I Do

A few weeks back, Jake and I were on the search for a good passage to be read at our wedding. I looked in the Bible. I looked at love poetry. I considered On Marriage from The Prophet. I read Dr Suess and the lyrics to my favorite songs. Turns out I only listen to moody alternative music and none of it is appropriate for the occasion. My favorite Bible passages seemed overused. I had something really specific in mind and I had no idea what I wanted.

Then I stumbled upon this little gem by Pam Ayres.

Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear,
And here’s the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry
And I hear a knocking
And it’s creepy and it’s late
I hand you the torch you see
And you investigate
Yes I’ll marry you my dear
And you may not apprehend it
But when the tumble dryer goes
It’s you that has to mend it
You have to face the neighbour
Should our roggie cat attack him
And if a drunkard fondles me
It’s you that has to whack him
Yes I’ll marry you
You’re virile and you’re lean
Your house is like a pigsty
I’ll help you keep it clean
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candle night
As I do the chappatis you can cook it every night
It’s you who has to work the drill
And put up curtain track
And when I’ve got a migraine its you who gets the flack
I do see great advantages
But none of them for you
And so before you see the light
I do I do I do I do

Thanks, Pam!

Movin' on up. And out.

The apartment search didn't last much more than a few weeks before I knew I'd found my new home. A large two-bedroom (for the price of 1BR) with walk-in closets, a balcony, a big kitchen and breakfast bar, fantastic management, tons of storage, and did I mention the walk in closet? I could fit a queen size bed in that closet! Well, I could have, before I filled it with shoes.

With the first of the month being a Monday, and that particular Monday being a dinner party with some of my fav friends from my Bible study in Winona, I didn't move in until Tuesday. By moving in on Tuesday I mean I picked up a bed and brought in a suitcase. And an espresso machine.

It's amazing what little you need to live on when you're traveling or without a permanent residence. I spent eight weeks this fall living out of a suitcase. It made me wonder why I owned so much stuff back home. It probably made my whole family wonder why I made them pack it into a truck and trailer and haul it down last Saturday. But when you know you own that many pairs of fabulous shoes, you start to miss them.

I've been told my shoe ownership/obsession is a little out of control, so let's move on. Tuesday night I went grocery shopping for the basics. I still haven't gone all out on baking goods, cause that's a whole other subject we could get carried away on. Jake, exploring my new apartment that evening, was a little skeptical of the contents in my fridge. "Are you sure the rabbits haven't worn off on you?" My psuedo-vegetarian habits must not be contagious yet.

The rest of the week I spent running to Walmart, organizing, running back to the store, re-organizing, more shopping. The whole family came down Saturday with furniture and the rest of my earthly possessions. We set up and unpacked and hung pictures and went searching for more furniture. I now own a dining room table. It's beautiful, and it makes me feel like I'm actually an adult. An adult who owns a table. It's funny, the little things that make or break a label. For me I guess it's a dining room table.

Well anyway. My to-do list isn't getting any shorter. I promise these pictures are merely a teaser of what's to come. (My apologies, too, the rest of the pictures won't load. Might have something to do with stealing internet from a mystery neighbor somewhere in my building.)

Not What I Expected

Welcome back, friends. The last six weeks have not at all been what I expected.

For example,
I was not expecting to be handed a fulltime job less than a month into this temporary position.
     I really was not expecting that job to be case work. (Use my Social Work license? What?)

I was not expecting to be looking for apartments in Rochester. I had no idea apartments were so expensive around here.
     I really was not expecting to get denied and approved the same day for the apartment I wanted. I also wasn't expecting to get a two-bedroom for the price of a one-bedroom.

I wasn't expecting my job to make me want to cry the first three days. (It's not so overwhelming anymore). I wasn't expecting my clients to know the system better than any of my colleagues.

I wasn't expecting to ever be able to eat with chopsticks, but I suppose I should have been. I wasn't expecting a crocodile foot on the counter with breakfast.

I wasn't expecting to be in Minnesota for another year. Last winter was supposed to be the last of negative temperatures and shoveling and shivering and hating on snow and ice. But nonetheless, I'm looking forward to everything else I can't expect or plan for.

Stay tuned for Misadventures of Living on My Own.

  

Didn't see that coming

I have plans. I have a lot of plans, actually, and some of them are quite opposite of eachother. I'm fairly convinced I'm going to carry out most, if not all, of these plans even through the contradictions. I was feeling pretty content and excited about the future course for my life.

Then I'm pretty sure God laughed in my face.

Again.

This may or may not ammount to anything, and equally, it may not change anything. But here's Sarah's newest option: Cambodia.

Yes, it's way off in Southeast Asia. No, I've never even considered Cambodia before. I've never thought about Cambodia before. I don't speak Khmer (pronounced kuh-my) but apparently I'm learning it now. By learning it now we mean that I know three words and I can't keep them straight. Spoken Khmer, I've been told, is fairly simple to learn. You don't have to congegate verbs (which killed me in Spanish. And French.) and the grammer is pretty straight-forward. The written language, however, has four lines to every letter. In a way they kind of stack four letters on top of eachother for each letter, and then each main letter can have any variation to the three above or below it.

Yeah....... that's kind of what I said.

Anyway. Why Cambodia, you ask? Good question.
There is a man in Cambodia who has started an orphanage for children living on the street. I don't know much about the country yet, but it went through a terrible civil war when the Khmer Rouge took over in the 70's. It destroyed the country and killed so much of the population, forcing many families to labor camps, then Refugee camps, then various other countries around the globe. It's been awhile since the war, but the government is still corrupt. The orphanage gets no government assistance or any other kind of assistance, for that matter. The kids are taught a trade and sell the goods they make and with the money they are able to buy some basic food. It's nothing fancy but it's the best this man can do in caring for these kids who have no one.

Enter, two social workers who love to travel and take on a challenge. My supervisor happens to be related to this man who runs the orphanage. She and I have bonded quite a bit this semester and share a passion for missions, social justice, administration, and people. She wants to go back in December for the first time in 31 years. This is far from finalized, but we're dreaming big here. We started talking about the possibility of making this orphanage a non-profit organization. She would love the company and support while she travels.

What more do I need to hear?

*None listed

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to blog this week. I've wanted to write, to tell you what's going on with my life, but the truth is, I didn't have many good things to say. Great things are going on but I'm exhausted. Long days at the internship with two hours of commuting, three hours of seminar and another job on the side for weekends is beginning to be too much. I'm pretty sure, after an emotional Friday afternoon, that I'm going to cut back on hours at the only job that provides a paycheck. I need to keep my sanity; I can live off ramen for one semester.

But this blog isn't for me to complain about being busy. That's why I didn't write all week. What's been on my mind (still!) is the job market. I sent my application in to a job listing located in Portland last week. Portland is my ideal destination. The West Coast is pretty much the only direction I would even consider, and I can't afford San Francisco and I require a little more sunshine than Seattle would send my way. Portland is beautiful, close to the ocean, close enough to Seattle, oh-so-green, with mountains. And lots of social activism.

Something you may not know about activism is that it is not listed as a job category on any job listing search engine I have found. Neither is social justice. Social work can be close but that's generally casework or something I'm equally uninterested in. Community health is a little closer but not quite right. My best bet has been looking at specific organizations I love like http://www.laborrights.org/, http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/, http://www.nurfc.org/, and http://www.change.org/. But for some reason the positions that excite me the most are consistently all the unpaid internships.

Therefore I am now obviously trying to work out a plan as to how one can live off of unpaid internships without the [9to5] + 2 +(school+another job) - social life = unhappy Sarah. I would love to hear your ideas.

Auld Lang Syne

We rang in the new year with style in St Paul this year. 2009 went fast and full without any major milestones. I have plans to make 2010 a fantastic year but I'm not sure if any dreams will become reality in the next twelve months. Full time employment? Travelling to Africa and Europe? Moving to Portland, buying a house? Maybe those should move from the 2010 file to the sometime-between-now-and-2015 file. We'll see.

Atleast college graduation is (almost) garaunteed. I'm four months, 4800 miles of commuting, and one killer research paper away from a degree in a field I don't want to work in. But here's to being licensed and eligible for a real job, with opportunities in every direction (though we're only interested in those West of here). Happy year of new adventures, new beginnings, new faces and most likely new places. Here's to new dreams and new accomplishments. Bring it on, 2010.

What this isn't

This was going to be a New Years Resolutions blog, but I'm not a big fan of resolutions. I don't usually make them, and follow-through is even more rare. I figure, if something is important enough for me to change, I'll do it, and if not, well, good luck.

Then I thought I could write about what I've been up to over break and post a few pictures. Well I've seen alot of friends and family and played my share of board games, and you can look at pictues on facebook.

I haven't written much about slavery or human trafficking recently, but I also haven't been up to much. I'm still reading articles and looking up organizations and doing my best to stay informed. I know I'll have some events on campus next semester but we haven't started much since Nikki and I are both away.

So for all the things this blog isn't talking about, I thought I'd fill you in on the latest developments for my future:

There are none. Future developments, I mean. I started looking at grad schools again once I realized pursuing a Masters in Social Work wasn't necessary and I could probably find something more engaging. I found all sorts of great Masters programs - International Human Rights, International Peace Studies, Global Studies with an emphasis on just about any country. Study abroad programs in England, Australia and Germany. But there's that $51,000 a year pricetag, and that foreign language requirement that I've been trying to ignore for the past four years.
I've been looking at job listings, too. I just discovered my dearly beloved change.org has a section of job listings all over the country. By all over the country we mean that most are in Washington DC. Wrong Washington, folks. Anyway, there are some sweet jobs out there but very few in fighting Human Trafficking. I'll give it a few months before I apply anywhere since I'm not very mobile til mid-May, but that doesn't stop me from looking.

Both of my Dove Promises just told me to slow down, take notice, and savor the moment. I think that's chocolate speak for "give it up and relax, you'll figure it out".

My Mom thinks I'm special

Life is ironic. I've always been one to take note of the inconsistencies that make you wonder what's really going on. I love the free dictionary's definition of ironic: Poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended. I couldn't describe this week any better. So even though putting together all the pieces makes it seem a little less coincidental, let me fill you in on the recent events that lead me to smile at today's ironies.

This summer I spent quite a bit of time learning that I am not supposed to have a plan for my life right now. I then began my senior year and struggled to not worry about my future and what I was going to do. I started a Bible study that focused on discerning the voice of God. Last week through this Bible study I realized that by not planning my future, I was still making plans for in between graduation and planning the rest of my life. I nearly audibly heard God laughing at my plans on Thursday. Then began the "life is meaningless and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing" phase that brought us from Monday til this morning as I power walked five or six miles in frustration. Consider this the planning piece.

I attended class on Monday half asleep (10 hours of driving the day before will do that to you, I suppose) and we spent an hour and forty-five minutes talking about social work licensure. I'll spare you the infuriating details, but basically I have to get licensed, I have to start working on this ASAP, and I have to fork out quite a large amount of money to do so. Oh and I have to pick the state I'm going to live in for the rest of my life. This may not have been the exact lecture that was portrayed, but it's how my brain interpreted the message. I was not happy. I was also broke and refused to believe God would ever tell me I was going to live my life in Minnesota. Let's call this category social work and denial.

I started blogging this summer when I went to Spain. Blogging seemed like the thing to do when one travelled abroad, and I wanted to keep my friends and family updated with my trip while I was overseas. I liked it, and although I don't update this blog as much as I'd like, I have a few people tell me they enjoy reading it, too. This morning my mom sent me an email telling me how much she enjoys it. I realize she's my mom and it's part of her job to think I'm special, but it was encouraging. She said something about an alternative career in writing but hi, have you met my older sister? She's the writer. She's a really good writer. And I'm a social worker. I'm running out of names for these categories, so call this whatever you want.

I've had my internet home page MSN for years and I like it. It shows me my inbox, the forecast, major news headlines, recipes, and comics. I'm quite comfortable with it. Well MSN redesigned again in the last couple of weeks and I felt too lazy to apply all my settings again. So I changed my home page to change.org. I don't read change.org every day, but it has a wealth of articles, blogs and ideas for activists interested in social change. Today in little print under some recent headlines, there was a link proclaiming that change.org was hiring! I'm always looking at job openings just to see what's out there. To make a long story just as long short, change.org wants to hire more freelance writers to blog about social change. Topics including but not limited to human trafficking, women's issues, homelessness, immigration, and poverty.

I'm pretty sure your deductive skills have already begun to put these pieces together so I'm not going to spell it all out for you, but I got a little excited this afternoon. Even if change.org isn't interested in anything I have to say for now, it was a nice little reminder that there are more options out there than I had ever considered. I'm still pretty sure I'm not looking at a career in writing, but it's something I'm going to look into, especially just a few articles here and there for some extra gas money.

Right around this time itunes decides to serenade me with Augustana's Found My Place. Okaaay, I can take a hint. I might be a little slow and a little stubborn, but I get it.

My goals for tonight: send my resume to change.org and start the application process for my social work licensure in the state of Minnesota. Only because you're allowed to be licensed in more than one state at a time. Life may be ironic but there's a big difference between irony and cruelty. Right?