Ch-ch-changes!

Wow. It's been over year since that last blog post, and things are certainly different now than they were then. For one, the man I mentioned breaking up with in my last post is in fact my current boyfriend. We live together now, in a big four-bedroom house in Sacramento that he inherited from his dad. We have roommates, of course, to help pay the mortgage, plus a dog named Molly, two kitties, and four mice. The house is huge, but old, and needs some work to get it up to my (somewhat exacting) standards. Luckily I finally have some money coming in that I can use to help pay for it's upkeep.
Where is the money coming from, you ask? Why, politics! Don't be so surprised, if you've met me you know how well politics works with my personality. The path here was winding, however. Let's look back at the last year.
Breaking up with R lasted about a week and a half before I realized what a mistake I'd made, nipping something good in the bud on the possibility of future sadness. He still teases me about it. We've had our good times and our rough spots, just like any relationship, but things have been going steadily for a year now, and we've lived together for four months. I can see this relationship continuing for a long time... but let's not get to speculative.
After months of job hunting, fighting with my mom, dealing with money issues, and general dissatisfaction and frustration, I managed to find a position as a tutor at a continuation high school for troubled youth in Woodland. The experience was... interesting, to put it nicely. Hellish, awful, and soul-destroying is another way to put it. The first few moths were a major struggle as I figured out how to deal with stupid, lazy, arrogant, racist teenagers. Not all of them were like that, of course, but I was shocked at the number f them that harbored serious anger, homophobia, and blatant inability to function in modern society. Like the girl who wrote her biology essay on how evolution never happened, but would yell at anyone who said mean things about gays. Or the boy who decided to wait until next year to graduate because he didn't want to write a five page essay. I could go on, but I'm beginning to depress myself, so let's save it for anther time.
After that job ended (and on an up note, after the third month I really started to get it, and by the end of the job I got a great evaluation), I floated around for a few weeks, when suddenly an opportunity fell into my lap. My mother's friend David works in the Capitol, and knew about an internship program there with the Speaker pro Tempore of the Assembly. I looked her up, and found her policies fit well with my political leanings, and so I applied for the job. I guess my interview went well because they took me on even though I wasn't a student!
The next three months were a whirlwind of awesomeness. I was *in* the Capitol, working day in and day out in the heart of California politics. It was heady, fascinating, and I fell in love with the whole process. I'll talk about that some more in another post, but I've gotta catch you all up on what I'm doing now.
The job at the Capitol ended on September 1st, and many midterm elections were in full swing by then. So when my office mates mentioned that the author of Prop. 8 (boo hiss!) was running, I decided I was going to join his opponent and make sure that a bigoted homophobe didn't make it into the Assembly. I originally started with my candidate as a volunteer, but within two weeks I was the Volunteer Coordinator of the whole campaign, with a paycheck and a business card. Guess I'm good at bs-ing my way into situations. :)
Anyway, two months of 14 hour days and 6 days workweeks paid off, and we won! It was one of the happiest and most exhaustive weeks of my life. On top of it all, I've also been teaching college at a local private University in Sacramento. I can't say which one, but the experience has been eye-opening for sure. I love teaching, but I can't depend on it full time for enough money to live. Luckily, next week my candidate gets sworn in, and I get to be back in the building (fingers crossed).
I suppose that's all for now, but I promise more details in the future, and better updates about my crazy, crazy life.