Harry Hay My Hero!

Today my fingers cramped from typing. I promised myself, "Finish it and I'll let you go eat!" I ate. I ate splendidly!

I embark on my first full week at GLSEN. The notion scares me because I cannot gauge whether they have too much work for me, or not enough! I'm unsure of whether or not I qualify to be working on the projects that they are working on, and yet again find myself stumbling in my grassroots feet - bare and free of formalities, methods, and protocols. The opportunity, though magnificent, is making me anxious; can Conrad really get down and dirty with real non-profits, and contribute to a movement of calculated steps? Do it!

Fortunately the people at GLSEN are amazing! Today I slightly niedered away from my work to chat with Lauren and Matthew about oh-nothings and this-and-that. Real people interactions are not being taken for granted, and will be reported as stupendous occasions in this blog!

While at GLSEN, I received an email! "What kind of email?" you might ask. An email from my Brooklyn friend, Dan. He so generously invited me to come to a free screening of "Hope Among the Wing", a biographical documentary on the life and work of Harry Hay, the (in)famous founder of the Mattachine Society. I want to show this feature to Spectrum, and revel in the similarities that groups founded years ago mirror the mission and aspirations of groups today. What I loved most about this film was Hay's own favorite: young people approaching him and reaching out to him for love, and confiding that his work, his activism, saved them. Hay responded in an awkward way by receiving it as a compliment. However, my mind immediately jumped to when people say similar things to me, and all I can think to say is, "You saved yourself! I'm glad you're here."

The experience was overwhelmingly fantastic. Though my sandwich I made Dan was rejected (he cannot eat wheat), a chance to bond with a small intimate group of like minded people (or at least be around them and listen to what they have to say) was rejuvenating. It's funny. I don't think about things like this happening in Knoxville as all that emotionally fulfilling or somehow groundbreakingly refreshing, but I will.

My last revelation of the day is that I'm not famous. No one knows me. How weird! Knoxville has created this tight knit little bubble around me that makes a lot of everyone approach me and want to know me, and it's overwhelmingly. However, now I want to seek comfort in that omnipresence of someone. Here, you take what you can get, but NYC, how do you give back? If that's one thing missing in this place, it's the sense that I am able to give back or create something for the community. I'm but a breeze blowing through the city. Sigh.

CONRAD'S MUST-DO'S:
** HELP OLDER WOMEN WHO CANNOT DEAL WITH THEIR NEW CARETAKER.
** SHOW OFF YOU'RE DESK PHOTO OF YOUR PARTNER TO YOUR CO-WORKERS.
** EXPLORE SIDE STREETS YOU THINK ARE SHORTCUTS, EVEN WHEN THEY'RE NOT.


CONRAD'S MUST-NOT'S:
** IMPULSE BUY: BROWNIE MIX.
** ACT LIKE A RATTLE SNAKE ON A SKETCH STREET WITH YOUR KEYS AND WATER BOTTLE.
** GET LOST ON CRYSTIE STREET/ CHINA TOWN (AGAIN).