I'm so excited!!!

I found out that I get to start CASA training on Thursday nights!!! The classes are from 6-9 pm on Thursday for the next 8 weeks. I had applied for a volunteer position with Dane County CASA last spring but was unable to attend the training because it conflicted with my school schedule. And then, the Executive Director quit her job and they weren't holding any more trainings until they found a new one. Well, they have found a new one and trainings begin on Thursday.
CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. The volunteers work with children within the foster care system, acting as a go-between for the judge, social worker, foster family, GAL, teachers, parents and the child. These are children where these is a substantiated case of abuse and the ultimate goal is to provide a way to safely reunite the children with their parents. Each volunteer is assigned one child or family if there are siblings. This way the volunteers can act as the "eyes and ears" of the court and are expected to report back to the court on a monthly basis.
Anyways, I'm so excited that I finally get to do this. I've been wanting to volunteer for CASA for years and now I finally have the opportunity to do it.

Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Diaz"

Narrated by an old college roommate named Junior, "Oscar Wao" is, among other things, the story of Oscar LaInca - an overweight, sci-fi reading, Dungeons and Dragons playing, "ghetto nerd," whose nickname is Spanglish for Oscar Wilde (meant as an insult, alluding to both Wilde's girth and sexuality).

Although Dominican, Oscar completely defies the machismo stereotype, and given that he lives in the more-than-a-little-rough Paterson, NJ, Oscar spends most of his time in his bedroom where he can safely escape behind his Akira posters, Tolkien and role-playing games when he isn't in the midst of an obsessive and wholly one-sided love affair with some disinterested female. As can be easily inferred from the title, Oscar's life is brief; yet, Junior must span two countries and three generations in order to tell the story of it. He begins by explaining that the LaInca family is said to have suffered from a powerful fuku (curse) earned when Oscar's grandfather angered Trujillo.

Anticipating that most readers may have "missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican history," Junior explains:

Trujillo, one of the twentieth century's most infamous dictators, ruled the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961 with an implacable ruthless brutality. A portly, sadistic, pig-eyed mulato who bleached his skin, wore platform shoes, and had a fondness for Napoleon-ear haberdashery, Trujillo (known as El Jefe, the Failed Cattle Thief, and Fuckface) came to control nearly every aspect of the DR's political, cultural, social, and economic life through a potent (and familiar) mixture of violence, intimidation, massacre, rape, co-optation, and terror...He was our Sauron, our Arawn, our Darkseid, our One and Future Dictator, a personaje so outlandish, so perverse, so dreadful that not even a sci-fi writer could have made his ass up.

The story of the Trujillo-era Dominican Republic becomes the backdrop for Díaz’s tale, which is equal parts coming-of-age novel, historical fiction, and epic family saga that seamlessly weaves hip-hop, feminism, mythology, science fiction and magical realism throughout.

And if I haven't made it clear enough by my rambling and overly long overview, I loved it. Admittedly, it took a little while for me to fully get into it, but was hooked come fifty pages in. I felt two sorts of sadness at the novel's conclusion: one for the sweet, brave, pathetic Oscar, and the other because I simply didn't want it to be over

Resolutions for the New Year

I know that resolutions are a bit cliche and have never made them myself but, since this is a new year, I figured I would give it a try.

Fitness Goals
1) Run a 5k. I'm currently on Week 5 of the C25K program and have registered for my first 5k on Valentine's Day!
2) Run a 8k and 10k.
3) Lose 43 pounds before my high school reunion in June. This means consistently losing about 2 pounds per week.
4) Take a long distance running training class in the fall.
5) Swim lessons this summer. I can't swim very well right now. Hopefully lessons will help. The local tech. college offers adult swim lessons in the evenings.
6) Log 5000 fitness minutes on Spark. This breaks down to 90-100 minutes per week.
7) Run 500 miles in 2009. This is an average of 9-10 miles per week.
8) Do "man" push-ups. No more modified pushups!!
9) Just for fun; do the splits. I haven't done these since high school but my yoga will really improve.

My workout schedule is to aim for 30 minutes of cardio M-F and 15 minutes of strength training at least twice a week. I plan to concentrate on the running and losing weight. Once I get down closer to my goal weight, I will start concentrating on toning and strength building more.

Nutrition Goals
1) Eliminate meat, dairy and all animal products from my diet.
- Read books about vegan nutrition
-No FAST FOOD!!
-Plan weekly meals on Sunday.
-Pack lunch the night before.
-Collect bulk recipes for the week.
-Clear out "bad" food and donate to food pantry. (Although I feel a bit guilty about this; since you can't afford to buy food, you deserve to eat crap?)

Other Goals
1) Make a dent in the credit cards. Pay approximately 200-300 dollars per month towards debt.
2) Get my paralegal certification after graduation this spring.
3) Apply to bachelor's programs.
4) Get through the books in my To Be Read Pile:

*These are books I actually own, just have not read yet!*

Atonement: A Novel
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
The Russian Concubine
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
The Imaginary Girlfriend
The Undomestic Goddess
Snow Falling on Cedars
Nineteen Minutes
The Tortilla Curtain
Love in the Time of Cholera
Promiscuities : The Secret Struggle for Womanhood
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
Salem Falls
The Pilot's Wife
The Poisonwood Bible
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
A Separate Peace
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Lord of the Flies
Miracles Happen: The Life and Timeless Principles of the Founder of Mary Kay Inc.
Picture Perfect
Paris Trout
The Pearl
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
The Mermaid Chair
Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker
Step-by-Step Sewing Course: Essential Techniques for Making Over 150 Creative Home Projects
Change of Heart
How the Pro-choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics, And the War on Sex
The Last Lecture
Gilgamesh: A New English Version
Wideacre: A Novel (Wideacre Trilogy, Book 1)
Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey
Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
On Writing
Bel Canto