November?! Really?!

Seriously, November?! I feel like I was just ringing in the new year!! 

Anyways...pt. 2 of Hurricane Sandy was nothing of excitement. On Halloween night, Ed was stranded in Rhode Island, and I was able to pick him up in Connecticut. The fun part about it -- his bus dropped him off on ELM STREET!!  SpOoOoOoOoky!! :).  

Thursday and Friday was a pretty boring day. I was able to catch up on all things needed for the upcoming LVs Run, as well as all my personal thank you notes for those who have donated. I also got myself out of the house, breathing fresh air, as I walked the neighborhood to survey the damage a few days later. 

Over the weekend though, I was able to spend most of the time in one of my favorite settings -- watching plays! And the best part about it?! I paid a total of $35 to see 3 shows!! #winning. 

1. The Mystery of Edwin Drood: This show was so much fun! Definitely what a comedy show is all about with the quick punch lines, and constant action! Plus, I got to see one of my favorite Broadway actresses (Stephanie Block) and CHITA RIVERA! That was definitely the highlight! I left the theatre with one of the biggest smiles I've had leaving the theatre since moving to New York! 

2. The Piano Lesson: A beautiful work by August Wilson, and to see it on stage, even more incredible. I was so drawn into the show, I didn't notice so many disruptions around me that were pointed out afterwards. Another exciting point about this show was receiving the tickets from a former set designer who I worked with at Lewis; Michael Carnahan. A true artist! I can't wait to go back and support when it officially opens, and experience it again! 

3. Modern Terrorism, Or They Who Want To Kill Us and How We Learn To Love Them: I had heard so many great things about this show, plus it was produced by one of my new favorite off-Broadway theaters, I was hoping for a great performance. And, I was given just that! It began as a great black comedy, with some racist jokes that I felt horrible laughing at, however the second act took a huge turn, and really brought out the emotion of the show. So incredible. In the end, a great production to end my weekend of show viewings. 

Lastly, today it was sooo great to get back to school after having a week off. I was so excited to get back, I wasn't able to sleep last night. Let me tell you...that almost never happens! The genuine concern from my students about my safety during the storm was overwhelming, yet felt so good at the same time. Needless to say, today was a slower day at school, with everyone checking in on each other. Can't wait for the city to be back to normal, but really is it ever going to be the same?! Time will tell.

Live Jesus In Our Hearts. Forever! 

#cabinfever has got the best of me!

I can successfully say that I have survived 2 hurricanes since moving out to the east coast (Irene and now Sandy), but this one definitely has me feeling cabin fever way more!

Anyways, I realize that a lot has happened since I last posted (again), so I will do my best to highlight a few of the exciting events I have had!

1. Brother Luke Salm, FSC Religious Education Workshop: I got to attend this awesome experience last year, and jumped at another opportunity. To be able to join other Lasallian educators is a great experience, especially when it all focuses on religious education and campus ministry. This year, our conference was in beautiful Narragansett, RI at Christian Brothers Conference Center!

Beautiful Narragansett, RI; I wouldn't mind living here for a few months every year (aka no hurricane season)

2. #DENAPumpkinWknd2012: All of the DENA volunteers came together a few weekends ago to hang out and celebrate the awesome season of fall/autumn. Everything for the weekend was themed PUMPKIN, and man was it all delicious! We also attended a haunted hayride/corn maze, and anyone who knows me well knows how much I hate events like that. Though it was my idea, I suggested just merely as fun, not serious (guess I learned my lesson with that one...). In the end, I look back and laugh at how stupid I probably looked/sounded the whole time, and really it was fun. To come together and share fun memories with my other DENA LV's is a great escape away from the large city setting and busy work somedays.

Some of the other DENA LV's + Alums! 

3. #Halloween2012: This year, I was so pumped for Halloween and the costume that I had planned. It started a rough day convincing everyone to go out, but in the end we were all about to go out and celebrate and have a great time! I truly believe you are never too old to dress up for halloween and have a little fun, and that is exactly what I did this year!

"To Infinity and Beyond!" Buzz Lightyear, #Halloween2012

4. Being shut-in during #HurricaneSandy: I was extremely excited for a 2nd hurricane in a year, and then as the storm really took over the city, I took all that excitement away. To see the destruction in a city that I have grown to love is very devastating, and wish there were so many more ways I was able to help. Being shut inside the house for this long has got me going crazy. There are only so many movies to watch, facebook pages to creep, twitter pages to read, etc. before it all gets old and you feel your brain turning to mush. I have tried reading and I just fall asleep which isn't healthy either because then I'm sleeping 20 hours a day. Hopefully, through lots of prayers, the city will return to normal and I can begin heading back to work!

That's all I have for now with this update. I must say, I need to get back on track to where I was updating every day/every other day, and reaching out to my fellow followers. ;).

Live Jesus In Our Hearts. Forever!

Man...it's been too long for this whole daily update thing...

...sorry.

Just looked at my planner and realized it's been 10 DAYS since I updated. Man, where do these days keep going?! Instead of full "Happiness Entries" for every single day, I will just bullet point a lot of the awesome things from the past week and a half!

• busting out my fall sweaters and wearing them to work
• running down Mosholou Parkway (in da Bronx) through the cool, crisp, fall air
• always looking at the LVs Run website, along with the Route 66 Marathon website 
• DONATE HERE!! :D :D
• wearing my awesome Loughlin colored TOMS and fun dress socks
• watching The X Factor with Br. Ed and hearing his comments towards all the performers
• going to Manhattan College for a special Lasallian Convocation focused around the Lasallian Volunteers.
• catching up with the LV Staff while they were staying at our house after the MC event
• planning and seeing a very successful "Senior Pin Day Class of 2013" at work
• tutoring 5th graders at Brooklyn Jesuit Prep with my students and seeing quite possibly the most adorable "assignment" in a student's planner (see picture below)
• RUNNING THE "MERRELL DOWN AND DIRTY NATIONAL OBSTACLE COURSE AND 5K MUD RUN"!! (see pictures below)
• OCTOBER 1st a.k.a. Pumpkin Month!!
• starting our retreat season at Loughlin with the first being an awesome senior retreat! 
• attending an "Applying to Grad School" workshop to help ease the stress of the coming months of figuring out what to do! :/

"Being a Lasallian Volunteer is all about meeting people where they are, so we can know who we are!" -Paul Aveento (LV '07-'09) 

"To Say 'I Love You' to Mom"

After completing the Mud Run 5K!! What an awesome experience, can't wait to do it again next year!! :D.

Live Jesus In Our Hearts. Forever! 

So much for the daily updates...

...but at least it isn't the 3 month absence like last year. Ha.

Happiness Journal (Sept 19):

• breezing through so many great scripts on the train rides to and from school; over the years I have gotten so many scripts but then never read them, so now is the perfect opportunity! 
• talking with several more service sites for the Loughlin students to volunteer at, and actually setting up different times that we can head over and SERVE! 
• Melissa and I both bringing Mallomars for lunch, and Melissa "sharing" hers with me, not realizing that I brought the same amount in the same plastic bag. Needless to say, another laughing fit in the CM office! 
• finally setting up and figuring out how to log my hours for Americorps, and then exclaiming loudly for all my students to hear, "That's how Mr. Hueg gets things done. For America!" 

"Life is not about kissin' @$$, it's about kickin' @$$!!" - Anonymous

Happiness Journal (Sept 20):

• the first Lasallian Youth meeting being so successful, with a room full to capacity! 
• talking all about my awkward OCD tendencies at lunch with my boss and students
• attending our JV/Varsity volleyball games (which we won!) and seeing all the students cheering on their peers with such #LoughlinPride
• having some Lasallians from Rhode Island make there way down into NYC for a meeting they had on Friday, and getting to catch up and chat with them

"Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it eludes you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and sits softly on your shoulder" -Henry David Thoreau

Happiness Journal (Sept. 21):

• enjoying delicious bacon for breakfast as I went sprinting out the door for the train
• getting to play with Keynote at work for a presentation we want to do with classes next month! 
• Student (while looking in the mirror): "If I could pick anyone up, it'd be myself. I look good."
• talking and catching up with Jo in the PLT about life, etc and sharing an awesome play suggestion to read! Literally, this bullet point is the highlight of my WEEK! 

"We must be willing to let go of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us" - Joseph Campbell 

Happiness Journal (Sept. 22):

• "sleeping in" aka waking up at 830 am! 
• getting the linen closet in the community all straightened up and sorted for the year (I am in charge of hospitality, and so making sure all that is ready feels pretty good)
• going to a FREE Yankees game, courtesy of my awesome LV Alum Mentor! 
• skyping with Kristen and Liana in San Fran, and  catching up on all the latest LV gossip, etc. Laughter truly is the key to life, for sho! 
• receiving an AWESOME postcard in the mail from my #bromance down in Tulsa! 
• watching Joseph Gordin Levitt host Saturday Night Live! 

"Every day may not be good...but there is something good in every day." - Anonymous

Skankees game...I mean, Yankees. Pretty awesome seats and stadium! 

Happiness Journal (Sept. 23):

• going back to St. Francis Xavier church for #ServiceSunday with my students, but this time volunteering with their Welcome Table Soup Kitchen! Every time we go on service, I get more and more proud of my students! :D. 
• getting 3 new pairs of awesome dress socks for work! #teacherswag
• going to Mass as a community after we completed our CAP (Community Annual Program) for the weekend
• watching the 'season finale' of Broadway or Bust with Br. Bill and predicting, yet again, all the right winners - I really have to start playing the lottery
• laughing at a bunch of YouTube videos with Stephanie while trying to put together the LVs Run weekly newsletter

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” 

I'm kind of digging this whole Happiness Journal thing...

...and hope you are too! :).

Happiness Journal (Sept. 17):

• knowing that I successfully made it through the first official week of school for my 2nd year as an LV!
• hanging up all of the Campus Ministry/Lasallian Youth signs around school that we made Friday at our planning event
• receiving our first large donor sponsorship for the LVs Run 2012!! (Thanks DENA District!!)
• Interested in donating to my personal page to benefit the great works of the Lasallian Volunteers Program? Click here!
• catching up with my bud Sean Ruane from Lewis, who is currently serving out in Yakima, WA!
• watching the season premiere of the new tv show on NBC, Revolution!

"When our time is up...will we say we've had our fun? Will we make a mark this time? Will we always say we tried?" Rooftops by Lostprophets

Tuesday

Today was an awesome day. Granted it started a little sketchy with this man on the train doing his "preachin'" to me about how I "look a f****n' fool readin' like that, and the only true way is the bible". At dinner, Ed told me I am turning into a true New Yawk-er by ignoring him and realizing all that is going on around me while doing a particular task on the train! Hooray for me? Lol. Anyways, at work, my boss Melissa and I got the BEST laugh of the year courtesy of one of our religion teacher's, Mr. Woody. To put it short, we gave a lesson last week and what it means to be Lasallian, and they took a quiz today and what they remembered. One of the questions was "Name the two adults who work in Campus Ministry here at Bishop Loughlin?" Simple enough I'd say, seeing how we introduced ourselves. The pictures below though show a different side to the story. Gotta say, at least these kids are honest...

Happiness Journal (Sept. 18):

• Basil's Birthday Bagel Bash (Theology Dept. Chair's birthday was last week, so we had a little party!)
• laughing SO HARD at the responses to the quiz via Mr. Woody [see pictures below]
• finishing this AWESOME script I started yesterday on the train ride home today
• predicting both contestants right for the winners of this season's So You Think You Can Dance! 
• realizing the joy of blogging, and how exciting this will be to look back and see all the wonderful memories I had during my experience as an LV! 

"You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants" -Stephan King

And now...the pictures...

Jhon and Cristina

Ms. Altman, and chubby red hair about 5'7" 

Mr. Frank (our librarian) with orange hair, and a lady with curly brown hair

The Loughlin Volunteer guy, the lady who sung the pledge.

There is a woman who look usually happy and with brown hair and a fat man with a high pitch voice and he is a volunteer

One is a chunky white male with male with red hair. The other is a skinny women with brown hair

Mr. Eugene and Ms. Howlsmen 

Kevin and Sally

The woman with brown curly hair and the chubby man with short dark blonde hair.

I got to hand it to the students, they had me laughing for a good 5-7 minutes. Evaluating the situation, as a teacher would, this has taught me that I need to wear a 2 ft. long by 1 ft. high name tag on retreat with all of these students. ;). Lol.

Live Jesus In Our Hearts. Forever!