Life in Brooklyn

Hello Friends, I have been super busy and have been working so much that it makes me want to travel around the world again. Since I left off, I have been living in Bed-stuy in Brooklyn, NY. I came to NY in January and joined the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and started learning how to play Trombone. I have had wonderful experiences being in the band and have made most of my NYC connections through the band. I also started working at the Ali Forney Center I work as a Youth Counselor at one of the housing sites here in NY. The work I do is really important to me and has changed my life in positive ways. This is the first work place I have been in where I can be as queer as I want and dress the way I want without being ridiculed or harassed in anyway. I get to speak about LGBTQ issues with the folks I work with and speak about my experience as struggling with my gender identity and orientation and listen to others experiences from the LGBTQ community. I feel so safe around all the residents and my co-workers and am really happy that there are workplaces like this that exist. Aside from work I have been practicing the accordion on a regular basis and have started to get pretty good and am working on my technique and am learning lots of new songs. I will start posting videos soon with some songs I have been working on. I want to start writing on a more regular basis and start uploading photos from my life. I have traveled to Montreal 4 times already this year and am starting to fall in love with it. J'aprende Français et je practique avec Rosetta Stone. I am thinking about staying there for a little while to play with another marching band Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble. They also have about 7 or 8 Bicycle Collectives/ Cooperatives that are community oriented. My mind is all over the place and I needed to write a little bit right now to keep my mind focused, But I am not really focused because I am trying to do 5 things at once. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! -Joss