Crazy Week

This was a really intense, crazy week. We had a group of students from University of Dayton, which more than doubled the inhabitants of our house. On top of that, their leader lived in our house two years ago and knew a lot of people in Chicago and they all came over for dinner throughout the week and one night we had twenty-nine people in our house for dinner! But for the most part, they were a really great group. Half the time, we didn’t know if they were in the house because they were so quiet. We kept worrying that there wouldn’t be enough food but there always was and a couple of nights there were even leftovers.

I’ve been pretty busy at work. We’re working on a new partnership with Catholic Charities Immigration Services and they are sending us a lot of clients who need to go all around town and pick up lots of forms. We like that we’re getting these clients but their accompaniments are very time-consuming. And, we’re still trying to figure out our boundaries with them so it is a bit of a transition right now. I have also been busy because we’re working with a man from the suburbs who is trying to get us furniture for our clients. He heard about out furniture drive in October because he is a member of that parish and he was really impressed with our mission and has been collecting furniture all over town. We have been collecting client names of people who need furniture for a while but there has been some difficulty in getting them delivered. He did set a date though and will deliver furniture next week. I have been coordinating this—between communicating with the other compañeras and with our generous helper.

Saturday I went to a conference called “Deportation 101”.  It was mostly for community organizers so parts of it were irrelevant (there was a half day on Sunday that I didn’t go to) but the information on how deportation works was very interesting and could be useful to us at Taller.

Today, Martin Luther King Jr day we all had the day off work and Amate signed us up for a service project planned by City Year. We met at a Salvation Army building (with a gym, we think they run after-school programs there) in Englewood and then walked to a school where we painted some murals to beautify the school. I worked on a mural of a bulldog which was the mascot of the school. It turned out pretty well. There were a few other bulldogs but my group’s was the best one!

Catch Up

It’s been a while, so here are some highlights:

My Birthday week: Since we had the Advent Prayer Service on my actual birthday, my roommates decided to spread out my birthday celebration by having small celebrations all week. On Sunday we ate dinner in the Oasis and watched a Christmas movie while having ‘holly bites’ (bruschetta). On Monday they took me to jolly Olde England by giving me Earl Grey and cheese and crackers before dinner (thai pasta). Tuesday we went to Mexico and had enchiladas. Wednesday, my actual birthday, we had a quick dinner but still had brownies and took our Christmas picture after the prayer service. Thursday I cooked dinner but they wanted to make it classy so they bought wine for me (I shared with everyone, obvi) and we dressed up for dinner. Carlos even slicked back his hair! On Friday the plan was to go to caroling at Millennium Park but I was on my feet from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm so I didn’t really feel like that and just skipped a step and put in Sound of Music, because I wanted a movie that would last until people came back from caroling. Saturday was a lazy day, watching movies and such, but that is my favorite type of Saturday.

We had our Christmas Celebration on the 22^nd for the house, so we went to Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo and then over to Annie’s house for dinner and we had a lot of fun. The night before, Taller had our Christmas party at a restaurant pretty nearby—technically in Pilsen—but it was a nice Italian restaurant called Ignot’s that is a favorite of local Catholic schools for Christmas parties. I went home from the 24^th until January 2^nd and had a great time with the family.

Everyone was back by late on the 2^nd and we went to work the next day. We’ve all had a busy week and were really ready for the weekend. I had a couple of accompaniments to court and one to the immigration office. The couple I was interpreting for are going to get their green cards in a week! I’ve heard that sometimes people are told at their interview what the decision will be but it hasn’t happened in any of the times I’ve been there. After that accompaniment I went up to Streeterville to have lunch with my mom and Aunt Peggy. My mom was in town because Uncle Herb fell last Sunday and has been in the ICU ever since because he bruised his brain. He’s made a lot of progress but will still take a while until he is back to normal. Prayers please!

On Friday Ann’s brother Dallas stopped by on his way back to school in New York. He had dinner with us and then somehow we got on the subject of crush soda and Swedish Fish and decided we wanted them badly and to watch Finding Nemo. Saturday morning I had a date with Jessie and we went to the Art Institute. We had a great time looking at art, hanging out in the member’s lounge and talking. After we left the museum, I popped up to see Aunt Peggy, Abby and Mikey in the hospital. Uncle Herb was sleeping so they came out to the waiting room and we visited. Saturday night, my friend Katie who just moved to Chicago came over and we hung out, helped put away a massive load of groceries and then went out to dinner at Green House Steaks with Ann and Chris. Today (Sunday) I went to Mass, ran, and got ready for the group of students from the University of Dayton to come. They are here for the week (hence the massive load of groceries) and will be visiting various places/doing service throughout the city this week.

Many more things have happened, but I want to get back to being a hostess…