the extra minutes I use for the job, but at the moment I'm really out of the loop about my cell plan, because my parents have been paying for it for the past two years and I'm on their family plan. Sounds like I need to get my own plan.
I just need to get through all the bullshit and get settled in somewhere in Burlington!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
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