The Day I Was Officially Accepted To Grad School

Tutoring

Spent the first hour working with De'Sean and Malik on their ELA homework, vocab mostly, figuring out the definition of a word based on the prefix. They stayed on topic fairly well. Had to bring them back from a discussion about basketball. Had to keep the Beyonce references to a minimum. Made sure to make sure they understood the reason their answer was right or wrong. Kids are all getting ready to take their standardized tests this week. I remember those days. Some kids are downright nervous. Some could probably care less. After spending the hour in Mrs. Coates' class, I moved over to the tutoring room where Randall had no new homework and nothing old for me to check over, and actually most of the kids were without stuff to do because testing season disrupts homework patterns. So it was kind of a waste of time for everyone. Starlight found out that the Principal wants us to dress nicer--no jeans, try slacks--to be a positive influence, I guess. Sounds like The Man stepping on our freedoms again. 

Jenny

Her insurance covers towing. Her dad is helping her with student loans and has access to her original birth certificate. Her purse is still missing but things are looking up and tonight we're having dinner at her place, seafood marinara pasta paired with a surprisingly tasty Rainbow Creek pinot noir. We talk about the future, embrace, discuss her busy day figuring out how to take care of her setbacks, and she's handling everything rather well. I'm proud of her. I love her. We watch Moon after dinner and finish the wine.

Meredith

She had an MRI today and found out that her brain tumor has shrunk dramatically from her raw, natural cure. Reggae music, weed, meditation, colonics and tranquility have paid off. The tumor is smaller, not gone, but certainly better. This is definitely fantastic news.

Kirsten

So she comes by my room after I've finished the morning shift at Old Soul and she needs to drop off a bag of valuables to hide them from her maniacal sister, who was recently approached about her drinking and gambling and drug addictions, who has been stealing thousands of dollars from her sick father (and abusing the IHSS program). This is what Kirsten was having a breakdown about, and still can't quite cope with, though with help from her older brother, they've managed to wrestle their father's money from the sister's hands and plan on moving their father to a retirement home and selling the house. Pretty crazy stuff. In the meantime, the sister has lost her mind and is stealing things and being crazy, so Kirsten won't leave her dad alone at the house unless a nurse is there. The good news is they'll probably move him to Oakland, where Kirsten will gladly follow. So after she let out a few tears and exhaled this from her mind, I had to leave for tutoring and she hurried to the light-rail to get home before the nurse left. Crazy, crazy world we live in.

Work

Woke up surprisingly vibrant this morning, which I think is the sign of a good weekend, fulfilled. So I hardly noticed that the new guy, Cody, was an hour late, which turns out was Jason's fault, who was with him over at Oak Park training when he should've been training in the alley. No bother. It was a pretty mellow day. Listened to a mix of Edith Piaf, Coralie Clement, Carla Bruni, the Rolling Stones, Pinback, the Black Keys and Louis Armstrong most of the morning. Twenty bucks in tips, not great, spent it on more allergy medicine and stamps and wine for dinner. 

The Future

Got my acceptance letter from Sac State today. I mailed a copy to my Peace Corps representative. Not sure if this will change my status on the Peace Corps website, but it at least reminds them that I'm serious. Next I have to find out when I'm expected to be ready to leave, which I'm still guessing could be next summer, but could be as far away as Spring 2013. We'll see. I've got orientation and registration coming up soon. One cool thing to note is that the TESOL Program Coordinator hand-delivered the letter, because, as stated in an e-mail: "I thought it'd be better to deliver it in person considering the importance of the letter." So that's a pretty awesome thing to do and I get the feeling we'll get along great in the coming year. 

- Left to Fry