Where Is My Mind?

April is pretty hectic for me. The qurerly reports for AmeriCorps were do today, then tomorrow I have a class on Immigration policy and my students tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night, I volunteered to stamp hands at ReggaeFest in Lake Worth -- that is, basically down the road -- from 4 until 7. On Sunday we have a service project at the Armory Art Center, which is sponsored and attended by Russell Simmins, and which will feature Reverend Run, sans the DMC. Then next Wednesday, the whole lot of us AmeriCorps types depart for Key Largo for the AmeriCorps Retreat; that ends on Friday, and then we are all going to stay in Key West overnight at a hostel. I originally wasn't going to go there with them, but Dave went there on his spring break, and impressed upon me how much he thought I would enjoy it. So I eventually consented. We get back from that on Saturday, unless I decide to stay one more day. My spring break extends from Wednesday, April 12, until April 26, so the Tuesday after the retreat, I am going to fly to New York to see my mother. It will be the last time I have a break to see her before August, and my father was generous enough to spring for the ticket. While I'm there, she and I will be driving to Detroit for the weekend, and I will be staying with Julie and Mike. This will give me the opportunity to visit Jolie and Seth, and thus meet the recently-birthed Lily for the first time. Then my mom and I drive back to Rochester. I'm sort of excited by it all.

Tonight Dave and I got drunk on vodka and Corona's while making a dinner of chicken parmesean and risotto. We ate it while watching the Food Network with the sound down and listening to CDs I made for Julie's birthday. We talked about what we wanted to do, and about how food looks so much more appealing when it's on TV. It was oddly domestic, and rather satisfying. Occasionally I wonder what the hell I'm going to do when I finally live on my own: I seem to enjoy living with other people, just because it gives me a consistant social outlet. There's a lot of hassle too, but I like living with Dave and Ray in the same way I liked living with Julie. I like being close to my friends.

Dave and I are having a contest to see who cane finish To Kill A Mockingbird first. It is the book that was chosen to be the focus for a county-wide reading initiative, and all of us got free copies of it. Everyone is surprised by the fact that I have never read it, but it just never seemed like the sort of book I would be all that interested in, I don't know why. And it was never required reading in any of my classes. I like it well enough, but I find myself wishing I could get back to reading the du Maurier. But I'm over halfway done.

I've been drawing recently, which I find peculiar. I expected when I came down here that I would be writing fiction, but I've found that, given how much thought I'm giving to language during my work hours, I'm just not up to thinking about it when I get home at night. That's a little disappointing, but I like my recent arty things. The words will come back, eventually.

"Roommate", the non-AmeriCorps roommate, is a complete nightmare. Among other crimes is eating Dave's ice cream, drinking my beer, and having his floozees sleeping on our couch in the morning. God, I'm so glad all my roommates weren't like him.

Song: The Who, "Going Mobile"