Avenue Q and Immigration Dialogue.

I'm writing this earlier than usual because after Mass today, I'm planning on spending some time at Barnes and Noble before heading to work. I've not been there for some time and there are a number of magazines I'm looking to catch up on.

The highlight of the week has got to be the musical "Avenue Q" and the best way to describe it would be to say that it's a puppet musical with adult themes. It was hilarious and I had a great time. I now know why it won best musical in 2004. What really drew my attention was the amount of publicity it got letting people know that this is definitely not a musical for kids and I saw the reason why.

Work wise it was a very laid back week. Nothing too much happened. This coming week will be a little busy in a good way because I'll be working on Thanksgiving Day in the afternoon after I volunteer with the coordination of the Thanksgiving meal delivery program for the agency. Joel and Kathy invited me over to their place once I'm done coordinating and that's where I'll have my meal before heading to work. I'm planning on buying a huge pumpkin pie for the residents as most of them will be at the facility because for some reason or another they won't be spending it with family. I think it's kind of sad, so whatever I can do to make them feel better (like eating a nice pumpkin pie!), I'll try to do it.

Tomorrow (Monday), I'll be presenting my capstone paper to the agency and a number of invited guests. It'll be a power point presentation lasting roughly thirty minutes and once that's done, I'll submit my paper to the internship coordinator. After she approves it, I'll finally be done with my Certificate in Gerontology Program. It's taken quite some time to get done with it but no fault of mine for sure.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Tuesday, Kevin and I went to a dialogue where I was invited to be one of the "experts" on immigration issues. The dialogue was organized by the Wallace Foundation and held at the Wallace House here in Des Moines. Kevin told me about the dinner and asked me to contact a lady to see if I was able to make the dinner. As I spoke to her, she figured it would be better for me to be on the panel. That's how it worked out. The talk was very informal and there were different people at the dinner. The best part about it was the fact that I got to meet Lori Chesser who is the head of the immigration department for Davis Brown Law firm - the firm that worked on my Green Card. All these years, I've heard of her and have even e mailed her but never met her face to face so it was pleasure. The other people at the table were tickled silly that it was the first time we met. She is a very bright and articulate individual and very passionate when it comes to immigration issues. All in all, it was a great evening.

That's pretty much the week in a nutshell. Before we know it, Christmas will be upon us. Geez!