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So I’m at a library in a town I don’t live in to spend time with my nieces and I go to the bathroom and see this sign.

They turned their old card catalog into free supplies people can discretely take on their own.

This is the coolest thing ever, a great way to help people without making them ask, and an amazing reuse of a the card catalog. I’m seriously about to cry I love it so much.

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Heidelberg, DE. Returning to Deutschland in December. Currently at 51% fluency after studying daily for three months. Hopefully by then it will be closer to 75%. I had a dream the other night and was speaking to German to a native. We understood each other. Paul Noble’s language learning audiobooks have been a good resource as well as watching German films on FilmStruck that are in the Criterion Collection.

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Maeve is officially 13. She was adopted so we don't know her actual birthday but it was guessed to be in April. So, it's April. Happy Birthday, Tender Button. #manx

#manx

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On New MacBook Pro While Eating Taco Bell

So far, 2017 has ruled. I got a contract at school and so can feel secure in getting classes going forward, which also means I get KILLER benefits for $0 a month. Getting my teeth done this month. Will likely get my wisdoms out, FINALLY, sometime this year. I’m actually looking forward to having it over with especially since it will barely cost anything. Lambda LitFest’s first year couldn’t have gone better. This summer, I’m spending a month in Europe with a small side trip to Morocco. The purpose of going is to get some writing/editing done. I want some kind of manuscript to submit to all the places at the end of summer. Summer Arts is going well and summer classes at Cal State LA are all online, so I can do more traveling. Namely, to NYC and hopefully another stop at Indiana. 

Ever since I got rid of the crippling anxiety with some Celexa, shit has been great. Been taking care of my body and my mind. Luckily, smoking cigarettes has remained mostly minimal. I’ll have a night of chaining it, but those are usually once a week. 

I’ve had this account for over six years. Weeeeeird.  Latest indulgences: Podcast: S-Town  (pulls at all the heartstrings) Book: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (depressing like I like my books) TV Show: Schitts Creek (rewatching episodes over and over) Song: “On Hold” - The XX (on repeat) Cannot bloody wait for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2

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Central coast is lovely. (at Monterey, California)

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Mountain cabin view from kitchen. (at Big Creek Helistop)

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2017

The past year has been protesting for gay rights, human rights, and soon women's rights. Has been full of travel (San Francisco a few times, Spain, France, England, Arizona, Florida, various parks in California). It's been helping to launch Lambda LitFest LA--a festival of queer literature, pitch and have accepted my Love and Sexuality workshop for summer arts (one of three accepted proposals for writing courses) and getting four fantastic writers to teach it. Taught 150+ students the art of academic writing, did my first panels (three total), published six new poems in various publications. Organized meetings, readings, and other events. Sometimes I forget how much I'm actually doing and forget to cut myself some slack. So this list is a reminder of 2016. Through all of that, I battled some of the worst anxiety/panic disorder symptoms I've yet to experience. Crippled in bed for days and crying fits and panic attacks. Hard to leave the house, hard to do much of anything. Having people to listen, to share themselves, and to understand was vital. Of all accomplishments, having good people to laugh with takes the cake. What's up 2017--let's do some shit.

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New Year's Eve in your 30s means giving no fucks about plans. It's raining, I have a cat, wine, and television. 📺 (at Downtown Riverside, California)

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Arrival by Olivier Vanbiervliet

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Accurate. Except my alarm clock doesn’t look like that.

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So much awesome this past weekend. Photo Credit: @taylor.heath (at Mono Lake South Tufa)

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A sea of love. (at The San Francisco Dyke March)

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EDUCATION

Summer Goals: Making plans for change in the next year. At present, there’s a lot to be angry about in this country and it’s been bringing me down for some time--namely education, since I work in it. Can’t it be about showing parents how little their children are learning due to over-testing and other useless methods of learning? Get parents to send their kids elsewhere so I can teach college students how to craft their essay instead of how to make their sentences grammatically correct? Begin new schools with effective programs modeled after structures that work in other parts of the world (and don’t include standardized testing). Watching Where to Invade Next and Waiting for Superman and listening to the “Three Miles” podcast on This American Life and so on and on and on...the endless string of articles about how bad it is to adjunct reinforce how horrifying things have become. How obvious this problem has been to everyone. The exorbitant prices of tuition and the design of our education system to keep benefiting the rich and keeping the poor, poor. Do I stay or do I go? Not to mention how hard it is to pay off student loan debt when you work in the education system. If you become an educator in this country, you deserve FREE COLLEGE. Loan forgiveness for giving back to the system that charged you so much to be a part of. It really feels like I am paying to work sometimes. What is next? Really, what is going to happen, now?

#education #USeducation #collegeeducation

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Meadows in mountains. People passing and waving hi. Dirty dirty shoes. (at Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve)

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Seal friend (at Abalone Cove)

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Hiking on a Sunday afternoon.

#sandstonepeak #santamonicamountains