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Well, this seems to be the normal greeting, I am sorry that it has been so long since I have written, life is crazy here in Chi!
Here at South House we have really started getting into the swing of things. It has been an intense and stressful couple of weeks but of course still filled with fun and excitement. I have found it useful to use the analogy that the honeymoon stage has ended with our housemates and we are learning to love each other for our strengths and our weaknesses, for our attributes and our faults. I spent a little bit of time really having to adjust to this and missing family and friends from my “other” life a great deal. It has been another point of the transition phase lately trying to figure out how both my past and my present can merge as one and I can love my Chicago life without forgetting about everything I left back home. The joyous birth of my new cousin in Dallas made me homesick (or Dallas-sick) to see family, old and new.
However, I was lucky enough to get a free trip home last week to recruit at St. Ben’s/St. John’s for Amate. I spent a night in Richfield just hanging out at home and being with Mom and Popsie; gotta love being spoiled! Then I was able to see a bunch of my really close friends who are up at school and was able to do some catching up. It was strange being there on a normal school day and realizing that papers, tests, studying, class, the Link, Gorecki, O’Con’s, the dorms, were not my life any more. I made it to Magis (aka Praise in the Pub) and loved every minute of it. Spent the evening with Sarah and she sacrificed studying for a Spanish test to hang out with me (love my sista). Woke up the next morning at 5:30am to be on the road by 6:00 and after a couple pit stops for gas and coffee and some slight delays from rush hour was able to pick up Beth in St. Paul by 8:00 and made it back to Chi by 3:00…just in time for the kids to get done with school and to work until 7:00. It was a LONG day.
My job has been going well, I have been able to develop relationships with a lot of the teens and yet know I still have so much farther to go. We are constantly working on attracting more youth to the center and keeping the ones we have coming back when there are so many other distractions for them to fall into. We are trying to motivate schoolwork as a priority and have found that hot chips with cheese (flaming hot cheetos and nacho cheese on top) are the obvious reward. I love these kids and Linda and I make it a big effort to cheer them on in sports or whatever else they are interested in. We have spent many Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the park cheering on the flag football team. I am constantly asking about scores of volleyball, football, and now basketball games and who made it on to what team. Motivating has been another challenge when kids find themselves not starting on a team they were hoping to be a captain for and slipping behind upcoming freshmen and sophomores who aren’t trying nearly as hard but just seem to have natural abilities.
Community life is a huge challenge but also a beautiful blessing. Half the time I want to come home from work and collapse and not talk to anyone but know I have at least an hour of dinner and chatting with the roommates before there is a chance of escaping. The other times I come home and need an ear to listen or just a smile and a laugh to make me forget about everything else going on.
Sometimes I find that when it rains, it pours. Cancer has been popping up in so many aspects of my life, praying seems to be all I can do right now. Family, Amate, family and friends of my housemates, family of friends from school, it’s all around right now. I simply ask for your prayers for those and their family who are struggling with this cruel disease and for the doctors, nurses, and researchers fighting for recovery and a cure.
Well, this post seems to have kind of a sad undertone so I will try to end on a more positive note. We had a fun Halloween party at North House. Linda and I were graffiti walls wearing clothes spray painted and designed by actual taggers (a friend who does “legal” graffiti in Chi-town). And one of my amazingly talented 8th graders drew a sweet design on the back of my shirt. The next morning Kate and I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K race we have been training for and it went awesome. We finished around 1 hour and 25 minutes and were cheered on by 2 housemates and got to eat a feast of chocolate at the finish line (the race was sponsored by Hershey’s!) Last weekend was Becca and Tim’s birthdays so we had a big bash at South House and I think everyone had a good time. I kicked out the last guests at 3:00am and made French toast with Vince the next morning for a few who stayed the night! We certainly know how to throw a party!
This Sunday is our Amate Thanksgiving celebration. We will start with an intense football game of the current volunteers against alumni. Mass is after the game and we will then of course feast on a huge Thanksgiving dinner that will be a treat for us because we do not have to cook! This will all take place at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church (the church below the Teen Center) so Linda and I get to play host because our boss, Jim, will be out of town at a Youth Minister conference in Las Vegas (lucky him!)
I hope all is going well for everyone and I apologize for the length of this post, my absence from recent blogs, and my apparent inability to keep in touch well with people back home. Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers and I am working on touching base with as many as I can and love the random phone calls, texts, emails (mkrantz910@gmail.com), or facebook messages from everyone scattered across the country.
Love and miss you all,
Meg
Some of my boys cooking tacos for everyone at the Teen
Halloween!! 
