As you may recall, I'm not as big a fan of reality TV as I used to be. When I was younger, MTV was hip and the Real World showed me all I could aspire not to be in all of its language-censored glory. Now...not so much. After getting to see the actual real world - that big blob spinning through the universe at thousands of miles an hour - reality television just isn't that interesting anymore. Why watch people fight when you could be hiking a mountain only ever traversed by goats and their herders in Argentina or lighting up a child's face with the gift of a ten-cent banana in Ghana? There simply seem to be better things to do with my time - attempt to fulfill my part in saving the world, for example.
All that noted, I found comfort in reality television last night. I was sitting on the couch of my new living room enjoying a fantastic Bollywood film on education - directed, produced by, and starring my new favorite actor Aamir Khan - when my housemate asked if there's any chance I watch the Bachelorette. I took this as a hope that she could watch it - it was - and we enjoyed the next hour settled in for an overly-drawn-out finale of love found and love crushed. As this was one of the two shows my roommates insisted we watch regularly in college (the other being Grey's Anatomy), there was a retro nostalgia (I know, I know, college is too recent for true nostalgia) in watching. More importantly, there were frequent commercials during which Staci and I had bonding time. She's moving out next week, bound for Florida for her next three-month optometry placement, but we can be friends in the meantime. I'm happy to know someone here now.
Another mundane-to-you, exciting-to-me happening last night was my actual lease signing! Yay! Now I'm all official here and can start feeling like this truly is home. In honor of this newfound home-iness, I baked muffins tonight. I used my new favorite banana-blueberry-walnut recipe, my spin-off of a basic banana muffin recipe. It's butter-free, oil-free, otherwise generally healthy, me-approved, parent-approved, and 100% delicious. Since I no longer have parents or parental coworkers on whom to foist extra muffins, I plan to freeze half so they can last, well, maybe a full week. Seriously, these muffins are awesome. The kitchen heated up beyond comfortable from the warmth-radiating stove, but the stove works and the muffins browned nicely so it was totally worth it.
Along with muffin success, I put my new frying pans (a holiday present from my mom) to good use making a stir-fry for dinner tonight. This included these awesome local green beans from home, some of which are traditional green and others of which are dark purple! The purple ones turn mottled purple-and-green in cooking, providing for a fun end result.
Speaking of food (as we so clearly were), I applied for food stamps today. We'll apparently be encouraged to apply for this and other government programs at next week's AmeriCorps VISTA orientation; it makes sense that they would encourage us to learn what it's like to be on food stamps as our stipend is just below the poverty line to help us better understand the experience of those we serve. I know my experience this year will be far cushier than that of most of the people I joined in line today, especially since many of them had multiple small children in tow and were in that office in the middle of a work morning and I saw a few teary-eyed faces of people departing from the back rooms. That said, I am so glad I have had this food-stamp experience thus far. It's one I never would have had were it not for AmeriCorps.
The office accepts applications from 8:30 to 11:30 every weekday morning and there was already a line of about 25 people (maybe 15 families represented) by the time I arrived at 10:30 AM. I had already printed and completed my application, but most people arrived empty-handed and were given the form to begin a new application as they stood in line. There were two other Caucasian people, an elderly couple, in line - Bridgeport is predominantly black and hispanic - and many mid-thirties mothers with young children. I waited about half an hour, handed in my form at the desk, was directed to wait for an interview, filled out one more form while waiting, was called into the back section of office cubicles after 15 minutes, passed through the only-unlocked-when-open door to meet the woman doing my intake, chatted with her and signed a couple more forms (e.g., stating that I'm not requesting food stamps for any fleeing felons), and headed out on my way. The whole process took just under an hour. Now I have one more form to mail in (verification from my housemate that we purchase our food separately) and I'll hypothetically begin receiving benefits.
Food stamps are awarded from the day your application is received at the office, so mine would begin from today. Applicants generally wouldn't start receiving SNAP (the food-stamp program is now technically the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for up to 30 days, but I noticed that "Emergency SNAP (7 days)" was checked on my form rather than "SNAP (30 days)", probably because my only current income is well under a dollar of interest each month on my checking account while I'm paying full rent on my housing. VISTA, as a government service program, is considered excepted income; that is, my future VISTA stipend won't affect how much I receive in SNAP benefits, though it would be a factor were a VISTA to apply after beginning the service year. And you thought the government complicated things sometimes.... Overall, it'll be nice to have the extra money to put towards healthy, nutritious (read: generally more expensive) food. My landlord Stephanie seemed very surprised when she learned last night that fully two-thirds of my VISTA stipend will go to housing (rent & utilities). And that's for one of three rooms in one of two halves of a duplex. Welcome to the poverty line.
Addendum: I forgot to mention the most memorable part of my visit to my local branch of the Department of Social Services (where SNAP and other benefits are allocated): the security. Along with the perma-locked door to the back offices and movie-theater-ticket-window protective 'glass' encasing the front-desk workers (though not those at the information desk), one must leave a driver's license or other identification at the information desk to get the key to use either of the gender-specific, single-person bathrooms. I noticed the signs announcing this policy and watched one man return the key for his ID. There's also a police (or security?) officer always on duty there. It's easily apparent how such a place could foster distrust for the Department and feelings that no one really cares. The space for disconnect and distrust is quite large, full of locked doors and glassed-off spaces.
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