Happy Halloween!

This is Alex. He is 7 years old and always one of the first kids to show up every day. I was in the game room with him today and asked if he wanted to play a game. He said he wanted to play "victim." He then chased me around the room trying to "suck my blood" by biting my arm. It took me a few minutes to get him to stop. I actually thought it was hilarious, but tried not to laugh since this is not the type of behavior we should promote. And he actually started biting me. So anyways, I thought that story would be funnier with a picture, so here you go. All the kids were wound up today and had no homework, but most of them left early to go trick or treating, so that was nice. My housemates and I celebrated Halloween by watching multiple Buffy episodes. Not quite as fun as dressing up and going to a party, but it worked for me.

Multiple Posts

I guess I had a lot to talk about because I just ended up doing four posts in a row. They all had pictures to go along with them, so I decided to seperate them. Plus, four shorter posts is easier to read than one long one. So enjoy!

Jeff Street Retreat

This weekend we went to the Jeff Street church retreat, which is the church we have been attending regularly. Two of my housemates were unable to attend because they were out of town. In the picture is me, Katie, Emily G., Alisa, and Emily B. (who is not one of my roommates, but she was in the program last year and still lives in Louisville). The five of us shared a room. The retreat was somewhere in Kentucky about a half an hour away. We arrived Saturday for lunch followed by free time. We walked through the woods and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. There was a talent show in the evening (two talent shows in a row for me). I was so disappointed that there was a piano and I had no music with me, or I might have played. Since I have barely played the last two months, I have lost all the memorization of pieces that I had. The talent show was interesting. It consisted of cute kids singing or playing an instrument and adults doing skits. Most of the skits were very political (did I mention this is a liberal church?) One was titled "Desperate White House Wives". After the show we had a bonfire and smores. Today we woke up early for breakfast and afterwards spent an hour entertaining all the kids while the adults did their own activities (we did not have to pay for our room in exchange for this, so it was a good deal). After worship and lunch, we headed home. I really like this church and I now feel like I am getting to know people. And the kids are so cute! One interesting thing that I heard mentioned during the retreat is that because the church includes everyone, it automatically excludes people who are not comfortable with this. It is kind of a catch 22. There really is no way to include everyone, but I think they do a good job trying. Anyways, it was a good weekend!

You Down With ACC??

On Friday we had a fall party & talent show during our after-school program. It was a lot of fun, although very loud and crazy at times. The first part was pretty calm. We had some games, face painting, art projects, cupcakes, etc. Then the talent show. All the kids were there for that. Most of the "talents" consisted of several kids getting up on stage and dancing/flipping/running around to some hip-hop song with no organization. It was amusing. Some of the girls worked up good dance routines though. Other than hip-hop dancing, a couple of boys rapped, and that was the talent show. For some reason the kids felt the need to rush the stage after each act, so that was a little hard to keep under control. And there was a lot of screaming. But it was a good time. I took over 50 pictures, so I had a hard time picking which ones to post! So expect to see some more in the future. A lot are of individual kids since everyone wanted a picture of themselves. The ones I posted are from top to bottom: Mr. Keyonn finishing off the talent show with some rapping, some of the kids (the cutest little girl United in the middle), all the kids leaning up on the stage during one of the performances, and me with Mwajuma and Fatuma. They are both in sixth grade and Denise's age.

My Third Visitors

I decided to keep up the trend of having a seperate post for each of my visitors, even though the past ones were not here for long. Celeste and Matt made a stop in Louisville Thursday night on their way to Tennesse to visit Matt's grandparents, although it was a bit of a detour (it wasn't really on the way at all). I am glad that they came. They got here around 9:00 and we went out to the Hard Rock Cafe. I realized I had never actually been inside of one. Then we stayed up talking and they left early in the morning before I had to go to seminar (which was another neighborhood visit by the way, in the Highlands. It was fun.) I hope they can come again for a full weekend.

Go Edgardo!

Well I know a few of you were curious to see a picture of my boss Edgardo, so here he is, along with Nedmija and Nermina, two of my coworkers at ACC. This past Thursday, Edgardo was presented with the "Art of Leadership" award, which he is holding in the picture. Every year, the Center for Non-Profit Excellence here in Louisville gives away five "pyramid" awards to non-profits at their annual conference. The only individual award given away is the leadership one, and Edgardo was the recipient this year. All the full-time employees got to attend the fancy luncheon they had for the occasion. ($50 a plate!) It was so nice eating at a banquet instead of serving one! And we had some delicious food (including cheesecake) and got to cheer on Edgardo as he received his award. I almost cried at his acceptance speech! Although I have only been working at Americana for two months, I have a lot of respect for him. It was nice to get out of the office for a couple of hours for this special occasion.

Home Sweet Home

I had a good weekend at home. I couldn't leave until Saturday because my housemates and I had interviews with Big Brothers/Big Sisters in the morning. We all decided to do the program as some extra volunteering. I will be paired with a little sister soon and I am supposed to hang out with her a couple times a month. I think it will be fun. After the two hour training/interview, I headed home to see my real little sister. The drive actually went really fast and it was nice to look at the pretty scenery with the leaves changing (in Kentucky at least, once you get to Ohio there is nothing to look at). Denise awaited anxiously for my arrival. She was waiting on the driveway, while talking to me on the phone, until I pulled up. She was the only one to greet me. My mom was grocery shopping and my dad was in the basement watching the Ohio State game. I yelled down at him to say I was home. He muttered something and kept on watching. When he came up twenty minutes later to use the restroom he was surprised to see me (I think Vicki will find this amusing). Anyways, it was nice to see my family again. I realized that was the longest I have ever gone without seeing them (only about two months). Things haven't really changed since I left. Denise is still a handful and acting like a teenager already. I think I provided some relief this weekend. After working with so many kids that have it rough, it is hard for me to see Denise acting like it is the end of the world because she can't go over to her friend's house or my mom won't stop at Dairy Queen after buying her a Halloween costume. She has so much compared to most other kids, but I guess she is too young to understand that. I tried to explain it to her though.

Saturday night I went to a corn maze with Kim, Erin, and a couple of her vet school friends. It was out in Plain City somewhere. Half of it was haunted, half not. We kept getting lost and were chased by people with chain saws, so all and all, it was a good time. Sunday morning I went out to breakfast with Kim & Celeste, then to church and spent the rest of the day with my family. It was a good weekend. Driving back and forth between Louisville and Columbus felt like I was traveling between my two different worlds. Does that make sense to anyone else?

Today was a long day at work because we had to stay two hours later for a training, so I didn't get home until 9 (luckily getting home consists of walking up some stairs!) The training started off as how to teach reading to ESL students, but turned into a discussion about the public school system here and what they are doing, and more importantly not doing, for the growing number of ESL students in the area. It sounds like some positive things will start happening. Change is definitely needed. We have so many kids that come in with homework that is not appropriate for their level of English. It is hard to help them when they have absolutely no idea what they are doing! Sometimes I feel like I am just doing their homework for them. We got some insight on how to deal with this tonight. I hope it helps.

I brought my tap shoes from home and just gave a little show to Emily and Keith in the kitchen. So Alisa, my sincere apologies if this disturbed your sleep. (and stop reading this and go back to work!)

STOMP!

Last night we all saw Stomp at the Louisville Palace, which is very similar to the Ohio Theatre in Columbus. It was a great show!! Very entertaining. We actually paid for these tickets, but they were relatively cheap ($16). As you can see from the picture, me and Andrea put on our Stomp tattoos before the show (they gave them to us with our tickets). The show made me miss tap dancing. I started tapping around the kitchen in my cheap Payless heels when we got back. I plan on bringing my tap shoes back with me when I go home.

Oh yeah, I am going home this weekend. I thought I would be scheduled at Starbucks (for the first time here), but they changed store managers the other week! So when I talked to the new one, he did not know anything about me. The last time I talked to the manager, she said she had put me in the system and I would start being scheduled, but appearantly not. This guy sounds more organized so hopefully it works out, although we have been playing phone tag since Monday. All I want is to work once a week on Saturday or Sunday. It's not that hard! I hope to start soon. I could use the extra money to help pay for my cell phone bill and to save for that trip to Bangladesh. (I was very surprised to get a text messge from Reba this morning!) Long story short, since I don't have to work, I am taking this opportunity to go home. I have not seen my family or friends from home since I moved and I do miss them. Plus it was my dad's birthday last week, and my mom's next week, and my dad is paying for my gas! (or I probably wouldn't go). So their birthday present this year is me. I won't go home again until Thanksgiving.

Work has been good this week. Even though the kids drive me crazy sometimes, I really do like them. Oh, and the other computer that was stolen was returned! The person who gave it back had a long story that probably isn't true, but we have it now so that is good. And we have new locks and are limiting who gets keys (I don't even have them anymore and I am "facility manager"!) In not so happy news, my boss Edgardo has been out sick all week. He was supposed to go to Washington D.C. this past weekend to see about getting a grant for the center, but he wasn't able to. I think it might be serious. He has a very stressful job which is causing his health to suffer. He had a couple biopsies, but I don't know anything more than that. So keep him in your prayers.

I'm First!

Well it looks like I am the first one to post pictures and talk about our weekend. I win!! As you can see, the four of us spent the weekend together in Pekin, IL at Abby & Derek's house. It was fun and so nice to see everyone again. I ended up having company on my five hour drive to Illinois. My friend from work Keyonn rode with me. He heard me say I was driving to IL after work and asked if he could ride along. He went to college in Iowa and still knows several people there (including his twin baby girls), and where I was going was right on the way. So a friend picked him up where I left off. He was very excited for this unexpected chance to see his kids, so I'm glad I made his weekend. Unfortunately, his friends had car trouble so he couldn't make it back to IL. He is currently on a bus to Louisville.

Abby Mo said she will tell people to look at my blog for a weekend description, so here it is. I arrived late Friday evening so we didn't do much after I got there. Saturday we went to a mall in Peoria but I did not buy anything! Then we had lunch at a nice cafe. Later that afternoon we saw the movie "Elizabethtown." I really liked it, although it was a little odd. And it made me cry. What I liked best is parts of it were filmed in Louisville. I thought that was cool since I live here now and recognized everything. Saturday night we made pizza, watched "Reign of Chaos" (which made me miss Bluffton!), got some frozen custard, and played poker. Laura had never played before and beat us all! Sunday we went to the contemporary (and very early!) service at Abby & Derek's church. I liked it. Everyone left soon after that, but I stayed around waiting for Keyonn and watching TLC (which I have missed). Once I realized he wasn't going to make it, I headed back to Kentucky by myself, and made it back just in time to watch Desperate Housewives. It was a good weekend, despite my allergy troubles due to Teddy (their new puppy). It was the first time I have left Louisville since I moved. It was also my first time watching cable, eating fast food, seeing a movie, and going to a mall since I moved here over a month and a half ago. However, I realize this is nothing compared to what Rebekah is sacraficing!!! :)

Since the kids didn't have school today there was no after-school program, but we had a meeting to discuss our new mentorship program. I am going to be assigned to eight kids. Basically, it is to learn more about them and make sure we are meeting their needs. Also, for them to have a staff member who pays extra attention to them. I have to complete interviews, follw-up with them, write reports, do home visits, and talk with their teachers at school. I have to keep case files, so basically it is like social work. I am going to be doing this on top of everything else, so we will see how it goes. I am excited about it though. So far I know I have three siblings from Sudan and two sisters from Somalia, and they are all pretty good kids and some of my favorites. The home visits are the only thing I am nervous about. I'm not really sure how they will go.

Well I have to get to my exciting night of dishes, cleaning, and laundry, so goodbye.

Good Beer & Contemporary Shakespeare

I have had a lot of fun the past two nights, so I thought I would post just to share that I am really enjoying Louisville. Last night we went out to the Bluegrass Brewing Company, or the BBC. It was a nice, chill place. We sat outside (I am loving this weather!) and listened to lots of old guys jam on their bluegrass instruments. I realized that I do like this type of music. I hate honky-tonky country, but bluegrass I do not mind. We shared a few pitchers of beer. But I am talking quality, freshly brewed beer that tastes good, not that crap we used to get at the Bluffton pub. Of course, it is a bit pricier. My roommates insist that whenever we go somewhere, something happens to me. Their point was proven last night. Some random old man (50s maybe) comes up to me, puts his hand on my shoulder, and says "Do you believe in deja vu?" He then went on to explain how I look exactly like a girl he knew in his college days. I love randomness.

Tonight Ben got us free tickets (seeing a theme here?) to the play "Twelth Night." It was AMAZING. I have never seen Shakespeare performed in this way, complete with a rock band and blasting the song "Everybody Dance Now." It was highly entertaining. It was pretty true to the original play, just performed in a creative way. I have now seen four quality productions in a nice theatre for absolutely free. It dawned on me tonight how amazing this is! I would have spent well over $100 by now.

So, if you can't tell, I love Louisville! I still can't get over the fact that I am living in Kentucky and loving it! We blasted the song "Old Kentucky Home" by Nappy Roots on the way home. Everyone needs to hear this song. I decided it's my theme song for the year. They play it on the radio all the time. If I find a way to put it on here, I will.

Well..I should get to bed. Tomorrow morning I have seminar and then work from 12-4. The kids don't have school Friday or Monday, so no after-school program. It will be a nice chance to get some things done without them. Right after work I am heading to Pekin, IL (about a five and a half hour drive) to visit Abby & Derek. Abby Mo, Laura, & Bob will be there too...can't wait to see everyone!!

My Second Visitors

Chad & Joel arrived Saturday morning around 11:30 and left Monday morning when I went to work. It was a fun weekend and thankfully I was feeling better. Although I was pretty worn out by the end. We didn't do too much, but simply being conscious for that long was a change for me. I think my housemates enjoyed having them, especially Keith. I was so glad to see him have some male bonding time! And Alisa decided that Chad should find a job in Louisville (since he is currently a pizza delivery man in Kenton) and rent our extra room. We even showed him the corny promotional video for Louisville we found on-line in an attempt to convince him.

Let's see, what did we do. Saturday we went out for lunch at the Vietnam Kitchen and had some delicious food. I cooked dinner on Saturday and had another success (I'm now two for two!) I made my great-grandma's recipe, American Chop Suey. It was yummy. Then my wonderful roommate Ben got us 8 tickets to see the play "Dracula" that night. It was awesome! (and scary!) Seriously, I was frightened. I had never been to a scary play before. It was worse than a movie because the actors are right in front of you! They ran up & down the aisles, and since we were in the back row, they were sometimes right behind us. This made me very nervous. But, it was an "excellent" play (as Chad would say). Sunday we went to Jeff St. again for church. Joel told me he liked it because it is nothing like a traditional Baptist church (which is why I like it too). They were actually kicked out of the official Baptist church because they have a female pastor. Then we all went out to eat at Santa Fe Grill, my new favorite restaurant. It is a bright pink building where I can get a delicious meal plus chips & salsa for $3.75. What more can you ask for? Later that afternoon Chad, Joel, Keith & I went to Iroquois park. We ended up hiking on a trail that said it was closed, but we never discovered why. I enjoyed being outside in this lovely fall weather! The rest of the night we watched movies & hung out.

Work was interesting yesterday (which it tends to be often). The first thing I learned was that someone had broken into the building Sunday night and stole two of our new computers (from the lab we use during the after-school program). We are now in the process of changing all our locks and improving our security system. The weird thing is, one of the stolen computers was returned this morning! They just left it outside the door and Edgardo found it when he opened the building. Maybe they felt guilty??? The other ordeal yesterday was an incident I had with an older Somali man. He is in charge of the Somali community in Louisville and has an office in our building. He has been approaching me often the past couple weeks (although he usually had no need to) and yesterday he asked me to come to his office. He had me sit down, gave me a drink (non-alcoholic), and then asked me a series of inappropriate questions. At first I thought he was aking me to have dinner with him & his family to learn about Somalian culture (yes he is married & at least 30 years older than me), but then I realized he was asking to go out to dinner with me alone, and also mentioned meeting in a hotel. He also wanted to know if I am currently in a relationship and asked for my cell phone number. I don't think I have ever felt so uncomfortable in my life. I excused myself and immediately told someone else what happened, who advised me to talk to Edgardo, which I did. He was very upset and wanted to kick this guy out. But of course he has a different story of what happened (Edgardo had us both write down what was said). There could have been "cultural misunderstandings" but it was pretty clear to me what this guy was indicating and it was completely inappropriate. For now he is on probation and is not allowed to talk to me at all, which I am happy with! This event led to an impromptu meeting about sexual harassment. Edgardo said he has never had to deal with something like this in 15 years and he never wants to again. So that was my fun-filled morning at work yesterday.

Some Pictures

On the top you can see the leaves are slowly starting to change color. I love fall! Next is Joel, me, & Chad. I am holding up a picture of Rebekah because we decided she was there in spirit. (It wasn't the same without you Reba!) And by the way..it took several tries to get a picture of us all smiling and this was the best one! Finally you can see me cooking! I put on my bandanna to appease Joel (he likes head coverings). And I appear to have some sort of stain on my shirt.

My connection to Adolph Hitler

First of all I would like to share that I have been up since 9:00 a.m. this wonderful Saturday morning, and I didn't have to be. Does this shock anyone? I am a little surprised myself. I woke up because I had to pee (not surprising), and decided to stay up because a) Chad & Joel are arriving at some point this morning and I am not really sure when and b) I was soooooo hungry! This might have something to do with the fact that I threw up all my dinner last night. The doctor warned me nausea might be a side effect of my antibiotics, but I did not realize actually vomiting would be involved. No fun. However I am happy to report that I feel better this morning then I have in over a week and I am looking forward to a fun weekend.

Now back to the title of my blog. My housemates & I took the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator test the other week. Yesterday morning in seminar we got back our results and discussed them. I am pretty sure we did this in first year seminar at Bluffton, but I didn't remember what I was and our conversation was much more in-depth and intersesting this time around. I am a "ENFJ": extravert, intuitive, feeling, and judging (which does NOT mean judgemental, rather that I am an organized person who plans things). We got two pages describing our personality type, and I think it was pretty accurate. Here is my little paragraph description: "Responsive and responsible. Generally feel real concern for what others think or want, and try to handle things with due regard for other person's feelings. Can present a proposal or lead a group discussion with ease and tact. Sociable, popular, sympathetic. Responsive to praise and criticism." What do you guys think?

What I thought was interesting is the combination "NF" (intuitive feeling) is found in less than 12% of the population! (in the U.S.) We are the rare type. And that is what most of my housemates are. We are the "flakes" of the population according to Susan. You know, the ones who are visionary & want to change the world & care more about helping others than making money! We also got a sheet of paper listing people in history that had our personality types. First on the list of ENFJs is Adolph Hitler! Scary! But also listed are Martin Luther King, Jr., Billy Graham, and Ronald Reagan, so I guess that make me feel a little better. :)

Chad & Joel are 25 miles from Louisville!

Sick of Being Sick!!!

After having a very bad sore throat for seven days, I finally sucked it up and went to the doctor today (I was hoping it would just go away and I wouldn't have to spend money on prescriptions & co-pays, plus figuring out where to go here). But I guess it's a good thing I did because I discovered I have strep throat. The doctor didn't even do a test, she just looked at my throat and said I needed to get treated. She said she could see a couple of "puss pockets." I think that's one of the grossest things I have heard in awhile, so I thought I would share it on here. She kept saying "puss pocket" and I almost laughed. So I now have antiboitics to take, and she also gave me over 20 free samples of some allergy medicine (I've been having trouble with that too). I went to work every other day this week. The mornings where I basically have a desk job went ok, but the after school program is what did me in. So went to work Monday & wore myself out, slept all day Tuesday, then went back Wednesday to continue the cycle. All I did today was sleep and go to the doctor's office & pharmacy. It is amazing how much a person can sleep when they are sick! I have gone to bed at 9:30 every night this week. But I have trouble sleeping because I am so congested that I can't really breathe when I lay down, so it creates a problem. It just dawned on me that since I work with so many kids (who probably don't get treated for illnesses properly), I may be getting sick a lot this year. Hooray. This is the first day my throat has felt a little better opposed to worse, so I guess that's a plus. And I no longer have a fever.

Mondays always seem to be our crazy days at work for some reason. I have a couple stories. First a funny one...I was helping two middle school boys with their homework, and a few others joined the table. Then one of them asked me if I was married. I said no, and they all went "yesss!!!" So I guess they think they have a chance with me now. For the last half an hour of work I had playground duty, which basically means I break up fights and encourage kids to go home. A lot of the younger African kids love to "play fight." They assure me they are just having fun, although it looks to me like they are all going to get seriously injured. Well, a couple of the older kids joined in and I tried to stop it, but instead kids tried to tackle me & I was not able to prevent two of the youngest (& cutest) girls getting hurt. One was tackled by like five people & the other was hit HARD on the head a few times by an older girl with major attitude problems (she was suspended for the rest of the week). So I had two little girls screaming at the top of their lungs and I strained my voice as much as I could to talk over them. I don't think it helped my throat. By the end of that ordeal I thought I was going to pass out. I really shouldn't have been at work. I hope I didn't infect any of the kids (or my housemates!!)

Last night after work I went to a U of L (University of Louisville) soccer game. I rode over with my coworker Dave and met all my roommates. It was fun although I felt horrible. But I hadn't really left the house since Saturday so I wanted to do something! (plus it was free) My coworker Steven is the goalie for U of L. It was a good game, but they lost. They were a little more talented than the Bluffton soccer team. :)

My housemates are great and here is why. When I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (which happens a lot since I am drinking an incredible amount of water), I noticed a piece of paper slipped under my door. It was a homemade "Buffy" get well card, complete with pictures & personalized messages from Buffy and Giles. I thought it was hilarious. For example, Buffy said "I know your throat hurts, but if it gets too bad just remember the time I had to kill my boyfriend so he wouldn't open the hell mouth."

Chad & Joel are arriving Saturday morning to visit for the weekend. I promise to be better by then!! At least I now have proper medicine.

Weekend Update

A group of Bosnians showed up in our parking lot again around 9:00 on Saturday night. We looked out our second story window and noticed that at least one of the guys we played football with and promised Alisa a new mirror was out there (he has really big hair). We were debating what to do when our back doorbell rang (I did not even realize we had one). We ran down, assuming it was them, but it was actually two older couples who are on the board of our program. They brought us two new stools for the island in our kitchen which was a pleasant surprise. After they left, we went out to talk to the Bosnians. The hair guy was the only one we recognized and he didn't talk to us all. We explained to the others what had happened to Alisa's mirror and they assured us they would bring a new one for her the next day. We went back upstairs assuming it would never happen. Today I helped Keith bring in the groceries. My first surprise was that Muya Muya had gotten into our building (someone accidentally left the outside door unlocked) and was trying to break into the community center by punching in a bunch of numers on the alarm system. I got him to leave and tried to convince him that I don't live here (I really don't want the kids figuring this out) but I think my cover is blown. Why else would I be here on a Sunday carrying up groceries? After they were all up I went down to make sure the door was locked and got my second surprise. The group of guys that were here last night (around 10 of them) were back again and asked me to get my friend. I woke Alisa up from her nap and went back down with her. They had a new mirror along with a few screwdrivers. They took off her old mirror and put on a new one in less than ten minutes. I was amazed. They actually came through. They are nice guys, I just wish they would stop hanging out in large groups at all hours of the night on our property doing who knows what. We decided to not have a conversation with them about this just yet though. I'll leave it up to Edgardo.

Yesterday was my "cooking debut." It was the first meal I made by myself here (for everyone to eat). From now on we are each signing up for a day of the week to cook dinner. I made my mom's chili and it turned out great! Everyone liked it. Now I have to figure out what to cook this week. I will probably cook mostly on the weekends since I get home from work the latest during the week.

This weekend was the St. James Court Art show here in Louisville. They say it is the biggest and the best art festival in the country. They shut down most of Old Louisville (the historic section of downtown with lots of old, Victorian looking houses). There were over 700 artists there, displaying their works in booths and thousands of people come to see it. Peoople who did not pay for a booth were also selling stuff in their front yards. We took a bus down there Saturday afternoon and walked around for a few hours. There were so many people! It was fun to look around at everything, although I couldn't afford any of it. There was so much to take in. It was kind of like walking around the Louvre in Paris. It wears you out fast and there is no way to see everything. One of my coworkers lives down there and invited us to stop by her apartment for free food & drink, along with a regular toilet to use, which was a nice break from the crowd. The most exciting part of the day though was we all bought discounted tickets to see Stomp in a couple of weeks. They were selling them at a booth for only $16 which is a good deal I think. We are in the rear balcony of course, but I've always wanted to see that show and I didn't think we could get tickets that cheap. So I am excited for that.

I haven't been feeling too well the past couple of days, so I haven't done much at all since the art show, except relax and go to church (at Jeff St. again). I really hope I feel better and not worse tomorrow or work is going to be tough. I think it is Desperate Housewives and then bed for me tonight.

One more thing..what happened to the nice fall weather we were having??? We had a couple beautiful fall days last week and I was so excited, but today it was 89 degrees and humid. I thougth summer was supposed to be over by now.

Friday Night Entertainment

Today was a pretty good day. We had seminar in the morning. It was our first "neighborhood visit." We met at a coffee shop, took a tour of Old Louisville, and then went out for lunch at a nice cafe. We are going to have these once a month. Since there was no school today here, we did not have the after school program. But I still had to come in to work for "staff enrichment." I enjoyed it though. It was a nice change of pace. We never get a lot of time to discuss and plan things without the kids around. So I got off work early (at 4:45 instead of 7) which was nice. After dinner, we were deciding what to do because we had no plans and did not want to spend any money. Andrea, Emily, and I ended up taking a walk to return a DVD to Blockbuster (exciting huh?) But who knew what chain of events that would follow this. Emily decided she wanted to find somewhere she could buy a basketball, so we wandered around CVS and Walgreens. Walgreens had a deal: 3 balls for the price of 2. So she bought two basketballs and a football. (by the way, most of my roommates are pretty athletic and played sports in high school & college) We returned home and ended up throwing the football around in the parking lot for some free entertainment. Emily told me I have a hidden athlete in me, although I don't agree. I have never been good at sports. My idea of athletics is Pilates and salsa dancing. But we did manage to catch the football over 50 times in a row between the three of us (yes we counted). After 15 minutes or so, a couple of the Bosnian teenagers who like to hang out in our parking lot showed up. They blared some music, sat on their car eating McDonald's, and stared at us while we played. (I still have trouble figuring out what is so appealing about our parking lot. I guess it is because it can't be seen from the road). After they stared at us for another 10 minutes or so, they asked if they could play. There were three of them at this point and we started throwing the ball to them. It was only a little after 9 so we didn't think it was a big deal. Plus we were excited to be bonding with our "neighbors." However, they started to get a little crazy. One of them threw the football extremely high, and it ended up landing right on the passenger mirror of Alisa's car and knocked it off. I felt so bad. Not only did her rear window get smashed & her radio messed up a couple weeks ago, she also had a mishap with her bumper when she went home this past weekend and it is currently taped on. I am almost positive the Bosnian boys were high or on something by their reaction to this. We told them it was our friend's car. They asked us if we had tape. So I went upstairs and got some masking tape, which they seemed to think solved the problem. I then had the pleasure of telling Alisa that something else had happened to her car and she came down with us to see the damage. The guys were still there. She replaced the masking tape with black tape and we went over to talk to them. I did most of the talking. They said they will get her another one. We are supposed to meet tomorrow, same time, same spot. Sounds kind of shady to me. They promised her they would "pimp her ride." We went back upstairs and they didn't leave. I decided to let it go because it was just a few of them, until I look out the window around 11:30 and there are at least 15 cars in our parking lot and around 40 people out there. We turned out the lights and Alisa and I pulled up chairs by the window to see what they were doing. A few of them were leaning on our cars and some of them were playing football again!!! (not with our ball though, we took it back). Due to past events, having a lot of people in our parking lot makes us nervous. And I have a feeling everything they are doing is not innocent. Plus...it is private property and they are not supposed to be there after 9!!! I had the pleasure of calling Edgardo again and I know I woke him up. We watched and waited for him to pull up. This time he got out of his car with a clipboard and I have never seen so many cars peel out of a parking lot so fast!! He started writing down the liscence plates of the cars he could. I am really getting sick of this. There are people hanging out in our parking lot every freakin night!! I usually ignore it, but when it's that many people I can't. If the three boys show up again tomorrow night with a "new" mirror for Alisa, we are going to have a talk with them. They seem like nice guys and I hope they listen to us. Maybe I will walk out with a clipboard. It worked for Edgardo. I'll let you guys know what happens.

I hope you enjoyed my detailed story. I am going to bed because although it is Saturday, I get to wake up at 8:45 in the morning to turn off the alarm and unlock certain areas of the community center for some groups that are coming in. Unlocking the building on the weekends was the main janitor's job, but he decided to quit with no notice on Thursday. So Edgardo decided it's my job until they find someone. I don't really mind, but the idea of having to wake up for that is annoying. I'll probably just stay up because I have some stuff to do and we are going to this huge art festival in the afternoon. I'll write more about that later too.