a locked up fan is still a fan
posted by Sara @ 8:00 PM
so i've been back in richmond for almost three weeks now. i'm still in transition. and it's driving me crazy. i feel like my life is in slow motion right now. i can't move into my new place until the first of june, so i'm at my parents house on the other side of town. my car's been in the shop. i guess sitting in an empty driveway all alone for a year would make me break down too. i've been working back to back doubles at my old restaurant. i'm already exhausted. so exhausted that i don't feel like capitalizing any words.
i miss alaska. i miss living there and backpacking with other volunteers. i miss my roomate. i miss spending my friday nights with seven yr olds and passing out popcorn to the cute little eskimo kids with their big smiling faces on roller skates. i miss being a big fish in a small pond, and having a job of high importance. it's weird going from solely developing a strategic tourism plan for an entire city to refilling drinks and cleaning ketchup bottles all over again.
but the funny part is i missed all of that while i was in bethel working my ass off as a volunteer. and it is good to be back. sometimes i just tend to get overly analytical and worry that i'm supposed to be somewhere else other than where i am at the moment. maybe eugene for grad school. maybe denali. maybe richmond. but i know that being back here is temporary, and is just so i can sort a few things out and be around family and best friends.
i'm still looking forward to teaching english and art overseas, and traveling, and experiencing different cultures. it's my passion and i wouldn't be happy any other way. i'm fine doing it alone, although it would be cool if i could find other people to travel and teach with. most of my friends have way more ties than i do. not that having ties is a bad thing. sometimes i wish i had something or someone pulling me in a certain direction.
but in the meantime, i need to get back into the richmond art scene and do a few shows. i miss it. and i do want to use my interior design degree and work on some projects this summer. i didn't sketch or paint hardly at all when i was in bethel. usually that makes me grumpy, but i think i was too busy with my americorps project to notice.
on a random, and slightly funny note... i recently received my first fan letter from an inmate. when i left bethel i sent a lot of my friends and colleagues a farewell email, expressing my gratitude and appreciation for their support and friendships. i also mentioned being excited about leaving my boots and ice cleats behind and slipping on a pair of flip flops. well, apparently it got published in the local bethel paper The Tundra Drums, along with my personal contact information, including my parents' address and home phone. (yeah, annoying) but that's bethel for ya. it definitely does not surprise me.
at first i was excited to see a letter from someone in alaska. but then i was a bit confused when i looked at the return address and it said Anchorage Correctional Complex. so i opened it up and read a two page letter from a guy named robert who found my email inspirational and decided to write me. he has lived in the northern slope for 25 years but is originally from boston. he relates to my desire to be near my family, but still travel. he suggested that i visit northern alaska "where the real men are, haha." and he hopes that i enjoy my flip flops, and told me not to get freaked out by the return address because it's "nothing serious, just a minor scrape with the law." oh, and he spelled for, fer. i thought only southerners said fer.
so after reading the letter i was completely annoyed. and a little creeped out. and worried about my parents, and having some crazy dude showing up on our doorstep fresh out of jail. my first reaction was to immediately contact the paper and yell at somebody. and then i realized that would do nothing. it's already out there. it's not like they can issue a press release and say "JUST KIDDING!"
(so yeah.) somehow random things like this always happen to me. but i have been looking for a president for my fan club for quite some time now. lucky for robert, i have no applicants thus far. (it's a tough job.) and nonetheless, a locked up fan is still a fan, right?
sara tagged map by user - Tagzania
i miss alaska. i miss living there and backpacking with other volunteers. i miss my roomate. i miss spending my friday nights with seven yr olds and passing out popcorn to the cute little eskimo kids with their big smiling faces on roller skates. i miss being a big fish in a small pond, and having a job of high importance. it's weird going from solely developing a strategic tourism plan for an entire city to refilling drinks and cleaning ketchup bottles all over again.
but the funny part is i missed all of that while i was in bethel working my ass off as a volunteer. and it is good to be back. sometimes i just tend to get overly analytical and worry that i'm supposed to be somewhere else other than where i am at the moment. maybe eugene for grad school. maybe denali. maybe richmond. but i know that being back here is temporary, and is just so i can sort a few things out and be around family and best friends.
i'm still looking forward to teaching english and art overseas, and traveling, and experiencing different cultures. it's my passion and i wouldn't be happy any other way. i'm fine doing it alone, although it would be cool if i could find other people to travel and teach with. most of my friends have way more ties than i do. not that having ties is a bad thing. sometimes i wish i had something or someone pulling me in a certain direction.
but in the meantime, i need to get back into the richmond art scene and do a few shows. i miss it. and i do want to use my interior design degree and work on some projects this summer. i didn't sketch or paint hardly at all when i was in bethel. usually that makes me grumpy, but i think i was too busy with my americorps project to notice.
on a random, and slightly funny note... i recently received my first fan letter from an inmate. when i left bethel i sent a lot of my friends and colleagues a farewell email, expressing my gratitude and appreciation for their support and friendships. i also mentioned being excited about leaving my boots and ice cleats behind and slipping on a pair of flip flops. well, apparently it got published in the local bethel paper The Tundra Drums, along with my personal contact information, including my parents' address and home phone. (yeah, annoying) but that's bethel for ya. it definitely does not surprise me.
at first i was excited to see a letter from someone in alaska. but then i was a bit confused when i looked at the return address and it said Anchorage Correctional Complex. so i opened it up and read a two page letter from a guy named robert who found my email inspirational and decided to write me. he has lived in the northern slope for 25 years but is originally from boston. he relates to my desire to be near my family, but still travel. he suggested that i visit northern alaska "where the real men are, haha." and he hopes that i enjoy my flip flops, and told me not to get freaked out by the return address because it's "nothing serious, just a minor scrape with the law." oh, and he spelled for, fer. i thought only southerners said fer.
so after reading the letter i was completely annoyed. and a little creeped out. and worried about my parents, and having some crazy dude showing up on our doorstep fresh out of jail. my first reaction was to immediately contact the paper and yell at somebody. and then i realized that would do nothing. it's already out there. it's not like they can issue a press release and say "JUST KIDDING!"
(so yeah.) somehow random things like this always happen to me. but i have been looking for a president for my fan club for quite some time now. lucky for robert, i have no applicants thus far. (it's a tough job.) and nonetheless, a locked up fan is still a fan, right?
sara tagged map by user - Tagzania
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2 Comments:
Hey Sara,
Just checking in to see how the adjustment is coming back to the Lower 48. I can totally relate to that sense of .... where do I really belong.
There is a wonderful story that you may have read - it's entitled.... The Power of Transformation and it describes the sense of being on a trapeze and every time a bar comes close to you - you think you are supposed to take it but hang on instead. It waves in front of you off and on and yet you pass it by. One day - you will know when.... you will reach out and hurdle through space and learn what changes need to occur in order to grab that next bar. It's in that space that the true growth occurs.
We'll be here for that!
Barb
Heya Sara--
There are more than inmates that miss ya girl! Everyone who knew you is still in mourning and hoping the Vista training will materialize in August or September.
We had 7, count 'em, 7 straight days of gorgeous spring-to-summer days in Bethel. Since then, a few clouds, a little rain and some wind, but all in all, not bad for Southwest Alaska.
Hope you are finding yourself again and are able to get back into the art scene. Remember we have an active Art Guild in Bethel that would love to display your works as well.
You are young and adventurous and SHOULD experiment with jobs and locations and relationships before settling down. Of course, there are some of us who never have gotten that "settling down for good" gig figured out yet!!
Susie and Wally
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