Mixed Moss

Well I’m home. It’s been a while since I’ve posted but then again it’s been a while since I’ve had internet access and time. I miss Chicago already but I am so glad to be back. I’ve missed it here.

It’s kind of hard coming back, because things have changed. So many people I’m used to seeing are just gone; they graduated or got married or what have you and moved away while I was in Chicago. I miss them like crazy and feel kind of alone. It didn’t help that all of my housemates– and I have five of them– went home this week-end and left me to my own devices (which usually isn’t a problem because I can entertain myself pretty easily, but still. My first week-end here and I came home to an empty house all the time.) Juliet, the hurricanes are a sign from God. Come back. As soon as I can make up a suitable excuse for Justin and Liz and Dan to come back I’ll tell them to as well.

I’m living in a different house now too. It’s on Fairview. It’s odd, my landlord was very excited about us moving into this house (they are the same people we had before at the Brickhouse) and some of my housemates are too because we won’t have to share bedrooms, which I can understand I suppose. But other than that I really odn’t know what they see in it. I liked the other house better. It had stained glass windows and hardwood floors in the living room and dining room and the most fabulous hot water heater in the world that provided a never-ending stream of piping hot showers, no small consideration when you live with a bunch of women. This is…a house. That’s about all that can be said of it. And I was in Chicago when we moved, and I had been expecting to stay at the Brickhouse, so other people moved my stuff for me. So now that I’m officially living in the Fairview House I’m having trouble getting organized. I can’t find my Oxyclean– I had a nearly full tub which and it is not cheap– or my Dryel set which is not cheap either. I can’t find my card table which was free but is still worth quite a bit and my friend Alyssa is having a card party soon and it would be nice if she could borrow it. And there is an over-flowing box of Stuff that isn’t mine. And I don’t have enough storage for my stuff. It is frustrating. I didn’t want to start over with three new hosuemates, and now I have to start over with four new ones because the new house holds an extra girl or two. The only reason I decided to “start over” to begin with is because I wanted to stay in the same house. Now I’m not in the same house, and I kind of wish I had just said “screw it” and gotten my own apartment to begin with. But, this is cheaper and I really don’t have any money, and so I am trying to be optimistic and make it work.

Another thing that’s changed? Well I lost my job. Sort of. Funding has been cut to a lot of student services and other departments at UC and there is no longer funding for a student worker– or at least, very many hours of a student worker– at the Student Activities and Leadership Development office, where I worked last year. This is a bit of a blow. I liked my job there, I liked my co-workers, I adored my boss, Lucy, who is a former teacher of mine and a bit of a mentor to me, and I needed the money. Fortunately I picked up a few hours a week last Spring quarter at the Disability Services Office as a reader and I think I can get some more hours there this fall. They pay better than SALD did and their funding for readers can’t be cut, because it is an accommodation (we read text books onto audio tapes for students with visual impairments) and they are required by state law to provide this accommodation. So, job security. Yippee.

Another change is that the church staff has asked me to be on the Big Idea team, which is the creative team that plans the service each week. Goodness knows why. I’m not trained or talented in this area, so I don’t know what they see in me. But I think I’m going to do it. I mean it’s not the sort of thing you say “no” to unless you feel very called to do something else that takes up all of your time. So my church involvement is going up and that may or may not mean that my involvement in other things needs to go down. I don’t know yet. I kind of wanted to just focus on my school work this year. Sigh. I am tired already and the school year hasn’t even started.

Still, over all I am very, very glad to be back in Cincy! I just need to adjust. I am sure everything will turn out fine.

Well I have to go make pasta salad. There is an International Student dinner tonight I am going to. Almost-free food is the joy of my life. May your head be full, your heart be light, your pocket-book be heavy, and your dinner be free. If that is not an old Irish blessing for college students, then it should be.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 19th, 2004 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.