I don't look before i leap.

I think that my eyes are bigger than my heart. That may sound weird, or silly, so let me explain. I take risks that I really shouldn't - not the good getting the guts up to talk to a boy kind, but the crazy life altering kind. For example, moving to Chicago. I got it in my head that I needed to leave California and somehow I end up in a city that gets really freaking cold in the winter where i know not one soul. In my head this works. I should be trying new things, experiencing new places and meeting new people. And all this gets me very excited, it really does. But the loneliness that comes along with it, especially right now at the beginning, is just more than I can handle sometimes. I know that this is where I'm supposed to be at this point in my life - but could it be a little less hard? Just a smidgen?

Public Transportation

Man, its fun. Today waiting for the #36 Broadway Bus I was sitting at the bus stop with an older woman and two girls I presumed to be hers. The girls were a prime example of polar opposites. One was very clean cut and seemed most intent on being a 'good girl' and pleasing her mother (grandmother?). This often led to reprimanding the other girl, who was very slovenly looking and seemed to march to the beat of her own drum, maintaining a distance from her mother and sister (?). Neither girl looked to be more than 7 years old. I ended up sitting across from them on the bus, and watched a variety of events unfold as they attempted to find seats on a very crowded bus. The mother definitely had lost patience for both girls and was letting them run wild on the bus, in exchange for some much needed shut-eye, much to the chagrin of the other passengers, and yet for a lot of them, it was just another day on the bus.

At the same time, the girl next to me on the bus was recounting to her friend a very recent break-up and how she was feeling about all of that, which of course triggered some very powerful emotions in me as I struggled not to eavesdrop. Her friend obviously was struggling with how to comfort her, and took the alternate route of simply gossiping about other friends as opposed to comforting in any way.

All the while a dissheveled looking homeless man is looming over me, looking obviously perturbed about the little girls running around, and at the same time rolling a joint which I seriously thought he might light on the bus.

I'm (probably) buying a bike tomorrow.

A final thought for today.

This blows my mind. Few issues get me as riled up as the issue of choice. I believe that life begins at conception, and for that reason, I doubt that I would make the decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. At the same time, who am I to deny anyone else the right to make their own determination and their own choice in the matter? Its their body, not mine. The anti-abortion movement baffles me.

I hope that the city of Aurora wakes up soon and lets Planned Parenthood open their doors.

for more information:
http://ppaurora.blogspot.com/

The Weather

I realized this weekend that one of the most striking (and outwardly apparent) differences between California, espeically my home town in the Bay Area, and Chicago (and DC for that matter) is the weather. I went home over the weekend, and the temperature was a predictable 60 - 65 degrees farenheit with a slight crispness in the air that meant fall was coming. In contrast, the weather in Chicago hit 90 degrees farenheit yesterday, we experienced thunderstorms this afternoon, and 8 days ago it was probably 50 degrees out.

I'm looking forward to winter already (not.)

Welcome

This is my attempt to move away from the livejournal of my high school and college years and into the 'grown-up' world of blogging. New city, new surroundings, new job, new blog. I think that makes sense, don't you?

A brief introduction. I moved to Chicago a month ago to start my first real person job as part of AVODAH, the Jewish Service Corps, having graduated with degrees in Political Science and Linguistics/Anthropology, both useful for absoutely nothing in the real world. I am living with 6 other post-college young adults, all doing anti-poverty work in the city of Chicago. I am working as an organizer for the Lakeview Action Coalition, a community based coalition of 40 churches, synagogues, non profits and businesses in the Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview, located on the Northside.

I'm not the most eloquent of writers, so I hope you, the occasional reader (if you exist) will bear with me.