- Friday was my last day at the Holyoke Community Land Trust. I am proud of what I accomplished -- resurrecting an organization from dormancy, reconstituting the Board of Directors, raising grant money, building the community membership, training new staff. I am also proud of leaving.
(- In a strange twist of Amherst College fate, Ariel Morales's dad is one of the front-running candidates for my old job. So weird.)
- Tomorrow I start as a community organizer with the North End Outreach Network in Springfield. The North End is a wicked interesting neighborhood -- lots of poverty, environmental issues, health problems. I-91 runs straight through it. The building we work out of is condemned. An elementary school there was just condemned. So much organizing potential. And, the woman I'm going to work for is fierce. She reminds me of Chapman women, but 15 years older.
- Part of the reason I chose this job was that I will be one of the only white people -- if not THE only white person -- working there. It'll be a challenge but, as part of the ongoing effort to become an anti-racist racist (we're all racists because of our ugly racist society), I'm looking forward to it.
- I have also been part of this awesome movement in Springfield called No One Leaves/Nadie Se Mude, which organizes people who are being foreclosed or evicted against the banks that are doing the foreclosing and evicting. It is one of the most exciting things I have ever been a part of. Few things infuriate me like the financial crisis and the 2008 bailout, and this is one way to put that fury into productive action. Lately we have been averaging a protest a week. Selena, that civil disobedience training we did in DC could come in handy. We might be gearing up to do eviction blockades and get ourselves arrested.
- Wednesday I move into my new apartment in downtown Holyoke. Living alone -- no more vampire roommates! The place has lots of room so you all should stay with me when you visit New England. Julian, you especially, if you're missing old homes. The building is a converted historic mansion. (Fireplace in the bedroom! Fireplace in the living room!) Anyway, once I'm settled in I'll have a party and everyone even remotely nearby should come.
- I'm having an eyeliner phase. It's a thing.
- I'm liking this guy I've been seeing, Jason. It's also a thing. We're nearly into March, so I suppose it's moved out of the realm of the summer fling. Make your serial monogamy jokes -- maybe we'll decide to be polyamorous and then I'll have the last laugh! He's not my boyfriend. I'm definitely not his girlfriend -- resolved never to be anyone's that ever again. And it's working. It's a project -- we call it an "Experiment" -- in how honest and communicative and open and anti-misogynistic and balanced a romantic thing like this can be. I'm still scared by how easy it is to fall into manipulative and unbalanced and sexist patterns, especially with romance and sex thrown in, but I am cautiously -- caaaaautiously -- optimistic about this.
- The world is blowing up! Have you all noticed?! Tunisia and Egypt and Bahrain and Libya and Yemen and WISCONSIN! I love it. Time for a revolution. I'm ready. The world is messed up. Our government is messed up. And it's entirely on our generation to make it not messed up anymore. Thank goodness for Hosni Mubarak and Scott Walker for waking everybody up.
- The other day someone was talking to me about how our entire country went to sleep when Visa and MasterCard came out. Nothing kills a revolution like a credit card. So I am making the concerted, political decision to get out and stay out of debt as much as financially possible.
I think those are all my changes. Oh no! One more! I'm going to get a dog! It's going to look like this:
Well, maybe not that big. But I am going to get a Great Dane. Gentle giant! When my dog plays with Megan's, it will look like this:
Ahhh hahaha I can't wait!
