Public Meetings? Count me out.

Seriously. I think I hit one too many tonight. I've always been one to get extremely uncomfortable when people are arguing in front of me (but I always wanted to be a lawyer?). But I still chose to enter a profession where people like to think you are ridiculously stupid and yell at you because, you are a public servant. And a profession which requires countless hours of mediation between different interests and being extremely diplomatic. I'm taking off my diplomat hat off for a bit.

Tonight completely sucked!

I'm not going to go into the gory details, it will make me more frustrated. That being said, usually working with the public is pretty rewarding. Occasionally, I get yelled at for no particular reason just because someone thinks their taxes pay my salary (which they don't, for better or worse, development fees do). Sigh. I do like to help people. Honestly. But when they are yelling at me (and my co-workers) for something they do not understand, but something that we are schooled in, and practice on a daily basis-- I find that hard to just swallow. Really makes turn the other cheek come alive, I guess. And since community development is my fate in life, I guess I better accept it now. I'm hoping that maybe it's just a Fresno thing, and the people here will grow out of it eventually (and think, read, or educate themselves before speaking)....but let's not hold our breath.

On a happier note, how amazingly awesome was The Office tonight? BEST NIGHT EVER. :) And I'm getting more into 30 Rock, especially since Will Arnett, BEST ACTOR EVER was on tonight.

Back and at it!

I'm back, after a brief (9 month) hiatus. But so much has happened since then, it's overwhelming! Scotty and I got married, I became an auntie, applied to grad schools, got accepted to grad schools, and then just decided to move to New York [state] to attend Cornell! (I feel I have to clarify, because everyone assumes that New York is New York City, and Ithaca is far, far, far from being NYC).

I'm pretty stoked on Cornell. I think the thing that excites me the most is that I can be just like Andy Bernard [The Office] and always brag about my Cornell status. Not really. But when people are like, what? Where's that? I just remind them of the most famous alum of Cornell. And, I guess Janet Reno too. But most people (at least my kind of people) think Will Ferrell boxing Rudy Giuliani when they think of Janet Reno.

But, that is still a good 4 months away from now! I have to keep reminding myself (with Scotty's help) that we still have some solid time here in California to savor. And we're going to Europe in July, which seems like it has been overshadowed by our grad school decision! Not to mention, my job is keeping me more than busy lately! It's funny, I told my boss a few weeks ago that I really needed more work. Silly me. They didn't assign anything to me, the work just naturally came. But I am loving it. Neighborhood meetings, public outreaches, working on design guidelines--my job is awesome. Not that my job description doesn't involve being a paper pusher at many times.....but why would I mention that?!

For now, Scott and I are going to be living it up here in Fresno. Dr. Mario 24-7, eating dinner on our tiny balcony in the sun, going to Kingsburg to enjoy the small-town life when we can, seeing all of my valley friends.....and of course, saying dude and like totally awesome all the time, because we can. When we move to New York, Scott has decided that we are really going to have to live up to our California stereotype and just say dude and rad all the time and ride our longboards everywhere and talk like we are major surfers. I'm hoping it will be endearing. Not annoying. We'll see.

Anyways, enough NY talk. It's so hard, but I'm going to try to focus on my life here still, and not on how to arrange the furniture in our new apartment....