movin' & shakin'

I'm not sure if you're up on NY State politics so I'll connect some dots for ya real quick: The sexy stud on the right is yours truly (check out the shapely gut shot...nice huh?) and the man donning the suit pumping his fist is Senator Charles Schumer...

like I said: Movin' & Shakin'.

DAMN!

It's my Birthday

no seriously...it's my birthday. Ruminations on aging another year and what an incredibly fun day I've had with Claire to follow...plus details on the 'mystery trip' that we embark on tomorrow...

life is good.

Hopping Around

This is in a park nestled in Chinatown. I worked at this series for about 45 mins and still couldn't land the drop. I shall return.

 

unicycling

this is what I do with my free time...

Excitement

For the past 11 months I've worked for Hands On Disaster Response (www.hodr.org) as a project coordinator. This means that I've played a supporting role while Hands On has been on project; I've coordinated volunteers, managed the daily work flow and tracked what we've done for reporting purposes. I've been a volunteer with Hands On since 2005 after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast and since, have been on projects with them in Indonesia, Peru, Iowa, Haiti and Arkansas.

This morning I sat down with the Executive Director and he offered me a full-time position with the organization! As of June 1st I will be a Project Director for Hands On Disaster Response--I will be focusing on domestic response but available, should the need arise to go abroad and I couldn't be happier. The past 11 months have been, at times, a struggle--personally, financially, and socially and i know that maintaining a balance in my life moving forward is something that will require a lot of energy, but I am confident that it can work and am willing to run myself into the ground to make it happen.

Tonight, I celebrate :)

greetings from Mena

Arkansas that is! haha...I realize that is in no way funny but...well, it's my blog so deal.

After a quick breather in San Fran I'm back on the road again. This time I am in Mena, AR assessing tornadic (yeah, I think I made that word up...but again, it's my blog) damage. We're setting up shop for 30 days and will help removing debris (trees and brush) from homes as well as support the volunteer reception center, help sort donations and tarp some roofs. We announced the project a day or so ago so Bill and I have our hands full with prepping our new home at the Mena Church of God and getting everything ready for the volunteers...

So if you have some free time check out http://www.hodr.org/ for more info

here's some of the damage we'll be cleaning up:

and I'm back...

I awoke this morning not to the sound of roosters or buses with supercharged air horns but to...well I can't really remember what I woke up to but it wasn't what I had grown accustom to.

I am back in San Francisco after a 7 weeks away and am happy as a dumpling (we now live right near Chinatown--I intend on expanding my knowledge of dumplings...mmm, dumplings). 

I have photos and thoughts on Haiti that will be put to paper and eventually blog but for now, I'm back, happy and healthy and unfortunately sans sweet Haitian sneakers. I will say that a valiant effort was made whilst in Port Au Prince to procure them but to no avail. C'est le vie...they would've been sweet though.

more to come...