It's the holiday season, so whoop-dee-doo and dickery-dock

Hello Everyone,

I'm very sorry that it has been so long since I posted. Of course, there was a lot going on leading up to the holidays. Where to start?

We were certainly in the holiday spirit in the house. My roommates and I took full advantage of the local holiday craft fairs and were even inspired to make a few of our own crafts. Our living room had a carpet of fabric and paper clippings for the three weeks leading up to Christmas.

One weekend, Rebecca and Kelly and I went to see a community production of the Nutcracker. One of Rebecca's co-workers was playing Herr Drosselmeyer. When I was growing up in Maryland, my mom, sister and I went to see the Nutcracker every year in Ellicott City so I got to recall some fond memories as well as make new ones.

We also celebrated our first house birthday- Rebecca's. We began the evening by going to a wonderful vegetarian/vegan restaurant and then went to, what we were told, was an 80's dance party. It was really a bar that had a dance floor and played 80's music. We might have been the only one's dancing... whatever, we had fun.

Sarah's House was a very busy place at holiday time. On Saturday Dec. 11 we had an open house that gave donors the opportunity to bring by christmas gifts for the guests and learn more about Sarah's House. We served food, gave tours and Santa even came!

The next Saturday was Shop Day. This is the day that we set up all of the donated gifts by category and guests walk around with their caseworker to pick out gifts for their children. Meanwhile, the kids go to daycare and pick out gifts for their parents. It is a very special day for everyone. Aaron came to volunteer which was really great because he got to see where I work and meet my supervisor.

From Sarah's House, Aaron and I (with my bags already packed) headed off to VA. That night, we went into DC to see his teacher play in the Navy Band Christmas Concert, which was wonderful. It was a beautifully programed evening that touched on all aspects of the holiday season- most especially the need for peace in our world. They ended the night with a woman singing "My Grown Up Christmas List" and finishing with everyone joining in on "Let There be Peace on Earth".

To continue with our weekend of concerts, Aaron then took me to see the Vienna Boys Choir at George Mason as part of my Christmas gift! Also, wonderful. We had front row seats! The boys were adorable and wonderfully talented. From there, we hopped in the car again and drove seven hours through the night to arrive at his Grandparent's house near Boston at 3:00am. We slept for five hours, visited for a bit and then drove the rest of the way to my house where Aaron dropped me off and then returned to Maine to be with his family.

I got to have a whole two weeks of vacation. (Thank you Joyce) I spent lots of time with my parents and saw all my best friends my friends from UNH. My dad and I sang at Christmas Eve Mass, then on Christmas day, we all opened presents in the morning and the Morneau family joined us for dinner while Cara and Chris spent time with Chris' family. For New Years, Aaron and I hosted a party at my house with some of our UNH friends. That Sunday, Aaron and I picked up Faith in Boston and drove the seven and a half hours back down to Baltimore. It was a wonderful relaxing break filled with family and friends and I came back feeling refreshed and energized.

I am now officially a member of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. (They are like the Tanglewood chorus of Boston.) After talking to the director at a chance meeting in the fall, I auditioned on Monday night and was accepted. Right now, we are preparing to be the chorus for a professional production of The Magic Flute that is coming to Baltimore in February. It felt really good to be singing in a structured environment again. The director is great, he knows how to get a great sound while still having fun with the group and the singers are all wonderful. I feel like I can have fun while still learning and moving forward as a musician.

And speaking of musicians... Aaron played in a master class at the Navy Band Saxophone Symposium hosted at GMU this weekend. (A master class is a time that a student will play for an accomplished teacher/performer and then the teacher/performer will give critique so that the student gets a new perspective and the audience can observe the differences, so everyone learns.) Simply amazing! Aaron sounded better than ever. To add to the excitement, Aaron played a piece that was commissioned for the performer giving the master class AND the composer was there! Both the performer and the composer came all the way from Sidney, Australia! Both were very complimentary of Aaron's performance and Aaron got to hear insight about the piece straight from the composer's mouth.

So I think that's all the big stuff. Sorry there are no pictures this time. I need to be better about taking them. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are having a very Happy New Year! I'll write again soon.

Love,
Caitlin

P. Serve Prepares for Christmas

With everyone back from their Thanksgiving adventures, we decided to spend community night getting ready for Christmas. The director of Sarah's House gave us an artificial tree so we busted it out. But first we took care of some necessary cleaning. 

First we cleaned out the fridge. Rebecca thought it was funny. Bethany was very angry about it. Ian didn't really understand why I was taking a picture. And Faith was generally confused. 

Assembling the tree.

Bethany and Rebecca stringing popcorn.

Faith and her wreath.

Lights= check.

Ornaments- check.

Decorated mural- check.

The finished product.

Until next time,
Caitlin

A Very Happy Hour (several hours actually!)

Back in October, I went to a birthday party for my cousin Erin that her parents hosted at Howl at the Moon Saloon. When I got to the door they asked me to fill out a card to have my name drawn to win a happy hour party. So I thought "what the heck?" and the next morning I had an email from Howl at the Moon saying that I had won! Very exciting (especially considering that my family and I never win anything.) 


In case you were wondering, Howl at the Moon is a piano bar where two guys play covers of every song imaginable.  If you win a happy hour, that means that there's no cover for you and your guests, the first two drinks are $1 and then all drinks are free until 8pm. So Saturday, November 13th was the magic night. My parents came down from MA for the weekend and we were joined by 41(!) members of our family and friends, including my best friend, Anna, and her family, some of my parents high school friends, and many more. In short- it was a Blast!

Me, Dad, Mrs. Zawacki, Mom, Jon (Anna's boyfriend) and Anna

Me and Anna, fifteen years of friendship and counting...

Ian, Dave, Kelly and Rebecca

My mom and her high school buddies :-)

Dad, Mr. Bobby, Mrs. Patty and Aunt Becky

Aunt Pat and Uncle Tony

The next day, Aaron (oh yeah, he was there too :-P) and I met up with my parents and had a wonderful day in the city.

Me, Mom and Dad atop Federal Hill

Thank you so much to all those who came out for the party. It was so wonderful to see everyone. And a huge thank you to my parents for coming down. I missed them so much. I can't wait to see them again and everyone else in New England in LESS THAN A WEEK! (For Thanksgiving of course)

To write again soon,
Love,
Caitlin

my favorite state with some of my favorite people

It is Wednesday evening and my community and I just returned from our fall retreat at Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV. We left Baltimore around 9:00am on Monday morning with our supervisor, Allison, and spent two nights in a wonderful little cabin in the woods. During our time there we had discussion sessions on community, social justice, spirituality and simplicity. We also shared meals, hikes, games and, of course, lots of laughs.

Rebecca- our Master of Fire Making

The Falls of Blackwater

The Whole Gang

"the ants go marching six by six..."

Bethany, Rebecca and Doug the Dragon (a.k.a. our talking stick, because we all talk WAY TOO MUCH!)

Our welcoming committee

It was a bit squishy in the van, so they took a stretch...

...which resulted in an impromptu yoga class at the gas station. No big deal.

As the year gets busier and we all have more and more going on at work and in our personal lives, it was really wonderful to have the time and space to just be together. Can't wait for the rest of the year!

This Wild and Wonderful Adventure

So, it is 10:21 on a Friday night. I just finished watching Mulan with the girls and then had a really great chat with Kelly and Rebecca about faith and religion and the like. Now I'm sitting in the quiet of my cozy hide-away room, listening to some meditative guitar music and thinking about how truly fulfilled I feel at this moment and in general.

Amidst the fast-paced work environment and the time crunch to attend to everything pertinent in my personal life between the hours of 5 and 10pm on weekdays, I seem to be able to do all this amidst an all-encompassing sense of calm. Calm in knowing that I have a genuinely caring community to come home to each day who support me unconditionally. Peace in reminders that I have family both near and far who are willing to go out on a limb for me at the drop of a hat. Comfort in the fact that friendships new, old, and older can and will endure any test of any time or distance. Gratitude that I have found and am able to be so close to the man who brings me more joy in my life than I ever thought one person ever could. And, above all, solace in the constant awareness that the Lord's hand is guiding me through this wild and wonderful adventure that I feel fortunate to call my life.

There were so many times in my college experience that I felt so overwhelmed by all of the "things to do" that I failed to actually be productive in any way because I could not get past the ever-growing "List". I wondered if there would ever come a time in my life that I was not plagued by this terrible sense of urgency to constantly be doing something. I am happy to say that I think I have grown out of that stage. This is by no means saying that I do not run the risk of a relapse, only that I finally feel as though I am beginning to understand how to realistically find and create balance in my life.

It is now almost 11:00 and in forty minutes I've written three paragraphs. (How's that for productivity?) I'm not really sure where I'm going with this or if it is going anywhere at all, I guess I just felt like sharing.

God bless and goodnight,
Caitlin

Reason to Celebrate

This weekend Aaron and I celebrated our two year anniversary! I drove out to VA for the weekend and on Sunday we went to church and then visited two vineyards in the western part of the state on the edge of the Shenandoah Valley. The views were beautiful and the wine was fantastic. 

A really adorable dog that lived at the first vineyard we visited

Aaron sipping

Me sipping

Mountains! Oh how I've missed them.

Just the two of us.

We had a truly wonderful day. I'm so thankful to have Aaron in my life and for all that we've shared together. 


Many blessings,
Caitlin

So, many of you are probably wondering how work has been going. I know I haven’t said much about it lately. It is challenging, but the best kind of challenge that there is. It is certainly stressful at times but I have no complaints. I now have four clients, 3 of which I was doubling with other caseworkers for (but they are more or less considered my clients) and one that I was just assigned the other day as my first solo case! It is still sometimes hard to remember all of the different rules, requirements and programs, but I feel really comfortable and confident in my interactions with the clients which can be the hardest part.

Family Lit began this week. We had a big crowd, over 15 families came which ended up being about 45 people! First I introduced myself, the volunteers and the class. Then we decorated boxes that looked like books. On the outside, families wrote their names, and on the inside they cut and pasted pictures from magazines that represented themselves as individuals and a family. Several of the families told me how much they enjoyed the activity and one mother asked if she could bring the magazine home with her because she enjoyed reading the articles so much. Then we read stories and had snack. Many of the families expressed interest in playing games so I think we will do some of that this week.

I met with the founder of the organization Creating Communities that I mentioned a few weeks ago to talk about collaborating in family lit. We are both very excited about the opportunity. What’s great is that, I’ve come up with several general themes to work on and he has the lesson plans and materials to make them happen. We will probably do a few sessions together starting soon.

This was a great weekend of friends, family, rest and relaxation. On Friday, I drove out to Westminster to visit my best friend Anna. It was the first time I’ve seen her since I moved back to MD. She’s now teaching at the high school she graduated from in Westminster so we both had many stories to share about our first weeks on the job. I’m so thankful to have such an old friend that I can rely on.

On Saturday, I joined my cousin Erin to celebrate her 21^st birthday at the Howl at the Moon Saloon in the Inner Harbor. I got to see several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins and we had a great time! The “Saloon” is a piano bar where two guys trade off singing and playing covers of every song imaginable. It was very entertaining and wonderful company. Happy Birthday Erin!

Sunday was a day of some much needed R&R... slept, watched a movie, read and journaled. By the end of the day, I felt rejuvenated and ready to take on the week. Until next week...


Much love,
Caitlin