~Friday~ It was cold as a witch’s tit at the bus top this morning, and the bus was on the late, rather than early, side.
As we went around a stopped Wolfline bus, I saw Logorrhea running to catch that one. I wondered if she talks as much on that bus as she does on the city bus.
At the next stop the guy getting on fist-bumped someone sitting in a front seat as he passed him and said, “What’s up dog?”
Sci-Fi Fantasy Man sat behind me reading. He’s due for a haircut.
Izod Shoe Man got on at his regular McDonald’s stop. He was cross-branded today—wearing Nike shoes.
I had only one meeting today, my standing Friday meeting from 10:30-11:45, our Student E-mail Initiative Implementation Team meeting for which I take the minutes.
I joined Anna, Kim, and Sarah (who had adorable little Jonah with her), at Cup A Joe’s on Hillsborough Street for Coffee Klatch Friday, and I spent a nice hour-long lunch there with them.
Toward the end of the day, I spoke to my manager about my upcoming vacation time (at the end of April), and while I was in her office she told me that she was going to nominate me for an award at work, for which there are several categories. She’s entering me for the one that recognizes community service.
To that end, she asked me if I wouldn’t mind putting a quick list together of the things I’ve done in that realm as she knew some of them, but she also knew there are some I do outside work that she doesn’t really know the nature of. That turned out to be quite an affirming little exercise, and this is the list I turned in to her:
| Date | Organization & Event | Description/Contribution |
| March 13-21, 2010 | NC State Alternative Spring Break Gulf Coast Trip, Thibodaux, LA | One of two advisors chaperoning 10 students to do post-Katrina Habitat for Humanity work. |
| January 23, 2010 | Alternative Spring Break Local Habitat for Humanity Day in preparation for our March trip. | Part of a day-long retreat in preparation for our March trip. We worked from 8:30 in the morning until about 1:00 on a deconstruction site in North Raleigh, where we mostly removed nails from boards all day, and then met afterwards to reflect on the experience. Details of the day. |
| December 2009 | OIT Holiday Giving Project for Love Wins Ministry | I nominated, and then spearheaded, one of the 2009 OIT Holiday Giving Projects. Results of the project. |
| June 12, 2009 | Habitat for Humanity Day with the NCSU Web Developers | For most of the day, I did trim painting work. Details of the day. |
| August 21, 2009 | Stop Hunger Now at NC State | Our group helped set up for the big food-packaging event which was happening the next day. For most of the time, I unfolded boxes and taped the bottoms. Details of the day. |
| May 3, 2008 – Present | Manbites Dog Theater Company Board of Directors | As a board member, I do not hold the office of secretary, but I do that kind of work for the board. I schedule the board meetings, help create the agendas, and take the minutes of the meetings. |
| April 30, 2009 | Night Owl Service at NC State | At the end of each semester, during exam week, the faculty and staff of the university “take over” the staffing of a couple of the university dining rooms to serve the students. Details of the day. |
| April 2, 2009 | NC State GLBT Speakers Bureau | I participated in a speaker panel to the College of Natural Resources, on which I talked about my coming out experience, and why it’s important to me to be out at work. Details are here. |
| October 20-31, 2008 | People to People Citizen Ambassador Programs: Technical Communication Professional Delegation to the People’s Republic of China | This trip consisted of professional exchange visits with Chinese Technical Communicators, as well as “cultural days,” from October 20-31, 2008 with stays in Beijing, Guilin, and Shanghai. During our visit with Peking University, I gave a presentation on my experience in my Master’s degree program in Technical Communication at NC State. Blog of the trip. |
| March 5 through May 16, 2008 | Equality North Carolina | I participated in volunteer work around helping to pass The School Violence Prevention Act. Details here, here, here, here, and here. |
| 2000-2004 | Triangle Community Works | I was the board secretary for those five years. For several months of one year, I was also the acting Programs Director, and for two years during that time I volunteered on the Gay & Lesbian Helpline a couple of times a month. |
| September 29, 2007 | Service-Learning Day at MEDWorld | With NC State’s NC State Center for Excellence in Curricular Engagement, I participated in a service event at MEDWorld, an environmentally responsible alternative for our hospitals to re-use disposable recyclable materials to save lives across the world, during which we filled several boxes each with 100 items of the scissors/clamps/hemostats variety, 100 tweezers, and 20 instruments, and body drapes. Details are here. |
| August 24, 2007 | Service NC State | While I was in grad school at NC State, as part of my membership in the student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, I participated in Service NC State, where volunteers packaged 300,000 dehydrated, fortified rice-soy meals containing over 20 vitamins and minerals especially formulated for the undernourished. 150,000 meals were sent to Petit Goave, Haiti with an organization called Haiti Vision, and the other 150,000 meals to Senegal. Details are here. |
| June 19-22, 2003 | Tour de Friends AIDS Ride | I rode my bike for 330 miles, from Raleigh, NC to Washington, DC after four months of training and raising close to $4000. Details are here. |
It was still cold late this afternoon while I waited for the bus, and once again, it was on the late, rather than early side. I was relieved to finally get on board, well at least until the man sitting directly in front of my started hacking.
I was in the first front-facing seat and he was in front of me in the center-facing seat, so that I looked at his profile. He started hacking, and to his credit did put his hand up near his mouth. Unfortunately, he didn’t cover his mouth, nor evidently has he gotten the word that we no longer cough into our hand, but into the inside of our elbow.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, at one point he did one of these deep pulls that you knew was going to result in some kind of expectoration. He held his mouth a certain way, while reaching into his stuff and pulling out a plastic grocery bag, into which he proceeded to spit. Klassy. (Pronounced “classy with a k.”)
At the gym, where I did a lower body workout, followed by 300 (15 sets of 20 reps) ab crunches, I saw a guy watch the person using the machine he was going to use next wipe it down (with a disinfectant spray and paper towels available in the gym at several stations strategically placed throughout the gym) and then immediately wipe it down himself again before he got on it. It made me wonder how said person would have reacted to the hacking expectorator on the bus. But I digress…
Once again, during my ab crunches, I was subjected to MTV’s 16 & Pregnant.
I met Phil out at The Borough again this evening, and later on we went over to Flex for just a little while.