Woo-hoo! After years of promising my friends that I would visit them in Chicago, I'm finally, really, doing it! I just finished purchasing my tickets. So I'll be in Chicago during the second week of March (spring break for me). Hooray! Not only do I get to see Seth and Beth and Ken and Christine and Nick, but I get to visit Chicago for the FIRST TIME EVER! Yay for me!

In other news, today is a good day. Most of the time I tell people that I'm really idealistic and want to make the world a better place. But I typically mean it in this sort of, when I grow up, kind of way. Like, I'm going to school so I can enter a profession where I will make people's lives better. But, aside from the occasional angry letter to a representative, it's not very often that I actually get off my duff and do something to make the world better. So this morning I got up and participated in the Hands On Atlanta MLK Day of action. I went down to the HOA headquarters and helped make shelves for their offices. Ok, so I didn't feed the hungry or shelter the homeless. But I helped the people who help them, so that counts for something, right? Seriously though, I really like the idea of HOA and think I'm going to sign up for more stuff with them. The basic idea behind the organization is to make it easier for people to volunteer locally. So any place that needs volunteers - elementary schools, park clean-ups, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc. - just sends the info to HOA, which posts all the volunteer opportunities on a calendar on their website, where you can register and sign up for whatever you have the time and skills for.
Then tonight I'm going to an OUTFront meeting; a group organized by Amnesty International to work for more equitable rights for the LGBTQ population. I've been looking for a way to become more active in this area, so I hope tonight's meeting is...useful/encouraging.
And finally, tomorrow evening I'm going to the March Meetup, the monthly (soon to be bi-monthly) meeting to organize travelling to DC for the Women's March in April. Even though they're all small starts, I finally feel like I'm doing something. And it feels good.