Spring has Sprung!

Well people have been requesting I post. There have been many changes which I will try to fill people in on.

I didn't get into graduate school. I didn't get an interview. It sucks, but its not the end of the world. It just means I need to improve my application and apply again. For those of you who don't know Clinical psychology graduate schools accept 3-6% of applicants though some places accept 8%. This year with the bad economy more people applied so the acceptance rate decreased even further to 2-3%. BLECH! I was offered a position in Catholic University of America's General Psychology Masters program, but they wouldn't give me any financial support and I couldn't afford to pay $50,000 a year in tuition.

Josh has been waitlisted at UNC-CH and St Louis University, while being rejected everywhere else. This has come as a bit of a shock. Now he's trying to figure out what next if he isn't accepted into either of the schools.

If nothing else we'll probably move back to NC and attempt to find jobs in our fields to improve applications.

My office has moved. I love the new location, 4 blocks from my house. It has lots of windows and bright colors. I have a big executive wooden desk. Overall the move and comination has been good. A bit sad because I don't feel like Frank and Lindsay are really friends any more. They seem to be more into inside jokes with each other.

Josh and I are headed to my old roommate, Laura's, wedding next month! I'm really excited! I know its going to be beautiful and lots of fun. It will be nice to see CH friends. We're going to drive and bring down some of our winter things like sweaters and heavy coats.

Its finally spring which means sunshine, daffodils, and hot cross buns. I had never eaten them before this year, but I ate so many this lent. I'm glad I won't see them for almost another year. We've also taken the plastic off our windows to let in the fresh spring air and sunshine.

Now its time to go make some thai style chicken curry soup!

I've put in some photos of my old work, and Josh and I around the apartment from my Mom's visit in March!

The night before the inauguration

Last weekend Josh and I traveled around visiting the family. We spent Friday night at my Aunt Diana's house. Mostly we ate gumbo, did laundry, and relax. The on Saturday we all drove up to my Aunt Sara's in North Hampton. I think we're going to go up and visit again. We went on a couple hikes one with snow shoes. Snow shoes are definitely different. It was really exciting and also definitely a workout. We also went to East Heaven Hot Tubs. It was interesting, and very relaxing. We had 8 people in a hot tub. We would rotate around the jets and in and out of the water because it got very hot. After a wonderful chicken curry, my cousins and I danced around like crazy idiots. Hopefully pictures to come.

The past week has been very busy. We had our official merge with Serve Rhode Island, so we are now the Volunteer Center at Serve Rhode Island. I hoping things improve because right now things are kind of shitty. As an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer I will only be around for a year therefore I deserve any respect and shouldn't be listened to. My concerns aren't valid and shouldn't be considered as such. As soon as I am troublesome or my skills are considered unnecessary I'll be thrown under the bus or kicked to the curb. I was feeling a bit better about things until today when I discussed my concerns about the snow/weather with my boss and she told me that, "Right now I live in New England, and should be prepared for this kind of thing, and people around here are used to it all the time." I was just worried about driving Josh's car in the snow. Well see how it all goes tomorrow.

The InterFaith Coalition of Rhode Island part of Fighting Poverty with Faith had our vigil at the State House on the 6th. It went really well. It was disappointing that we didn't get more media attention. We had some wonderful speakers and great representation from the faith community from many religions other than the big Abrahamic 3.

Today I attended the MLK Day Scholarship Breakfast. It was really fantastic. I was able to meet some interesting people and make good connections. I was sitting between the President of the Hispanic Ministers Association and the Dean of RI College. I had a couple good conversations with the President of the Hispanic Ministers Association. He wants to see my toolkit and help with grant writing. I hope I can help him out. I definitely look forward to working with him more.

I'm very excited about the inauguration tomorrow. I hope I get to see it! Tomorrow we're having a pizza party at work for the Communication Director's birthday and hopefully watch the inauguration. Tomorrow the world will be different, I hope.

Much Love!

Long Underwear is the new Lingerie

Or at least thats what I keep telling myself. So Christmas/winter break went well but more about that later.

I'm already back in Providence. I was only in NC for about a week, and sadly didn't get to see some friends. I was able to spend some quality time with my family and Josh's family. My Dad and I were able to go hiking. Its one of those nice kind of traditional things we do. Josh's family had their Howrimore Christmas party. I cooked dinner, before opening presents. I made my Mom's Shrimp & Grits, which naturally went over like a charm. We played SingStar 2 which is a karaoke game, always amusing and the best part was everyone joined in! It was also nice to hang out with Josh's Brother's Fiance, Ginny, whom I've become friends with. Overall it was a blast. At my folk's house we had the Martins' come visit. I made potstickers one veggie and one with shrimp with a particularly awesome dipping sauce! We played Apples to Apples, which I got for Christmas from Josh's family. People really got into it! I hope to play some with friends and the roommates here in Providence. Maybe I'll bring it next weekend when we are hopefully traveling to North Hampton to see my Aunt Sara and cousins.

I returned to Providence on Monday night. Luckily all my traveling was relatively easy and hassle free. Wendesday/New Years Eve we got about 6-8 inches of snow. I'm glad I had New Year's Day and the 2nd off. This has been the longest I've been in Providence and haven't been working. I wish I could have done something fun or exciting, but I think I've also been fighting off a cold. Anyways we've mostly been hanging out in our house, and making good use of my long underware.

I realize now that I've finished all my applications and am just waiting to hear about interviews, I have a whole lot more time. I'd really like to find somegroup to dance with. I've recently realized how much I miss dancing with that kind of interaction and group work.

I'm sad to say as of now I really feel like my work here in RI is wasted. Well maybe just that I'm not being used to my full potnetial. My organization is merging with another. I'll fully describe that after the official announcement this week. Point is this has potential to be very good but also very bad. I'm hoping for the first, but honestly I've been disappointed in the lack of work and commitment many people put into their work. Maybe because I assumed that these people are involved in their organizations because its something they feel passionate about, not just a job. I see that with some of the people I work with such as my Faith Fighting Poverty group also known as the InterFaith Coalition of RI. I hope I see that more in the other work I do because right now from my experience and the experience I see others having, I don't want to work for a non-profit again. I hope things improve, but until later

Much Love to all!

Weird RI/New England Traditions

These are some interesting behaviors I've observed while living here (excluding some of the more obvious ones) :

People say Wicked (supposedly only a RI phrase)
Celebrating holidays that don't exist else where (Columbus Day and Victory Day -> previously known as V-J Day)
Obsession with Duncan Doughnuts, particularly their coffee
They call grits, polenta - which I had always thought were similar but not the same thing
Multifamily houses
Dancing Crossing Guards

I can't believe how much has happened in the past month or so. President Obama, Josh's birthday, Thanksgiving, and the first snow. Well the first snow was today, but the rest was much earlier.

The election was very interesting. I did a dance when I found out that NC went blue. Yes I did find out in the middle of the office, but that's ok. The election was also Josh's 23rd Birthday. We had a house celebration for the election and Josh's birthday. I gave Josh slippers, its what he asked for. Our house was pretty cold then and sad to say has gotten colder.

We had our first snow today and its freaking cold. We haven't been able to seal our windows yet we still need to borrow a hairdryer.

Things have been pretty busy with work, but right now I can't really talk much about it. Nothing has been legally settled, but I will update as soon as it becomes public. One major thing is our Family Volunteer Day which took place the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I organized the gifts for families and helped with the faith based organizations who participated. Sad to say I wasn't able to attend there were other events...

Josh's Godfather/Best Friend's father passed away just over a week before Thanksgiving. Josh and I both flew down to NC for the reception and service on the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving. The service was lovely with multiple friends and family speaking. I'm glad I was there and able to be supportive for Josh, his family, and our friend & his family who lost his father. Josh also got to spend some time with his folks. On my way to the airport on Sunday morning I got a call from my father saying my grandmother passed away. Honestly not that surprising, but still not what I expected to hear early on a Sunday morning.

I returned to Boone with Josh to prepare with my folks. My mother picked Andy up from NC State on Tuesday and on Wednesday we were off to Knoxville. I'm glad I was able to meet my father's first cousin Pat. She was very nice and such a fantastic help with all the traveling and work around my grandmother's services. We had an interesting visit with my Aunt Louanne and my cousins from Knoxville. Sad to say our dealings weren't always the most pleasant, but that's all I'm going to say about that. Now my poor father is in the midst of dealing with all the legal issues that occur after big life events like births, marriages, and deaths.

Glad to say I was able to have a lovely Thanksgiving with my parents and brother. It was much smaller than the one we expected to have with my mother's family in Conn. It was nice to see them. I look forward to hopefully spending more time with my brother over Christmas, even though my break will be relatively short.

One nice thing about my extended stay in NC, was my trip to Chapel Hill with Josh for his Med School interview. I was able to see my good friend Laura and her fiance Jordan. They were nice enough to let us stay with them before the interview. We're trying to organize seeing each other again around Christmas. In Chapel Hill I was lucky to see my friend Taiyyaba and have breakfast with her before she started her finals for her second year of Law School. I had a lovely, though short visit with Marion who has helped students with the UU group for years. Finally I had lunch and a beer with my friend Doug after one of his Med School exams. Sadly I didn't get to see everyone, but it was a very short visit and I'm relatively happy with who I did get to see. I don't think I"ll make it to Chapel Hill for Christmas, but we'll see.

Last piece of big news: I finished my graduate school applications!!! Hopefully I'll hear in the next month or so about my interviews! Josh has another interview on December 18th at East Carolina University. I'm sure he'll do wonderfully.

Hopefully I'll have the time to write more in the future, but until then...

Much love!

Weeks become months

I've been pretty busy. I've started working in the lab. Its been good. It has started cutting down on my sleep, but that will be ok. I get to do fun things like checking O2 stats, collecting spit to test cortisol levels (stress hormone), and general interaction.

Things have also been getting busy at work. We're planning for Family Volunteer Day. I'm working on getting more faith groups involved and encouraging people in faith groups to volunteer. I think I'm also closing in on being finished with my Faith Based Volunteer Kit, or at least the rough draft. Sadly I haven't been able to be as in contact with the local groups as I'd like. I have begun contact with the Baha'i community here. Its pretty small. I was really surprised that no one I work with had heard of Baha'i, so I'm spreading info about them. I was also just asked to be the secretary of the new steering committee of the InterFaith Coalition of Rhode Island. I'm really excited and kind of honored. I'm still a new and relatively young member of this community.

I have started submitting my applications for graduate school. I've finished my application for Catholic University of America, and am over half way through my UGA application. Its been kind of stressful but I feel like I'm getting close to being finished. I think I've finished my personal statement and just have to add the finishing touches for each school. I'm also going to be applying for this program called Faith Acts Fellows. It would be with the Interfaith Youth Core and the Tony Blaire Foundation. I would study in London and Africa for 2 months to learn about malaria. Then for 8 months I would return to the US and work toward eradicating malaria with in the faith communities. I think this would be a fantastic experience!

Last weekend Josh and I went to visit my Aunt Diana over in CT. It was very fun and relaxing. We went to a local cider mill and tasted different hard ciders and apple wines. We were also able to see a cider pressing. Supposedly my Great Uncle Bob's Cider press is 2 years older than the one we saw which was from 1870. Didi and Kim drove us around we saw some of the changing leaves and the beautiful countryside. Other than that we mostly spent time relaxing, doing laundry, and eating way too much of Didi's wonderful food. Sadly Josh and I haven't done too much exploring. I don't usually get home until 8 or so at night then go to sleep around 10 or 10:30. A couple weeks ago I was able to go raspberry picking with my friend Lindsay, over Columbus Day Weekend. It was beautiful! Warm, sunny, lots of little families pumpkin picking, and the ultimate decision that you can't pick berries without eating some.

Josh's birthday is coming up in just over a week, election day, but we won't celebrate until the next weekend. I'm already getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For my NC friends, I will be in NC from December 21st through the 29th. Most of the time I'll be spending with my and Josh's families, but its still very important for me to see many of you! Know that I want to see all of you, but man I may not have enough time. Hopefully I'll be using most of my vacation time for grad school interviews.

Much love to all!

Ellie

the cold has begun...

So its cold here in Providence. I knew this coming in, but man with the heat off in October its definitely cold in the house. Yesterday it was cold. So cold that Eric was wearing a toboggan in the house while watching football, though it may have been an experiential thing too. I made Calezones, both spinach & cheese as well as a tomato sauce sausage with peppers & onions. I also finished freezing the end of the fresh corn for the winter. It will be great in soups and casseroles, much better than that canned stuff. It was very relaxing.

You wonder why I needed to relax? Well Josh's folks came to visit. Don't get me wrong I love them, but I had to clean house as well as be a helpful hostess. Luckily they didn't stay the any of the nights with us. We went down to Newport and walked part of the cliff hike. At Point Judith we ate yummy seafood. I was impressed Josh had a huge plate of Calamari in front of him and was unable to eat it all. Anyways the food was good. Then on Saturday Suzanne (aka Josh's Mom) and I wandered around Wickenden St. It gave Josh and John (aka Josh's Dad) the ability to hang out without the girls.

I have an announcement: I will be in NC from December 21st to the 29th. This time will be divided between my family, Josh's family, and friends with special allocations already for Joseph, Laura, and Christina. I know there will be the traditional Howrimore (Lawrimore & Howard) Christmas party. Sad to say I won't be able to make it to CH during this break unless something goes wrong with my grad school applications.

I suppose not much more exciting news. I'll have next Monday off for Columbus Day. For everyone not in New England, it is a celebration of when Columbus supposedly set foot in the New World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_day). I just think New Englanders want a day off in October because in August they have off Victory Day (Formerly V-J Day), September - Labour Day, October-Columbus Day, November-Veterans Day & Thanksgiving, December-Christmas/Winter Holiday.

*Book Suggestion: Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel founder of the Interfaith Youth Core* Very inspirational, and makes me feel proud and not alone in the work that I am doing.

Now it is time for bed!

Much love!