odds and ends

the internet connection has been...well anyway. time is short and there is way too much to tell...arghhhh...highlights:

LAST SATURDAY (a.k.a. EVE OF WONDERS): housemates sara, abby, liz, and i ventured to philly to have dinner with preethi and her fiance, dan. preethi made reservations at scannicchio's in south philly. the atmosphere was great, the company was outstanding, and the mushroom ravioli followed suit. afterwards, we took pictures running up the steps of the philadelphia museum of art in honor of the italian stallion. to our happy surprisement preethi and daniel gave us a driving tour of the city before we took off for the evening. it is not surprising, however, that my housemates and i cannot wait for another opportunity to spend time with preethi and daniel.

on the way home, tyler-from-deluth-minnesota (a.k.a. i'll-never-see-you-again-tyler) called to invite us to ohio jeff's friend's house. it was on the way home and a welcome detour. the most amazing spontaneous dance party unfolded.

LAST SUNDAY: the other mormon christy at the point hopped a ride to church. it was great. i like when church-going happens. especially with another ameriwhorps. we spontaneously participated in the branch choir number. it was great.

WEEKLY DISAPPOINTMENTS: i did not make the wildland firefighting team (boo!) and my first project is local so i will be staying in perry point until mid-april (boo-ish!).

WEEKLY THRILLS: my first project is assisting with science classes at havre de grace elementary and mentoring teens at the local boys and girls club. i'm more than a little stoked about that. as most of the teams will be traveling elsewhere for their first projects, i hear there will be an excess of communal bikes at perry point. i look forward to some cycling adventures, working on independent service hours, and seeing more of d.c., philly, and nyc.

also, we started red cross disaster relief training. today, for example, we conducted mock interviews for shelter residents seeking assistance after a mass disaster. i really dig the red cross. and i am very much looking forward to working with them on disaster (heaven-forbid) and non-disaster projects in the coming months.

team leader chris will announce our team roles early next week. from my individual interview with him yesterday it sounds like i will be the media rep and/or asst. team leader on the first rotation (until early summer). the media rep role would involve writing press releases and news articles, doing press interviews, and being team photographer. asst team leader is a supplementary role and means that if a project requires our team to split up, i would take charge of one of the groups.

VALENTINE'S DAY UPDATE: i distributed many a spontaneous valentine today, and received a few myself. as a shout-out to jarom, housemate sara's showed a large foot with hearts between the toes and said, "you've grown on me like fungus on an athlete's foot".

time is up. there's a new 20-minute computer limit at the point. and the ameri-idol competition calls.

happy valentine's day everyone!