happy new years, happy holidays and all that jazz.. wow has a lot been going on!
i completed my first semester working at the U of I, which i am pretty proud of, really. also survived a semester of long distance with my meteorologist, which was both very difficult and very rewarding. toward the end of the semester i got the exciting news that i will be teaching a class this semester! it's a 2 credit class all paraprofessional staff (read: multicultural advocates and resident assistants) are required to take in order to be employed by the department of res. life. the course covers things like group dynamics, TONS of social justice stuff, and making a plan to help create a community on your floor. pretty much it is all stuff that i love thinking and talking about. so that should be super busy, but also super awesome!
after the semester ended i went up to wisco to hang out with the family, including my big bro! it had been over a year since i'd seen him and it was really really good to spend time together. us kids made dinner and cleaned the house for our christmas celebration. it was a lot of fun to see mom's face when she walked in after work to a spotless house and dinner on the table. it's nice to get to do stuff like that for her once in a while.
then it was off to florida for a bit over a week. i got to hang out with my meteorologist and his family on marathon key for 6 days - fishing, snorkeling, kayaking and eating lots of good food. i also got seasick for the first time, so that was an interesting new experience.. his grandfather said he, 'didn't want to get ahead of' himself, but welcomed me into the family - awkward but well meant. while in FL, i found out that the transmission had died on my car. BOOO.. the repairs would have been extremely expensive, so it wasn't worth it to fix it.
and sooooo... i bought a new car! it's a fabulous dark'ish blue nissan versa. for those Heroes fans out there, it's almost the same car as Hiro and Ando drive. so i got the car on jan 2, and then drove down a ways into IL for a retreat, back to WI to sell my old car (i got $500! not bad!) and then finally back to UIUC.
this semester will be.. very interesting.. to say the least. i think there are definitely ways that i am going to be pushed outside my comfort area in the next few months. but i am looking forward to the growth that comes from it. i just hope that i have enough time to recover and process in between each spurt of crazy activity.
and with that, it's time to go cosmic bowling with my staff :)
