Ever wonder what it's like to actually try to receive gov't benefits?

Today, I received my food stamp allocation - $16 dollars a month. Not even worth a trip to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) half an hour away to get fingerprinted and actually get the card! From trying to find out about my benefits to actually getting them has been a sordid nightmare of bureaucracy and waiting.

Let me tell you about the DHHS in Texas. Right now, it has a class action lawsuit being filed against it because their food stamp program has had so many complaints and they've fallen so far behind on their casework. I got to experience this firsthand. A caseworker has a time limit of 30 days to get back to the client. My caseworker was supposed to get back to me last week and didn't. I called her today multiple times and she didn't pick up. I called 211 (health and human services hotline) and talked to someone who asked me to spell "stipend". I finally found out that I was approved for $16, but all the other Americorps had been approved for the full amount, $200. I went to the DHHS in person to sort it all out. First of all, the DHHS is ridiculously disorganized. It's unclear where you should go when you enter. It's impossible to ask anyone a question unless you wait in a half hour line. I waited in three lines totaling 2 and a half hours of waiting. I finally talked to my caseworker and she outright lied to me about food stamps and my eligibility. After being shuffled around and waiting in my third line, the person helping me said, "okay your caseworker's supervisor has sorted it out. You'll get your $200 by this afternoon." I guess we'll see!

In other news, Austin City Limits (Austin's famous three day music festival) was a great time :)! I saw Chapman favorites like Bon Iver, Girltalk, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, and the B-52's performing Loveshack.

My friend Alese and myself gearing up for the day:

Pretty much what the festival looks like:

End of day 1:

Waiting for Bon Iver in the pouring rain (yes I'm wearing a poncho I fashioned out of two trash bags):

Bon Iver in the pouring rain:

Girltalk:

At Girltalk!:

workin' gal

Last Friday, I finished my first week of work! I sit behind a computer or in front of a manual and do "research" (reading the FEMA website and a lot of facebook and gchatting) and go to my boss's office and listen to her ramble for an hour or so, a day. So, it's pretty much exactly like Amherst. Class/lecture for a few hours a day and then "research". I can even wear my ripped up jeans and sneakers! I think I'm really going to enjoy this year of work and I've already learned so much about disasters.

Right now, I just sat down in the living room after washing the dishes from a spaghetti and meatball dinner one of my housemates and his girlfriend cooked. My housemates are jamming out next to me with a guitar, harmonica, and recorder. It's weird living with all boys after living with all girls. Life is pretty much as perfect as it can get. My only complaint about life in Austin is that I'm too social! I've gone out almost every night last week which meant a lot of recuperating time in the office (and a lot of not working). There's also been hilarious boy drama SO CALL ME FOR THE DEETS.

Highlights of living cheaply:
Found a way to get into Austin City Limits for free
Found a place where I can play free pool (and the owner gives me free pizza too!)!

One of my housemates, Andy


Andrew, another housemate, on the right and his friend Matt making a blueberry pie


Me making MEATLOAF from Andrew's recipe

Get our your VAD!

Hi dears, I just got back from my Pre-Service Orientation in Albuquerque last night and I start work on Monday. PSO was incredibly interesting, throwing 216 Vistas from all over the country serving in the Southwest. Ages ranged from 19-62 and with diversity easily rivaling Amherst. The three days were not unlike orientation, everyone trying to feel each other out, cliqueing, sexiling, etc. I made friends with, not surprisingly, the hipsters, indie kids, and organic farmers. We started giving people epithets. There was Crying Girl who always looked like she was crying, Slayer who refers to sex as slaying (can you believe this?), etc. etc.

I'm so tired after PSO, mainly from non-PSO related things. Alyssa, my new Austin friend, and I made friends with Albuquerque Vistas so we got to visit organic farms around Albuquerque and hot springs in the Jimemez Mountains (pronounced Haymen although I obviously called them the Hymen Mtns). I even got to see Bill (who's going to start posting for Jess)! Although the training itself was boring, there were a few highlights. All the vistas received Volunteer Assignment Descriptions, aka VADs, which obviously sounds like a lady's lady bits. Choice quotes from this week, "Get to know your VAD. Feel free to make changes and notes on it", "Discuss your VAD with your supervisor frequently", and inexplicably hilarious "your VAD is not set in stone."

This song (my favorite of the trip) feels like driving to the Jimenez Mountains
Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine

HOME!

... has been great, except my dad keeps nagging me about how much I'm on the computer. I tell him, "DAD! I check the NYTimes and my blogs in the morning and gchat at night!" It made me realize how much of home is not here. I just got back from Amherst (and before that New York and before that Boston). I'll do a recap picture post but check out the facebook album for the full album. Amherst was lovely, full of the best sides of Amherst -- discovering swimming holes (or rivers, as the case may be), fabulous dinner parties, and lazily hanging out. Now I'm home and I have until tomorrow morning to pack up my incredible amount of shit as well as tie up a few loose ends. Then on Tuesday, I fly to Albuquerque for training! Updates on apartment and training coming!







more photos to follow...

the farm

Hi friends,

I got back to New York from the farm on Sunday and as soon as Jenny and I left, it felt far more like a dream. I still vividly remember walking into Megan's bright kitchen, smelling roasting eggplant and Megan's amazing garlic-y hummus. And then all of the sudden being swarmed by a flurry of arms, voices, faces of Carmella, Destry, Rachel, Megan, and Rose. I've earmarked those ten minutes as one of my top five moments of all time. We spent all day lounging around and then cooked dinner for hours. We made a beet salad, tomato and basil salad, and shish kebabs using branches of rosemary, herbs and veggies from the farm, and lamb from a farm down the road. After dinner, we ate a delicious blackberry pie with blackberries picked from around Hampshire and Jenny and Rosie made the fantastic crust (no coffee grounds included) and whipped cream. After being stuffed out of our minds, we finally had Rachel's huge bed party and snuggled in sleeping bags. On Sunday, we made French toast and Megan filled our bags with goodies from the farm including bouquets of flowers and incredible veggies which Jenny and I cooked yesterday! What more could you want from a weekend?

Anybody have other thoughts, fav. moments? Picture post coming soon.

New York, New York, New York

Hi friends,

I've been in New York the past week or so and have been having a lot of fun. Steve T., Mike S., Jenny and I have been living in Adam's upper east side apartment and have been giggling (mainly Jenny), going out, seeing old friends, and watching a lot of tv. Since I'm not moving to New York anymore (and therefore don't need to look for an apartment or job), I don't really know what to do with myself in this never ending and expensive city. Anybody got any ideas? I've been scoping out free music, galleries, and the like, but mainly, I can't wait to see so many of you at Megan's farm this weekend!

Early or Late Post, however you see it!

I've been in Boston for the last few days having a wonderful time. On Friday, Rosie, Rachel, Emily, Anna Mullen, and I went to a Venezuelan restaurant for dinner and had a great little reunion. We had drinks in Emily's apartment in Back Bay afterwards. Yesterday, Rosie and Rachel went to New Bedford and hopefully one of them will post about hanging out on a yacht all day. I went to visit some old housemates all day before returning to Emily's apartment where she threw a housewarming party! I'll post pictures of my trip soon. The house party was fun -- Amherst party in Boston, pretty much. Although Rach claims that it was more grown up... but I dunno if I buy that. I have more random lunch and dinner dates tonight and head for New York tomorrow! I'll be there for two weeks before going to Amherst on the 16th. Oh! And a ton of us are going to Megan's farm next weekend (the 8th - 10th)!!! So if you're around any of those places, call me! And if you're not, WHY NOT?

movie!

I just saw 500 Days of Summer and really loved it! Everyone I've talked to about it has a different interpretation of the ending too, so if you see it, let me know what you think...



In other news, only 10 days of summer until I see some of y'all!

I have a job

so just now, I accepted a job in Austin, TX (you all should come and visit!). So, I'll be studying disaster relief on a state level, how legislation works to help a state prepare, respond to, and recover from a disaster. I'd be specifically working with religious communities, and translating that knowledge to them. When I didn't have a job, however, I was talking to Jeff Hall who's an Amherst alum and runs a program in Sierra Leone. I called him to tell him about this other job and he suggested that I would have a really good shot at a new position he's opening up in Minneapolis. I would be almost running his Sierra Leone program from Minneapolis, working closely with Jeff and the executive director, "very entrepreneurial", Jeff says. Anyway, I have been going back and forth, but decided on the Austin job. I hope I made the right decision...

On the other hand, before the job starts, I'll be in Boston July 30th to August 3rd, New York August 3rd - 16th, Amherst 16th - 20th (or so). Let me know who'll be where!

Happy Fourth!

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! I went to my friend's lake house where there was waterskiing, tubing, boating, and Patrón tequila. It was a lot of fun and felt unrealistically cheery considering my gloomy job prospects and shitty part-time job, but I guess that's what lake houses are for?

Here's an old video from the days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UehSJlOQj2I&feature=related

Into the Wild

Got nothin' to report but I saw Into The Wild which. was. incredible. Truly a Chapman classic about wanderlust and being flung into random places all over the world. Go see it!

Rosena

Hello girls! Rose here in DALLAS TX with Selena! on her luscious computer jamming to the indie hip-hop (what the fuck is that?? go look up 'discovery') and lounging around. Yesterday, after going to work with Selena, where I was treated to a decadent seared ahi tuna hawaiian salad, we went to Forth Worth, the home of Texas' history and heritage (hicks). I saw a cattle run! and then we had half a rack of ribs, which is an entree meant for one person, but me and Selena were full up splitting it. Everyone here is really cordial. Today I slept in while Selena worked, and now we are going to the MALL and then out again. Last night we went out to a bunch of cool Texan bars with Selena's friend Esther. What else...two dollar margarita's, many pints of Shiner Rock beer (local!), a cheese plate, taro popsicle...I wonder why I only remember the food. Well anyway, we have a bunch of pictures for you:

Half devoured Ahi Tuna Salad a la Greenz, Selena's salad joint.

Ft. Worth Water Gardens in true tourist fashion

They have cowboy boots with everything on them!! Like butterflies! And in every color! PINK!

We're cowboys!!!!

He's a cowboy!!!

A Cattle Drive!!!

Billy Bob's -- The biggest honky tonk in the world!! it was HUGE.

This is us trying to take Carmella photos!!!!!!!!!!! wooooooooooooo

Not much

So not much have changed in the past week... I've been working every morning and lounging around every evening -- applying to jobs, playing Settlers of Catan with rowdy Dallas folk (yes they're real people!), and drinking happy hour margaritas. Mainly I've watched TONS of movies so I'm going to give a quick run down! I saw UP! with Zims, and we cried the entire time behind our 3D glasses. I saw Away We Go with fucking adorable John Krasinski, of The Office fame, which was the most saccharine sweet indie movie of the summer. I finally saw Rachel Getting Married and Synchedoche, New York and soon I'm going to watch The Visitor, Persepolis, and Into the Wild.

Rosie and I will post ridiculous pictures of square dancing and cowboy hats later this week!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY EVERYONE

Take your dad out for Korean!

workin' in Dallas (NSFW - Not Safe For Work)

Hey kiddos,

I still haven't found a job in NYC, but I have found a part-time job in Dallas. It's called Greenz - Salad for z' adventurous. They do wacky salads. But they're not that wacky, really. Just wacky for Texas. Today was my first day!! I started at 8 today and ended at 3:30. I was up on my feet all day because they got REALLY busy. Ryan, the manager, said that today was the busiest they've ever been. We even stopped taking delivery orders, it was just too much. At the end of the day, Ryan went through my "new employee checklist". At the end of the day, he remarked, "I guess I didn't train you as much as make you do. So you're all good." THX. Anyway, people are horrible, in general. And I already have stories. A woman refused to touch her salad claiming that it was "absolutely inedible" without having tried it, just because she didn't realize there were walnuts on it. And another guy was all, "hi. you're new. what's your name?" "selena" "it's a pleasure being served by you" Jesus, it's not like I was serving up a BJ. Anyway, it was kind of nice being really busy again. Reminded me of school. I almost miss the stress. And I have homework tonight! I have to memorize the menu. So off to that.

What's everyone reading lately?

I just finished "Extremely Loud, Incredibly Fast" by Jonathan Safran Foer because I loved "Everything is Illuminated". I highly recommend either.

I'm now starting "Hunger Games" which is pretty much a remake of Battle Royale, which is a bloody movie about kids killing each other in a game. It was on my friend's little sister's 7th grade reading list. I'm concerned

And then I'm going to read Isabel Allende's "House of Spirits" in deference to Chapman and Rachel's quote.

Love,
Selena

OKAY!

http://asianposes.com/

If you missed your daily dose of asian.

Back at the Herst

Cait, call me! We should hang. Sorry I missed my day. I've reprimanded myself as blog police. The ABC meetings started on Sunday. Yesterday I was sitting in Webster 220 from 9AM to 9PM, legit. With a 1.5 hour break, and working lunches and dinners. Today it's the same thing and tomorrow it'll be another long day. I've been trying to get these trustees to help me out with job stuff. Haha, anything I can get, but I've definitely decided on moving to New York, and Jenny's looking for apt's in Brooklyn for us.
Now, I'm sitting in our ABC meeting and listening to everyone deferred maintenance, fringe benefits, etc. In yesterday's meeting, I realized how good it is to be back. This entire process has just made me think and think and think about Amherst. And being back so suddenly after graduation just prolongs my belief that I'm going to be here forever. Yesterday after work, Zims, Raj, and a few other people and I went to the Dirty Truth and it was a nice even if I couldn't drink, because I have strep apparently! So I'm on antibiotics and not sleeping enough and missing you all. Hope to hear from y'all soon.

Wo Gae

Ni hao peng you! That means "Hi friends!" in Chinese. I've been speaking Chinese nonstop in North Carolina on this family reunion, mainly while playing poker. There's this one term in our card game, when you "pass" on your turn, you say wo gae or wo bu gae. Wo means I and bu means not. So I keep hearing I gay or I not gay. While all I wanna do is play cards, the fam keep making me do other stuff. My cousin's backyard is actually a huge lake so I've been fishing a bit on his boat dock, fishing with tiny worms I've dug for in the ground (it's super ghetto). And two days ago, we went white water rafting at the National White Water Rafting Center. Apparently they have national centers for everything? For part of the day, I explored the Catawba River on a kayak. There are these beautiful and random tree islets that thread through the middle of this vast river, and you can kayak through these flooded islets. When you look down you can see grass and other vegetation that used to be showing when the water level was lower. As I slowly meandered my way through low slung vines and lazy turtles, I realized that it was the first time I've been alone in a long time. While I was at Chapman, I was trying to be with whoever was around (Destry and Megan know what I'm talkin' about. I slunk around their rooms while they were trying to move out and I was mainly getting in the way, which is okay by me). Since I've been in NC, I've been with family nonstop. It was strange being so suddenly alone and it being that quiet and still. It gave me time to digest these last few months and be properly mo about graduating.

Yesterday, we went strawberry picking. It seemed kind of anachronistic, all these Asian people bending over these little strawberry plants in the hot sun. We should have been wearing Rice Hats and on paddy farms in rural China watching WWII Ally jets fly over. Then we went on a "safari", the North Carolinian version. There were rhinos from South Africa, antelopes from India, ducks from Egypt, wildebeest from Africa. This is my version of Cait's analogy. I kept thinking about Chapman and how we're similar to these thrown together animals, coming from all over, but now, going all over. And how Hannah reminded me of these spritely petite antelopes, and how Rose reminded me of the water bison that I never saw do anything but eat.

This reminds me of Hannah.

This reminds me of Jess.

And this is obviously me feeding Rose.

Missin' you like a petting zoo,

Life Post: The Beginning

"I’d like to fly off on a broom and to dance with other pagan witches in the forest to the light of the moon, invoking the might of the earth and forcing away demons, I want to become a wise old woman, to learn the ancient spells and secrets of healers. It’'s not something small that I want to achieve. Witches, like saints, are solitary stars that shine with their own light, they don’t depend on anything or anyone, which is why they lack fear and they can throw themselves blindly into the abyss with the certainty that instead of hitting the ground they will come out flying. They can convert themselves into birds to see the world from above or into worms to see the world from inside, they can exist in other dimensions and travel to other galaxies, they are navigators in an infinite ocean of consciousness and knowledge." - Isabel Allende

We are witches and we are birds and cats. Meow. Hi friends. This is the first post of the Post Chapman Blog, and I know we've (or, I've) talked a lot about it, but I wanted to explain why I had this idea. When practically everyone was abroad our Junior fall year, I remember feeling so friend-sick. And then, I would receive an email from Destry or Rachel or Megan. My face would lighten up and a surge of warmth-love would fill my body. Remember Beauty and the Beast, Disney's version? While the Beast was turning into the Prince and that light pierced his body from the inward outward? That's what I felt like, every time!! I want to glow everyday! So that's why.

Anyway so here is my life post: I'm sitting in bed eating a crab/artichoke/red pepper casserole I made from leftover Wine and Cheese ingredients. Cait is lying in my bed watching Matilda. Hannah is on my couch sending important emails. Carmzella is cleaning the kitchen. Jessie and Rosie are sleeping. I snuck a photo at the Carms and Jess sleeping this morning. It feels like another Saturday morning in Chapman, but without everyone, it feels more like visiting in this inbetween house. We're going to walk to Noho today and find the mystery swimming hole. And then when we get back, we're going to light incense all over the house to cleanse it or some spiritual Carmella shit. I still haven't heard about the job, but we'll know soon and I'll let everyone know!!!


Why is Jess wearing that on her hand?