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Well hello there! I'm in an altogether spritely mood at the moment. You've all heard of snows days, but have you ever had a rain day? Yes that's right, when you live in a place that's prone to hurricanes, work is known to be canceled due to rain from time to time! And that's what's in store for me tomorrow. So that narrows down my actual work days to six (we actually have eight, but I've banked my personal days for a trip woohoo!), meaning exactly two weeks until we LEAVE FREEPORT, meaning exactly 27 days until graduation. Heck. Yes. Now all I have to do is survive the tropical storm that'll be hanging around us for the next six days and I should be good to go.

I've had a solid week. First off, THANK YOU to everyone who responded to my poll, whether it was through text, email, calling me, posting here, whatever, your insight has been very helpful. I'm pretty sure I've made my decision, so if I actually do get offered the job for Choice #2 this week, I'll know what my approach will be. Not telling till then though.

I must admit, I've grown to borderline love SOME of the kids here at the club. Despite my best efforts I actually find myself looking forward to seeing SOME of them on the days that I'm here. And ya know what's even more surprising? The kindergarteners are my favorite! See I really took a fast liking to the fourth graders back at the beginning, probably because we bonded over our shared disgust with the kindies as a species, but now it's like, bye bye friendship bracelets, hellooo tea parties. And ridiculously mature things being stated with speech impediments. And WIGGLINESS. They are so wiggly, the kindergarteners. So hilarious.

Was that just a whole paragraph about working here that didn't have an underlying complaint? It may have been.... Who knew.

So yes, I began to realize last week that I will definitely miss some of these kiddos, and that I will think about them from time to time once this spike is over. It was a heartwarming realization. After having a less-than-awful week, I managed to follow the excitement up with a more-than-outstanding weekend. My team leader set up a service project in Houston, and since it was so far away AmeriCorps agreed to put us up in a hotel for Saturday night. A whole bed AND cable? Awesome! So we spent a few hours volunteering at a really progressive inpatient treatment and rehab center for men in the Houston area, called it a day around 3pm, and made it back to our hotel in time to see the last depressing hour of the soccer match against Ghana. Ugh. Then after a dee-licious spinach pizza pie at a Mediterranean restaurant, I started making arrangements to meet up with a most ideal partner in crime, the one and only Anya Gersib. A gay pride parade was involved, along with a bar shut down and a rooftop view of the Houston skyline, in the making of a wonderful and memorable night with my dear college buddy. Oh and we got LADY GAGA fans! For REAL!

The next day our team-plus-Anya ate brunch at about the most picturesque cafe I'd ever seen, and then spent the afternoon perusing a couple Houston art museums. It had been so long since I'd submerged myself in art like that; I was overdue. Some of the works were just so against the grain it was uncomfortable...but in that good way that only art can make you feel ya know? There was one in particular, by Maurizio Cattelan, that stopped me dead in my tracks. As I had rounded the doorway to the next room of the museum, I was met with an enormous room with wooden floors and bare walls painted pure white. The contrast from painting-laden walls to this emptiness was enough to set me off-kilter, until I saw what the actual intention of the emptiness was. There in the middle of the floor, perfectly spaced and placed in alignment, were no less than twenty-five dead bodies underneath white bedsheets. The curves of the bodies, where the bedsheets folded and creased, gave way to an understanding of who were the kids, the men, the women (the pregnant women), the people clutching babies on their chests, and so on, amongst the dead. Even in walking right up to the bodies, there was no doubt that if I had a sudden fit of insanity I could rip off each and every sheet from these people and see who the really were. So imagine my shock in realizing that they were made of marble. MARBLE. Perfectly smoothed out rock made to imitate holocaust victims. Woofta. It was worth getting a scolding from the docent just to reach out and feel it for myself.

So I got my volunteering, my party, and my intellect on last weekend. Who could ask for more? And then this week has chugged its way along to what's going to be a ridiculous day off tomorrow, then it'll be FRIDAY (at which point I should have heard back from Choice #2), then another weekend with a trip to San Antonio and AUSTIN planned, and then FOURTH OF JULY! Then ANOTHER DAY OFF WORK! Then work, then A TRIP!! And then I LEAVE FREEPORT!! Safe to say we've reached the home stretch people.

Love you!
Miss Katie