returning from a blogging sabbatical...

My happiest update is my garden!!! I've been spending all my evenings trying to tame the overgrowth of a garden gone wild. And I'm finally seeing plants peek out of the ground. Anyways, I'm no Wendell Berry, and so I can't express how much I love taking care of my garden quite so eloquently...but there is something so fulfilling about stepping into my backyard to pick some spinach for supper.

Life has actually been a time of settling down instead of moving around. Weird. Sara and I moved to a house in April. It was Move#4 for me this year. And it looks like I'm staying put for a bit. I just recently deferred grad school and am continuing to work at the men's shelter. I'm learning (albeit...slowly...)what rooting oneself in community is like, instead of just dreaming about it while I pack my suitcase and move nomadically from adventure to adventure.

And I think I'll stop with my Male Stranger Encounter updates. In part, because it's become a daily reality at the shelter. And in part because I don't feel comfortable making a joke out of a social situation that is more usually complex than I have been recognizing. Last week, I restricted a 70 year-old man for slapping me on the ass. He got restricted a week before from another shelter for the same thing. He has a degenerative brain disease from alcoholism coupled with a sex addiction that fuels an environment for dumb choices to be make. And probably a really complex past to have lured him into those addictions. And while it's not acceptable to slap a young girl 's butt, I feel it's equally unacceptable to make a joke out of a really broken life.

(Although I do have one last thing to say about that story: the word got out on the street to the rest of the homeless population that I doled out a maximum restriction for that incident. Another 70-year-old man in the park came up to me and said, "We've all heard what happened! What he did was absolutely not acceptable behaviour. I mean, we were all thinking about wanting to do that, but we never actually did."

Aargh. Thanks. Thanks for only thinking about it. Ideally, that sort of thing should not have even crossed your mind...)

Well, I guess that's a little portrait of my every day life. Cheers!

guilty.

I am feeling very guilty for ditching the blog world for so long. If I had an excuse, it wouldn't be so bad. But I don't. I'll try updating tomorrow. For now, it's late. Good night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite, everyone! (this takes on a whole new meaning, working at a shelter..........)