i totally can't sleep, and have to get up in 2 hours anyway, so...livejournal!
i finished the first draft of my novella an hour ago. 76 pages of insanity. kelsey asked me this afternoon if i felt accomplished, and i was like, "no...but hopefully i will by tonight." now i think i do. i don't think it's that good, yet, but i've accepted that fact and am fine with it because really, who writes a good novella in a month and a half? not to mention, who writes a good novella on top of all the other shit i do...so it's all good. it's a decent draft--shit happens, there are layers, whatever. i'll get feedback on wednesday and then i have another month and a half to make it really good. that'll be a lot more fun.
in other news of today, i kind of got a job for next semester. the new leaders program thing i did this summer is giving out $1500 grants each to ten of us to work at a non-profit next semester, and since there are only 20 of us in total and i would guess about half of us would wanna do this anyway, i feel like my chances are ok. so, i emailed western mass jwj to see if they wanted a free SLAP intern. i know they've wanted a free SLAP intern in the past, but i wasn't sure if the offer was still open...anyway, i sent an email asking if they were interested in having me work there, and about ten minutes after i pressed "send" my cell phone rang. it was jon from wmjwj, and he said "emma, this is manna from heaven." so, that's a yes, then. sweet.
in other news. i have a cold. last night i slept for three hours on the chapin couch, then got up, sent emails, had breakfast with elena and her dad (and like seven other people), went shopping for my co-op (which took all afternoon), came home, had dinner, took a nap in naomi's room while she got ready to go out, came back to my room around 9pm and finished my novella at 4am. then i put some building trades stuff together, took a shower, and now i'm updating lj. in two hours, some friends and i leave for the northeast usas conference, where i'm facilitating half of the high school track today. awesome? clearly.
the best part is that when i come back, we have a coke meeting, and then a meeting to plan monday's union presentation to the elementary school. then on monday, i have to get up early and do that. and then i have a 15 page paper due on tuesday that i haven't even started researching!!!!! aaahhh life is insane.
after the 17th, though (the date of the cccp meeting at which we are discussing the DSP, coke, AND the building trades campaign--we have a very complicated plan to make it seem like we're actually three different organizations, but i feel like it's gonna fail) life should get a little more chill. as in, sleep might happen. that'll be nice.
ok. i should attempt some sleep now, probably. wish me luck.
so here i am in an airport again...only this time it's san francisco, not omaha, and i'm on my way home.
well, that's a lie. in about 5 hours, i'll be on my way home. because i missed my flight. because i managed to go the wrong way at EVERY single opportunity there was to choose a way to go. literally...well, maybe i went the right way the first time. yes. ok. let's break this down minute by minute: ( Collapse )
stories from the tour are multiple, and i'll tell you many of them in due time. for now, though, let's just talk about ( Collapse )
in happy news--i got into the "writing the novella" class i wanted to get into, and the professor sent me the best acceptance email ever. yay.
hmmm, i don't think i've updated all summer...that's gotta be a record.
i'm writing from an airport in omaha...don't ask. actually, ask, because it's interesting, but i don't feel like explaining...go to www.wakeupwalmart.com/tour/blog. that's what i'm doing, as of today.
a list of things i wanted to rant about on here but didn't get around to, so i can remember it for later:
1. the news coverage from all sides of walmart "allowing" "unions" in their stores in china. for so many different reasons. 2. walmart's wage caps 3. how all i think about these days is walmart 4. awkwardness 5. not getting to do karaoke on my last night in dc
happy things: 1. loving tomato mozzarella basil sandwiches 2. loving (and now missing) dc...well i guess that's a sad thing now. but still. 3. deciding to change my life philosophy on relationships 4. miranda and i are still friends, after two months of roommate-ing 5. project runway (also debatably a sad thing, because of last week's episode and my darling alison being kicked off...tragedy) 6. all my friends who threatened to leave are pretty much coming back to school/the valley area in some way or another. YAYYYYY
things that are neither happy nor rant-worthy, but are notable nonetheless 1. leaving USAS leadership
...yeah that last list looks short, but trust me, it's not.
mmmk. the deal is, my flight landed and i was supposed to call paul, who's supposed to have also landed, and he's gonna drive me to meet the bus. i've called twice, his phone's off. for now i'm just...chilling...we'll see what happens.
i'm awake in the morning and miranda's asleep...this is probably the only time this will happen, so i'm trying to enjoy the morning quiet.
really i just hope she wakes up soon, though. anyway, so far so good. our apartment is lovely, there's lots of light and all the people who work downstairs are incredibly sweet. we went over to my aunt and uncle's house yesterday, who live in maryland, and did the majority of our shopping in their garage, which was excellent because a) it was free and b) we got lunch out of it, too. so now we have some pretty random furniture, but it gives the place some much-needed character, i think.
the highlight of yesterday was definitely putting a random piece of cardboard on the wall, just because the walls were so white and boring we couldn't handle it (jonah--we used the mystery piece from those drawers. still never figured that one out). anyway, we put all this effort into taping it up there with masking tape, and once it was up we convinced ourselves that it added a lot to our decorating scheme. of course, ten minutes later, it fell down on miranda's head. the tape stayed, though, and miranda's mom joked that we had moved from modern art (the cardboard) to postmodern art (the random bits of unarranged tape). brilliant. the tape is still there.
in terms of a social life: on friday we saw allie, jess, gladys and zach outside of the USAS office for about five minutes (they were late to a meeting). jonah came over friday to help us move in, because he was in baltimore, and last night miranda and i went for a walk after her parents left on which we a) walked by the ufcw, where i'll be working; b) walked by american rights at work, where she'll be working; c) almost walked by the USAS office but stopped ourselves; and, most importantly, d) tested out miranda's ability to be stephanie weiner, as judged by the bouncer at the one open bar we found. it worked!!! we sipped beer and screwdrivers on the patio outside.
today, we'll stay in and wait for cable to be installed, and then at 4 we'll have our "housewarming party." this is gonna be hilarious, because so far, despite our (if i do say so myself) very cute invitation email, all we've gotten back in response is cute apology emails from people about why they can't come. that's what you get for planning a party less than 48 hours in advance (and not having any real friends yet, hehe). so far our one confirmed guess is allie, so, that's cool. we'll just hang out with allie. and julia, the international intern who will show up at our house in the middle.
also tonight--we host 3 international interns, and then on monday we go out to dinner with them and the USAS staff. then friday, i go home for my sister's bday, graduation, and pride (not my sister's pride...just pride pride).
if you're around dc, call us! if not, call us anyway! yay.
since an actual update would take too much time/emotional energy, let's just give you all some random news articles that i found disturbing/amazing.
first, allie's been emailing me regular updates on this batwoman-returning-as-a-lesbian saga. fascinating... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/enterta…
then, on the subject of gayness, one half of a pair of gay penguins has now gone straight, leaving his lover sad and lonely, and leading to some extremely problematic reactions/articles from all sides of the gay penguin debate...
then, ok. onto the more disturbing news. first i read this headline and was horrified. then i thought it was almost funny, in a really sick, twisted, horrible way. then i read the article, saw the newsclip, became a little obsessed and even read this family's blog, and now i don't know what to think. this is disturbing on so many different levels. please, if i'm ever in a car accident with someone who looks a lot like me, check to be sure you don't mix us up, especially if one of us is dead and one of us is alive. and if you do mix us up...try to fix this mix-up before the funeral. and before the wrong family takes care of the one who's alive for like, you know...FIVE WEEKS.
short update of me: went to chicago this week to visit julie, miranda, and jacob, which was really lovely and a little hard to leave. came back, didn't get much sleep, lynnea came over last night (a quick stop on her way back home from turkey) and we had a really lovely time too, and none of us remember why she didn't book her flights so she could stay in new york for more than 15 hours. she contemplated purposely missing her flight and going back tomorrow, but eventually decided against it for the sake of her dad. was thinking of going to toronto this sunday but it looks like that's gonna have to wait a lil bit. tonight jonah's taking me out to dinner, which will be lovely, and then tomorrow i have to do a shitload of USAS work. at some point later i'll go to toronto, get my wisdom teeth out, move to DC, and start work at the UFCW. good times.
aiii. last night was really sad. emily had us all over to her room, and bought some blue sky organic cola for the occasion, and even though i had only planned to stay for an hour because i needed to write a paper, i ended up staying from like 10:30 to 3am, talking and giggling and just loving everyone there. emily leaves today and even though it's not quite as sad for me as for everyone else, since she'll be in dc this summer and so i'll see her in like a month and a half, alisa is gonna be in senegal all next year and no one knows if stina will be around or not and so it was the last time we were all gonna be together, and that felt way more important than writing my paper.
i can't process at all the fact that i'm never gonna be at smith with alisa again and that stina is graduating in like a week and still doesn't know if she'll be here or in sweden next year. i fell asleep last night thinking about everything that was gonna be different, and then had a dream that lindsey was going abroad too and that naomi's parents weren't letting her come back to smith because it was too gay, or something, and i think something was happening to lynnea too, and the overwhelming sense i had was that i just wasn't gonna have any friends next year at all.
i woke up this morning and sent naomi a text message saying "i just had a very convincing scary dream in which, among other things, you weren't coming back to smith next year. not true right??" and she wrote back: "NOT TRUE. i wouldn't leave you for ANYTHING." i love that girl. i love everyone here so much. i'm excited about this summer like nothing else but saying goodbye to people is so fucking sad. i can't handle it. i feel we're gonna spend all of next week crying constantly in lynnea's room. i can't believe that in a year, i'll be the one graduating...aiiiiii.
in other unhappy but perhaps slightly less depressing news, i have to get my wisdom teeth removed when i go home. wtf right?! and the appointment is scheduled for june 14th, which is like 2 days before i go to dc and 5 days before i start work. pretty awesome. i told emily this and she was like "um...i guess that'll be ok?" which means definitely not. my mom thinks it's fine and i'll recover within a day, which i'm sure is not true, but whatever, i'm not sure what i can do about it.
ok. i borrowed a book from elisabeth and now she needs it back and i still haven't used it, so i should get on that. and then i have to go to the last vendor code of conduct committee meeting and talk to administrators about hermosa and just garments and the 5 factory proposal and whatever else might come up. so i should get dressed, too. that'd be good.
i'm watching the 2006 coke shareholders meeting online, since i didn't go inside the meeting this year.
favorite line so far:
ray rogers (anti-coke activist finishing up his speech, which has gone over the timer): thank you. i should have had three minutes like last time; i had to rush my statement to fit it into two. neville isdell (CEO of coke): mr. rogers, mr. rogers, last year you also had two minutes and i think that that once again probably reflects the inaccuracy of a number of your statements.
WE TOTALLY HAD THREE MINUTES TO SPEAK LAST YEAR. YOU CAN WATCH THE FUCKING THING ONLINE FROM LAST YEAR AND SEE THAT HE'S WRONG. WHAT A FUCKING IDIOT.
he also sucks for that whole supporting/assisting murder thing. but this kind of sums it all up.
for those of you who don't know my sister--you'll probably recognize her because apparently we look exactly the same. i don't think that's true at all, but you might.
1. i got an internship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! working on the wakeupwalmart campaign at ufcw. i'm still waiting to hear back from the center for community change before i decide--but this is quite exciting and puts to rest all fears i had about not being able to afford our apartment this summer/being stuck in dc with no purpose except following miranda around. yay.
2. spent the weekend at the sweatfree communitites conference in minneapolis, which was actually lots of fun...i got to see emma, of course (and miranda and jess and tommy etc etc), and just in general, i love going to conferences where i don't have any responsibilities. as miranda and i were saying tonight, it's funny because like, of course, we did have responsibilities--we pretty much ran the whole youth track, so we were facilitating stuff like all day saturday, plus we spent lots of time hanging out with high schoolers and college usasers and convincing people to apply to be ROs and all that whateverness throughout the night--but compared to being at an actual usas conference, this was nothing. this was just really chill and we got to be the usas cool kids without any of the stress. also, we got to finally meet the famed kenneth miller, which like...i mean...wow.
3. i think i may have been granted some sort of...reprieve? when it comes to this paper thing. we'll see. i'll keep you updated.
2 not as happy things:
1. i'm really tired right now but i'm gonna stay up to shower and write a 6 page paper
2. i'm experiencing lots of usas-withdrawl right now, which is sad, and i don't really wanna be back at school so much.
