i suck.

I don't post much here anymore because I am too damn busy. The five classes and internship are officially kicking my ASS. But that's not why I suck (well, it might be another reason). I suck because I procrastinate. Right now. I have a paper due at 8:30AM tomorrow. No, make that today. I didn't start writing the paper until this evening. Luckily I did a few hours worth of research on Sunday or I would be really screwed. I am tired. My body is tired. I won't be sleeping for a long time because I took a record amount of Ritalin today. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to take four doses in one day and I'm not sure how my body will respond. But at least I won't fall asleep while finishing my paper. I just took a quesadilla break and have a little more energy. Jesse is an awesome best friend and husband, and not just because he makes me quesadillas at midnight.

Today some friends and I went on a field trip between classes. Here is a photo from our little excursion.


must. write. paper. and. then. edit. and. then. finish. progress. notes. from. shitty. internship. and. then. take. a. shower. and. go. to. class.

oh the drama.

yee haw.

Jesse instant-messaged me on Friday and asked if I wanted to go to the rodeo. I asked him when. Of course it didn't really matter when, I said yes before he could answer.

So we went to the rodeo on Friday night. It was at the Palace of Auburn Hills and we had free front row tickets and free parking. Nice! I had never been to a rodeo before and wasn't sure what to expect. The first surprise of the evening was the stink. It makes sense that it smelled like shit but for some reason I never even considered it. Yeah. I didn't enjoy that part of the rodeo at all. Hopefully the Palace has a sweet ventilation system because I can't imagine the Pistons would be happy to come home to a shit-smelling arena. I know I would be really mad if I had a job and went away and came back and my office smelled like shit. Or was filled with black mold. Ha! Just when you thought I was over that...

When we pulled in to the parking lot, there were a couple animal rights protesters with signs. I realized that I must hate animals. Between going to the rodeo and the dog track, I am personally responsible for the pain and suffering of so many furry, cute, and not-so-cute animals. But I'm okay with that because I work toward ending the pain and suffering of so many cute and not-so-cute human beings. Priorities, people. And besides, I watch Animal Cops and know that there are a lot of animals out there that didn't make the cut for the rodeo and the dog track that live pretty horrible lives. Anyway, I do give them props for standing out there in the freezing cold with their signs. Especially since when I went to DC a few weeks ago I was prepared to protest from my cousin's condo if it was cold outside. Just kidding. Kind of.

Pictures!

They turned off the lights and this was on the big screen. I love the Longhorn World Championship Rodeo!


I don't know if you can tell but that is a flame at the top of that there flag pole. Very patriotic.


Here's a calf that the cowboy was supposed to tackle and tie up but the calf got away. I'm not sure I understand why a cowboy would want to jump off a horse, tackle a calf, then tie up the calf but it was definitely entertaining. One guy couldn't get the calf to lay down so he picked it up and dropped it on the ground and it bounced. I started to feel bad for the calf and then I was interupted by my fond memories of the steak I had eaten for dinner on the way to the rodeo.


Then an entire cowboy family came out and did cowboy stuff. They shot stuff and lassoed stuff and stood on horses. The mom did stuff too but I don't remember because I was too busy being amazed at the concept of an entire cowboy family.


And then they did trick riding, which is different than what I thought when I heard it announced. Everyone was dressed and money was not exchanged. At least not out in front of everyone. There were three people who did hand stands and other crazy shit while riding a horse that was running really fast. Again, I can't remember exactly what they did because I was busy focusing on the gold lame' rider. Wow. I'm not sure if you can see it in this photo but she has a gold sequin headband to match her outfit. This photo is blurry but I really liked how she posed for this photo.


And then they did some other cowboy stuff. And then. Then they turned off the lights again. And then they brought out the bull.


Oh the excitement! I could feel it in the air! I don't think anyone rode this one but they rode a bunch of other bulls.

This is a photo of a bunch of cowboys beating on a bull that wouldn't cooperate. I think it kept laying down or something. So they kicked it in the head and hit it with their cowboy hats. And then it behaved so they could continue with tightening the noose around its balls so they could ride it.

I don't have much zoom on my camera so you can see how close we were. While it was exciting to have bulls and horses running at me, I don't recommend sitting in the front row at the rodeo (or at hockey games, but for a completely different reason). See, the animals and cowboys run around on lots of dirt. And when they run fast, dirt flies up and hits the people in the front row. Yuck.

So. Even though the rodeo smelled like shit and dirt landed on me, I loved it. It was waaay more exciting than the monster truck rally and I would definitely go again.

update.

Last month I posted about a random voicemail I received. I completely forgot to call the man back and let him know he left the voicemail for the wrong Jen. A couple weeks ago when I was driving to Dexter to meet my family to drive to Washington, DC, my phone rang and I didn't recognize the number. I answered it and it was the guy! I tried to explain that even though yes, I am Jen, he had the wrong number. He said, "yeah right." and hung up! How rude! I thought about it for a few minutes and decided that I really needed to call him back and let him know he hung up on the wrong Jen. So I called him back and said, "You called a while ago and left a message and I meant to call you to tell you you have the wrong number but I forgot and I really don't want you to think the person you are trying to call is blowing you off because she just didn't get your message." And I had to say it really quickly because I didn't want him to hang up again. He asked me if I worked at some company and I said no, that he really had the wrong number. Then he laughed and very politely apologized and thanked me for calling him back and said goodbye.

heat

All across the land people are saying, "Brrr! It's so cold!" I see news reports of people without heat in their apartments. They turn on stoves and burners in the kitchen to stay warm even though they know the hazards. I think to myself, "that is so dangerous. I hope they do not have small children or pets in the house. I hope they do not burn their entire house/apartment complex down to the ground."

I stay inside as much as possible because we have insulation in our house now. It is warm. When I do go outside I wear Cuddl Duds and I bundle up in my ridiculously warm Marmot jacket (I'm a poser. I do not ski. I search for warmth, water proof, and wind proof and am willing to pay large amounts of money for my own comfort). I pull on my knit cap and my warm mittens and run to my car and wait for it to warm up. I drive to my internship and sit in my car and call the office from my cell phone to make sure someone is in the office. I do not want to get out of my warm car if nobody is in the office. When I establish that someone is in the office, I hurry from the car to the office building. It is cold but since pretty much just my nose is exposed, it's not too bad.

Now I sit in the warm office. It is actually a little too warm. I shouldn't have worn the Cuddl Duds. I'm annoyed because my supervisor sucks and is never here on time, and when she is here, she usually ignores me or gives me some inane task just so I'll have something to do. She completely misses the point that I am here to learn and am not her secretary. I think things like, "Why me? Why do I get such a shitty internship? I can't believe I had to go out in the cold for this."

Someone comes in my office and tells me I have a phone call. It is a woman I have been speaking to on the phone for about 2 weeks now. She is Nigerian and has been in the U.S. for almost 3 years. She came here to be with her husband. He beat the shit out of her on a regular basis so she and her two young children left him 8 months ago. They lived in a domestic violence shelter for a few months and then were placed in a transitional housing program. Things have gone very wrong for this family. Two weeks ago she was told that even though they told her the rent was $475 and included utilities, they were wrong and it is actually $625. Oh, and she has to make up the difference for the three months she has already lived there. She cannot afford $625 and does not have the money to pay what they say she owes. This is illegal. She did not sign a lease. They cannot raise her rent and evict her for not paying it. I try to address this with her but the illegality of the situation is not her concern. Her concern is finding a place for her family to live. I have been doing my best to try to figure out what this transitional housing program is and why they suck so badly. I have made phone calls on her behalf. I have talked to her on several occasions and we have begun to establish a relationship. I am hopeful that I can help this family even though this is not what my internship is supposed to be.

This morning I say, "Hello! How are you today?" and my heart drops when she says, "The landlord turned off my heat on Saturday. I have a small heater but it isn't enough. I am scared." I want to throw up. I will do all I can to help her but I am not familiar with the programs in this county. Nobody returns my phone calls. This is so illegal but she doesn't care about that. The legal system is slow and she needs to find a place to live now. My supervisor still isn't here.

I am warm. I hope you are warm. Lots of people are cold right now because apparently, poor people don't even deserve heat. Even though I am warm, I am not comfortable. I have so much. It isn't right that I have so much and people are shivering inside their homes, if they have homes. Ah the guilt of a social worker. I was going to tell you to go forth and help people. That just sounds cheesy and social work-y and like I just attended a war protest or something. So instead I will tell you that I hope you can stay warm through this cold spell.

Doing what I can to help this family will help me stay warm. And comfortable.

i protest.

I can't believe it's been a week since our DC trip. Yikes!! Okay so here's the story of the weekend.

We left on Friday a little after noon. I was running late because my car didn't start. Apparently my battery doesn't like cold weather. Erica, Wendy, my mom and I loaded up my mom's car and took off for DC. We got to Dundee (about a half hour drive from where we started) and had to stop for beef jerky and some lunch.

Yummy!!

We got back on the road and had a pretty uneventful trip. We got to DC at 10:30 which was waaaay later than I thought we would get there. But we had stopped several times and I didn't want to speed too much because it freaks my mom out. Cousincori insisted we stay with her even though she was super busy. It was great to have a comfortable place to stay... for free! We were pretty tired after the long road trip so stayed in and drank some wine and went to bed early.

Saturday morning we got up and finished making our protest signs.

And we went to breakfast at the Tune Inn, which is right around the corner from Cori's condo. The dead animal heads on the wall were amazing and the greasy food was a great way to start the protest day. But as Cori said, the really great service from our waitress was a little unsettling. Good service just doesn't always fit in at a greasy breakfast bar. Great service is just strange.

It was such a beautiful day. It was chilly in the morning but it definitely warmed up.

We got to the mall a little before 11AM so there weren't very many people there. Cori and I walked around a little bit because her friend was supposed to meet us there. We finally found her and then went back to find my mom, Erica, and Wendy. They were up toward the stage so once we found them, it was hard to look back to see how many people were there. The march was supposed to start at 1PM but they had a lot of speakers so it didn't get going until almost 2. Surprisingly, I thought one of the best speakers of the day was the mayor of Salt Lake City. Who woulda thunk it?? I was also happy to hear John Conyers give a shout out to Detroit. There were some celebrities there - Jane Fonda, of course Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and Sean Penn. A couple veterans and/or their family members spoke out against the war. It really felt like everyone supported the troops but not the war. I obviously wasn't around to protest the Vietnam war but I think we all know that the troops didn't have any support. Many of the speakers not only talked about bringing the troops home and out of harm's way, but pushed for supportive services for the troops and their families once they are home.

Here is a photo of Erica and I. Such good little protesters.

It seems like it took forever for the march to start. And then when it did start, we moved at a snail's pace. The crowd was pretty fired up. Lots of yelling. Lots of sign waving. Lots of singing. Lots of getting bonked on the head with sign corners. Here's the supreme court. I like this picture because the court almost looks fake against the pretty blue sky. I think you all know I'm not that good at photoshopping so it is definitely real.

We dropped out of the march after a while because we were tired (we're old!) and hungry and had to pee. We went to lunch at some bar. I relaxed with a big burger and a very tasty bloody mary. We decided to take the subway up to the memorials and walk around since it was just late afternoon and the weather was perfect.

The World War II memorial wasn't done the last time I was in DC so I was glad we saw it. It's huge and I am sure it is even more cool when the water is in the pool.

The Lincoln Memorial is always amazing.

We also went to the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the FDR Memorial. I think I took this picture from the FDR Memorial.

And then this is the Jefferson Memorial.

We walked a long way! We finally made it back to Cori's and my mom crashed on the bed. She didn't move. We were sure to put her cell phone, a glass of water, and the remote control by her side before Wendy, Erica, and I went to meet cousinAaron and his friend, Kyle, at the 18th Amendment bar. After a couple cocktails and some food we went back to Cori's and crashed before 11PM. Cori was at a work party and when she got home, she said she thought we were all still out partying. Yeah. Right.

Sunday morning we woke up early, dropped Cori off at the airport (she was actually flying to Detroit!) and hit the road for home. We didn't run into too much bad weather, just some snow in Pennsylvania and then in Toledo. I think the worst roads I ran into were in Detroit where salting and/or plowing the roads is against the values of the city.

It was an awesome weekend with lots of fun and laughs. I love my family (and Erica definitely counts as one of the family!) and I will remember this weekend for a long time.