people from wisconsin...

Besides the fact that people from wisconsin are GREAT...

It is also important to note that people from wisconsin LOVE people from wisconsin.

So last night Tomás and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 6 month anniversary! wooot woot.

As we were walking into the restaurant I saw one of my favorite things... a wisconsin license plate!

how lucky!


Tomás laughed at me because I was so excited, as we chatted about the possibility of finding the person from Wisconsin in the restaurant (not very likely... but still hopeful).

Two margaritas later I make a quick trip to the ladies room... to a room full of giggling gals... and THEN I hear one woman say "My mom was so impressed... blah..blah.. blah.. because she had never been to a restaurant like that in WISCONSIN"

oh what a glorious state. It was like music to my ears.

I very non-awkwardly said "can I interrupt your conversation"... (puzzled looks)..."yes"... "are you from WISCONSIN"


and there is proof... people from wisconsin love people from wisconsin.

YES.. it was her car (rented and magically had WI plates)
YES.. she was a badger fan
and YES (after I had explained that I had seen her car in the parking lot and told Tomás about it) she did want to be introduced to Tomás as the woman who was driving the WI car.

Moral of the story: People from Texas are less enthusiastic about people from WI loving people from WI.

the things that were disorienting...

So like I said... Dis-Orientation was disorienting. I thought I would share some of my thoughts/things we did/tidbits that flow through my noggin. 

• we were given a lot of time for reflection and then small group discussion..we reflected on our happiest, funniest, surprising, frustrating moments ...
• thoughts of hanging out with the polk street house on weekend nights, our quote wall, going camping, when we pushed the couches together when it was cold to stay warm, all our inside jokes, our email thread chains, our slip and slide community night, the many meals we shared, the time i made terrible fettuccine alfredo,  wichita jeopardy, alex putting cara on strange mailing lists, our trip to mobile, the adventures in our backyard, all our kittens, drinksgiving... the list could go on for a long time.
• we did the obligatory affirmation activity (i say obligatory because i feel like this is done on every retreat)... but it was actually very nice to sit with my community. remembering how far we have come.
• to me it felt like we did a LOT of closing activities... sign of peace multiple times, group reflection, mass, saying what we were doing next year etc... but in the end it was good. it made it a bit easier to drive away from the retreat site... i was honestly sick of saying good-bye (but not in a bad way)
• we talked about moving from two different social worlds.. the places from where we come and where we return etc... our speaker at one point told a story that someone said "you will never come back fully again." This has stuck with me a bit... especially since i remember this feeling from my first international service trip... I came back so "aware" yet so empty and unfulfilled... I think overtime, and doing these types of things (service trips,adventures) i've come to know, cope and deal with these transitions better (hmmm... that statement makes me feel like I have a grasp on this transition.... which is something I certainly do NOT have)
• we received an "FJV" button... standing for "Former Jesuit Volunteer"... cara and maggie, who both live in my house but are continuing to do Jesuit Volunteer Corps are in JV/FJV limbo (jajajaja)
• Amongst the plethora of handouts we received... one was form the priest who had facilitated many of our discussions (he was AWESOME) about his rules for spirituality and social justice (there are 17 rules on his list)... the ones that stood out to me were:
• pay attention
• be honest
• enlarge the context- cultivate a sense of solidarity
• imagine reality differently
• connect with people
• create community
• tell stories, laugh, appreciate and celebrate- a lot
• survive
• the other things on his list were all pretty grand but these have been popping out to me recently.

•  we did one neat activity that they had gathered a whole list of quotes from former Jesuit volunteers. they asked them to respond to what their transition was like/how they felt in leaving... these things ranged from "i was so relived to get out of there" to "this was the best year of my life, i didn't think life could get any better" or " when i went back to my home town, i thought everyone had changed, but then realized it was me who had changed"... it was so interesting to hear a plethora of thoughts and ideas of what the transition was like. i stood under a quote that said "i was just so busy and then it hit me like a ton of bricks" I feel like with the start of a new school year.. I will be so swamped and come september I'll be like "WOWSERS... what happened?!!?"

Ok well that is all the ramblings I am going to share with you for now. As cara would say... "Dis-oriented... Mission Accomplished?!"

disoriented.

we started the year with an orientation. had a reboot in January at our "re-orientation"... and now we just ended our JVC retreat cycle with dis-orientation.

it was disorienting to say the least.

it is certainly sad to think about all the people whom I have been blessed to encounter through my JVC year. the JVs in the Southern area are TRULY amazing.

I'll write more about life later. but thought I'd just mentioned that I am officially disoriented, confuzzled and a sad-cat that my year has come to an end... but certainly I feel blessed and excited for the future.

life is short but sweet for certain.

So life really has been grand as of late.

I had an adventure to Chicago.. I was there for a Cristo Rey Network Conference. It focused on teaching the curriculum. It was AWESOME to sit down and really think about how/what I want to accomplish in my art class for next year. It was also a bit overwhelming but fun at the same time.

We went to a roof top bar and snapped this picture of the city!

I was able to meet some of the new teachers and hang out with them in an awesome city.

Shout out to Loyola University dorms... they were AWESOME. Huge and spacious.

I also had the blessing of being a hop, skip and a jump away from home. So I flew in and out of Milwaukee for this trip.

On Wednesday of the week I got to see RICHIE! my favorite brother. He's been working in Miami a lot recently but I got lucky and was in Chicago at the same time he was! So we grabbed dinner and walked like a million miles (from my campus to his work, back towards my campus for dinner and then to his place). It was so fun to see him!


Then on Thursday... SUPRISE... the WHOLE Niemer family was together in Chicago. My parents surprised me (I knew my mom was coming... but not my dad)! And we all went out to dinner and hung out. It was truly magical!

Sweet.  This is the fam at my parents hotel!

So all in all it was a great trip... and then my parents and I took the train back to MKE!

My mom was a "truck horse" as my dad calls it.

best dad ever.

And now I am back in good old H-town... where work is hectic BUT I am headed off to Dis-O in Pinehurst, TX tomorrow!

On another note... I made this out of dollar bill....

Armadillo... or a texas speed bump.

those who can't do... teach.

I've been out gallivanting around the mid-west for a network conference. I'll give you all the gossip ASAP.