Lovin the roomies

Great week!!! Definitely had its ups and downs... I was pretty sick all week, went home early on friday... that was tough... but i bought some dayquil, drank lots of tea, and powered through it.

Spent the weekend in Newark. Did some drinking with the roomies, and spent a lot of time with Eddie. We are quite opposites, but i do love that kid. Actually. i have kinda fallen in love with all of my roommates these last couple of weeks.... Not that i didn't like them, but we were very much roommates, and still had the stranger-esk vibe towards one another.

I love work too. I am stirring away from the feeling that i can't exceed their expectations and that hey, maybe they want to be FRIENDS with me?!?! What a concept!! So i hope to be able to create friendships with some people from work, and use them as outlets when i need to in the rough city of Newark. Maybe some drinks after work on rough days will start happening :)

Eddie and i watched a music video making fun of the sad sad city we live in, Eddie surprisingly got very offended, and claimed it as HIS sad city... no one else can hate on it until they've lived here.... i'm diggin the ownership.

Tmrw we get the day off work cuz we have a retreat! WaHoo!!! I love retreats cuz we all get to talk about how much we love each other, and boy do i LOVE love!!

Cant wait till next weekend for the rally in DC and then the next weekend is our JV Halloween!!

I received ANOTHER package!! From none other than Eileen, AGAIN!! Eileen took the initiative to find me an even better, less wasteful, and even easier way to have coffee than what i had originally requested (which was K-cups). She got numerous packets of Starbucks instant coffee!! It is exactly what i needed, and more eco friendly than this so called "conservancy" uses (lol i really still LOVE my work, just had to hate a bit). She sent popcorn that my roommates and i made instantly, lots of In Shape magazines, that i even caught Eddie reading!!! haha! She sent CHOCOLATE, such a luxury! A huge bottle of vitamins!!! A bag of chocolate covered pretzels, that Jane and i have every night with a glass of milk, and many more necessities!

Thanks again Eileen!!

I don't feel like i have a whole lot to say about this past week... well. at least nothing too humorous.

We work in what has been known in our community as an "oasis in Newark" and always feel so safe and cared for at work. However, on at work on Monday THIEVERY struck Laura Regan. A skeptical woman casually made her way through our gated facility, locked doors, and sliding swiss cheese door to make her rounds through the cubicles of our beautiful sun lit office, during the ONLY 20 minutes Laura was away from her desk, (because she works so hard, she dehydrates herself daily in order for her to not use the restroom to get that extra bit of time (inspired by the Pursuit of Happyness of course)) And STOLE her BLACKBERRY, WALLET, and BUS PASS!!! Nobody seemed to have seen her, seeing no one was in the office because it was in fact Anti-Columbus day, but she was caught red handed on our video camera.

This realization later in the day was actually quite devastating. We did NOT want to assume the worst, which was that it was stolen from one of our staff members whom we have grown to love so much, but it almost seemed the inevitable.... Luckily we didn't jump to TOO many conclusions, and were relieved that our co-workers had not taken the few luxuries we have. However, the idea of catching this lady is one of the least probable results, and Laura has officially been the victim of a crime in Newark. Laura was remarkably impressive with her calm and collectedness of the situation, being so far from home. I do not think i would be saying the same for myself if it had been me.

Christo and Maria were here this past weekend, and although i expected it to be amazing, it was much more amazing than i imagined. Maria took me back to the days before my JVC life, and we got to play and drink and gossip and dance like we had in college, and Christo took me to the future where JVC was over with, and he was looking back on his JV life with a different perspective than i had thus far.... Also, they both were way to generous to me!!

Christo actually asked me "What is your favorite thing about Newark so far?" Most people ask about JVC, the roommates, bible camp, work, yadda yadda... but this I hadn't been asked yet. I answered, probably a little too quickly, "the bus rides". Some days this is in NO WAY the case, but mostly this rings true. I know that it would be a whole different story if i did not have Laura sitting next to me every day; hearing the same stories, smelling the same smells, seeing the same saddness, anger, love, and comedy, dealing with the same co-workers, and living with the same roommates, but because of how lucky i am to ride the scary, dirty, race dividing bus with a roommate, I really have come to love the bus rides.

okay. this is starting to sound not as humorous, and much more JV like than i wanted it to...

until a funny story comes up. Love always, Kristin

More care package ideas!

It's getting cold out now... so

delicious teas

socks

electric blanket??? hahaha

leggings? ( i think ppl wear them under their pants??)

long socks

toe warmers?

Voldka ( i hear thats what they use in russia)

oktober!

Well, now i couldn't post until after my Dad's surgery because i didn't want to jinx anything, and it looks like it worked!! Everything went great, they got most, if not all, of the cancer removed, his vocal folds are fine, and he still is crackin jokes! It was hard not to be able to be there, but Annie was my replacement at the hospital for the day, and was nothing less than amazing. Think about Annie in a room full of people who are bored and dying for distractions.... I think she was in her prime with her wittiness and making this audience laugh....

Thanks so much for everyone who has given their prayers and support! It has meant sooooo much!

Okay, so to re-cap on the Boston trip.... It was CRAZY! The Boston house had a community meeting about us coming to stay with them, and as a group, they decided to be the BEST hosts ever! And let me tell you, they did NOT fail. They were so prepared with T-passes for us to fill (it's their light-rail) with bagels g'lore, they made eggs for us the next morning, and gave us such a great tour of their apparently historical city... (who knew?!?!) We went to the original Cheers pub, drank blueberry beer, went to Harpoon Oktoberfest, and then to a bar later on to do a bit of dancing... oh and their house was amazing!

They were hosts who shared everything they had, and being a JV, that is NOT the easiest thing to do...

I fell in love with the city.

The morning after oktoberfest, we had an interesting morning of picking up the lost pieces, getting some burger king (yeaaaa, fast food :0) and reminiscing on the night. It was the safe night of drinking and fun that had been much needed after 6 weeks in Newark...

Also, one of the JV jobs there is at a Cristo Rey school, which is what my high school De La Salle is, and honestly, if i can make it thru this year, i could see myself in Boston, taking the lost little high schoolers to the BIG SCARY work places, just like the LaSallian vollunteers did for me... If one of my teachers read this... i think they might actually laugh so hard it will hurt, because of the young, loud mouthed, stubborn girls, who will drive me crazy JUST as i did to them.... :)

Right now my friends Maria and Christo are here visiting! They have been sooooo great! They got to visit my work, and sleep in our little newark house! Tonight i'm meeting them in Brooklyn!

Community living is still an interesting concept...Some situations have become quite comical, and some continue to be stressful for us. Without a doubt, there are continuing tiffs between some at all times, and having 6 people live under the same expectations and ideals has become nearly impossible. We are all SO different. We look at EVERY situation SO different. Understanding the different sides is where the money is at. Then you are able to determine what situations mean to different people. Something will always mean one thing to one person, and something else to another. Once I can do that, i swear, i can run the world!

That paragraph sounds too typical, so i'm going to give you some context.... In our house we only take pb and j's, top ramen, or leftovers for lunch, which is a little too obviously SIMPLE LIVING, however, as house we have started to eat too many pb an j's!!! We have become inconsiderate, and gluttonous with the peanut butter!!!! haha! And although it is a very comical statement, it is a very real concern with the household... And as you can imagine, there multiple sides to this dilemma....