Erica Blogging, Take Two.

So I have decided to retry this whole blogging thing and I am determined to actually write in it this time. I don’t know what has happened, but the New Year has brought new inspiration for me. I feel like I just woke up and it is time to do something more. I have booked up my schedule and have started to undertake some new things to feel more accomplished as well in the meantime. I am now taking belly dancing on Wednesdays with my mom and aunts, training for the Monument 10k in March, and playing basketball on a church team. Also, I am working on my books reading list and volunteering to help with Interfaith Council whenever I can.
To recap, I have gone from not going out at all and being a hermit last year to being entirely too busy haha. But I am really excited about it. I really miss writing, so this blog will get me back into it. I realized many people blog about something that they like… fashion, saving money, sports, etc. As I was reading my friend Gretel's blog the other day (hobbieswithG), she talked about how she was jealous of how other people can have these crazy obsessions that keep them busy, but she could never find anything to keep her attention for long amounts of time. I felt the same way! But as I was thinking about it, it hit me... I do have an obsession!! Ever since I can remember I have felt I needed to do something to make the world a better place. I have a love for nonprofit organizations or anything business I feel contributes to society and I don’t think a day goes by that I have not thought of how to create the best business model possible for a nonprofit-like business. The point of working to me is first to provide for yourself, then to help others. But anyway whomever, wherever, or whatever inspires me… I will write about it. And this week it is:
**Mama’s Hot Tamale Café in Los Angeles California**
http://www.mamashottamales.com/index_LosAngeles.html
Sandi “Mama” Romero and the Institute of Urban Research opened a restaurant that has helped more than 1000 people by employing them at the Café and allowing them to take business courses as they are employed there. The manager of the Café said it best, “What we try to do is bring them back inside from the informal economy—making foods at home, selling them on the streets—into the formal economy”. By doing this they are introducing people into the work force and giving people a hand up not a hand out.
I am a big believer that most people only need something to help them along their way for them to succeed. “If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” So the important lesson learned from Hot Tamale Café, it helps others while also being a profitable business. And that is all I have time for. I need to go grocery shopping. Good night.