Vacation #1: Barrington, Rhode Island

Our house... the Barrington Beach Mansion

 First major vacation of the year: Don's family reunion in Barrington, Rhode Island. I met his
extended family, played a ton of pool volleyball, got iced, learned how to play hearts, got a tan, and made eggplant parm for 20+ people (killah!).

Storm approaches the beach

Pool volleyball! (not my photo)

Family porching (not my photo)

Newport cliff walk

Obligatory travel selfie

Don making a sandcastle with his cousins and aunt

Newport beach

The music room... with a horribly tuned piano

It was nice to feel a part of something other than my warped (if dearly treasured) New York world! -- part of my new second family, part of the beach and salt.

There is a subtle difference between tuning out to life's problems and facing them from a different angle, I think -- I would be watching TV all day if I wanted the former. Rethinking a career and life path is a panoramic, large-scale task, and is taking quite a long time -- I've only just started feeling the afterglow of my new job outside, and now I need to assess whether or not this change is something I want to preserve. (It is.) And the next step: exactly how to do that.

NEXT!

Outdoors

One month out, I feel 100% positive about my decision to leave... the office. The office! Part of me can't even believe how long I spent indoors.

Canvassing is turning out to be far more inspiring than I thought. Some stats: I flag down about 100 people a day, have really positive, passionate conversations with 40-45 people, get 5-9 of them to donate, and receive nasty comments from around 3-5. Although being called "baby killer" several times a day does kind of bring me down, the positive things people say about Planned Parenthood are truly touching:

"I wouldn't have an education and a career right now if it weren't for Planned Parenthood..."
"Without Planned Parenthood, there would be nowhere for people in my town to go"
"You're doing an amazing job out here, keep fighting the good fight"
"I had to have an abortion when I was 17, without Planned Parenthood I wouldn't even be in New York right now"
"I laid the groundwork for Roe v. Wade when I was your age, and I am stunned about what is happening right now..." (from an older woman)

I feel like I am doing tangible, good work for something I believe in (and getting an outdoorsy health boost to boot). As someone who has recently lost healthcare coverage (albeit my choice...), I'm feeling extra-activist about Planned Parenthood - a Nuva Ring costs $100!

Malibu with the crew

Malibu

New York Philharmonic played a free concert in Prospect Park! 

Watermelon soju at Pocha32

Olga's wedding

Summer / Various

My life as a canvasser for Planned Parenthood has begun, and I like it. It's OK, I can sell memberships, I'm outside, I'm cheerful: I have tons of energy and am enjoying life and this season a heck of a lot more than I was last year (what a mess that was).

On the IKEA Ferry... Amurrica

Me & Don on the IKEA Ferry

For-no-reason fireworks in Astoria, over the Triborough Bridge

More fireworks (view from the roof)

Precarious

So I quit my job! And we got a kitten! And I cut my hair! And summer is here!

I feel a little crazy and I've been mysteriously anxious all week (well, not so mysterious: I have no income!), but I think this is all for the better. My moods have been in flux, but it's almost refreshing: to not feel dull, stressed, myopic. It's nice to feel energetic again. It's nice to feel the sun and get a tan!

Sebastian at 4 weeks (?)

I just want to make sure I can make rent and save up enough money for my copious vacations in August: a week of family reunions (mine and Don's); two weeks in Italy with the fam (Rome, Florence, Venice...!!); and a week in the desert at Burning Man (luckily there is only a gift economy there!). It's a big task for barely two month's worth of work...

As the wise and ridiculous Daft Punk put it: 

"If you lose your way tonight

That's how you know the magic's right."

Cheesy feel-good lyrics for a improbable summer!

More Glow Time?

Things are beginning to pick up and change: trips, adventures, new projects. It feels good to be gaining momentum again. And the chamomile seeds are sprouting!

I saw a bunch of my old friends from Artisanal at a party last night. I forgot how alive everyone is! Always stories, new thoughts, creative energy; people genuinely excited about life and your company (as in, the kind that you keep, not run). It was refreshing. We stayed out until 4am and caught up and made big plans. I realized today: I've made friends in New York. It's taken three years, but I've got a few keepers.

A Prohibition-themed bachelor/ette party at The Back Room, where drinks are served in teacups (a little too precious)

With Maddie and Charles

In other news, my name's in a book! The first time and probably the last, as all I work on are digital projects and those have no copyright pages.

Name in the copyright page! Illustrated Social Studies Dictionary

I've had a little more reflecting time recently, which is keeping in step with the warm glow theme in my life right now: I've been walking home from work a couple days a week. The Queensboro Bridge is like an old friend at this point: I know all the graffiti, the cracks in the sidewalk; I've got an aerial view of Roosevelt Island memorized. It's inspired me to start walking on all kinds of bridges, including the Pulaski Bridge (below), one of my favorites. Walking gives a whole different sense of place than biking or running, which tend to cloud my senses. I take in more details, get a whole lot more thinking done, do some stretching.

Who knew there was so much in life to just think about? How many people are not taking the time to do their thinking? I don't properly think when I'm at work, or commuting, or exercising; I really needed some unstructured time (phrase of the year) to just let my thoughts flow. It makes me sad to think that my vision of the city (and myself, and others) has been obscured simply because I haven't been doing enough thinking. I love this place and its people; I'd just forgotten how much.

View from the Pulaski Bridge

Glow time at Queensboro Plaza

Sprouting

Almost done with my Senior Year of Life! Just as difficult, not as rewarding, much more complicated. I'm looking forward to the Summer After Senior Year of Life, which if it's even half as good as the OG summer I'll be happy.

Flax sprouts in the cubicle

Emily's 20th birthday in Brooklyn Bridge Park

Bike riding on Roosevelt Island

Rusty Knot for Nicole's 26th birthday

Walking over the Queensboro Bridge 

What happens during the Fall After Senior Year of Life? Do I go back to France?

Radicals and the 99%: Core and Mass Movement

"Radicals tend to become radicals because we become disillusioned with aspects of the dominant culture. When you feel like you're up against the culture, it's easy then to develop an inclination to separate yourself from that culture. When we begin to become aware of the destructive impacts of capitalism, racism, sexism, and whatever other social systems we encounter that we see perpetuating oppression, we don't want to be part of it. We feel a moral repugnance and a desire to not cooperate with injustice.

In the story of the righteous few, success itself becomes suspect. If a group or individual is embraced by a significant enough portion of society, it must be because they are not truly revolutionary or because their message has been "watered down." It seriously messes with radicals' heads when some of our ideas start to become popular! We are so accustomed to being the most radical kid on the block, and suddenly people we've never met are coming out of the woodwork, marching in the streets with us, and spouting some of the lines we've been saying for years. Frankly, it can lead to a bit of an identity crisis. 

Here we see the importance of checking our narratives for faulty components. If we allow the story of the righteous few to hold a place in our narrative about social change, then our efforts are likely to be seriously hindered by a general mentality to separate and distinguish ourselves from society and to retreat from success. To organize effectively, this mentality has to turn 180 degrees. We have to orient ourselves to connect with others, to notice commonalities, to "weave ourselves into the fabric of society" (quoting OWS participant Beka Economopoulos), and to embrace being embraced by society. For many radicals, this can be a big shift in our conceptualizations of ourselves and of our society."

-excerpt from "Radicals and the 99%: Core and Mass Movement," by Matthew Smucker

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I love this! My cousin does a lot of writing for the Occupy movement (among other things), and I love his approach to group-based cooperation and success. His advice to "be the life of the party" makes the radical irrestisible -- and approachable.

At a panel on feminism and voting rights/activism I attended last fall, I asked: "What can the 'average' person to do spread this information when becoming a full-fledge activist is a near-impossible task?"

One of the panel presenters replied [paraphrase]: "Just talk. Talk to your co-workers at the water cooler, talk to people who aren't your friends, talk to your neighbors. Just getting people to listen is where everything starts."

I like this: the approachable radical.