Benefit

Life has been pretty busy out in Sacramento. I've been working 2 part time jobs, one with Clean and Sober and the other with El Hogar. El Hogar provides mental health services for individuals in Sacramento and I'm working as a service coordinator. I've been there for about 1 1/2 months and will be going full time in November. I'm staying with Clean & Sober through the annual benefit, where there is a silent auction and dinner. I'm excited about it this year because Kevin will be out for it. Kevin and Brian are both coming to visit this weekend, but Brian won't be here until Friday night. After the Benefit, it'll be nice to have some time to relax and hang out with Kevin and Brian. If only Stephanie could come out too!

Meghan's site

I'm putting in a plug for my old roommate's current endeavor. Meghan is a registered dietitian who I lived with my first year of volunteering in Sacramento. Her site is below and also with the links on the side. Check it out!

http://www.dietitianmeghan.com/

Yosemite

For Labor Day weekend, I went to Yosemite with my roommates and a guest from Friendship park at Loaves & Fishes. We went up Saturday and then Sunday went hiking. The guest from Friendship Park has a lot of experience rock climbing and is well known in the climbing world, even with his own website. He had lived in Yosemite for a while and knows all the ins-and-outs. The climbing world is interesting, almost like a whole different culture. We met some of his climbing friends and then hiked up to the base of El Capitan. We didn't do any real rock climbing but managed to get pretty high up on the mountain to see some beautiful views. The whole trip was pretty good. I was a little stressed because the trip wasn't very well planned and I usually like to have everything ready before I leave. It worked out well though and we all had a good time.

El Hogar

I have recently started a new job! I was hired part time at Clean & Sober as Program Assistant which was fortunate because I wasn't quite ready to leave yet. I just love the people too much. Because it is only part time, I was looking for another part time and got lucky! A friend of mine out here works at El Hogar and is returning to school in September so he is now working part time. I'm picking up the other 20 hours!

El Hogar is a mental health clinic where I will work as a Service Coordinator. I have a shared case load of ~80 people who I check in with, meet with and help out whenever necessary. I have been there two days so far, training under my friend. Monday will be the first day that I'm on my own which I'm excited for but I still have more training to do. It's a job through the county so there is more paperwork and general rules to follow so I'll be learning a lot over the next few weeks-months. As I learn more, I'll update more!

Tomato Plant

I came home the other day and checked my tomato plant on the way in. I was so excited to see two baby tomatoes, about the size of a small marble. When I move next week, the tomato plant will be coming and have more room to grow. When the tomatoes are large enough to be seen in a picture, I will post a picture.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

It's not actually until tomorrow, for us but because she is in Hong Kong, it's Stephanie's Birthday today! Hope you're having a great time, Miss you!

Transition retreat

I've decided to announce that I will no longer commit myself to writing on this blog. Every time I say that I will be better, I'm not so I'm thinking that maybe by not making myself write, I'll start wanting to. So I'm not ending my blog, I'm just not promising that I will write often (not like I do now so it won't really be a big change).

I'm in Philadelphia for transition retreat. It's a little repetative, as I was here last year for the same thing but it's a nice break from Sacramento. Also, tomorrow after I'm done here, I go to Philly for the night to visit Rye, my long lost roommate from Villanova. I'm very excited to see her as it has been far too long. Then Tuesday I return back to Sacramento.

A brief update, a few weeks ago, I went home for Kevin's graduation from UMass. Congratulations Kevin, you did it! Things at Clean & Sober have been good but busy. We're doing a running club with some of our residents which is great. We meet two mornings a week and it's really inspiring to see some of our guys (and maybe girls in the next session) train for something and then complete it. We did a 5K at the end of May and everyone crossed the finish line.

That's about all for now, I'll write more on the job front when I return to Sacramento and hopefully figure things out a little more.

dog sitting

Over the past few weeks, I've been dog sitting for two separate people. One has a rescued dog named Norton. He is very hesitant to let anyone near him because he was abused so badly but he's very sweet. The other family has two dogs, both little dogs but not the type that you put in a bag to tote around. They're actually cute. I really like watching dogs. It gets me out of my house for a few nights and they're so much fun to take out for walks. The only drawback is that I'm allergic to dogs but not bad enough to keep me away. I will definitely get a dog as soon as I am able.

Camping

Last night, Cara and I decided to go camping. It was very spur of the moment. We both needed a little time out of Sacramento and had been talking about going camping so last night, after packing the car at 8PM, we left for Rollins Lake. Rollins Lake is where the camp out is for Clean & Sober each year so the only time I had been there was with 1200 other people. Last night it was great. We got up there and set up the tent and started a fire and just hung out. This morning, I walked around the lake and then started another fire for some oatmeal. Around 11AM, we headed back to Sacramento. It was a very quick trip but really nice to get away for a little bit. The picture is of the log Cara found for the fire last night. We hadn't brought any wood and it was the only one she could find in the dark. It was very amusing, although not very effective.

Parents Weekend!

On Saturday night, my Mom and Dad came to visit! They got in late Saturday night so I dropped them off at their hotel and then Sunday, we went flying. One of my Dad's fraternity brothers lives out in this area and has a 6 person plane and offered to take us up. It was great. We flew over Folsom Lake, which I've biked to a few times and it was beautiful. I have lots of pictures to put up later so you can all see the views. Monday, we went shopping and then to dinner. Both my parents ended up getting a few things for themselves, and I got blamed for their extra spending:) They left Tuesday morning so it was a quick visit but a lot of fun. If anyone else wants to come out and visit, you are more than welcome too!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone had a nice day. My Easter was nice and relaxing. After going to church and cooking up a big brunch with Cara and Andrew, I went to a park nearby for the Clean & Sober cookout. It was a lot of fun. A lot of people came and there was tons of food and fun. There was an Easter egg hunt for the kids and then one for the adults (the eggs for the adults had $). It was really nice seeing the kids of the people I work with because before now, I had only heard about them. After getting back from the cookout, I went to a park near my place to read for a bit and am now getting ready to grill some food for dinner. Happy Easter!

GO NOVA!!!

Villanova has advanced to the final four in a great game last night against Pitt. Let's hope they can keep going!

...

I think that some people may believe that I am making this up but I am againnnn without a computer. Mine crashed, again. The third time in as many months. I brought it in and should be getting a brand new one in the next few weeks. They will junk out the old one because I reached the magic number of repairs. Right now, I have Andrew's computer because he was gone this weekend but he's getting back tonight so it's my last day with it. In two weeks, I'll be better with posting.

I know...

I know, it has been a while since I last updated my blog but again, I am without a computer. My computer that I got right after Christmas kept crashing and then wouldn't start up so I had to bring it to Best Buy. They, in turn, had to mail it out to have the repairs done so I have been without my computer for 2 weeks. I've had a somewhat busy two weeks too! Work has been crazy, which is why I haven't been able to update my blog from work. My free time has also been busy. For starters, Sean is visiting. He came on the 19th and unfortunately leaves tomorrow. It's been a really nice visit. We've gone to the movies, rented movies, eaten (a lot) and played games. I've been working the whole time which has worked out fine. Sean just comes in when he wakes up and hangs out in the park, where he worked last year. It's been really nice having him here.
I've also been busy with my "community." Because I have no real community, I've formed one with some past volunteers or staff from Loaves and Fishes. We have dinner every week, alternating houses and generally hang out on weekends. So although I've been very busy recently, and without my computer, things have been very good!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day and get to be with the ones you love!

Rock Climbing

Friday Night I went rock climbing! Not outside or anything too intense but to a rock gym right in Sacramento. It was a lot of fun. I had been once before with my brothers and remembered liking it but I think I only did one climb. This time I did a little more but not by too much. I climbed one whole path and my arms were burning by the end. I tried a few others but didn't make it all the way. I need to work on my arm strength before I try again. It made me feel weak.

Tahoe and snow shoeing

Today, I went to Tahoe with Cara and we went show shoeing! It was a lot of fun. We were up early because we brought Heather to the airport who moved back home to New Hampshire. We got to the sno-park around 12 and walked to the beginning of the trail. I had never been before but had heard it was pretty difficult. It certainly was. It took a little bit to get used to the snow shoes and the whole area is very hilly. We got a great workout and also saw some beautiful views. It was nice to get out of Sacramento for the day and get to see some snow! The day of snow was enough for me though, I wouldn't want to be back home in multiple feet of it. Here are some more pictures of our day.

A New Bicycle!

I got a new bicycle! I've been thinking about getting one for a while now but just hadn't done it yet. The final straw came when I was driving the car and it stalled. This is normal for a manual car but I drive an automatic. I'd been driving the past few days because I've been really sick. Not just a cold sick but double ear infections and strep throat sick. I don't know if I'd ever been so sick. I even ended up in the hospital because I almost passed out in the shower and scared myself. I'm feeling better now but because I've been sick, I haven't been riding my old bike as much and have been using the car. Seeing that the car isn't so reliable, I would have to use my bike. This is what I had.
It's hard to tell from the picture but it is a mountain bike. It is extremely heavy so difficult to get to my second floor apartment, the tires are always somewhat flat, no matter when I put in air, and only the front brakes worked. I decided that a new bike would be a very good investment so this is what I now have.

Again, hard to tell from the picture but it's teal and black, super light and...both brakes work! It rides really smoothly and I have a feeling my ride to work will be cut down quite a bit. It certainly helped me cheer up after being sick for so long.

Lazy Weekends

The weather has been wonderful out here! Yesterday, I went for a run (the first in waaayyy to long, which I am now paying for) and then went to Starbucks to use the internet. For my birthday, Heather, Cara and Andrew took me out to dinner and then out for drinks. It was a lot of fun to just hang out. It was a pretty low key night where I got to play Yahtzee! It was on a computer thing at one of the bars we went to and because it's my new obsession, I had to play.
This morning has been really nice as well. I went to church this morning, after biking all over Sacramento because I got the times confused at different churches. Then I went to the local art museum to see an exhibit on Warner Bros. It was cool to see how each character was created. I didn't realize however that they stopped making Warner Bros. in 1969. Now I am again sitting in a coffee shop using the internet. It's nice to have the weekends to do whatever I want...although I will be heading home soon to clean my apartment for the housewarming with the Sisters of Mercy on Tuesday night.

Overdue update...again

So I went home for 2 weeks for Christmas and had an awesome time. The first week was busy, doing some last minute shopping and catching up with everyone. Christmas came and went pretty quickly. We had family over for dinner and dessert and it was really nice to see everyone. On the 26th, the four kids took Mom and Aunt Nancy to the Boston Pops symphony Holiday show. First we made them dinner at Stephanie's house and then went to the show. Afterward, the four kids went out in the city for our annual kids night. We went to one bar and then to another where we played pool. It was a pretty laid back night but fun to just hang out. The next day, our whole family went bowling, another annual tradition and had a blast. I bowled a 109, which I think is my best score ever and then went downhill in the next two games.
On the 28th, my birthday, we were having Wooden shoe (our traditional birthday breakfast) when Stephanie came in, with my birthday present! My family had flown out Sean from Cleveland as my present! It was very exciting, I hadn't seen him since August! The rest of the next week flew by. Sean got the tour of Boston, hitting all the tourist sights and we had a nice New Years at Stephanie's in Boston. On Friday, Traci came from NY for a visit. It was great to see her again. We went to the art museum during the day and then dinner in Porter Square. Saturday, after running some errands, she headed back home, while I began packing. My parents took Sean and I out for dinner Saturday night where the restaurant sang him Happy Birthday, an event he had never before experienced. We caught a movie after dinner and then headed home to pack some more. We got about an hour of sleep before heading off the airport to return home. It was a great trip home, although it went a little too fast but it's also been good being back in Sacramento.