Master Plans

So i was waiting to update my blog about my life until i figured out what exactly was going on in my life. Needless to say that took a while. Which means that this is quite an update.

When i last posted here, i was seriously nursing the idea of giving up on dc. specifically, finishing out my awful temp job, waitressing for like a month, and then heading off to nicaragua, to write about the bronca going on there with the sandinista party and the november elections. i met with some people working on nica issues and put together a pretty good plan involving research and journalism, and was ironing out the details when... i got offered a paid internship from an ngo doing IMF/WB stuff who wanted me to start like, the next day. so i had a quick freakout about my life and what i wanted to be doing and where i was headed and whatnot, and decided that nicaragua was apt to be more interesting in sept-november when the elections were actually happening than it is now, and that my resume could probably use a little work, so here i am. here being working as a glorified librarian in a pretty nice but not revolutionary ngo working on WB/International Debt issues. The job is boring, but not unpleasent. I like the people i work with, and the whole thing would be awesome, were i not making a little less than half as much as i was temping (less than minimum wage after taxes). So tomorrow i start job number two, waitressing with Hannah at the Colorado Kitchen (wish me luck.)

In other news, i had a birthday, which was AWESOME, which you would know if you had come and visited for my party like my friends who actually love me. i made exciting and delicious food and drank too much. well not really too much. my goal was to make it until one am without puking or crying. which i did wonderfully, and i didn't really even drink too much, but the next morning i was totally distroyed, crying next to the toilet like a little girl. I put the blame for this sad turn of events on antibiotics, which i had been on for nearly 20 days at that point.

rachel, you're saying, you really shouldn't be taking antibiotics for that long. what could possibly make you do that to your body? the answer: tonsilitis. specifically, three reacurrences of tonsilitis. or so my dad is guessing, since i don't have health insurance and can't get an appointment at any of the sliding scale clinics until june. the theory right now is that alex is an asymptomatic carrier of tonsilitis, and is infecting me every time i go off antiobiotics. whether or not this is true, if i get horribly sick again after this, round three of my drug treatment (which we are both taking this time), i will kill someone. tonsilitis is horrible. if you have health insurance, get them out. you don't fucking need those suckers. they will just screw you when you least expect it.

but other than my on going battle with my tonsils, things are nice here. The weather is pretty. I'm taking a bike repair class that is totally incredible. It's $15 for 8 classes (that's right, $15 total) and the class consists of me, alex, and tim. The teacher is this awesome dude who builds custom frames, and is basically helping us fix up our bikes for free. plus it's at the crazy georgetown rec center which looks like a fucking country club. i'm also doing some more work with the radio coop. i'll let you know if anything gets aired. and i just knitted some baby booties for a co worker, which are awesome. they are cute and tiny, and it's my first time ever making anything that is not flat and square. now if only yarn wasn't soooo expensive. also, the visiting extravaganza continues, with upcoming visits from Robin Lea, Duncan Metcalf, a repeat visit by Becca, and a trip to cleveland. Yay friends!

so to recap, my life equals: DC until august, at which time Alex moves to Chicago, and i stay in the district until the begining of september. Then to Nicaragua September through Mid November, with a posible side trip to Guate to meet up with some friends from Chiapas, then home to move in with Alex in Chicago, and start looking for paying work. Know where we should live/what i should do in that shining beacon to the north? Let me know

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