I had my first day of training today. It went swimmingly. Everyone seems really dedicated, and the Chrysalis training is basically what res life wishes it could be. It's all very orgranized, which is great. A lot of community service/non-profits I've worked with in the past have been all over the place, and it has really had a negative impact on their effectiveness. Everyone is really honest (which is something res life never was) about the problems we will face. For instance, they will talk about how often they feel like they are common sense counselors, because a lot of the clients just don't have any common sense. (Res life doesn't have any common sense, either.) I got to know the other interns (from Americorps, not my specific program) as well as the client host. His job is to maintain order at the downtown office, because we have about 220 people walk through the door every day. It turns out he loves sewing and can make pants, from scratch, in like an hour. Pants are really hard. I tried to make pajama pants once and the crotch, just the crotch, came out 3 sizes too big. He told me he was a licensed machine operator so I asked him how he got his license and he said he learned in prison. Turns out he was a client before he got his job as a host. I think it's awesome that Chrysalis hires their own clients to work at their own company. It illustrates how much they believe in what they do. I had a bit of naive moment when I was all "I'm talking about pattern making with a former inmate. This is kinda crazy!" but within 30 seconds I forgot about it. I don't know, I always thought that would be something you always had in the back of your mind when speaking to someone who'd been incarcerated, but it's not. It probably also helps that he's very soft spoken and sweet. I've heard that the California prison system is insane, and you can be incarcerated super easy here, but I don't know the specifics. I do know that 70% of our clients have a felony on their record, but I'm not sure how many have spent time in prison. It seems like a lot have.

I had a very good day. The Chrysalis office is on one of the borders of Skid Row. The borders are actually well defined, even though it seems like it would be more of a nebulous sort of thing. "Skid Row" is official and used by the city (it's on fire trucks and stuff). Downtown L.A., at least the part I saw, was nothing like it's made out to be. There are lots of people walking around, fancy hotels, a dog groomer, etc. We will, however, go on a tour of skid row tomorrow so I will let all of you know how that goes!

BONUS: I drove on the 405 yesterday. And I didn't die! And I might drive to Inglewood today! WOW!