Acroyoga.

Acrobatics, Yoga, and Thai Massage. Combined together give you Acroyoga

It has been an obsession of mine for a couple of years because it is a wildly different type of yoga. (I'm no whiz yet...I've been practicing it a little less than a year now.) Acro is a partner yoga, and you're actually sometimes working with more than one person since some of the poses require a spotter. If you've ever been to a yoga class, you know that you're the one receiving the benefits in the practice. At the beginning and at the end of the class, it's just you.

Your yoga world flips upside down when you get to experience the joy and community that forms once it becomes an "us" interaction.

One of the biggest concerns when I first started practicing was "what if someone can't lift me? what if I'm...too heavy?" but then you learn how you're really not doing much work sometimes as a base (did you know the ground/earth is incredibly strong?). I know it's asking for a lot, I know it's not easy at first. But it's truly remarkable the amount of trust you find yourself placing on a complete stranger that's about to lift you above the ground over their head.

So you start to go to acro classes and when the instructor(s) start out with the lesson plan and showing you what you will soon be mimicking, it scares you shitless. I...am going to be doing that? you ask yourself. It's because of this, that when I step into class that I believe that my body is capable of doing anything.Yes, I can make my way into Star and do a pike straddle with only a little bit of help from friends (translation: a headstand variation on the soles of someone's feet)

Unlike any other yoga class I've walked into, there is this beautiful feeling of community. Most all of us great each other with a hug, a sincere "Hi, how are you?"

We don't just recite our names, we talk about how our bodies are feeling, and usually followed by one of those icebreaker questions, except they're much more fun to answer.

Okay, last comparison.

I find myself sometimes going to a regular yoga class and feeling incredibly disconnected. Class wraps up, the instructor says their cordial thanks and I'm only started to feel warmed up. The little voice in my head starts thinking if anyone around here wants to play, only to be disappointed.
Recently I went to a hot yoga class, almost everyone was decked out in their designer Lululemon or $80+ pair of yoga pants. Just a tad uncomfortable for a sec. Complete silence in the locker room as twenty plus women were packed in, minding their own business. I get it though, some people just don't really want to care and get to know others in a practice that can be very selfish...and that's okay I guess.

"There are an infinite amount of ways one body can play/interact with another"

-Lindsey Britt (acroyoga instructor extraordinaire)

Acroyoga is offered in Chicago once a week for all levels Monday evenings at Urban Lotus Yoga at 730pm. A level 1-2 class is also offered on Sunday evenings at Nature Yoga at 3:30pm (they'll resume sometime in March, so double check the schedule).

Chicago.

Last weekend I was in Boston for the Fair Trade Futures conference, but before I go into that heavy canvas bag I just wanted to go off on a tangent a little bit about my favorite city: Chicago.

I moved here four years ago to attend Loyola because I had originally fallen head over feet in love with it when I came to visit my uncle in middle school when he was based in Chicago as a flight attendant. He is also partly to blame for my burning desire to travel the world.

So I was strolling through a Barnes & Noble (to take advantage of their free wifi of course!) and was met face-to-face with a National Geographic small headline that read "CHICAGO the greening of a city." Naturally, I flipped to the main article. The author wrote beautifully about this city and did the typical touristy things: visit a meaty restaurant, take the elevator to the top of the Sears Tower, and admired the architecture.

It's nice, yeah?

But I also love this city for so many other reasons, let's see

• a car is unnecessary, a bus, a train, and even a bike can you get around to where you need to go
• free, free, free! lots of free activities, music, and shows that are available to the public that you would otherwise have to pay a couple of bucks for if you were in NYC or my hometown- Miami
• Coffeehouses. Locally owned cafes that have different personalities and provide the alone time without necessarily being along, these places are actually packed sometimes folks
• cultura...the sad but real neat advantage that comes along with a greatly segregated city: from the middle eastern streets in Rogers Park, to the heavily populated Mexican neighborhood in Pilsen, the lovely "little Vietnam" off the Argyle red line, or the splendidly affordable Chinatown
• the availability of Vegan/Vegetarian food!
• and finally who can forget the Seasons (winter is my favorite...those days of spiced hot cocoa, snow boots, and spending time with lovers all warm the soul)

There are over 75 official neighborhoods, but I still get that feeling like we're all in it together when I'm on the el and I know there are a plethora of people who know that using the escalator means you stand on the right and pass on the left; or when I'm online perusing through yelp reviews and learn there are still several Chicagoans who loathe Starbucks.

And yep, we're picky about our coffee, we want it served to us with a pretty decent attitude from the barista in a timely manner, a cozy environment, and some tasteful decorations on the wall.

Let's rewind to FTF Conference in Boston.

The squeeze and I attended it this past weekend and there is LOTS going on in the fair trade movement. It's definitely not nearly as "happy" as I expected it would be. As it turned out, without too much of a surprise most of the people attending the conference (approximately 780), at least 85% were White. There were few Hispanic and even less African American. If there truly were 5 continents being represented, where were they??

I could talk a bit about how frustrating that was, but glad to hear that others felt the same way. There were a lot of conversations taking place in the three different tracks: beginner, advanced, and expert. I flirted between advanced and expert having already decided I am unable to sit through Fair Trade 101. It's difficult for me to criticize before having already said a couple of positive things about the conference, so here we go:

-Great job in bringing together lots of people (diversity is another issue)

-Good space that accommodated everyone

-It was a pretty good networking opportunity to meet people from all over the US and hear a little bit about student organizing...I was shocked how much students are getting done and how quickly it's all happening

Now, having attended several conferences and helping to organize a couple as well, I acknowledge it's not a piece of pie. Lots of stuff can and does go wrong:

-People are excluded (producers felt this way and had to have a separate conversation about this during the conference)

-This was a comment made by a cool Canadian that I've clicked with: that throughout the whole conference not once was race mentioned or discussed. Crucial.

-Length. One hour to an hour and a half is absolutely not long enough for four people to share information in as well as host a Q&A. There wasn't a single time I walked out of a workshop and everyone was able to ask their questions or the speakers able to finish

-Transportation. Which really wasn't their fault, MBTA (Boston's metro) was rerouted and included a shuttle and extra long commute during the conference.

-Cost. Even though I didn't pay for registration since I got it covered by a scholarship, $125 is a lot of money for many people to pay

-Language & inclusiveness. If you are organizing a conference and know that there are going to be producers from all over the world, but especially from Latin American countries, you are probably going to be needing more than 2 or 3 translators. No, you definitely will need more than three because they can not attend all of the workshops at the same time which limits which workshops producers can attend.

This is one of the things that I felt the Social Forum did particularly well. No one felt excluded at all....not because of language, not because of income, ability, age, or anything. Granted, both gatherings do have different purposes and outcomes but there is much that can be learned from the USSF in Detroit.

Aside from that, I picked up on other touchy subjects in the fair trade movement which I can also talk about for a while but basically boils down to the way in which fair trade certification is handled. It happens to be very different from organic certification which is government regulated, FT certification can happen through different organizations which aren't really accountable to anyone. This is also turning rather rapidly into a movement that is consumer driven, contrary to the social/political movement it once was...which is a good or bad thing depending on who you might ask.

These past couple of days following FTF Conference have been interesting for me...there's this mental battle going on and I almost need someone to scream at the top of their lungs for me to wake up. I wonder too much about tomorrow and the day after and worry that things won't work out. That maybe, just maybe, I'll have a shit job that is in no way relevant to anything I am passionate about only because money is tight and we all need a job to pay the bills, to pay the rent, to buy some food, and repeat.

"What did you graduate with"

"What type of job are you looking for"

"What kind of work do you wanna do"

please....

just stop.

But there is also so much to look forward to, there's so much going on in the city. It's mind blowing.

And then there is also family that is missed in other parts of the country. Which is strange because I have never felt so connected as I do now with loved ones. But I suppose no matter how far away you travel (although it's especially when you do travel that you feel most connected with the world and all of its chaos). It's just that going back home is where you find the most peace and harmony. Chicago is just my own attempt to recreate that, slowly but surely there's a slight chance of success.

49 degrees on a bright Sunday.

From the view outside my window, you can see there are two men standing outside the apartment building chatting. One of the is smoking a cancer stick and the other is wearing ag cowboy hat.

I just made some kickass vegan mac & cheese...with gluten free pasta :)

There's something really challenging and exciting about baking or cooking vegan. Butter is so wonderful smelling and pure and all these other things, but it's easy. Give me something not everyone can do well and I'll have fun.

The other day I went to visit DePaul with the squeeze and a couple of other fellow students, we visited the V&L Community and had a nice conversation about organizing and what we're passionate about. So many things have happened that have led me to be who I am today.

When I was young my family made sure I knew how fortunate we were. My cousins and I were lectured on how we need to eat all of our food because there are kids in Guatemala who aren't as blessed as we are, to further emphasize this we went through the motions of actually visiting an orphanage when I was young (maybe ten?) to witness it for ourselves.

So.

Many.

Kids....on their own. No parents, only nuns who ran the place, cooked meals, and took care of them.

I remember feeling so sad that they didn't have their parents or the simple and delicious meals we were able to afford and eat in the U.S.

Middle school then high school happened and my "crazy" vegan teacher reminded me of the help we need to offer...it was charity.

Then that evolved, college came along and so did Lu who introduced me to Oxfam. Then the word charity died and it was an obligation, a responsibility to my community, it would be foolish to sit around and do nothing. CHANGE equipped me with the inspiration and the tools I needed to organize on my campus.

So I did the big picture gig and I've started thinking more now on our own small circles, friendships, and networks. The people we talk to everyday. That's where we can really hit the ground running but it's also super challenging. Can you imagine? Getting your family or closest friends to think the way we should- knowing that our earth's resources are not unlimited, that we cannot continue living the way we do. Our senators and representatives- oh they're dandy and working with them is important but seriously now...if we can't convince our loved ones of our position and urgency how can we convince strangers?

you know the drill
-papertowels are the devil
-vinegar kicks windex's ass anyday, ditto any other "cleaner" or bleach or miracle shit you see advertised anywhere
-dead carcasses are for wimps, real food is the greens, the colors in fruits, the diet/lifestyle that does not require anything to die or suffer for you
-simple living, your needs vs. your wants

Today I got my mom to think about water conservation some more and got her to be cool with "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." It felt amazing. She's also getting cozy with the idea of having worms for compost!

Speaking of food, can I just mention how cooking a meal with a lover, a friend, or a stranger beats driving/traveling to a restaurant waiting in line, sitting at a table, looking at a menu, ordering your food, waiting for your food to arrive, and finally footing the bill?

I'm hosting couchsurfers from Jersey the next couple of days, 3 girls my age graduating in May. Hosting people, bringing the world into your living space I forget sometimes is such a delight.

peace, love, and "vegan orange you glad this cake has chocolate chips" cake

-p

Rants about life.

Life is good.

Let's start out with that one.

It's hectic and beautiful and whoa is it kinda driving me crazy nowadays.

...This is a perfect time to unwind and unleash, right when you're screaming at the top of your lungs for a few seconds because time is an enemy who refuses to give you more than 48 hours to do as you please.

Some of my peace comes from a guy I have fallen for in a bad but oh-so-good way. The guy that drives you up a wall crazy right before you see each other, inspires you, reaches out and touches your life in just the right way....our bodies also fit comfortably and the everyday bullshit we all gotta go through is that much more bearable. We have these crazy schedules that somehow work out except when it comes to planning any sort of get away, but we'll see. We all complain about how we never have the time to do the things we wanna do, but thinking like this is just plain stupid. We make time for the things we wanna do, strange concept isn't it?

Besides him, my fuel also comes from inspiration shouting out to me from quotes or the occasional perfect cup of coffee at 2:51am that begs for some thoughts and conversation.

Living at Ubuntu is 90% fun and 10% frustrating. The 90% fun comes from getting slapped in the butt by one of my roommates, the occasional foot massage, and the love that we all have for one another...the other unpleasant 10% from the yucky bathroom that hasn't been cleaned (deep clean) in more than two weeks.

My room mate is ridiculously pleasant to have around, we even sleep in the same bed sometimes since her futon is a piece of crap. Our relationship is quite nice.

I have been thinking a lot about my relationship with people that are close or have been close to me; la tia was in Chicago for Thanksgiving and something in our encounter prompted this. It brought me back to the idea that we all need each other. It does not matter how successful or how much of a "failure" we become in life, if there's no one around you can share a beer with or celebrate with in times of happiness...what is it all worth?

I tried and failed at bringing life back into a dead friendship. Twice. There comes a point, which I'm waiting for, when it is all okay, when it's okay that the other person just isn't on the same bloody page as you are or is interested or cares. It's difficult to swallow heavy words. Move on, take a ticket, and open up a new page with a cup of coffee in one hand.

All you can do is hope for the best, take advantage of opportunities, and have a good time.

Life sucks sometimes, it's filled with silly people who do silly things but it's just how the world turns.

I had a potluck the other day and it was a huge success. Many many wonderful people I enjoy and finally was able to share a meal with on a long table with all sorts of delicious foods.

A toast to happy times, good food, and great friends :)

Ubuntu and other things..

Every Friday evening around 1030pm a swarm of people will flock to a vehicle loaded with vegetables, fruits, and more bread than you have seen in quite a while. They unload and carry the groceries up to the second floor of 1234 W Albion. Outside the house reads a sign painted in blue on a yellow background "Ubuntu Community."

A total of 17 people live in this community whose name means "I am because we are" in an African dialect. Last semester I wrote an ethnography on this community, fell in love with it, and am currently living on the top floor with five other wonderful ladies and one uninvited mouse we are in the process of trying to get rid ourselves..

So why the swarm of people? Every Friday evening we head over to a grocery store that has kindly offered to give us the fruits, veggies, baked stuff that would have otherwise gone to the trash so that we can recycle, cook, and distribute every Sunday.

It's called Food Not Bombs.

17 people is a lot, yes, but it's not so bad. We're rarely all at home at the same time because we all have different sorts of schedules. We try to coordinate weekly floor community dinners as well as a meal with the entire house which is somewhat of a nightmare, but we deal. Living in an intentional community requires an extraordinary commitment to the people living in your house, it's this reason I really really wanted to live there. It's about moving away from the "me, me me" in college to the "us" and taking care of each other in small and large ways. Exciting isn't it?

My mind is scattered and all over the place, I had originally started this post a while back because I very much enjoy where I live and wanted to write about it.

This past weekend I attended the SFA (Student Farmworker Alliance) Encuentro conference in Imokalee, Florida along with a whopping 90 other students. What I assumed would be an intimate 40 or so blew up and more than doubled!

Even on our last day during the drive to the airport I was barely getting to know someone new.
Not so happy things:
I'm a conference junkie...
I love meeting people, talking to them, picking their brains, hearing what inspires them and so on. The conferences I've been too, helped organize & plan add up to a decent number. So I have my criticisms. As far as this one goes, more face time with people would have been fantastic. Yes, we all are here to learn about the organization and the campaign but I strongly feel we are more compelled to have meaningful and profound interactions with others attending the conference. Presentations, workshops, and all that jazz are wonderful and the core of what a conference should have but if there is no opportunity to interact with others for more than an hour the entire weekend guess what? it won't work. The campaign, the connections, the network building won't work.
Time. Time is a bitch, but oh so important.
If you don't respect it, use it, and take care of it there is not a high probability it will do the same. Staying on schedule is so important...is that so difficult to do? It's a big pet peeve that we have to cut through discussion or sharing because someone wasn't mindful of the time we have.

SFA works with farmworkers, particularly the Coalition of Imokalee Workers the majority of which are made up of Mexicans, Guatemalans, and Haitian workers. They began organizing more than thirteen years ago. What is it that they want? Major corporations that purchase the tomatoes they pick to do the responsible thing and pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked. This is possible by having them sign onto a national agreement with the CIW. Their victories have included Subway, Yum Brands, McDonalds, Burger King, and Whole Foods. They're currently battling to get Chipotle to come to the table and sign onto the agreement. It's taken lots of time, organizing, protesting, rallies, and demonstrations to reach those victories. They've picked up two other campaigns- Dine with Dignity, which tackles university dining halls/food service providers and a Grocery store campaign.

Alright, I'm through with that. Not every conference or training can be as perfect as CHANGE :)

There are so many things that I'm planning on taking back to Chicago with me and have added goals to a list that is only getting longer every day.

Let's go a different direction.

My cousin just recently posted something that caught my attention

"The passing of my uncle a few months ago really affected the way i view life. you treat people u love THE RIGHT WAY when they are alive. once dead, no need to get romantic. it's all a show after the fact."

She's quite an insighftul person, my much older cousin. Brings many things down to the earth and puts them into perspective for me...has taught me loads about being honest with myself (truly harder and much more difficult than imaginable), and the little things parents forget to mention.

This quote makes me think about the cousin I grew up closely with and consider a sister. Now, I always regarded "fights" or long long ago grudges to be fucked up and plain stupid. But I admit I have found myself caught in one with her, something about how we both function in our early twenties isn't quite on the same level or page. I wonder what would happen if we both got stuck in an elevator longer than twelve hours, someone should work on making that happen...because to be honest, I'm too scared shitless to do it at this point and afraid of what will come out of it. Is treating each other the right way require more than a simple acknowledgement of our existence? I would think so but find myself running in circles wondering why it's so difficult.

Isn't that wild?

In another note, on my flight back I spoke with an elderly woman. Correction: she spoke to me, for longer than I had expected. I love these people. I love the people that surprise you, that when you ask "where are you from?" will jump and respond, afterwards they'll follow up with their lifestory, their kids, where their kids live, what they were like growing up before you have a chance to ask "oh, is this really only the second time you've ever been on an airplane?"

This has happened to me once before, I was at a health expo in Des Plaines three or four years ago and another elderly woman told me all about how she refuses to take any sort of conventional medicine, relies strictly on natural oils, and encourages me to do to the same.

I wonder if this is some sort of a disadvantage: my ability to easily trust in and be convinced by a good argument people make...

I'll have to work on that, amongst other things of course.

Nicaragua.

So the last stretch of traveling included a Transitions Summit to Nicaragua

from July 28th until the 11th of August.

I'm going to quickly rewind for a sec.

Mid May was Guatemala for three weeks followed by Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia,

and not-so-great-China for a total of five weeks in Asia.

CHANGE was mid July til the end. Some of our evenings would close to dancing spontaneously with other CHANGE facilitators and Oxfam America (OA) staff to the song "Kids" by MGMT or Coldplay's "Viva la Vida."

To my delight, a day after the CHANGE training I found myself champion of petition collections at the Coldplay Concert in East Troy Wisconsin. A little under 200 in 3-4 hours, not bad..

Nicaragua was intense, insightful, and inspiring in a nutshell. Breaking it down=
Intense:
There were 11 other white middle/upper class students from all across the U.S. in Central America, initial thoughts include "fuck." I had been spoiled to say the least, CHANGE brings in international folks and with my travels as well. Traveling in groups is not my cup of tea, but I learned that sticking us all in a barely comfortable van that would shuttle us around to and from our destinations leads to lots of singing. Yep, singing. Singing The Beatles, Disney songs, and the like.
Insightful/Inspiring:
People have so much to offer and we need each other, badly. At my homestay, the head of the house was a woman called Dionisa. She was no older than 50 and had given birth to 15 children, she is now grandmother to 23 young ones. Her husband left her after she started organizing the women in her community to form a co-op. He wanted a more simple minded woman that did as she told and would not recognize a car had she seen one, were his exact words.
There were a couple of people on the trip that I had read into pretty quickly without giving them a second chance. I jumped the gun. But all is well now.

USFT...
We mapped out so many ideas for this year there were a couple of times I was completely overwhelmed and unsure anything this year would go my way. The biggest of all is the International Convergence which is set to take place in February. We're not sure where yet and every day that goes by that we are without a list makes me more anxious.

On another note, I am no longer living with 14 other roommates at Ubuntu. It's gone up to 17.
More people, less rent, more dirtiness= less "alone time"?
No matter.
What I love about Chicago is how enormous it is, there's always a corner in which you can hide away and disappear from the world.

School starts in less than a week, I'm taking on four courses. It's my last year at Loyola and there are tons of things I want to do. One of my "lofty" goals is to go sweatshop free, the entire university. I'm not alone though, many have looked to get the U sign onto the DSP but have for one reason or another failed. Fair trade sugar as well as rice is up in the air...as in, I need to let it bubble some more then we'll see. This all got kickstarted after visiting Nueva Vida, the women's sewing co-op in Managua. They're located on a free trade zone and built the factory they work in with their own two hands, they were badass.

Another exciting journey this year is going to be being a STARS mentor. STARS (Students Together Are Reaching Success) supports the retention & success of Loyola students.
I'm given a "family" of freshman students that are particularly underrepresented and commuter students, flood their inbox and chat about how to get involved with the Loyola community and Chicago area. It's a fun job that helps pay the rent and gives me five or six fun people to challenge me (ideally) and allow me to grow as well.

Good times, good times..

biting your tongue.

So getting stuck (alright, we'll be fair and call it traveling) in China means three things to me:
-no youtube
-no blogging
-Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner look exactly alike

I know, not all that great, but it makes you appreciate these things further when they're taken away. Meeting up with my dad in Vietnam was something I had been looking forward to, what caught me by surprise was the fact that we'd be spending a whopping 9 days in China and to top it all off ON A TOUR. Here is why tours don't work for me: it takes a very long time to wait for everyone else on the tour (esp when there are 40 other people), you run according to someone else's schedule (not your own) meaning someone else decides when you take a nap, eat, and such, and there's no freedom or time to be spontaneous. You're also probably overpaying for shitty food. But some people like that, some people don't like to think or worry about applying for visas and bus schedules, or accommodation. I'm not one of those people.

We hit up a couple of cities in China including Shanghai, Beijing, and Sizhou, as well as another city I can't remember. Yep, it was that fascinating it just caught me off guard. One of the highlights included visiting & chatting with the lovely Ms. Chen on the fourth of July who was living in Beijing for six months. We go to the same university and it was a breath of fresh air venting and listening to a friendly face. The other highlight of my trip in China was my experience with a barista in one of the hotels we stayed. She was adorable, like a young lost child. I had soymilk and was in need of espresso and chocolate for my mocha. I asked her for both and showed her my mocha and asked her to heat it up using the espresso machine. After posing a confused stare she took my milk and began walking somewhere, I immediately stopped her, asked "where are you going?" To which she used both her hands to form a square and utter "ding!" (I told you she was adorable)
"No no no microwave," I said, and let out a laugh.
Still confused, I walked her back behind the counter and showed her how the

It's interesting because you hear and read loads about China. Travelers I ran into stressed how not many people spoke English and that the Chinese aren't the friendliest people ever. The latter, you quickly pick up on and as a result ends in some frustration. I don't entirely understand the Chinese and that's fine by me, I won't judge a culture and people whose enormous history I have failed to appreciate because of my own fault. I was terribly miserable because of holding in a lot of what I was thinking and feeling.

You see, for the first time (yes, first) I felt like a third wheel. Due to the "couple-ness" my father and his girlfriend were emitting as bright as sunshine. You ever see those couples that do everything together, that wait for each other when they go to the bathroom, can't spend more than ten minutes apart without wondering where the other is? Yeah, after having only heard of this type of pair I had begun to doubt they existed.

I was angry and mad: two things I explicitly told myself I would not be writing about in a blog because of how depressing that is, but shit happens. Those 9 days in China were the only days this summer I would see my dad. It wasn't til after Christmas that I anticipate going back to Miami. He lives in Miami and so does she, you get my point? This is when you've gotta bite your tongue and say alright, they're in love I respect that, I'll just go with the flow and pretend it's all fan-frickin-tastic. But communication needs to happen, it takes two to tango of course, so do it the right way and work on that dance.

Anywho, that's done and over....apologies were exchanged and life goes on. People make mistakes. My dad and I, we're particularly good at that.

This summer has been possible because of him and I'm truly grateful. Not everyone has these opportunities.

Landing in Chicago and wandering around the city I call home for a couple of days and meeting up with friends made me feel so alive.

It meant
-cars actually respect pedestrians
-eating whenever you felt hungry
-people who were polite and randomly said hello
-hanging out with my mom and sharing hysterical stories
-washing the dishes (this I really do enjoy)
-living without too much worry, being comfy- which I missed

Pedro's front yard was blooming with all sorts of veggies, it's a terribly exciting time.
Things have been crazy busy ever since getting back to the states. A couple of conference calls have kept me updated on how the activism world is coming along.
While in Boston I stayed at a couchsurfer's place for one night since my wonderful pseudo best friend from grade school didn't remember to mention she'd be busy doing some volunteer work. But God bless her, she's wonderful.
I stayed with Jimmy, who works for a university creating games for educational purposes, he does what he loves, has a fantastic apartment, and is a great host. He also plays the guitar, makes a fresh pot of coffee in the morning (one of the many ways you can truly make me happy), and is a cool guy to have a chat with.

I'm planning on a final summer post once I have some more time. CHANGE pre-training starts tomorrow and I'm absolutely tickled to meet everyone, eat real food, talk activism, and have a packed/intense schedule.