On The Move

The past month has been a blur for the most part. Since the middle of last month I have been madd busy at the full time job because we applied for a new CDC research grant. The grant took a lot of time and research to put together and unfortunately we only had 4 weeks from the time the grant was released to submit it. So a brotha was hustlin' e'ry day at work with the small team of people that were putting the grant together. We won't know whether or not we got it until June or July, so I'm putting it out of my mind so that I don't get worked up about it. The one thing that was funny though is that we were putting the pieces of the proposal together up the last minute literally. We had to get the package to Fed Ex by 8pm or else the package wouldn't get to it's destination in time. So here we are at 7:45 still putting things together and I'm about ready to give up, because I'm thinking it's just not possible. Somehow we did it. So at 7:55 we have the copies needed, but the boxes weren't even packed up properly, but me and my co-worker hustled to get to the Fed Ex on Broad Street before 8pm. We hit the street runnin'. Well I'm a little out of shape these days, so I couldn't run more than a block in a half of the 4 blocks needed to get to the Fed Ex (LOL), so I had to, lets say, walk fast the rest of the way. We get there and the lady wouldn't take the package! We pleaded with her and she denied us, but said we had 'til 8:15 to get to the 15th and Market store. So we hauled ass over there only to not know exactly where it was. Unfortunately it wasn't an external store, but none the less we eventually found it and ran in, just in time to get the package in before they closed. I mean if we were 3 more minutes later, we wouldn't have made it and all that work would have been for nothing.

In other news, a brotha has landed a new part time gig. As I have shared before I have been doing fee for service mental health therapy in the Germantown section of the city for a year now. Recently I found out that the Mazzoni Center, a GLBT health clinic in Philly was looking for a therapist for their mental health program. I immediately applied as I was interested in mental health work with the GLBT community. I interviewed last week and she hired me on the spot and I went through my orientation yesterday. I am planning to take on my first clients next week. I think Mazzoni will help me develop my clinical skills a little more than the other place I've been at has. Initially, I was planning to leave NHS once I started at Mazzoni, but after going to that conference last week, I feel a need to continue doing work within the general Black community, particularly with young Black men. So to that end, I decided to remain at NHS only one day a week. Two major pluses with Mazzoni are that it's only around the corner from my full time job and they pay more. Closer AND pay more.......you can’t ask for more!

Lastly, Black Pride in Philly is coming up this weekend and The Black Gay Men's Leadership Council has been busy planning a couple of events we have coming up. On Friday afternoon we are hosting a Civil Rights panel to discuss some of the unfair harassment and discrimination that young Black gay and trans persons have been experiencing on Philadelphia's notorious13th street. The panel will go beyond that though and will also discuss ways that people can keep themselves safe from police brutality among other things. We will also be debuting a police safety palm card that we will widely distribute in the community. I developed a press release that went out on Monday to alert local media of the event and we hope to get some press coverage from at least a couple of places. If I can get a jpg version of the palm card, I will put it up on my blog. We're also hosting a professional Black Gay and Lesbian networking event at the Walnut Room in Philly on Saturday. I think we'll get a good turn out there as well.

Also me and the man celebrated our 1 year anniversary yesterday. I can't believe how time flies. We actually met during Black Pride here in Philly last year, so this weekend will be a little reminiscent of what took place just over a year ago. We decided to go to the restaurant in South Philly where we had our first date. The best part of the meal was the shrimp appetizer we ordered. It was absolutely heavenly. The main dish wasn't bad either and the desert I chose was divine too. One year down and hopefully many more to come.

Those are pretty much the highlights of the past month. I hope to be a little more regular with the blogging because I don't want people to only check on me once a month, because I post so rarely. I'm planning to post something else before the end of the week, so stay tuned.