Back in Mo Co

Mo Co is short for Montgomery County, Maryland, statistically one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. Ugh, that fact makes me shudder. Without a doubt, I've benefited from the safe streets, beautiful landscape, and easy access to restaurants, shops, and banks, and proximity by car and metro to the nation's capital. While in many ways a participant, I get overwhelmed by the crowded streets, the confiscation of spacious farms to serve the causes of suburbia, locals teens driving the latest Hummers and soccer moms with Suburbans polluting the air, among other things.

I was fortunate to be raised on one of the few acre plots in the area where I don't share my front or back yard with another home. Trees surround the lot and we share the dead end street with four other homes. Through the woods I can barely see the giant florescent cross of the National Lutheran Home across from our street. In those woods are memories of stick forts and capture the flag, foxhunts and hideouts. The pond in our front yard served many a purpose from mud baths, to tadpoles for science class in elementary school, to picnics in the small metal rowboat. Oddly, one of my comfort sounds from home is that of crickets and frogs' mating calls.

Home for me is the leaves tumbling in the air in the fall season and taking walks along the serene and beautiful C&O canal only 10 minutes away. For many of my friends, being home means reconnecting with childhood and high school friends. On that note, I can't really relate. It's been 7 years since I lived at home and I didn't leave much behind. My one friend from HS now lives and works in San Francisco. All my friendships are spread across the states and the globe - in China, in Ecuador, Texas, California, New York, New Mexico, Pennsylvania.

Now that I'm back and living with my parents again I'm going to need to establish a new meaning of home - one that goes beyond bonding with my parents and reaches out to the community. At this point I still feel like a young student visiting my parents on vacation from classes, staying close to home and spending time with my parents. I find it strange how easy it is to slip back into the little me I once was when in this home - bound to the activities of the family and common habits - meals, errands, church, swing dancing (yes, not the average family activity but it was for us!), and sleeping in until 9:00am.

So much has happened in my life and in my mind since I left seven year ago. I'm an adult, right? Haven't I moved beyond those habits and activities? I fear that somehow I'll slip back into the me before I took the timid yet hopeful steps to go to a boarding school in St. Louis. While I want to preserve the simplicity of my childhood, I want to expand it's meaning to include healthy activity and involvement in the area and in Washington, D.C. I don't want to be a visitor anymore, but a resident.

In the two weeks since I've been home, there's been much relaxing, reading, and rearranging my living space. I've so put my feelers out already and got hired by Professionals for Non-Profits, a group that places professionals in temporary positions in non-profit agencies in the Washington, D.C. area. It's the perfect step for me if I want to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to work internationally or domestically in the non-profit sphere. Socially, I've managed to preserve my passion for dance and have been to a few milongas, or tango social parties. I joined a gym a few days ago also. Now I just need to meet people!

Where have I been?

It's been It's been almost 4 months since I've made a post and of that I am actually quite embarrassed. I think I've forgotten how to write, so bear with me while I take a few posts to get back into it. Where have I been?

I was relived to finish my first (and maybe only) year of teaching in June. It was a fantastic time full of trials, tribulations, and also some successes too. The colleagues, students, and sense of community made the experience the most fulfilling. Well once I finished I had one week to get home, unpack, and repack for my trip for a four week trip to China and Thailand with Charissa, a friend from college. If you'd like to know more about that check out my PICTURES here: http://picasaweb.google.com/margiehatch

There were a few weeks of domestic downtime here in MD and then it was off to Maine for a week of boat driving, teaching skiing, and rediscovering my spiritual center at family camp (www.newfound-owatonna.com). From there I went southwest 5 hours back to Troy, NY and got to work with the varsity volleyball team as their head coach. What did I do with all my time during the day?: agonizing over practice planning, building sandcastles, hide n seek, and changing diapers for 2 yr. old Eli, researching graduate schools, settling on Peace Corps Masters International program through School for International Training - phew!

Coaching I came to realize quickly, was much like teaching because it is a much more demanding position (if you want to do it well) than most make it out to be. I spent hours planning my practices mulling over little details like what announcements to make and when and how. How do I do this drill with my team of 11 when it calls for only 6? How do I work on more difficult drills with the starters and not keep the bench warmers stagnant and without opportunities for progress? Are they really capable running this much? When do I do water breaks and for how long? Should we do sprints every day? Oh no! Two of my best players have gone down with injuries in practice! That means I need to completely rearrange my drills for tomorrow! And what about Thursday's game? What tone do I want to set with practice (strict and down to business or educational and more accepting of mistakes, or will this be a fun practice to let them let loose the tension of the day, or should practice be a combination of both? Oh man, it was incredible how much I labored over the details. In addition to this, I wrote summaries after each match (). Um, yeah, not feeling the writing bug at this moment. Will include more if so inspired.