I went back to Birney last week and it went a lot better. The kids were very receptive to me and I just felt a lot more confident. Of course I was alone with 15 hyperactive kids so I had to exude confidence or they would have eaten me alive. It still kills me that these energetic, charistmatic intelligent children don't have half the chance at life that others do but I realized that even if I can only make a difference in one or two of their lives...that'll make this hellish job worthwhile. And when I say hellish I do mean hellish...I feel like curling up into a ball and crying myself to sleep after I come home from Birney sometimes. I just have to thicken my skin a bit a guess, without losing my compassion. It's going to be a bumpy road, but I'm up for it.

The weekend was ok (as much of it as I remember)...I stayed up late talking about politics w/ some seniors, Sara and Jessie @ Hughes on Friday night. Then on Saturday my parents came down for parents weekend. I took them to Guapo's (great tex-mex restaurant in Tenley) and to Union Station. They had fun. I had fun. We bonded. I don't know if I can ever live with them again. I love them with all my heart but fall break was so hard. We'll see how Thanksgiving and Christmas go. I digress. After I said bye bye to mom and dad I met up with some people on southside and while I did my best to convince them to go to Bethesda to wander around they wouldn't listen and we ended up chatting about life, sex and pretty much anything for a hours. Good night (despite the lack of Bethesda).

The week in school has been good. I've done very well on all my midterms and I'm looking at Dean's List for this semester. Kudos to me. I actually got a 94 from Dr. Lohr (yes, the evil Dr. Lohr). He's like, "Well I gave you an A. I very rarely give out As. In fact I never do, you earn them. However this is the highest grade I've given out thus far this semester." And this was the devil paper I had to rewrite at 2am due to hard drive crash. What I don't understand is how I can do so well in one class, and get a B- in another class?!?! WTF?!?! Insanity. Oh well, I'm going to talk to Tamashasky about the B- on Friday.

Birney tomorrow and on Friday. Then a movie Friday night. Saturday's looking like Dupont Circle and Monuments @ night. Sunday is GREEN DAY CONCERT!!