how it ends.

this past monday and tuesday, i was in washington, dc for how it ends - lobby days to end the longest running war in africa. it was sponsored by invisible children, resolve uganda, and the enough project, all of which are incredible organizations. i was blessed to hear from some amazing speakers, including luis moreno-ocampo, the prosecutor of the international criminal court; stephen lewis, former deputy of UNICEF and canadian ambassador to the UN; and john prendergast, humanitarian all-star, author, and all-around amazing guy. prendergast is one of my heroes, and i was able to meet him and talk to him about how to start my career as a social worker in international child welfare, which was kind of amazing.
this experience led to the following obsessions:

• democracy! 1,600 of us had about 400 meetings with congressmen and staffers, and already the numbers of cosponsors on the bill we were lobbying for are skyrocketing. amazing!
• live music! tuesday night we celebrated with a concert in front of the white house including bryce avary of the rocket summer, aaron gillespie of the almost and underoath, nada surf, and anthony green of circa survive and saosin. all of them were great, we danced like mad during bryce's set. parks and recreation officers shut us down before anthony green could play, so we moved down the street to a tiny park and he played completely unplugged in the middle of a crowd of sweaty kids. it was remarkable.
• capitol hill in general. how everyone and everything there seems so important!

last but absolutely not least, "pride (in the name of love)", the U2 song, as sung by the soweto gospel choir.
we sang it to oprah in chicago:


and when they played it in DC, this happened:



such an amazing experience.

i've written about how incredible zach williams is before, but his new album, "story time" was released two days ago and i've been listening to it nonstop. this album warrants another post. he's one of those live performers who is just amazing to watch, he's so passionate and energetic onstage... it's unreal. sometimes those performers don't translate well when recorded, but he's gotten it so right on this album. that passion was captured and comes through in every song. please buy it on itunes, check him out on myspace, and if you ever get the chance, GO TO A SHOW. seriously. since i first saw him last fall, i've been telling everyone "you gotta hear this guy."

i have made chocolate chip cookies from this recipe twice in the past couple of weeks and they are amazing, soft and delicious.
yesterday i went to visit my new apartment in brooklyn and i am in love with it. (background: i'm from new jersey but in september i'm starting grad school at NYU and moving to brooklyn.) i can't wait to grow plants on my balcony and make breakfast in my kitchen and decorate my bedroom, from the window of which you can glimpse the manhattan skyline.
i got mat kearney's new album, "city of black and white," recently. to be honest i haven't given the entire album the attention it deserves, mostly because i can't stop listening to the title track over and over. it's so beautiful.