Community

Chris Brown

I could go on and on about how I feel about Chris Brown and how his behavior sets such a bad example, but since others have already done so, I'll just link to their posts.

A Chronological Look at What Exactly Is Wrong With Chris Brown

What if Rihanna & Chris Brown Get Back Together?

Do the Words 'Felony Assault' Mean Anything to the Grammys?

I'm Not Okay with Chris Brown Performing at the Grammys and I'm Not Sure Why You Are

Twitter Trend: 'Chris Brown Can Beat Me Any Day'

Lessons From One Tree Hill (Part 1)

I'm a big fan of One Tree Hill--and I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit it, because, seriously, love that show. It's bittersweet that this season will be the final one for the show. It has run a good course, defying expectations of failure, and shown us all lessons of life (while everyone also looks fabulous and has way more drama in their lives than I hope I ever will). There are a lot of moments and quotes from the show in its nine season run that I have found really powerful, so in honor of the final season, I am doing a series on lessons from One Tree Hill.

A particularly poignant moment for me was at the end of Season 5. Lucas has been in a really dark place with a breakup and is struggling to deal with it--his best friend Haley has some words for him.

Video doesn't want to be embedded so watch here.


You know that romantic notion that all the garbage and the pain is really healing and beautiful and sort of poetic? It’s not. It’s just garbage and it’s pain. You know what’s better? Love. The day that you start thinking that love is overrated is the day that you’re wrong. The only thing wrong with love and faith and belief is not having it.


At age 18, when I saw this episode, this was a big shift in thinking for me. I'm a wallower. I used to go over things in my head over and over trying to pinpoint what/where it went wrong. I wrote really bad poetry. I thought all this would help me figure out how to be happy.


Surprise, it didn't. It was only when I figured out how to focus on the good things and not just relive all the hard stuff that I realized I could actually be happy. Stop focusing so much on what I had lost or what I didn't have--focus instead on the incredible amount of love I have in my life from the people around me. Hopefully someone else would've said this to me at some point, but the fact is, this novel idea came to me from One Tree Hill.

February Update

It's been a while. Not to gloss over the last month, but it's not what I want to focus on. There was a period of struggling a lot with my life as it is and trying to reconcile than with my life as I wish it was. Life's a journey, and things have gotten a lot better in the last few weeks. Making changes for the better.

ANYWAY.

What happened in January?

We had an epiphany party at Maria's (one of our support people), which was super fun. Her partner Janelle is an amazing cook, and we were definitely spoiled for a night.

before dinner

with our dear support people, Maria and Shannon

I got to go see Wicked at Pantages Theater, which I paid for with Christmas money from my grandparents (thank you Granny Ree & Grandpa Herbie!). It was an amazing show, and now I'm reading the book, which is also really good. Then a couple weeks later, I had the chance to see Cirque de Soleil... free! Jackie and Mike H. had tickets from work, and Mike H. being the dear roommate he is, let me go in his stead.

Cirque with Jackie!

Then we had ReOrientation back in Aptos. I was very grateful for my new electric blanket gift from Mama (thank you!!) because it was coooooold. It was a good weekend--it was good to see all the other JV's again and to focus on why we're doing what we're doing again. We also had some really important conversations as a house, and I'm feeling really good about where we are right now, making progress as a community.

THEN on the way back down from NorCal, we decided to "stop by" Sequoia National Forest, which ended up being more of a detour than we realized, though I think consensus was we were still glad we did it. There was snow. There were giant trees. We took lots of pictures.

us with General Sherman, biggest tree in the world & Mike F. and Rebecca from Casa Ita

I decided to take off my blanket briefly for a better picture

Urban Compass has been going well. We got a donation to buy new laptops for the program, so we now have 12 laptops! This in turn has enabled us to start a computer skills class (mostly for 4th & 5th graders), which has been going fabulously so far. We've gotten some new kids that have done really well adapting to the program. And then there's the days that all my kids throw tantrums about doing their homework... I guess they're still 5 & 6 year olds. :)

There's a lot of blog posts in the making, and I'll try to get back on top of things, so hopefully there won't be as long of a wait next time. Hope everyone is doing well!