A Good Day

Spent today doing a little bit of community service, took the kids to the Alzheimers center and helped to carve pumpkins and put flower arrangements in them with the old folks, who are all terribly sweet and a pleasure to be around. I've made friends with a few of the ladies in particular, and it's nice to be able to see them on a weekly basis and establish a real relationship. And the kids are fabulous, seeing them interact with these folks is just a pleasure.

And I got my payment schedule today for my student loans, so there's that that I gotta do, which is fine, I'll just be paying for ten years, you know, no biggie. *sigh* Realistically, it's not so terrible, and I keep thinking that if I can make some money off The Silence eventually maybe I can blast some of that debt before it grows interest, like a fungus.

Dinner tonight was with the whole community, at the school, and I am so privileged to be with such an amazing group of people. The kids, removed from any framework of stressful scholastic pressure and/or temptation towards immaturity, are really just some of the greatest kids I've ever known. It's so nice to be a part of what really feels like a kind of extended family, especially with so many of my friends in other places. Especially knowing that Thanksgiving does not represent a chance for me to hang out with my buddies, it was very satisfying to experience a kind of belonging tonight which I haven't in a long time. I'm sorry y'all aren't here with me, but coping with that loss is a heck of a lot easier with so many astonishing people around.