Asheville

Wow. So here I am back in NC.

I have a very cool apartment, 2 bedroom 2 bath, that I share with a very cool roommate and the coolest cat in the world. Just yesterday I got my room completely set up, and the living room mostly set up. I still seriously need to take out some trash, but its coming along nicely. Its a little weird because we are using all my roommate's furniture and such. All of my things were sold to finance the move from Massachusetts. In all fairness, his stuff is much nicer (we have a huge TV, not sure if I like it or not all in all, heh). It's starting to feel like home though.

I start a very cool job tomorrow. I'm a Community Skills Instructor with the Autism Society of North Carolina. I get to do one on one stuff with autistic kids, working on their speech, occupational, physical, and social goals. Most of this is done in the community... so like, I will take a kid to the grocery store to work on being in public and waiting in line. That kind of thing.
I have one morning kid, 9-12. I will actually be her personal aide in her preschool classroom, which is something I always wanted to try but never got to. Then, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I will hang out with a middle school aged boy from 2:30 to 6:30, and Tuesday and Thursdays I get to be with an elementary school aged girl from 2 to 5. I like that long lunch break thing in the middle of the day there. My house in on the way from the morning kid to the afternoon ones, so I will stop at home and have a good lunch and relax for awhile on most days. I like having a good age mix of kids so I can try out different approaches to things. My supervisor is very flexible, relaxed, and open. I think it'll all work out just really well.

Hmm, what else... found some cool places to hang out, both in town (a really nice Irish pub kind of place is among my favorites, but just walking around downtown is fun here; its so diverse!) and in the mountains (there's a park on the French Broad River about 15 minutes from my house; I plan to take the cat out there soon, on a leash of course, to see what he thinks of nature). I've been to a Baha'i devotional gathering (its more of a class, not what I'm looking for but I will go occasionally for the socialness of it) and to a Feast (which was very nice to be at, though I miss Charlotte's more open devotions). Made contact with a few people who seem like they could be friends, given time.

So all in all its slow, but going. I'd rather slow and steady and continual than fast and easy to lose!