You Can Learn to Dance

Even when the rhythm doesn't seem right or you took a long break in swaying your body in any kind of way.

I'm learning how to dance again. Dancing in a new way to a new tune.  I need to find a different atmosphere, but I will find it.  Then I will put my right foot out and let the rest of my body follow.

I will dance orange.

Fierce and without remorse.

My moves will burn bold.

I will dance red

Legs effortlessly intertwined in a battle for space

Lighting the dance floor of my life.

Link My Day

Tonight I went here: Sol Collective
And did some of this: Activist Art
By these lovely ladies: WORD

Adventure Time

Well, my flight to Portland turned out not to be as productive as I would have hoped.  I sat next to a woman who worked for the Horizon airline and she gave me a tour of Oregon from the sky.  The view of Crater Lake was amazing. Unfortunately, I was too embarassed of my excitement to take a photo.

When I landed in Portland I took the MAX light rail to downtown in order to catch the Greyhound to Seaside, but when I arrived I realized that there were no other buses headed to the coast that day.  As such, I was stranded in Portland.  Walking around the city, I stumbled upon the food trucks and had some friendly conversation.  The people of the Pacific Northwest are a rare and kind breed. It was delightful.  While waiting for someone to drive the 120 miles from the coast, I had a conversation with a man on the steps of a Korean Church.

So in the end, I didn't write a comprehensive blog post on anything in particular, but I had a great adventure.

Forward, Backward Chroniciling

As I am unable to sleep and walking around this late in this neighborhood may alert suspicion, I am giving myself over to chroniciling my thoughts.  (Writing the word 'chroniciling' is like endeavoring on a challenge only to find you've mistakenly mastered it.)

There are a few things I have been thinking about lately:

1. How healthy relationship education could be integrated into public systems of education
2. Appropriation of culture vs. Showing respect/admiration/being an advocate
3. The impact that fiscal constraints can have on social anxiety

3. If people realized how to appropriately spend within their means, with an intent to save for emergencies, either people would cease to buy so many material objects OR people would become respective hermits. Within the last 12 months, I became a hermit with occasional outings.  I also looked at work travel as personal travel experiences. (NOT THE SAME). Massive burn-out ensues and this is not a great attempt at work/life boundaries.

2. Seriously, FUCK some activists. Appropriating an issue for your personal ego gain to add to your resume as an advocate is annoying. Shut up. I don't value your opinion. I also don't value picking out a small detail of an issue and inflating it to be larger than the main issue at hand. TOUCHE, you may make some valid arguments, but the inability to engage in a knowledgeable manner on important issues makes me seek other avenues for social change and news.

1. Do you think its possible to use best practices in the field of youth development to begin healthy relationship classes or training for educators in primary education?  And to get really specific, could we implement youth development principles into education credentials for teachers?
Ahh, teaching with a focus on expertise in material and facilitation of learning based on the foundations of youth development.  Well that would be splendid.

On the flight to Portland tomorrow, I plan to write a lot. Be prepared for a massive amount of critical analyzation.

Mirroring in Communication

Noticing how others would like to exchange information in converstaion is key to relating to another person.

A few types of conversationalists that I have most frequently come into contact with:
(I claim, in no way, to be coining scientifitic terms for the tendencies.)

1. Sponges- People who are willing to sit with someone for a certain period of time and just listen.  This could be for 5 mins to 3 hours.  These people have the emotional maturity to step back and observe.

2. Mirrors- After a certain amount of time this person needs to convey back to the speaker what he/she heard, and may even need to repeat a few concepts over just to make sure that they are understanding correctly.

3. Mirrors and Relaters-  This person has the ability to mirror, but does so after every point and then must relate this to a personal story of theirs.  (To me, this is the most emotionally draining listener.  When the person does this it feels more like a comparison than having a friend just willing to listen to you talk.)

4. Trail Blazers-This is a fancy way of putting.... you say one word and then the person takes over the entire conversation, except for a few uhuhhs and yes's, until you cut them off so that you can leave.

In the world, there are many other types and ways of listening.  However these came to mind, because today I needed a sponge, but I couldn't find one.  I tried to sympathize with the other person, because I feel like the mirror/relater is more of the style that he/she feels comfortable with.  Yet, I still feel like I need to talk but am so drained that I don't think I could verbalize my points anymore.

The Fosters

Foster Care Alumni Network of America, California Chapter, had a special pre-screening of the new ABC Family series The Fosters tonight at the Tower Theater in Roseville, California. 

Wow, so many thoughts on this show.  I can't share all of them yet, but it is definately a must watch and I will find a television to tune in every Monday. While I have some very real critiques, mainly due to the fact that Hollywood has a way of masking or glossing over certain details, I find that the way the producers engage with foster care issues and lesbian issues to be surprislingly tasteful and progressive.

Tune in. Watch it. Educate yourself about the issues, and if you can't find the correct resources ask someone to help you. ( After the screening, we had a group discussion and a man took over and inserted his conservative agenda over the entire show. I find it necessary to point out that you may need to famarilize yourself with some thing after-the-fact because we don't always come to the table knowing everything, and that's okay.)

More thorough critique when it airs.