I have been struggling a bit with the adjustment to life in Texas and the reality that I will have to live here for another 11 months. It's not that things are horrible in San Antone, in fact, there really is a lot of beauty and life and hope. However, I'm kind of ready to be on my own and to start settling into my own lifestyle and I can't do that here. I live with six other girls which makes independence and quiet time a little tough. Don't get me wrong, I care for the girls. We have great conversations, share funny moments (and scary ones, which I'll get to in a minute), and we support each other through the adjustments we're all making together. It would just be nice to have my own apartment so I could decide when I want to eat, sleep, hang out, or be alone. I'm learning, though, that the girls definitely respect my need for quiet time and are totally willing to be social when I'm in a community mood.
So, here are some highlights from the week (broken into digestible sections):
1.) Smells like VOMIT!!!
2.) The 5k that was so much more...
3.) You got any kids?
4.) Pull that weed!
5.) Raging hormones and spiritual insight
6.) Styrofoam
7.) Yes, it rains here...but from the shoddy sewer system, you'd never know it!
8.) I ain't scareda you!
1.) On my mail run this past Wednesday, I was greeted by a most unpleasant odor as I entered the mint green Ford Taurus that Christina and I use to make our rounds between the Catholic Charities offices. We're talking kill-me-now-oh-my-goodness-can't-breathe-get-me-out-of-here-my-head-hurts-so-bad-what-in-the world-i'm-going-to-die unpleasant. I was running a little late (I had to finish my mail run before 10am so I could return to my office in time for my 10am appointment with a client and it was already 9:15am) so I couldn't really investigate where the nauseating smell was coming from. I rolled down the window but the smell just kept getting worse so I assumed it was coming from outside but that didn't make any sense because it followed me wherever I drove.
Then I thought back to that morning when my housemate had uncovered a container of white beans that had been sitting out on the counter soaking in water for the last few days. Those mamas smelled AWFUL so I thought, maybe somehow I got the smell of the white beans on my clothing and now that I'm enclosed in a car, I'm getting whiffs of those rancid beans. However, a few stops later as I opened the car door to get out, I noticed something on the base of the door frame. It was orange, brown, and chunky and looked like vomit. I didn't have much time to process what I was seeing but when I returned to the car and was at a stoplight, I had the bright idea of lifting my foot up to see if I had somehow stepped in upchuck. However, this just served to spread the substance from my foot to my pants and the seat of the car.
It turns out that I somehow had stepped in vomit in the parking lot of my office when I first entered the car to do my mail run. However, I did not notice in the least what had happened until after 40 minutes of driving around smelling it and literally having the worst headache ever. I have yet to discover the mystery of who expelled such foul mush in the parking lot but I made sure to locate the pile of it when I got back to my office. Oh, and I stopped back at my house while out on my mail run and changed my pants and shoes, incase you're wondering. I also cleaned out the car as much as I could so that it didn't reek up to high heaven when I drove back to work. Oh wee, though, that was quite distressing, haha :)
2.) I ran 3.9 miles with Christina on Wednesday (more than a 5k race!! I was so proud). We found a beautiful lake near our office with a well-marked path so we could keep track of how far we had gone down to 1/10 of a mile. Then we ran that same distance today. I'm feeling good! I will say this though, the humidity will be my biggest downfall here. It makes running and breathing so dang hard.
3.) A client came into my office on Thursday with her daughter. After very little discussion, she asked me if I had any kids. I almost replied that I was 22 years old and therefore far too young to have children but something told me I shouldn't say that. Turns out the woman was 22 (literally 5 days older than me, I discovered) and had three kids- yeeks!! She acted quite young too, I was surprised she could have so many niños. At one point she handed me a document by saying "Here ya go, baby" and then our conversation went así:
Her: You're really nice.
Me: Um, thank you.
Her: No really, you are.
Me: Haha, thanks. (uncomfortable)
Her: I mean I went to the Salvation Army and that lady was so mean. She was like giving me crap for needing help and whatnot. But you, you're so sweet.
Me: Ha, er, oh, well... (????)
It was kind of her but I just didn't know what to say. She was my peer! It's as if I were helping one of my classmates, friends, or housemates. For some reason it's easier for me to help people older than me, but I get awkward helping those of my age group. How did we arrive at such different places in our 22 years of life?
4.) Owen and I did some yard work on Wednesday. We borrowed a weed-eater from the maintenance man at the church and set to work on the massive weeds in our backyard. It was really tough and the weed-eater wasn't the most efficient, unfortunately. So we ended up doing most of the weeding with our bare hands. Let me tell you- that was tough work! I thought I might die...besides I had just run over 3 miles a few minutes earlier. Our yard is a lot nicer now though, so I'm proud.
5.) Yesterday, four of my housemates and I went to a spiritual retreat for 8th graders from about ten different low-income Catholic grade schools in our archdiocese. We were asked to facilitate small group discussion with the kids and two of my housemates gave a speech (and did very well!). The retreat was from 10:30am to 5pm and we were assigned six to seven 8th graders each. My seven 8th graders were really sweet but didn't talk very much. There were 5 boys and 2 girls. One of the girls, Brenda was loud and obnoxious but she calmed down too so I didn't have too much trouble with her. I was warned by her principal and the leader of the retreat at the beginning that this was a "tough" student to work with. However, I was grateful that she held it together. The other girl was quiet and shy and very self-conscious about her hair. She was on the cheerleading team which might have something to do with that. One of the boys was ADORABLE. His name was Christian and he just had such a sweet smile and always participated in our discussions. I was grateful for him. Another boy was Jacob- he was a football player and basically responded "football" to every question I asked him. When I got him to smile though, his rough football exterior faded away and he was just as friendly and approachable as any other kid. Another kid Eric sat next to me and spoke quite a bit. He was sweet so I had trouble trying to shut him up. He was obsessed with talking about how Jesus gave us life. I found that interesting. Another boy, George was SOOOO quiet and shy but at the end when I asked the kids how the day was for them, he answered quite emphatically. Or rather, his words were emphatic- his tone stayed the same. He said the day was "awesome. I really liked our small group discussions- my favorite part was spending time with you guys." My heart just about melted. The last boy was named Robert. He was quiet as well but quite profound. He said he wanted to thank God for "each and every day."
I will probably still never be a teacher but working with kids does give me hope that I can have a positive influence on the future.
6.) I think Styrofoam was just recently discovered in San Antonio. It's like people have just recently discovered it- they use it everywhere and in MASS quantities. It makes me so uncomfortable. Today I bought a taco at church (they have a taco breakfast every Sunday in the church cafeteria) and it was served on a Styrofoam tray. Then I wanted another one so I brought up my tray to be served again but they told me that due to "cross-contamination" issues, they had to give me a fresh new tray. I had to fight the urge to scream. Needless to say, this is not a very green city. :(
7.) It has been raining buckets here lately. When it rains, it RAINS. And everything floods. Actually, as I'm typing this in my room, I'm watching a river rush by in the street. It's cooled the temperature down- :). But has added to the humidity in the air- :(. Oh well, I'm making good use of my rain boots- yahoo!!
8.) Today as I was talking on Skype to Mary, my sisterita, I noticed from my window that a man was entering our front yard. My room is on the 2nd floor of the house and my window faces out the front of our house. Our house is surrounded in the front and back by a chain-link fence. So I glanced outside and saw that a man was opening our front gate and coming up the walkway to our front door. I thought of texting the housemates of mine who I thought were in the kitchen on the first floor to let them know. Then I noticed that he was not a parishoner or a friend of anyone in the house. He was in his 40s, wearing an open button-down shirt with nothing underneath so his bare chest was exposed, he had a bright red bandana in his hands, was carrying a bag, and did not look very kind. I realized that texting would take too long so I ran down the hallway yelling "Guys...GUYS!!! There's a man at our front door!!" Owen and Christina came out of Owen's room and followed me downstairs so we could investigate. We could see the man from our front windows which do not have blinds right now and he was sitting on a chair on our front porch (which is level with the ground- you just step up one step to get on our porch). Then, while Owen and I hid from his sight, Christina caught his attention and yelled "Hey! You can't stay here- you have to go!!" He stood up, gave her a menacing glare, reached up to the upper right side of his chest...Christina thought he might have a gun...exposed a tattoo, pulled out his red bandana, and stormed off.
Needless to say, the girls are quite frightened. We feel a bit vulnerable because our windows are thin, our gate is open in the front, and Christina just made us an enemy!! His tattoo could be symbolic of his involvement in a gang. Ay, I wish the violence and fear and danger would just cease already.
Well, I'm exhausted. I sang in church today and though I loved every minute of it, I am pooped.
Love to all!!
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