Check out the new Future Adventures Kiss List… and post your suggestions and insults.

BTW, I am spending my very-single Valentine’s Day at Bunny’s Bowling Birthday.  It should be fun, and I can’t help but hope to meet some new people.

It feels this cold.....Snow on the High Museum Jan 2008

The wind is howling and it is COLD. 20’s, I think.  Many nights I lay myself to bed thinking of those colder and more vulnerable than I.  People experiencing homelessness, who may not have a blanket, let alone shelter. I am in a heated room with one blanket and one down comforter and long sleeved pjs…. and still cold… and feeling ridiculous about it.

So tonight I finally decided to google a way to help.  Check out the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless for many ways to help.

Here’s the fastest and easiest way!

other easy ways to help are:

1.  Become more aware of your language. Try to minimize language in your own and others’ vocabularies that refers to people experiencing homelessness in derogatory ways. By using expressions such as “people experiencing homelessness” rather than labels such as “bum,” “transient,” or even “the homeless,” we remind ourselves that people who are in such situations are still people first – just people who are going through a difficult period in their lives. In a time when they may find it difficult to hold onto their sense of humanity, it is particularly important that we do not use language that further diminishes the dignity of people in homeless situations.  (http://www.homelesstaskforce.org/advocate.html)

2.  Watch this you tube video

3.  STATISTICS AND MYTHBUSTERS (http://www.homelesstaskforce.org/thefacts.html)

The wealthiest nation on Earth has a wider gap between rich and poor than any other nation.

The fastest growing group of homeless people is children under 9 years of age.

Atlanta is the poorest city in the U.S. for children – more children in Atlanta live in poverty than in any other city.

Current welfare (TANF) benefits are $282 a month for a woman with two children. Could you find an apartment to rent on $282 a month?

Fewer than 20% of those women and children living on welfare get any kind of housing subsidy.

98 million children in the U.S. have no health insurance. Eight million of those children without health insurance live in working families.

Did you know that 40% – 60% of homeless people work?

Minimum wage in Georgia is $5.85 per hour, which yields $12,168 per year, before taxes.

HUD says you should pay no more than 30% of your income for your housing. (30% of minimum wage yields $270/mo. for rent)

The average two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta rents for $834/mo. (which is 30% of an annual income of $33,360 or hourly rate of $16+ per hour). Thus, you need to earn $16+ per hour to afford that apartment, according to HUD.

46% of the jobs with the most growth between 1994 and 2005 pay less than $16,000 a year.

40% of homeless men are veterans.

If you’re going to be here, BE HERE.

I was lecturing myself a day or two ago, buried under my down comforter I refer to as “the cave.”  January was boring, but it was supposed to be boring.  I was supposed to be studying for my interior design exam.  I was supposed to be saving money.  I was supposed to eat less, exercise more.  I was supposed to be productive in all aspects of life.  Not lying under the covers at half past noon.

The 31st of January was my mother’s 59th birthday.   She went to Disney’s Magic Kingdom with my middle sister and grandmother.  I wanted to go.  I would’ve at least liked to go home and visit her.  But I have limited my travel to maximize my goals of saving money and studying.  There are a dozen destinations I am postponing or depriving myself, based on my unrealized commitment to studying.  After squandering vital weekends in January, I am adopting a new mantra.  If you’re going to be here, BE PRODUCTIVE.

Gasp! New Epiphany!

Sunday I made plans to hang out with my friend Adrian. It seems strange to say goodbye to Brandon one day and the next day hang out with an old boyfriend, but Adrian and I now have an incredible friendship where we love each other for who we are… nothing more, nothing less. We don’t just tolerate each other. We allow and encourage each other to be ourselves. It was a really positive way to spend the day. It reminded me that I eventually “got over” Adrian and all the other boys that came before Brandon.

Yesterday Adrian and I ate at one of our favorite restauants, R. Thomas, ran some errands, watched some YouTube, and looked up words on dictionary.com. He has gotten into the habit of looking up definitions to words he doesn’t completely know, which is a great habit for anyone to get into. Most words will teach you something new or deeper about their definition.

Lying on the couch, I asked him to look up PATIENCE. I suck at being patient, and when I’m not beating myself up about it, I’m probably beating other people up with my frustration while waiting for this, that, or the other. Turns out, patience is not about WAITING. Its about tolerating; preferably “enduring with calmness.” But I’ll stick to the basics: TOLERANCE. Trying to add calmness is an advanced level trick.

pa·tient from the American Heritage Dictionary

It was a bit of an epiphany for me, realizing that I had spent my whole life trying to be better at WAITING. Now I know that TOLERANCE is a major part of realizing that inner peace I’ve been longing for. Tolerance means not being so hard on myself, on other people, or things that I feel are unsatisfactory. My tolerance can improve by loosening up and letting go. Becoming more of a “go with the flow person.” Disabling the control freak that rules my life. Remembering that I can’t control everything, and to stop being upset by that fact. Remembering that there are alot of things I can control, and to focus on those and to have fun with it.

I encourage all to look up the definition of the words that challenge your life. I think it will help you focus on how to ovecome its challenge. Let me know how it goes….

For the most part, I like my job.  Not the day to day nitty gritty, but the overall path its taking me towards in the future.  Still, I can’t help wishing I were wearing some other hat.  What are your dream jobs?  Leave me a comment.  I’m dying to find out!

writer- travel journalism, self-help, and non-fiction

cultural anthropologist

fashion designer

travel photographer

graphic designer

automobile designer

book editor

movie director

anybody in a rock band

bookstore clerk

ice cream scooper

inspector #14 who inspects banana republic pants

New Year’s Resolutions 2008:

1. Books to read: Finish the White Book. Read Beginner’s Guide to Enlightenment. Read a book about reincarnation. Finish the Fountainhead. Read Atlas Shrugged.

2. Get my Interior Design license by taking the NCIDQ exam in April. Not procrastinating the studying part.

3. Get accepted into Georgia Tech and Boston Architectural Center. I’ll decide later whether this is the year to go back to school.

4. Get fluent speaking Spanish. I can read and write muy bueno, pero hablo muy dificil y no rapido.

5. Learn a new language: Mandarin Chineese? The market is exploding! German? Open the doors to Berlin!

6. Decide whether to travel through Southeast Asia with rowdy boys or Motorcycle through Central or South America with Liza.

7. Practice relaxing. Try meditation. Learn to breathe fully.

8. Break a board with my hands, martial arts style. Reach a clarity and focus beyond fear.

9. Eat healthy home cooked meals.

10. Go to the gym. Burn fat. Increase flexibility. Get some upper body strength. Yuck! pushups.

11. Blog consistently and keep things accurately updated.

12. Save and invest my money in long-term and short term accounts.

The Near Future: Before I’m 30 years old in 4 and a half years:

1. Get my interior design license. Get LEED accredited.

2. Graduate with a Masters Degree in Architecture… the only way to grow into management at LAS. Full-time, it would take 3 years.

3. If I started this year, I’d have enough time to get a Masters in Building Construction, too. Awesome for starting my re-development company.

4. Live overseas for 6-12 months, immersed in another culture, if not another language. Studying abroad would be uber efficient.

5. Happily engaged or married…only if I meet the right person. Otherwise, living a fabulously single life of freedom, spontaneity, and adventure.