Week 4: ...and Amy

1. Should we be numbering the weeks on the blog consecutively or keeping true to the number of weeks you have been in Massachusetts?  (I am in favor of keeping true to the number of weeks, gives a better track of time.)

I don't have a strong opinion, and you post first, so I'll follow what you do.  The number of weeks does give a better track of time, and when we inevitably post less often, it maybe won't be so obvious.


2.  What's been the coolest thing you've done (not learned or seen, but actually done) at your internship so far?

Hum.  I haven't done much, honestly -- I'm still training.  I'll be leading some anger groups soon, which ought to be cool.  And I got to sit in on a meeting where staff discussed with a partner agency how they're trying to start and study a new, hopefully more effective batterer intervention group.  "Holy crow!" I thought, "That's only EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH  MY CAREER!!!"  It's actually kind of lucky that I didn't know folks better, because if I had been more comfortable I probably would have done something embarrassing.  

I did get to go to jail the other day.  That was cool.

3.  Have you gotten to bike in snow?

Yeah, a couple of times.  Scott called it, I need goggles.  I also got to bike when it was -6 (according to my phone).  It's really awesome to bike when it's cold.  It's cold, of course, and I'm still perfecting my clothing strategies, but it's such an awesome feeling.  Also, even when it's -6 degrees, I still sweat when I'm biking.

4.  Any lingering stories from the road trip that you're dying to tell us?

The first one happened in the great town of West, Texas, at the much-beloved Czech Stop.  I was standing in line to get some kolaches (as you do), and the young woman ahead of  me ordered, like 12, super-confidently.  She remarked to me that she went there all the time, and thus knew exactly what she wanted.  Which was made comical in the next moment when she then said, "Oh, they have danishes!"  She was forced to admit that, while she had been there often, she hadn't been there for quite a while.  Busted.  Anyway, she was nice. I made agreeable, small-talky sounds at her, and she responded in kind.  We were friends now.

We get up to the counter, and I'm paying and she's lingering (probably because she had ordered a thousand kolaches and they weren't all ready).  So she overheard me when I asked if they had any ibuprofen, because I had a headache.  The nice man behind the counter said they didn't, but my new friend was all, "I have some!"  She then dashed out to her car and came back and gave me 2 800 milligram, prescription-strength (and indeed, it was a prescription bottle) ibuprofen. I put them in my pocket, thanked her, and we went our separate ways.

I know, I know -- don't take drugs from strangers.  Especially not while on a road trip, and especially especially when you're driving.  I did, though.  First, I resolved to be alert to whether I started feeling at all unusual.  Then I looked at the pill, and it looked like it COULD be 800 milligram ibuprofen.  I took the chance, and it both made my headache go away and didn't make me feel funny, so I'm pretty sure that's what it was.  We all like to have adventures, right?    

The next one isn't really a story so much as a sentence: I was at a McDonald's drive thru in Little Rock (don't judge me), and there was a rooster in the parking lot.  I mentioned it to the woman taking orders, and she was entirely unimpressed.  The rooster is coming over to me, all rooster-y, and I'm ordering, and I say, "do you know you have a rooster in your parking lot?"  No response.  She reads me back my order, and asks if it's correct, and I'm like, "yes, but what about the rooster?"  I guess she knew about the rooster, and didn't feel like he merited much discussion.  She had orders to take.

5.  What feels like the biggest contrast between Central Texas and Western Massachusetts right now?

Hm.  The cold, I think.  It's such a great feeling to know that it's cold and it's going to stay cold for a while.  I was always a little sad during cold fronts in Texas, because I knew that sure, it may be 30 degrees now, but it'll be 80 again by the end of the week.  It's comforting to know the cold has staying power here.  

People look different, but it's subtle.  I can't quite put my finger on it, and maybe it's all my own projections, but I feel like there are slight differences in facial features between people from here and people from the south.  The accent is definitely noticeable.

The assumptions and expectations are different.  The blue state-ness is noticeable, if not incredibly in-your-face, and not without exceptions.  One disappointing fact I learned today from my upstairs neighbor: apparently it's now state law that all school classes must be taught in English.