Update

I realized today that I haven't updated this in quite a long time. About a month, to be exact. And much has happened in that time. For example, I have adopted a dog. A ridiculously cute dog, whose name is Bowie. Behold the outrageous cuteness of the dog! He's adjusting well to life in the big city, and overcoming his fears of dogs, cats, people he doesn't know, noises, etc.
In other news, I've started CPE at a hospital in Far Rockaway, which is at the very end of the A train line. This means I have an hour and a half commute to work each day. This is not as bad as it seems though. My iPod and I are good friends now, and the train isn't crowded. I enjoy the chaplaincy work, and am finding that aspect to be very fulfilling. Again, not quite what you'd expect. I spend the day talking to critically ill people and the elderly about everything that's wrong in their lives. And I don't fix it. So it's exhausting, but somehow enjoyable--people do respond to it. I'm the one person in the hospital who's not coming at them to poke or prod them in some way, so really, my popularity skyrockets for good reason.
However. CPE is also giving me flashbacks of the psych evaluation from the OEP in SoVa. 8 weeks of sitting in a group and being analyzed by shrinks. Gah. Only this time, the people doing the evaluating aren't actually shrinks, and my group is continually confused by my existence. It is a group of very evanglical Christians from all over the world, who are my parents' ages, already have careers as ministers, and degrees, etc...and me. Thus, somewhat understandably, I am a conundrum. The 22 year old skinny white girl who's crazy-progressive and Episcopalian. Everyday, someone in the group asks me if 'my church allows even women to be ministers.' This is becoming more and more annoying, since the program is now almost a month old. However, thankfully, I can explain that my church has been ordaining women since 1979, and just elected the first female Presiding Bishop. (Btw, how cool was that!?) But, still, it's lonely in my group. I tend to forget, in my happy liberal bubble of Manhattan Episco-ness, that the rest of the world isn't here yet.