I’ve felt like I should update for a while now, but every time I’ve thought about it I couldn’t come up with anything to talk about. Strange, no? Because my life is too full to find time to do things like make phone calls, I figure something interesting MUST be going on.
Since I last wrote I visited a resident at an adolescent psychiatric hospital, picked up a second resident from another hospital/respite center, played a silly game of truth or dare with my community, struggled with simplicity, and enjoyed a very ‘touching’ spirituality night. I also celebrated my birthday, Jess’ birthday, interviewed for Hunter College, and went to my first theater event (of the year). I even got sick for the first time this year.
The psych hospital was surprisingly nice – it’s on a property overlooking the Hudson that used to be a vacation spot, so it’s got some old charm to it. Except that when you get inside everything is sterile but dingy at the same time, every piece of furniture is secured to the ground, and you (and all of your belongings) need a pat down to get past the front door. We visited a resident who was pretty difficult while in our care, but was so silly you just had to love her. It was really sad to see her there – she was so over-medicated that she was having trouble stringing words together. Even in that condition she is still managing to pick enough fights to need physical restraint weekly or more. As a result she’ll soon be sent to a state psych hospital to become a ward of the state indefinitely. It’s a really sad story. The other resident I picked up will hopefully have a better outcome.
For one of my favorite community nights in a long time we played truth or dare.. it was both enlightening and hilarious. I wish I could say more, but the oath of secrecy is binding. A recent spirituality night I enjoyed involved giving a partner a long massage.. while they lied on their back. It was a cool twist on a massage and required quite a bit of trust. As the weather gets nicer I’m finding that I struggle more and more with simplicity.. I have a trip to Miami around the corner I want to look cute for, the weather is warming up which makes snacking outside oh-so-tempting and walking store-to-store for shopping a pleasant experience, and I’m kinda just getting tired of feeling poor all the time. My strategy for now is finding joy in simple purchases, like $5 flowers on the street. It helps bring the spring inside and lets me feel like I’m indulging in life just a little.
I had a really nice birthday weekend and had some of my favorite people come to visit: Dave, Twig, Kim and Erin. We went out on Friday and spent the rest of the weekend recovering, but we had some good food and a good time just catching up and hanging out. Jess’ birthday involved lots of dancing… first at a club with her ‘other’ friends and then at the Brooklyn Museum’s Native American themed party on Saturday. We went with her mom.