11.2 ~Yesvember

HOW IS IT NOVEMBER ALREADY? I can't believe I've been here for almost three weeks already, though it already feels like so much longer. Tomorrow is the last day of training before I officially become an inducted Americorps member! Today, we had a dress rehearsal where we had to wear our AmeriTux (white polo shirt, black cargo pants, combat boots) and practice standing in a line and saying the Americorps pledge. Riveting stuff. We're leaving for Florida on Monday, and I'm continuously baffled by how quickly time is passing. I'm starting to get very accustomed to my life here in Sacramento, and now it's time to pick up and move! I love this program so far for many reasons, but particularly because I think it's helping me reduce my sense of attachment to things. I can't become attached to the idea I'm going anywhere or doing anything in particular. I can't predict where I will be in a week or a month. As Mike put so wisely this morning, I must become the waves of the ocean. 

I laughed a lot today. I laugh a lot all the time, but I often don't give these moments the attention they deserve. We went to Golden Corral tonight for dinner, which I haven't been to since the fieldtrip to Virginia with the Fiddle Club junior year in high school (never forget-- all I could think of was Sean Fahy and the "chosen vessel" and how multiple people puked after getting a little overzealous at the buffet). I think I ate half of the food in the entire restaurant, due to my lack of self control and the fact I forgot to pack lunch today. By the time everyone finished dessert I had 17 fondue sticks on my plate (meaning I ate that many chocolate fondue items). I felt sick to my stomach but also happy as a friggin clam. There was a COTTON CANDY MACHINE at Golden Corral as well. I didn't have any, but for some reason watching the people in my group sitting there eating cotton candy off those white cone things they give you at carnivals was so endearing and innocent that it made my heart light as a feather. Roy and I started having a competition where we said "Hey" back and forth in our weirdest voices possible until one of us started laughing, then we'd start over. This sounds incredibly pointless, I realize, but it made me laugh so hard I almost threw up all the fondue. When we got back to the dorms, Wynn and I had a dance-off to Taylor Swift in the middle of the parking lot. We made a big scene but didn't care at all, and neither did anybody else. We were just free and careless, enjoying our strange existence as it passes us by. 

"At the end of the open road, we come to ourselves"

~Vicki V Diddly D Banana Banna Bo Banna Fee Fi Fo Fanna~~~~~~~



  

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