your choice: good morning, god or good god, morning.

this week is the end of a long vacation. i haven’t worked a steady job since the spring of ought-four, and all of a sudden i begin again on monday. red hot has given me final confirmation and i’m heading in for a big meeting to get things started. they’ve agreed to a three month part-time contract, at the end of which we’ll reevaluate. if we get along and i’ve proven myself, then we’ll start to talk bigger things. like full time. and benefits. it seems like forever that i’ve lived my life like most of the twenty-somethings i know, holding my breath with my fingers crossed and making friends with health professionals in case anything goes wrong. did you know that if you go to a hospital without id and say you can’t remember who you are that they are required to treat you? i hope it never comes to that, but it’s good to know.

i’m a little shocked that i have time to write again. things have just been so busy! but this week is nice and open, so today i slept in and went to a wonderful yoga class. after a month of regular classes, i really noticed for the first time how much my strength and focus have increased. i held crow today longer than ever before and was able to hold sideways variations on both sides. i couldn’t even do it six months ago.

what’s even crazier is that after the class, i was feeling so good that i came home, got my new ipod (did i mention i lost my last one? thank god for studio liability!) and ran from my house to the end of the brooklyn heights promenade. when i have some more time, i’ll put up some pictures, it’s a pretty special place. since i haven’t run in a while, i took it easy and walked over to the foot of the brooklyn bridge and started running again, all the way across. it is long. and now i am tired. but god, today is a beautiful day. why is it that every winter i can’t figure out why i am so moody or depressed or both or worse? and then suddenly everything comes back to life and people show their skin and the sun warms us all and turns those of us who are pale into happy pink angels of springtime. and i realize, oh right, that’s why i felt like shit. to borrow from the gift of gab, in winter i wake up and say, good god, morning, but now it’s good morning, god.

jeez, and that’s just today. i’m still so behind on stories.

last week there were huge protests all over the country against immigration legislation, and here in new york my sister invited me to join the group from her school. it was awesome. and not just being a part of this incredible cadre of kids chanting (to luda’s rhythm) MOVE, BUSH, GET OUT THE WAY! GET OUT THE WAY BUSH, GET OUT THE WAY! what was even more exciting was being a part of a protest that was so unified and so diverse. back in san francisco, it seemed like the protests tended to overreach, so an anti-war protest would become anti-israel, anti-nuclear, anti-capitalist, pro-whale protest. of course so much of what is wrong with the world is interconnected, but when you’re trying to convince the greater public of a particular point, it helps to stay focused. in the three hours we spent marching, we moved three blocks towards city hall and every step of the way, we were surrounded by people from all over the world simply trying to prove that they were just that – people. not three-fifths of a person, or leeches, or felons, but real people with real lives that make a difference in this country. which, i might add, they love passionately, and most flag-wavers held their own national colors right alongside the stars and stripes. instead of a band of white, educated liberals, these were people taking risks to make their voices heard – and some of them even ended up losing their jobs for it. but for those three hours, herded like cattle by the stunningly well-organized new york city police department, we marched together, waving flags of a million colors and making sure the thiefs in washington don’t steal absolutely everything that makes the united states of america, with all its flaws, a place which i am proud to call home.

as for the post-protest party, well, that will have to wait for later.