Lynn's New Adventures: Metaphor for my Life

Several things today:

1. Happy Birthday, Dad!

2. I had my interview today for volunteering at the YWCA here in Missoula, and I think it went pretty well. I am initially applying to be a group facilitator with the GUTS! Program (Girls Using Their Strengths), which primarily works as an after-school program at several elementary, middle, and high schools around Missoula. I would be co-facilitating with another woman, probably a group of about 5-12 girls each week. We will work off of the program curriculum, but also will be able to add some of our own activities along the way. The program also does monthly Community Adventures for the girls (such as building bicycles, canoeing, etc.), which I expressed interest in as well. Hopefully I will be able to combine this with some other volunteering with the women's shelter through the YWCA, and it will become an AmeriCorps position. I will also be working with Laura (from my program) to write a grant to get a playground set for their transitional living program....well, we need to discuss it with our professor, but the plan sounds good. I am going to be really great at time management after this. For more information about the YWCA, check out http://www.ywcaofmissoula.org/.

3. I finished my book that I have been reading - Eat. Pray. Love. It was absolutely phenomenal, and I would recommend that if you are a woman, you need to get off of your computer chair right now and march to the nearest bookstore (or, if it is past 9 PM and they are closed...the nearest Wal-Mart....okay, wait....skip Wal-Mart....check out a nearby mini-mart or just wait until the morning). Also, if you are a man, the book may not be quite as appealing to you, but let me tell you - you could probably learn a lot...wait, did I stress that enough? A LOT from this book. I think she may be my new writer-hero, as I really hope to write books like this someday. And, of course, based on real-life adventures like this someday as well. Although, instead of writing about my year spent in Italy, India, and Indonesia (like she did), I will maybe mix it up to Norway, South Africa, Antarctica, and Thailand. Ooh, possibly South Korea as well. And Brazil. Oh, and Germany too. Okay, I will stop - you get the point. But, honestly, what's stopping you? Go buy this book!

4. We have been diligently working on our Fulbright-Hays grant...and oh, it is coming along. Lindsay and I have rested on the Objectives portion, feeling that it is solid so far and leaving it for later review. So, we have now moved on to writing about "Project Impacts and Outcomes", another crucial part to the grant. Well, all parts are crucial, really. But we like to think that these are the most crucial...it helps us write better.

5. I suppose you are wondering what the "Metaphor for my life" is. Well, if you know me even slightly, you probably know that I am usually the last person out of a classroom or a meeting, because I am usually spending many, many minutes trying to close my bag, whether that means zipping my purse, stuffing everything into my gym bag, or trying to clip my messenger bag shut. Yesterday, I could not have possibly fit anything more into my schoolbag, as it was literally overflowing, and I had to start clipping things on the outside of it, such as my bike helmet, jacket, waterbottle, etc. My purse is usually the same way - I have to choose between my keys and my checkbook. Yes, this is definitely a metaphor for my life. I am the bag. Everything else are the contents - the books, the waterbottle, my calendar, my bike helmet, my jacket and my sweater, and on and on and on (they represent just everything I try to fit in). Now, don't get me wrong. The bag is organized, but just very, very full. Metaphor? I see it and feel it. Oh, help me. And pray that the straps on my bookbag don't fail as I'm biking down the road - that would definitely not be a very good metaphor. Knock on wood.

So, that's me. Simple as that. I love getting everyone's emails as of late, as they usually put a smile on my face or crack me up. I even got an email from Derby (my dog) the other day. Apparently, he wrote this email while Mom was at church...he had been studying for months on how to send them. You may be skeptical....the lack of capital letters, however, definitely proves it - because with his paws, he wouldn't have the abilities to hit shift+letter - duh! He also managed to use the timer on the camera and take some self-portraits of himself, download them to the computer, and attach them to the email. Talent, talent.