terrypurple73 | (no subject)

It dawned on my Tuesday night, the night before Creighton’s classes started, that the night before our senior year of high school started, a group of us had gone skinny-dipping. This struck me as very significant a few nights ago, though I can’t pinpoint why, exactly. I did hang out with Mana on Tuesday night, and she and Jess and I went to dinner together. When I came home afterwards, there was a small crowd out sitting on the porch at the Big House. I went straight over there to find nearly the whole community just hanging out together and enjoying each others’ company. (We also had nearly all of us together the next night to eat dinner together, unplanned, which was a lot of fun, too.) William had moved in that afternoon, so he seemed to be the focal point of the group. And rightfully so, I think. Yes, my community-mate has been out of prison for a few weeks and is working on readjusting to ‘normal’ life. The only person I know of on Creighton’s campus who has a federal prison ID, the guy who smokes a cigarette and burns incense while he rides his bike, the kid who gives me a fake-scared look when I hug him in the student center, the guy who will sit around with all of us and his girlfriend, both of them telling funny stories from prison- that’s right he lives at the SoP community now, and we’ve been thrilled to have him around. He’s just a trip, and I’d forgotten that about him. I hadn’t remembered how much I enjoyed his company in the short time I knew him before he left. I really like him, and I think that this is going to be a good place for him. I hope so, at least. And I hope he can be serious and goofy with us. I’m mostly just excited that he and everyone are all here together now. The whole community is here and moved in, and that thrills me. We had our community retreat last weekend, and that went really well. I’d volunteered to plan it, and except for a just a few bumps, it went really well. Rosie helped me with a good chunk of the planning, but I took charge (in a nice way) and led our group with some activities. And I cooked dinner for us, too! Then we did logistics the next morning. All in all, I was really pleased, though I felt amazingly like Nick Halbur. (Wendy at the CCSJ assured me though, that while I may feel like him, I am SMPTNH- So Much Prettier Than Nick Halbur. I laughed a lot, but everyone I’ve told this to has agreed. I also told Wendy how Vicky is prettier than Stefan.) Speaking of people at the CCSJ, I had a great talk with Ken the other day. Ken’s not me technical supervisor; Maria Teresa is, but last week he asked me when I’d be free to have lunch or coffee with him, just to check in at the beginning of the year. I was really excited, and we set up a time for the next day. Ken genuinely loves all of us who work in there, but he’s not always the one I feel I have the strongest relationship with. Maria Teresa is the hand-gesturing, hugging, how-are-you-feeling staff of the office. Wendy functions as the mother of all of us- making sure we go to class, offering a ride to the airport, gossiping with us, just overall taking good care of the students. And Ken will very definitely give a true, big smile and be very glad to have us all around again, but that’s still usually followed by a “here is what needs to be done.” So when Ken wants to grab coffee to just hang out for a while, that’s a little different. But we got a snack and walked over to the Jesuit Gardens, and we talked and hung out for an hour. It was so nice! He asked about my summer- all about it, not just where I worked. He wanted to know about the kids. He wanted to know how I got into all this justice stuff right away at college, when I didn’t do it in high school. So I told him the story of FLP, Seth’s email about Amnesty, info nights about the SOA trip, my SWK intro class- it all rolled together to get me pretty active right away. Ken also asked how I felt about being a senior, about being a veteran in the office, etc. I told him the weirdest part of being a senior is that all along in college, I have been the baby in the justice stuff. I was on e of the youngest in Amnesty, I was the only freshman to go to Georgia, all that stuff. I’ve always been young, and there have always been a lot of active, passionate people older that I was. And now, I’m it. About all of the amazing people above me are gone, and now I have no upperclassmen to turn to. I went from being the second-youngest person at the Community to being the second-oldest. And that’s all a little intimidating. But at the same time, I’m too excited right now to be nervous. I told Ken how everything feels like it’s happening just right, right now. I said I was sure I wouldn’t be feeling like God had things set up so perfectly when it came time for midterms, or two days before Georgia, or something like that, but right now, things just feel so good. I’ll start my practicum at Salvation Army on Wednesday, and since I haven’t done anything there yet, I don’t have anything to be nervous about, really, yet. So yes, things feel good. I have a potential crush on a boy named Paul, so that’s kind of fun as well. That’s not anything official yet, though. It is official, though, that I received a small package-type thing from Shannon the other day, complete with an article I will be reading soon and an Ani Difranco CD that I have enjoyed listening to. Hooray!