boom chicka wawa

My daily cumulative eight mile walks are really starting to poop me out.
It must've been 98 degrees outside today when I was coming home. Plus the heat from all the cars and busses. In addition I walk facing the west when I go home so the sun just beats down on me. I got really fainty and had to stop for a break. I would've definetely taken the subway home but I forgot my wallet, so I had no tokens or money. I tried to hum sungs on my way home to make the time go by faster but to no avail. I crashed when I came home, but I had to go back out because (1) I had left behind a box of cereal at the grocery store when I went shopping yesterday and (2) I needed to take advantage of the buy one get one free (bogo) Arizona Ice Tea at CVS.
I had a busy morning at work organzing and cleaning up the office. It looks great now. Shawn was out the whole morning but came in in the afternoon for a meeting we were supposed to have with one of our community partners. Unfortunately, she was a no show but we were able to reschedule for next week.
On Friday's all of the Site Coordinators for NSP as well as the VISTA's send out weekly reports. We include our highs, lows and insights. It's so much fun hearing from all of the other offices. We always send encouraging e-mails and everyone's reports tend to be funny as well as helpful. I can't wait to meet all of them. We leave for DC New Hire Training on the 28th, sweeeet. We've already gotten the agenda's and have been told they've planned some really exciting outings. I'm also excited about being able to eat three times a day. I can't wait.
I was reading the newspaper online this morning and stumbled across this article http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080718_Parkway_improvements_to_include_park_updates.html
Basically it details Philadelphia's plan to improve the Ben Frankling Parkway/Museum of Art area. They will be spending about 17. 1 million on this project. All they're really doing is making the place more appealing to tourists. I guess that's great for the economy and in someway that will benefit all Philadelphians. But it just seems like a huge and unnecessary amount of money to spend on something that already looks beautiful when there are so many poor and delapitated communities bordering Philly's tourist friendly spots. I mean I'm all for cultural expenditures and since I cross the Parkway every morning, I understand the desperate need for pedestrian friendly walkways, but there are so many people in need in Philadelphia. So many agencies that are having to cut their much needed services in low-income communities. They're could definetely be a better way to spend this money. I don't normally get upset. I can't even remember the last time I got really upset. But when I read that article I just got....upset. I was annoyed. A great expectations report distributed in December of '07 showed that one out of every four Philadelphians lives in poverty.
I walk through this Parkway every day right into a community that isn't even included on maps given out to tourists. It's like nobody cares enough to do something significant. It's a shame. They have all this money and power and they're using it to create prettier gardens and put more trashcans out. Are you for real?
They're even planning to build a new park where public housing used to be. Wouldn't it make more sense to rebuild appropriate public housing when you have a waiting period that's 10 years long and shelters that are unfit for human occupation. Maybe I don' t know much about all of this, but from what I see everyday, things like this just don't make sense.

I'm going to prepare for my weekend of rest by laying back and watching the only DVD I managed to bring with me "Friends with Money." I love that movie. It's just laugh out loud funny to me, even after seeing it around 50 times.
Good night.
P.S. I'm on the website...http://www.nspnet.org/offices/philly_n.htm


Song: Heat Wave by Linda Ronstadt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7P65KNwVY

Quote: A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Albert Einstein.