Field Report: From my field site and NYE12 HQ

Just thought I would drop a quick line!  I’m up at the ranch (http://www.rushranch.net/) doing some research for the week!  I’ll be here till early Thursday morning when I fly back to Long Beach.  The weather has been C-razy up in the Bay Area so far.  My advisor (Christine) had her husband (Jon) rent a car for me to use for the weekend.  Naturally, the weekend I’m here and the weather is awful and there are cars off the road all over, I’m driving under my advisor’s husband’s name.  It was stressful.  But now I’m here!  And the weather is good today, but the water is too high in the marsh for me to really do much.  Don’t worry, I flew up to NorCal with a microscope (Nerdy, yes.  Necessary, much.) so I don’t miss a moment of lab excitement.  I cannot wait until this time next year.  I hope to have defended my thesis and be hard core kicking it.

BRIEF EXPLINATION:  Did you know they charge you and extra 25 dollars a day to rent a car when you aren’t 25?  They do.  Jon still lives in the Bay Area for his job, and visits Christine on the weekends.  It’s a super screwed up situation, but they work it and it will end sometime soon we all hope.  Until then, he was dragged into mine and Christine’s scheme to save grant money.  I felt really awkward the whole time we were renting the car though.  Maybe I was just being paranoid, but he’s obviously a good 10 years older than me, but obviously not my father.  And he was wearing a wedding band and I wasn’t, so I felt like it looked super sketchy.  Then we met at the holiday inn to get luggage out of his actual car.  All in all, a sketchy sketchy picture.  I laughed a lot about it once I was by myself again.

In other, friend related news, Ash Lits is getting married!  I have her address if anyone else wants to send her a “congrats on your engagement” card.  I know I will be.  Just message me, email me if you want the addy. 

Lastly, I wanted to give a field report from Las Cruses, New Mexico.  I went to New Years site 2012 to visit Mer-Bear recently.  I have to say, I think it’s a good idea to not have a big city adventure every New Year as it adds variety (and brings us back to our BG roots).  That in mind, LC has it all.  Tumbleweeds, fun dive bars, really cool hiking trails, Mer’s awesome new roomie Neeshia, many many Latino boys who want to salsa dance with you, and lots (tons!  So much!) nummy nummy newmex-mexican food.  I probably ate my weight in Hatch chilies and guac while I was there.  So much fun!  I think we will bring the fierceness that LC NewMex needs to end out 20-luv, but that’s getting way ahead of ourselves.  Thus, my field report is all positiveness and southwestern-country glee.

Okay, thanks for letting me get my ramble on for multiple paragraphs.  I would love to see people getting into the blog again, but I know we are all way busy.  But, just so you guys know, I think about each of you every day as you make an appearance on my new vision board.  WORK!

Good News....for the righteous

We're entrenched in a society that is mostly inhabited by two populations; the Problem people and the Solution people. Both occupy the same world, but see it completely different. This may be a problem, or it may be the only reason balance exists (the verdict is still out on this one). There are several defining characteristics of each group, but lets start simple. To fully understand either group, we must explore the idea behind the identities.

Problem People:

Focus on honing in on the negatives energy in their life. They fester on the problem, which in return attracts more problems to keep the other problems company. Problem people, though seemingly always drowning, love wading in the spa baby pool of negative self-fulling prophecies. They are experts at putting up facades of exhausting every avenue before coming to the "lowest point(s) of their very existence...to date." Problem people live in the land of rainbows, unicorns, and acid rain drops covered in pain and suffering. 

Solutions People:

A solutions person isn't purely characterized by intuitiveness, which usually is a main trait of a Solutions person (but not a necessity). Solutions people see the blueprints of tough situations, then identify the problem areas, and finally come out with several effective ways to combat that problem. It's impressive the way solutions people learn from their issues and generalize the skills they've obtained, through self-discovery & reflection, to other contexts/environment/situations in their life.

I jotted down most of this several days ago. It felt appropriate to expand on it today. As I've been re-evaluating my perception of the people around me, I've come to the conclusion that most people fall into the two categories mentioned above. I was able to pinpoint my frustration to people centered mainly on problems. I'm referring to some of my colleagues. They made me really upset today. I realized that, when you give others the keys to your happiness, if they wreck it, then you still pay the insurance. Today I paid the insurance for investing so much of my time in trying to prove to my colleagues that I cared about them. I realized that not everyone has good character; that was a hard lesson to learn. I usually give people the benefit of the doubt, as I'm pretty sure we all do. I didn't realize that people could take advantage of your compassion for them. I feel that the universe wants me to learn these important lessons to prepare me for my future stints with difficult people. I've listed a few thorns, so a rose would be that I'm so lucky to have friends like you. I don't past judgement on anyone, but it has to be sad to not have people with exemplary character surrounding you at all times. Kudos to you smooth dudes and cowgals.

* to wrap this up: I'm going to continue to be positive and treat those colleagues with the utmost respect. Love is sometimes hard to pay forward, but it has the best return.

A super big ROSE:

 I MADE THE FINAL INTERVIEW FOR TEACH FOR AMERICA! There's much to do before then, so I'm focusing on completing all the necessary tasks before the interview day. As always, I'll keep you guys/girls or girls/guys (if you're into semantics) posted. 

Procrastination NATION

Hey ya’ll.  I’m loving reading everyone’s stuff!  So happy to hear from so many.  I am posting this because I am procrastinating, but also because I want to test out the e-mail thingy that Mer worked out.  Also, I can enter everyone’s emails as forwarding addresses for thetargetcrosscountry@gmail.com so that you can know when comment are posted and what not.  If you aren’t into more email and just want to check in every so often, just ignore the request to become a forwarding address.  Cool?  Cool. 

The biggest thing of note in my life is, this weekend, I will be fulfilling a lifelong dream and having a “pool” party for my birthday.  I’m really going camping by the beach, but in Kentucky, a February birthday bars you from any sort of water related fun.  There will be ocean, beer, smores, and we might get muffed up (but in chocolate chip cookie form).  I’m sure I will fill you guys in on that soon. 

I’ve been taking a page out of Mer’s book and making mad to-do lists.  For your amusement, here is my day in list form.

Things I should be doing:

1. Working on the two grants I will be submitting in February.

Grant writing is my all time favorite thing to procrastinate.  It’s like anything, once I get over the inertia of not doing it, it comes really easy.  It’s just opening the freaking application document and putting my name in the blank that is so hard.  Why is that so hard?

2. Doing reading for my classes

My professor assigned us to tomes to read.  These papers are HUGE!  Also, I’d like to point out that this man has a full time professor position, three graduate students, two small children, and a puppy.  I feel he should be intimately acquainted with business. 

3. Trying to make maps for my field work in t-minus a week and a half

I’m actually excited about this one; I just don’t really know what to do yet.  I took a class last semester all about this map making software on the computer (GIS:  Geographic Information Systems).  It’s an awesome tool and so helpful to me in my project.  But like any cool computer programs, it takes awhile to figure out what you REALLY want to do, and you spend hours doing things you only kind of wanted to do. 

NOTE:  I really do love my work and all that I am doing!  It’s just like anything that is hard/ worthwhile, resistance is acting on you hard to keep you from getting your shit done.  What is “resistance?”  It’s the force in the universe that encourages you to act against your best interests.  It keeps you from getting up when the alarm goes off or writing even though you know you’re gifted.  It pushes us in the wrong direction.  Check out “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield.  JD gave it to me for graduation, and it’s all about this topic. 

Things I’ve done post getting home:

1. Eat (necessary)

I’ve been on a big cooking trip lately.  But I’m at that point where I need to eat the random stuff in my fridge.  Enter brown rice, lentils, and pasta sauce.  Noms.

2. Shower (also necessary)

 I was out in the marsh this morning, then went to spin class.  I smelled way sketchy.  Want to know what going to work looks like for me?  Check the pic. 

3. Change the turtle filter

Always an adventure, but not really worthy of elaboration. 

4. Looked at recipes I want to make on this blog fatfreevegan.com (This is my new favorite cooking blog.)

5. Creepily watch my roommate (who is a painter) paint, but she thinks I’m working, but I’m really creepily watching her.

Okay, off to do the things I should be doing....or watch NetFlix....

Peace! ~Rach Wigg

Blog Love Now Delivered

Busy day here at The TCC! I just wanted to let everyone know that the option exists if you want new posts emailed to you directly. Just sign in with the target email and it should take you to the 'Blogger Dashboard' if you click SETTINGS then the EMAIL tab, you can input your personal email addresses. Thats it!

Rach, I know you were working on this as well. Hope you don't mine that I took the liberty of posting about it. I....I needed some excuse to procrastinate being productive. :\

~M

Decisions

THIS IS REPOSTED FROM MY BLOG!!

20love have been an interesting year for me in so many ways.  Not only is it the year I’ve decided to change my life and do something that challenges me when it comes to my relationships, but I’ve also been realizing some other things about my life in general.

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be an attorney.  I wanted to be Sam McCoy on Law and Order and fight for justice!  Soon, my passion for justice morphed into me wanting to get into politics and fight for the little person, changing the lives of many people who are forgotten in our legal system.

And while all of these ideas have been my dream for the longest time—for whatever reason I am not sure these are my dreams any more.

I applied to graduate school at George Mason University in December for Public Policy.  I’m still waiting to here back from them.  I hate waiting for things like this. 

Regardless, throughout the waiting process, I’ve begun to think about a lot of things when it comes to my career.  Right now, I’m working at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dallas and have found a niche there I really enjoy.  The company is awesome to work for.  Not only do they have amazing benefits, but the chain exists in 72 different countries stretched all over the globe in exotic and historical locations. 

Recently, I’ve been doing such a baller job with my restaurant that they’ve offered me a promotion into management over the summer, and I was recently nominated to be the employee of the month for January (I’ll find out on the 27 if I make it!!)  Even cooler, the Executive Board of Members for the Club recently singled me out as a key factor in changing the way customers view my restaurant and how positively Racquets has changed.

I don’t know if it’s because this industry is in my blood since my dad is a higher up in the hotel or if it just comes naturally to me, but I know I am good at working in a hotel.  Not only good—but I rock it out.  I actually enjoy going to work every day… and I work at 6:45 in the morning most days.  How many early twenty-something’s can actually say that about their jobs?  Nothing makes me feel better than when it’s a particularly long, grueling day where people can’t stop going to eat and once you reach close time, you realized service went off without a hitch and everyone who came in received the type of service they expect from a company like the Four Seasons. 

Now continuing my education is a different story.  I know I am good at school, I proved that in my undergrad, but one thing I am not good at is standardized testing.   The LSAT, in particular.  When I took the test, I did not do anywhere near what I was expecting, and although I did not study as much as I wanted to, the people who make the test say your scores can only improve a maximum of ten points.  The LSAT made me an anxiety filled mess, and the thought of taking it again to only get the same score would cause me to reach critical anxiety level status. 

In the end, when I think about why I had the dream to become an attorney/ politician when I was in school, I wanted to do those things so I could get money to travel and see the world.  Sure, I also wanted to help people, but traveling and seeing all of the history I studied in school was something I knew I wanted to do. 

The best thing about the Four Seasons is they are located in so many parts of the world.  Once you work for the company for a year, you may put in transfer to any property they have an opening in: Cairo, Thailand, London, Australia—all these places are at my fingertips if I stay with the hotel.  Not only that, but your get free nights at any of the hotels (which increase the longer you stay with the company!) and half off on all food and beverage! I mean LOOK at the places I'll get to go!

Four Seasons Cairo

Four Seasons Thailand

Four Seasons London

Four Seasons Sydney

If I choose to continue with my education, I’d have to wait another five years before I started to make an income… But even then it probably wouldn’t be enough to travel anywhere on because of the massive amounts of loans I would have to pay for law school… Not to mention the long hours spent at work.  I want to enjoy my twenties—and the work I will continue to do beyond them—and I’m pretty certain in order to do that I need to change the path I had always laid out for myself and commit to a career in hotels rather than pursue continuing my education. 

Some people may think I am settling, and maybe I am; but the thought of getting to go anywhere I’ve read about and get paid to do something I love doing makes me so much happier than the thought of me spending the years I’m supposed to live stuck in a library.  I know I can do this hotel thing, and I know I have the ambition and drive to get into higher levels of management.  I’m a person who likes to be the best at whatever they do, and now that I’m certain I’m going to do this for my job, I am going to be the best worker the F-season’s has ever seen.

So, in order to make me happy on day 24 in 20love, I’m deciding to change my dreams and what I want out of life.  

____

To Mer Bear-- Your couch surfing ideas sounds fun/ a tad be on the dangerous side.  I like your rebel without a cause attitude + Your drive to be the best grad student at NMSU!

To CornCakes-- Get it 

To Katie-- You got it girl, go after those dreams/ be in JD's Bosom!

To Rachel-- I'm glad things in the LB are as fierce as you!  Tell Daniel I said hiiii

To Double Dutch-- I love you... keep on the path!

LOVE LOVE LOVE/ Hope you don't mind I posted from the blog but it's something that has been on my mind/ I hope y'all approve!

Some Down Home 20Love

Hello all! 

  Let me start by saying how glad I am that y’all are all doing this and that I am fortunate enough to be a part of it. I’m so happy y’all have taken such an interest to keeping up with everyone through this incredibly accessible medium. Y’all are truly wonderful people whom I hope to never forget or be out of contact with.

  I loved seeing all of you in Chicago! As for me, 20love has been my year! Being 24 in 20love is rockin’ me out! I have absolutely decided that I am applying for the Public Allies program in Chicago; which means that I will move from Dallas when Corn and I’s lease is up at the end of July. And that makes me so incredibly excited that I don’t have words to express it! This apprenticeship is exactly what I need to be doing with my life at this point -- I feel that from the bottom of my soul! J.D. has graciously said that he would do whatever he could to put the odds in my favor regarding the application process. I have been working on the application since about a week after we got back and it’s going great. It’s really made me think about exactly what avenue of social justice policy I want to take in my life. I’ve done a lot with gender and women’s issues and I was iffy on whether to stick to that pattern or to branch off into something that I’m also interested in, such as LGBT issues. But I think that I’ve decided to stick with women’s issues because I’ve become increasingly more interested in economic development and micro-finance issues lately – and they have a direct tie to women’s issues considering most of the world’s poor are women and children.

  On the job front, I went to the swinger’s club that one of my friend’s said she could get me a job at, and it didn’t go as planned. I thought that I could handle the atmosphere, but in the end it was a little to underground for me. Plus the owner had the air of a man who has beaten on some women – maybe I’m being judgey but I’d rather be safe than sorry. So the game plan now is to continue temping and most likely apply to the steak houses around our apartment for some cash in the meantime. (I’m only thinking positively about the Public Allies program – so, I will get in!)

  In other news, I’m trying to hook up with some Dallas organizations called Dress for Success and Dallas Women’s Foundation to do some volunteer work while I’m still here. Wish me luck! DWF is being persnickety about getting back to me. Bitch, I’m trying to work for you for free – hit me up!

  J.D., I agree with Meridith. You HAVE to find a way to tape your show. I’m so excited to learn from you!! I got your voice message the other day as Corn and I were coming out of this club in Dallas called Beamer’s; it’s a black club in a huge ass building off 35. I was drunk as a skunk and didn’t even mean to be!! When you come home you’ll have to check it out. Thursday and Friday Happy Hour they have a soul food buffet and $2 wells (poured stiffly). Seriously legit. Also, you and Ryan’s dance was amazing. I’m so happy it was caught on video (thank you Meridith). Whenever I'm down in the dumps I can just click the link and be cheered up instantly!!  

  Meridith, I hope you have only amazing experiences with couchsurfing.org. That sounds awesome!

  Rachel, I hope you have an amazing semester trudging around the wetlands, as you do!! Ditto on the push to post your brother’s music; I’ve never heard any of it, I don’t think.

  I am going to make a concerted effort to post of this blog regularly. If I do not, I give each and every one of you permission to hound me until I do. =)

    Lots of down home love,

   

        Lawless  

NYE Dance Dance Resolution!

Ryan and JD's Dance 

I told Ryan I'd email this to him but apparently its been sitting in my outbox, too big to send! So here it is for everyone to enjoy again! I tried to embed it, but couldn't figure out how so its an unlisted youtube video now. Only people with this link can get to it! Sneaky, eh? Sorry about the shaky camera work, the chick I hired was drunk!