Oh mylanta!

It's strange. India has been on my mind a lot lately. I keep seeing faces of kids, women, places, and it's like my heart starts to hurt a little bit. Maybe it was watching the movies The Fall and the ever praised Slumdog Millionaire that have kept my thoughts circling back, or talking with friends who are just getting back from or about to "R-U-N-N-O-F-T" to places like Africa, India, and Nepal, maybe, just maybe, it's jealousy. I want to finish school, but I am also tired of feeling left behind. I don't want contact with these places to be an every few years thing, I want to be involved in what is happening on a regular basis, I wish it was my job or something. Even more, I wish I could get a letter in the mail that said this:

"Dear Amanda, you have been selected for the perfect job. Here is the address [insert address here], and you shall start on June 1, 2009, show up at 9am and please dress quite casually."

School this year has been so incredible, I absolutely love my classes, so much so that 3 hour blocks of time seem like they whiz by (as opposed to back in the day when Titanic seemed like an ordeal, on second thought, maybe it still is). I loved learning about community organizing from my pal at Legal Aid this summer, social and economic development from my teach, and all of the beautiful things that comprise so-called "Across Systems" social work practice. I just can't seem to find motivation to do my homework. Yikes. My conclusion: I have a hard time concentrating on the task at hand when I keep trying to propel myself through time and arrive post-graduation...degree in hand, four letters after my name (and no, they are not an expletive), and ready to take on the workforce. Before my bout of self-disclosure gets too disorganized and makes me less working on comps I am going to run and actually accomplish said homework.

watch out, watch this!

Audrey showed me this today...



Radiohead did this on Sunday night...



and Sigur Ros made my most favorite music video of all time once...

Wah-Wah

Dear George,

You were my favorite.

Love, Amanda

(pardon my French)

Je te presente...



C. Wright Mills.

Today in my policy practice class we read and excerpt from and discussed the inner workings and thoughts behind a little book called The Sociological Imagination (sounds magical, eh?). For your own reading curiosity, I invite you into the psyche of Mr. Mills via the following excerpt:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/~wood/207socimagination.htm

To say things politely, our country has seen better days. So, what in the world is going on? Who is to blame? Why must someone be blamed? Better yet, how do we set about to make amends?

Our new administration has set to change the way things are and we're bound to notice the upcoming tweeks and do-overs that President Obama is setting in motion in the range of social welfare policy. Mills says that one man has his troubles, but once that one man becomes many it becomes society's issue, and demands social action. I pose an interesting quesiton that has been on my mind since my class discussion: Who decides when "troubles" become "issues?" Where is that turning point? Do we suppose that a man's troubles are embedded within him, or are his troubles symptoms of larger, systemic problems that need to be fixed? Do we fix the man or do we fix the system?

People often find themselves polarized on this issue. Whichever side of the issue you land on sets the scene for how you will view policy changes in the next four years. I would venture a perspective that perhaps what we need is a balance of the two. We change the system and help the man, listen to both sides and find a healthy balance. Go figure. Maybe I'll run for president (ha!) ?

dear mr. plummer, please save my apartment

Last night I got home from a movie around 12:30am only to hear something that sounded a lot like this...


coming from the apartment downstairs from us. Audge and I ran to see if they knew of their peril, they did. Apparently the water had been gushing for close to five hours and the maintenance man on call did not feel like he could do anything about the geyser in our basement and had decided to let bygones be bygones until Monday. In other words, we were on our own and had to deal with the household equivalent of...
Old Faithful spewing from our main water line. Luckily our basement was flooded up to the joists at the front part of the house, and the Knoxville Utility Board was able to come to our rescue by turning off our water. "How are you surviving?!" I am blessed to have roommates that learned disaster response from Y2K: we are unshowered and brushing our teeth with water we are storing in a crockpot that one of us found in our attic last week. I know, if that doesn't speak volumes about our resilience I don't know what else could. Fortunately the plummer will put all wrongs to right, bless you, Mr. Plummer, bless you.

teacups should be seen and not heard

Saturday afternoon I took a journey to Anthropologie in search of inspiration. Within five minutes of giving the store a once over I had broken two $18 teacups. Well done, Manders. New Year's Resolution: learn to be graceful and stay away from glass.