"You look like Britney Spears...and NOT in a good way."

Bullying, luckily, was never a very big issue I faced when I was growing up. I witnessed it from time to time with friends and tried my best to serve as an advocate--but fortunate for me, I was rarely the punch line to some bully's joke-- at least not to my face...

Well, except this one time. 

It was a late-start day in the 7th grade, I had just bought a new skirt, and it was warm enough to wear it since we started school later in the morning. I was SO excited for my outfit! I wore a white shirt, my new black and gray layered skirt, my white knee high socks, and my Jack Purcell shoes. I thought I looked adorable...and my mother let me out of the house...so I couldn't have been looking too sleazy or dumb or mis-matched, right?

Wrong-- according to this bully. 

In typical "mean girls" fashion, a group of three 8th grade girls with arms linked came strolling up behind me and the middle girl decided to say this to me (I am 99.9% sure this is a direct quote):

"What the hell are you wearing? You look like Britney Spears-- and not in a good way."

These girls didn't miss a beat. They just kept on walking. To say the very least, after that, my day was ruined. I remember pushing my socks down the entire rest of the day, avoiding eye contact with as many people as possible for fear they had the same judgement, and my 1st period English seat-neighbor asking, very concerned, if I was okay over and over again.

Ugh-- bitch (Pardon my French)...I will never forget this girl.

Tomorrow is an event called Totally Tennyson which is a 70s-80s-90s themed street/bar/restaurant crawl that benefits the Denver Public School system. Dressing up, drinking, eating, and benefitting the children?? Be still, my heart--I'm there!

And guess who I'm dressing up as? Oh yeah, you guessed it, BRITNEY EFFING SPEARS, knee-high socks and all. I have pretty severe anxiety about wearing this outfit tomorrow...mostly because of what hurt me when I was a kid but I'm doing it anyway. I am going to rock it. And if anyone has an opinion I'll just say "HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME! I can take it!"

Happy Friday, all. Have a safe and wonderful weekend. I promise I'll do the same :)

Nothing-Too-Crazy November

I guess I’ve gotten a bit behind on the monthly updates again huh? Well here’s to going back in time and writing them anyway. I am a stubborn little lady…so even though this stuff isn’t particularly relevant in the middle of April…it still happened and I’m still going to write about it. Cheers to stubbornness!!

November was a relatively anticlimactic month…in that nothing Earth shattering happened. Emotional turmoil occurred as per usual…and I had to drive in the snow for the first time which was the most treacherous thing I’ve ever had to do in order to commute for work…but besides that, it’s all run-of-the-mill.

Working with them High Schoolers

Multiple times a year, Mi Casa has students take surveys so that we can get funding through certain grants and just to track their progress. During November, we had our first meeting regarding a couple of the survey’s results. Most of the information told us that the students don’t feel much peer-to-peer trust. We have since been working hard to create a peer-support-system amongst the students. Despite that pretty big glitch, we did find out something pretty cool. Our students responded to the survey with information that showed they feel heard, supported, and safe with all of the Mi Casa staff. We were all very happy about this.

A student stepped up and helped me run a program she planned called “Fear Factor”—yes, like the show. It wasn’t icky gross stuff like in the show (mostly because I can’t have students eating spiders on my watch) but we did do fun little timed challenges. The best one was a thing we called “The Slimy Search.” The day before our little event, we made spaghetti noodles and Jell-o and hid 10 little licorice pieces in each container. We let the Jell-o solidify overnight and then everyone had to just dig in. It was messy and fun and the students really liked it J

The Slimy Search!

A Long Island Thanksgiving

I bought a ticket out to New York for Thanksgiving 42 hours before my departure time. I’m not a super impulsive person…but I’m glad I was this time. I got to spend about 5 days with Doug and his family during the holidays. I love being with people I care about at the holidays—don’t you? Doug and I made gluten free cheesecake (holy crap it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever had…or maybe it’s just because I hadn’t had cheesecake in a long time), I found pumpkin cider that ACTUALLY tasted like pumpkin, I watched my favorite movie/musical “Rent”, played lots of charades, and was made extra special gluten free stuffing and gravy at Doug’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone was so considerate and welcoming and warm. It was a great last minute trip.

Awesome pictures from our photoshoot with Doug's Mom for her
new line of men's hats! And girls ones too :)

Attempting to be Social

Tennyson Street is a happening place these days. Downpours is poppin’ and there are lots of restaurants opening almost every day (slight exaggeration). My absolute [now] favorite restaurant is a little place called Block&Larder. I went over there on their first soft-opening day after I got off of work at the coffee shop. It’s the first not-café-type-place I’ve ever been to alone. I chatted with the bartenders and the other people sitting at the bar enjoying the food. I’ve never been so brave socially in my entire life! Although now I wish I never discovered this talent…I find myself trekking across the street more than my pocket book likes…

The Simple Serendipities

The Race Exhibit. Ah, yes. My roommate Sam and I went to the Colorado History Museum and checked out the Race Exhibit that was there for the season. It was amazing and so educational. We went to a “special event” there so they also narrowed racism down to Colorado and Denver alone…which was out of the ordinary for the exhibit. It was really neat.

My first drawing :)

New Hobbies. After watching Doug’s mom crochet so many things while I was in Long Island (you guys should definitely check out her stuff here), I decided I wanted to try out the hobby myself. I went out and got crochet hooks, yarn, and a fun little drawing-start-up-kit. I love crafting :)

My New Writing Game

My parents got me the most adorable and dorky birthday present a recent novelist and brand new writing group member could ask for...

They got me a "game" called The Writer's Toolbox and yes, we did play it at our writing group last night. And this is why I write to you today.

April is National Poetry Writing Month. Ideally, I hoped to write one poem a day during this month...but let's be real, that hasn't been happening. But lo and behold, because I had writing group last night, I wrote a poem. I have never ever ever published a poem on the internet so please be kind. The following poem is what was created as a result of The Writer's Toolbox and National Poetry Writing Month. 

Untitled

I put tulips under all the pillows and then I set the house on fire

The pink petals billowed

Cotton Candy

The toddlers from across Sherman Avenue crawl slugglishly toward it

I try to wave them away

But each word out of my mouth is green petal after petal

I pull leaves from my eyelids

Brush dirt from my kneecaps

She found a diamond bracelet in the back of the car-- little baby Peyton

That's the last I saw of her before she was swallowed

Choking in the thickness I created

I used to plant tulips at the Foster House garden

I lived there from twelve to eighteen before I got the fuck out of Dodge

Dodge, Arkansas-- really

I see the foster parents' judging eyes and I am peaceful once again drowning in this smoke

The lemon sherbet that melted all over the counter is what lit the match, I'll tell them

Its yellow ooze dripping slowly like the children crawling

With each drip

          Friction

          Friction

          Friction

          Spark

Good thing I had the flowers ready

The slightly purple words are the sentences from the game. You pick a "First Sentence" stick then you write for 6 minutes. You pick a "NonSequitur" stick and write for 6 minutes. Then you pick up a "Last Straw" stick and finish up. So there ya go. If you want to write something, anything, even if its terrible, I seriously suggest picking up this game. It is/was fun :)