"I don't care to say what I failed to recognize..."

Let me just clarify: I am not a snowbird. I may have Wisconsin license plates but I do in fact have a Florida address. I mention this because yesterday was my first day back to the beach since December. Keep that in mind for later. Cocoa Beach, as always, was a treat but there were a few things that tried to ruin my fun. These things include:

Getting pooped on by a bird, twice. (bad luck seems to follow me. I don’t know if the seagulls are attracted to the color of my bright blue bikini or what, but man, it’s like I have a target strapped to me).

I may or may not have broken a toe while running wildly on the beach. There was blood involved, however, the sand makes for a great band-aid.

My gracelessness caused me a huge bruise from a Frisbee on my shin. At least battle wounds are awesome … they give the perception that I’m one tough cookie.

Sunburn. Goes without explanation.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic. This is where the “not being a snowbird” clarification comes in handy. Now that it’s warm again in Florida people from all over the nation are flocking to the beach. It’s also spring break season so naturally all the college students need to come down to have a “CRAZY SB 2011, MAN!” where I’m sure I’ll hear many phrases like “dude I was so f-ing drunk all day yesterday at the beach” or “I’m totally going after that hot girl in the pink bikini”… blah blah blah. Just think, if you moved to Florida you could have those stories everyday ;-) … not that that’s how I live my life… Anyway…

Alas, my first day back to the beach was a success. Good sun, good fun, and good company!

What else is going on… hm… well I’m finally all recovered from my Washington, D.C. trip with the AmeriCorps group. That was insane. Things I learned:

-How to prevent bullying
-Ways to teach effectively
-How to live off of three hours of sleep
-DC microbreweries are fantastic
-Dinosaurs are beautiful
-You can get into the Library of Congress if you ask
-Being stuck in a hotel for 4 days can be miserable
-The juvenile correctional system is pretty whack
-How to effectively manage classroom behavior

That’s the run-down. I took some pretty bomb-ass notes in my notebook. I wish I had a scanner so I could upload those pages. My notes are filled with pure education complete with pictures and graphs ;-) Ha ha.

So, as the end of my AmeriCorps term is coming up I’m beginning to worry about my future plans. I have no direction as of yet. I was thinking about going back to school for Education Policy but I missed the deadlines for most of the grad schools that I’m interested in and oh, yeah, I haven’t taken the dread GRE yet.

The second option I was thinking about was doing a second year of AmeriCorps. But, it looks like that program might be cut from the budget anytime now. Sad day. If only the legislatures and congressmen knew how valuable AmeriCorps volunteers are. I know that if they do decide to get rid of AmeriCorps a lot of non-profit organizations will be hurting. I know for a fact that the AFLC (the non-profit I work for) will be in dire need of help. As of right now 4 out of 5 of the teachers here are funded by AmeriCorps.

It’s a wild time, let me tell you. I guess all a person can do is fight for what is right, hope for the best, and have a grand ole’ time in the mix of things.

Oh! and i linked my Flickr account to my page- check out my photos!