Were making the move!

Hey ladies and gents!

Were moving this blog over to Wordpress.  The new URL will be dontgochasingwaterfalls.wordpress.com

I sent everybody that was a contributor to this blog an invite to be a writer on the other one as well.  I was able to import all of the posts and comments and whatnot in the new blog.  The reasons behind moving the blog are mostly for me, i know greedy right? The wordpress blogs are so much easier for me to edit and customize, they load faster, they have way more themes to choose from and I think it will be a better overall experience.  So long Blogger!  You have been good to us!  A message to any followers that we have, you should still continue to follow us over on Wordpress as well!  I promise we will still bring the same amazing quality to our posts!

Put me in coach!

Alright Katelyn and Molly, I'm ready to come back into the game...although I am still a busy maniac, but now the beautiful iPad that Jessica got me allows me to connect to this old ghost town of a blog on the go!  More about the iPad shortly...but for now I just want to give everybody an update on this blog and the sad state of it's design.  I am going to be working on a redesign for it.  Something light, something airey, and something colorful.  Who knows when I will get this done, maybe sometime after our Disney vacation but we will see what these next few weeks throw my way. 

I am currently developing Mr. Padriac Routa's website and it's going to be pretty friggin sweet, Pat and I are unleasing the creativity and pushing my personal boundaries as a developer (which is never a bad thing).  Since my last post I have launched Chuckie's golf cart website, http://www.chuckscustomcarts.com/ so check it out if you feel like!  I have been busy with side jobs that have stalled in the water and it's very annoying. 

Racing season is back in full swing and I couldn't be more excited!  Last weekend I lost in the second round, it was my own fault, I didn't drive as well as I should have but we will go out this weekend and go for a win. 

Back to the iPad....it's amazing, I have only used my laptop a handful of times, and it's usually when Jes is on the iPad playing games or I am doing some side job.  It is so much more than a giant iPod touch like most people tend to say.  I definitely see computing in general turning this way, I don't see Laptops and Netbooks sticking around and we will see more tablets.  Desktops are too useful to get rid of...for now.

A few weeks back Jes, Chad, and myself, along with the dogs, went to the park and walked and hung out for a while and we noticed that the new part of the Metro Parks that just opened behind Wal-Mart has a sand volleyball court.  I would absolutely love to setup an afternoon with the Dirty M's playing volleyball and maybe grilling on the grills that they have there?  Think about it...let it marinade for a little while and get back to me! I don't have a date picked out or anything so we can all just collaborate and figure that one out.

I think all of us need to get together very soon to have a night of drinking and game playing.  I just had the idea of maybe Sunday night we can all gather at Brace...drink some drinks and have fun? I don't work Monday so I would be all in for that!

So long for now my fellow Dirty M's I hope it's not 35 years before I write here again...and maybe next time my post will have more of a subject to it and more structure, this post is truly a cluster-fuck :)

Welcome back riders, how was your rideeeeeee

Molly, does your back ache from carrying the weight of this entire website?? I'm sorry I left you here, me of all people, knowing the frustration of rallying our group together to the dontgochasin' site. Sigh....

Well I'm back, and unemployed, and working on being better than ever. Graduation was windy (in bowling green's style) but beautiful. And summer came in at the same time it always does, so i think things will settle in more come August. Moving in with my Dad a.k.a. Roomie a.k.a. Eeyore has been better than I could have expected. He is quiet and never puts away his shaving stuff in the morning, but he didn't ask me to mulch with him and he likes to eat a big dinner (which I appreciate). We had to put tasha to sleep (our German shepard) today and big John was bummin.... But eh, puppies get older.

So home brings back memories of old friends who knew me with frizzy hair and red glasses. I was just talking with Jessica about coming home and re-getting to know all of my friends that knew me when I was little but haven't quite gotten to know the me that I'm most proud of. It seems weird to think of getting to know people that already know my favorite color, but we've been away from the E for a while and I started eating different foods (sort of). Or I started coloring my hair darker shades, sort of. Or I don't know...the small idiosynchrosices that you only know of others when you spend late nights together.

I'm so busy being nostalgic I'm missing the things right before me.

True or False?

Circle One:

1. Fear is inevitable in human beings. T F
2. Love and hate are opposites. T F
3. People are, by nature, good at heart. T F
4. Being "scared" & being "afraid" are the same. T F
5. Fears stem from imperfections regarding love. T F
6. Fear is the best motivator. T F
7. Love is the best motivator. T F
8. It is possible to fall out of love. T F
9. Fear is always irrational. T F
10. Love is an emotion. T F

I have had the incredible opportunity to create and facilitate a program at Loyola called "Dynamic Dialogue," a sporadic open forum for sophomore students that focuses on one semi-abstract theme for an hour. We welcome anyone who wants to dialogue, and we allow the conversations to lead wherever they happen to lead, be that a sharing of personal experiences, respectful disagreements, or further probing. We wanted to develop a space on campus that existed solely for engaging in deep, meaningful, critical conversations about anything on students' minds.

This evening was my final DD, and the theme was (duh) "Fear & Love." These are two of my favorite topics, other than our first theme (which was "Vulnerability & Trust"; surprise surprise!). It was one of the most phenomenal conversations I have had in a while, and I am still hatching some ideas that were laid by others during today's session. I am so endlessly grateful for the omnipresence of depth in my life.

I continued my night's quest for life's answers with the EVOKE Scholars. We meet every single Tuesday for 3-5 hours of play time/discernment/encouragement/advice sessions, and that informal routine has only reinforced my thoughts that Tuesdays are my absolute favorite day of the week. We only have 2 gatherings left before I move home, which is terribly heartbreaking because they are the most supportive community in my life right now, but there are already great plans in the works for continuing our involvement with each other next year. I have a deep appreciation of and respect for the 2009-10 Schollies and the incredible gifts they provide me with!

Job searching continues. Prospects are exciting and extremely intriguing to me, but I won't spill on here for sake of getting myself (and all those loyal readers out there) worked up for no reason. Updates will be posted as they are received.

Before I leave, M. Scott Peck's thoughts on what love really is: "The driving force behind spiritual growth; extending one's ego boundaries to include another...the spiritual nurturing of another."

Sending my love to anyone in need of a little extra energy and compassion tonight in the world. P&L!

Am I that big of a mood-killer?

So did my last post REALLY dampen everyone's desire to blog that badly that no one has posted since? I'm a terrible team blogger, apparently.

In an attempt to turn it around before I go prepare my apartment for a JESSICA SHOBER VISIT (!!!!!!!), I will fill in my favorite format of life summarization:

Reading: Eating Animals, What is the What, my calendar, my syllabi, job descriptions galore
Listening: Music from my once-alive laptop (thank goodness for external hard drives), Loyolacappella's Lake Show prep, my new phone's stellar ringtones, Dorian's incessant purring
Watching: Sports (I don't even like baseball), the seasons change, youtube videos ("Sassy Gay Friend" and a revisited obsession with the "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism" Vids)
Wearing: rain boots, MU ASG sunglasses (thanks, Matthew J. Forrest!!), a bookbag, dresses, my contacts too much
Wanting: letters (but I'm a terrible penpal this semester and don't send responses enough to get any of these), focus & order, more sleep, to move home, a job offer

It was SO incredibly good to be home this weekend. Weekend ratings: Wolfy's gets a thumbs down, Train Station (always) gets a thumbs up, and The Feve (frequently) gets a thumbs up, though I could do without the medieval zombie movies. Makes me look forward to a summer in the E with some of my favorite [dirty] people. I'm talking to you, fellow DM bloggers...!!!


"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."- Lao Tzu

"Preparing Women & Men to Lead Extraordinary Lives."

Today was quite an emotionally intense day in my classes. It's beautiful out, the CTA worked in my favor, and I got an incredible grade on a midterm that I took pre-spring break, which really helped balance the hard-hitting material that was touched all day.

In my Domestic Violence class, my professor started off the class by reading an email she'd just received last night. The email was from a woman who had taken this course in Spring 2008, and after taking the class she promised herself that she would never, under any circumstances, stay in a relationship where there was violence. In her message, she explained that she started dating someone over the summer and had told him from the start that violence was her breaking point-- she would never stand for it. In February she decided to make a move to England to be with him. The day that she got there, he slapped her across the face. Literally that same day, she gathered up her just-moved items and got on a plane to return to the U.S. She said she never would have had the courage and perspective to do that without taking this class, and after being out of the relationship she was able to see the abusive patterns that led to that point.

My professor was obviously deeply moved by this email, and she gave all of us 20 minutes to write about our experiences with violence in relationships and how much we would be willing to promise ourselves at certain levels of intimacy (especially because most often, abusers wait until the commitment level is somewhat high-- like moving in together, marriage, children, etc.). I haven't decided whether or not I will be posting mine on here, but it might surface eventually. Regardless, a discussion in this class a few weeks ago was about whether or not love and violence can exist in the same relationship; I'm an extremely firm "no" on this topic, and I think that that can give you a framework from which today's response can be understood.

I had lunch with Britt (my former roomie) and Alex (Loyolacappella) at my favorite little deli downtown, and we had some pretty intense conversation about our lives; I won't go into detail because I want to respect their privacy, but it was definitely a much-needed heart-to-heart that went far too quickly for me to be satisfied. :)

My last class was focusing on missing, abducted, and "throwaway" children, as well as children abused. I have not had enough time to process this conversation, but we ended up reading multiple news stories surrounding a terribly upsetting abuse-murder case of Lattie McGee, witnessed by his brother Cornelius Abraham. It was heart-wrenching (to say the least) and the follow-up article was absolutely incredible and refreshingly compassionate.

What I'm trying to show is how endlessly thankful I am that I have had access to an education that makes people-- as in, individuals-- and meaningful dialogue the central task in developing its students. My world would be shaped so differently without days like this in my educational journey. Thanks, Jesuits.

an Elyria Police Officer was slain last night

It's unfortunate news that in our own town, a Police Officer was shot and killed in the line of duty.  James Kerstetter was more than just an Officer, he was a truly amazing person that touched the lives of those close to me.  I wasn't extremely close to him, but I know people, people that are very close to me that are directly effected by this unfortunate tragedy.  I found this poem online about fallen Officers, and I am going to reach out to all of those close to me and ask that you do this if you are in the Elyria area.

"A Blue Light

Place a light in your window, make sure it is blue
Reminding friends, an officer gave a life for you
Give light to their remembrance, the color is sad
To family left by officers who knew them as Dad
It isn’t the money, most definitely not the hours
They aren’t comic book hero’s with unnatural powers
They’re simply human beings who place life on the line
Place a blue light in your window, let their memory shine!"

Kerstetter served in the Elyria Police Department for 15 years, and served with the Lorain County Sheriff's Department before that.  He and his family are very close to Jessica's family and it is such a sad thing to think about.  Please help me spread the word about the Blue Light movement if you can, he is deserving of such a memorial.