Wednesday, August 01, 2007

other pursuits

Now that I stopped clubbing, there is so much more time to do other things. On Saturday, I took Omst and Neha to Myth for dinner, as a thank-you.



Myth's menu consists mostly of small plates, so you can construct your own tasting menu. A delightful corn salad:



A perfect rigatoni:



An even more perfect cheesecake:



A goofy couple:



A contented eater:



...

I also applied for a volunteer role at an Asian women's shelter. When I started looking for volunteer opportunities, I thought it would be simple. Surely these organizations would be pleased to receive my time and energy for free!

I picked this Asian women's shelter, because the mission and stories written on their web page struck the most empathy from me. And they may even find use for my Mandarin. I happily filled out their three-page application form.

The next step in the process is a round of interviews. Assuming I pass that, I will undergo 64 hours of training, and then sign on for a one-year commitment. Meanwhile, I can't even find out where the shelter is located, because its address is kept confidential. It could turn out to be many miles from my home.

In the two weeks since I sent in the application form, I have heard nothing back. If this were a dating situation, the shelter would be pretty high-maintenance!

13 comments:

Mike said...

The bureaucracy at volunteer "social services" outfits drives me nuts. I think the #1 reason I got more and more into the whole Catholic Worker thing after I started volunteering at their NYC soup kitchen was because they were informal and pushed a lot of responsibility onto me right away. The first day I wandered in, a homeless guy asked me if he could take a loaf of bread, and when I asked someone "in charge" about it, she was like, "If we have bread, give him bread, use your own best judgement."

Anonymous said...

Were this a dating situation, one would have better alternatives than this as well. What other battered women's shelters are there in the area and are their policies any more streamlined? Congratulations on volunteering and all the best!

tanspace said...

What's up with the rigatoni? there's hardly any there... the main course portion is smaller than either the salad or dessert.. hmmm...

Anonymous said...

Hey Niniane,

You upset they didn't receive you as the wonderful "rock star" that you are? LOL ;)

Unknown said...

You stopped clubbing, why?

You should check out Asian Americans for Community Outreach: http://www.aaco-sf.org/ . My brother is involved and I have volunteered a few times. You basically volunteer for various other organizations that are in need of volunteer help.

Anonymous said...

stopped clubing? baby seals?

Daniel Erat said...

Was thinking "uhh... his name is Omar, not Omst" until I looked down and saw the relative positions of A/R and S/T on QWERTY.

Anonymous said...

It's taken forever because their resources are pretty strained. (I work in the social services, county-based, M-F, and non-profit volunteer on the weekends) This is one of those situations where "it's not you, it's me" truthfully applies.

Anonymous said...

But please understand that the training in this case is probably very important. You will be dealing with women who have been victims of violence in their own homes as well as their children who may have also been physically and sexually abused. These traumatic events will be fresh in their minds. It will be a far cry from "clubbing" but you're an excellent person for participating in their recovery process.

narula said...

goofy? hmph. my soup was the best!

Anonymous said...

I was always baffled at why you enjoyed clubbing at such a late age.

A desperate cry to be found sexually attractive?

Cuz honey, you don't have to try.

N said...

re: goofy neha. Yes, your soup was the best.

re: John Lin. I looked at the AACO events. They seem to be mainly about manning booths at sports events. I'm keeping an eye on them but haven't seen any that excite me yet.

Anonymous said...

my exp with volunteering is that they won't call you upon app receipt, because they probably get a lot of applications who want to be a do-gooder for a few hours but end up not wanting to put in the commitment.