Break Dancing

As most of you know I am working for Kid Power this year. I spend my mornings and early afternoons in the office and my late afternoons are spent at Cesar Chavez Prep. Last week we got a guy to come in and teach my kids some break dancing moves. It was really neat to watch - and a bit funny. Here are some of pictures of the wonderful experience!

Keeping Busy

This week has flown by. Monday I had the day off because of the holiday. It worked out really well since the inauguration was also occurring and getting to work would have been really difficult. I heard some people were showing up at 4 in the morning in order to get a spot to see the president. It was really cold and I think those people must be crazy. I personally did not go to the inauguration. I attempted to start running and working out regularly last week but turns out my foot is not agreeing with that. I was on my feet a lot on Saturday running some errands and hanging out at Christ House in the evening and on Sunday it was still bothering me. I went out to the birthday party of one of Corey's coworkers on Sunday night and when we went to leave the metro had stopped running. Since we didn't have to worry about work the next day we forgot to worry about the metro closing at 11:30. Since we had to take a cab I didn't want to pay for one to take me all the way up to my place so I spent the night at his place. He wasn't very excited about going to the inauguration so we decided to skip it and instead sat around reading comic books and playing halo. I am really awful at video games so over the course of the day I managed to improve though I am still not pretty bad.
Last night Kid Power hosted a Happy Hour event at a local bar. We were able to raise some money and it was a lot of fun. We also gave away some cool gift cards in our raffle. Our house went in on a few and were disappointed when none of us won, but I guess since we all got in for free we can't complain too much. This weekend is not very full and I am looking forward to some relaxation. Tomorrow we are having a workshop for our federal work study students who work with us so I have to come in to work for a few hours but it will be a good chance for me to make sure that we are all on the same page and program should go smoother.

Crafty things

So I have been feeling a bit crafty lately. First off I discovered a video that showed me how to cut glass bottles. I was of course intrigued and then disappointed when I learned that you need a bottle cutter. However, turns out these are only about $20 so I treated myself to one with a bit of my Christmas money. I have cut exactly two bottles so far. Wine bottles are much easier to do than thicker cola or beer bottles. I have also made myself an arrangement of flowers out of construction paper and a hot glue gun (also a Christmas money purchase) to put in the $0.88 orange vase I found at Good Will over the Holidays. I thought that I would share a few photos of these crafts.

Here are my flowers. They aren't anything too special, but I think that the blue and black work well with the orange. They also go nicely with the blue dresser they are sitting on. It is hard to tell though because of the flash. 

This is a bottle cutter. 

And this is how it is positioned on a bottle. The height and width are adjustable so that it can cut bottles up to 5 gal. 

Basically you use this to score the bottle once and then you alternate pouring boiling water and cold water over the score mark and the two pieces just fall apart. This is the video I saw and then tried to imitate. Here is the top of the cola bottle which is now a candle holder and the bottom of a wine bottle which I suppose will be a vase or who knows what. 

I had to sand the edges of the cut line so that they weren't so sharp, but they were smooth. I am really excited to use this more. Only problem is that I need more bottles. 

Oh and here is a picture I recently hung above my dresser. Corey got it for me for by birthday. It is really sad that it took over two months for me to get around to hanging it. I know it is hard to see b/c of the flash and the reflection of my ceiling light, but you get the idea. 

My Room

As I promised here are some pictures of my painted room. Also notice the new curtains that mom made out of a sheet and mailed to me. 

work work work

So this week has only just begun and already I am wondering when the weekend will get here. I spent this weekend feeling a bit sick but am over it for the most part now. I still have a runny nose and sore throat, but compared to aching everywhere this is nice. I know that many of you are curious about my room since I never did post any pictures after painting so I promise to get those up here by this weekend at the latest. My room is a bit of a disaster zone after getting back and then being sick right away so I want to clean it up before I take any pictures of it. Last night my bottle cutter that I ordered came so I was a bit distracted and didn't get much done. My housemates were rather impressed with my ability to cut a wine bottle and then I cut Alisha's coke bottle for her. It is really cool and I am very excited to use it more.

This week I am only working out of our Chinatown office. We will begin at the schools again on Monday. Looking at a computer all day is not my idea of fun but I am getting a lot done and catching up on a lot of lesson plans. We are still working on our curriculum so this week is centered around that. I am excited to be part of something that is going to go on to be published and hopefully sold around the country.

Vacation is over

Well today I am packing my bags and getting ready to head back to DC. I had grand dreams of being able to take back a giant pile of things, but turns out I do not have a magic bag which appears to be carry-on size but is really just a bottomless pit. Somehow the items I brought with me appear to have gotten bigger and more plentiful so I am not sure how I am going to fit any extra items in the bag. I suppose there is always to options of checking a bag or shipping a box. But the first option would require me to wrestle a larger bag through the metro system when I arrive in DC and the other option is not cheap. It is hard to know what I should take back with me since it is going to be getting warmer there in just a few months and I am not sure when I will be able to get back here. If you don't know me well you may not realize that I have a rather large collection of dresses and skirts which I would love to have out in DC this summer. I also have a few pairs of cute heals that would go great with those dresses. Oh decisions, decisions.
I am going to be back at work tomorrow which seems strange. I have been getting rather good and being lazy so now I am going to have to transition back to being responsible. At least it is only one day so I get to ease back into it. Tomorrow night I am going to be going to the 930 club with Corey and some of his friends to hear a DJ. The night is called Lady GaGa vs. Madonna vs. Boy Bands. It should be a lot of fun and have a lot of interesting people in attendance.