Ladder Danger

Ok so here’s a quick update for the rest of the week:

Thursday and Friday were spent repairing more things at ArkWings. Mollie and I helped repair and paint the fence, and we visqueened the porch area and started to visqueen an area in the barn…but we were stopped because Mario was up on a 20 foot ladder leaning against the wall in the barn, reaching for the highest beam on the ceiling to prove to us girls that the ladder was “safe” because we were all refusing to go on it, when the ladder slipped down the wall and Mario fell along with it, landing with his feet stuck in and under the heavy ladder. Gahhh he is okay now, just a little sore, but it was so scary and stupid, really, because we had tried to tell the lady in charge that it was a bad idea, but she insisted that she was a safety person and knew what she was doing…yeah, righttt. The whole rest of the afternoon we were all fuming about the whole situation…but we have to move on, and at least no one was seriously injured…and my point about lack of safety was proven haha so we will no longer be using those crazy ladders! Besides that excitement, we went to read to the kiddos on Saturday morning, but none of them showed up! L So we were stuck “practicing” reading to each other, which was entertaining, but ridiculous at the same time haha.

Last night Mollie, Drew, Mario, Eric and I journeyed out to find an Applebees to get dessert after dinner, but the first one we found was packed and there was nowhere for our huge 15 passenger van to park, so we followed the GPS to a different one, but it didn't actually exist, so we searched for a TGIFridays instead. We ended up finding one in the middle of the busy city, parallel parked the van, and then they told us it would be an hour and a half wait…at 10pm! We couldn't believe how busy all the restaurants were so late at night! So we ended up traveling about an hour total to end up at a Denny’s with the slowest service I have ever experienced! We were JUST about to give up and walk out, when our food was finally served 45 minutes after we ordered! Andddd, it was not busy at all there…we saw the workers all sitting at one of the booths in the corner chatting with each other rather than working…annoying! They finally started working when a man showed up, who we are assuming was their manager, though! 

This morning (Sunday) we all ended up sleeping in til about noon! Crazy! And now we are all at Barns & Noble using the wireless (which I keep getting kicked off of…ughhh I need a new computer I guess!)

Oh, here is a list of things that are annoying the team currently (myself included):

We still have no cable, internet, or a working dryer…all of which we were told by ArkWings that we would have upon arrival…it wouldn’t be such a big deal that we don't have these things, except for the fact that we were expecting them when we got there…

Trail Blazing Part II

Yesterday we blazed a trail and today we put gravel on it to complete it and make it look more official. We only worked a couple hours this afternoon there, and finished the job! Our site supervisor, Chris was really impressed, yet again, and told us that we were the most impressive AmeriCorps team to work with him yet! Woo! We were a little delayed working there today because of the weather. It snowed all last night, so we worked here at ArkWings this morning, where Mollie and I started to build some shelves that we will hopefully finish tomorrow. This afternoon was actually really sunny and beautiful!

It was a nice change from the gloomy wintery weather we have been having here lately! 

Oh, we also have a german shepherd living at our house now! We somehow always attract cute stray dogs!

Memphis Bound!

Wednesday- We left campus around 8am and headed to Memphis. It was a good 4-hour ride through farmlands the whole time until we got there, too! The day wasn’t over when we arrived, either; because then we had orientation when we got here that seemed to go on forever! Our work schedule this round is working with the Wolf River Conservancy on Tuesday and Wednesday and ArkWings (the organization where we live) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have another round of Sunday/Monday off. We had more orientation things on Thursday, including a site visit to the Ed Rice Community Center where we met with the director. He was one of the most amazing people I have ever met! Ossie is a 61 year old, extremely fit black man who looks no older than 35. We were all shocked when he told us his age! He told us about his childhood and how his mom only made it through the eighth grade and his dad was in jail for killing a man. He told us that he grew up, persevered through all of those trials and tribulations because of people like us (working with AmeriCorps) and that if people like us weren’t in his life, cheering him on and telling him that he can succeed, he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did in life. He grew up became a lawyer, but after a little while of that he decided that wasn’t what he actually wanted to do with his life, so he quit and started doing service work and volunteering at hospitals and ended up being the director of the community center. He had so much authority and respect from everyone playing basketball there that day, that he walked into the gym while they were playing and asked them to come sit down so he could introduce them to us. Everyone complied and sat down quietly, immediately…it was so surreal! I felt a little embarrassed, having all of these balers in their 20s stopping their pickup game to hear about us, but they were all really nice and seemed to enjoy meeting us and hearing about AmeriCorps. Meeting Ossie that day was exactly what I needed to remind me why I am doing this program, to serve others and hopefully inspire and give hope to some other people along the way. We worked around our house and the barn and other various places on the 17 acres we are living on where ArkWings is. Mollie and I put knobs on all of the cupboards and put towel racks in both the boys and girl’s bathrooms. We were quite proud of ourselves! Saturday was another orientation, but for a reading program we will do every Saturday we are here with 4^th and 5^th graders at a local Memphis school. I am really looking forward to getting to meet some cute little local kids and hopefully making a difference in their lives and just having fun getting to know them! Our first official weekend here was spent being lazy and relaxing, trying to stay warm with this cold weather and snow we have been getting lately! I really thought I left all that in Maine! We watched lots of movies and played some board games…it was a good team-bonding weekend! So that brings us to Tuesday, where we started working with the Wolf River Conservancy and commuted over an hour to blaze a trail in the rain! Woo! Exciting, haha. It was very cold, but we got to leave shortly after lunch, so it wasn’t completely unbearable!

                                                                   (old trail = erosion!)

I have also received some very exciting news lately that Nate will be visiting me February 13^th-15^th for Valentine’s Day! And Lynelle will be here to visit the following weekend, Feb 18^th-22^nd! I am so excited!!! February is going to be such a great month! I am seriously so blessed to have such amazing people in my life who make time and spend money to come see me wherever I am…it really means a lot to me, so thank you! 

“A day ON, not a day OFF” MLK day part II

For MLK day, my team volunteered at a children’s shelter. We split into 3 groups and worked on cleaning out a trailer, organizing the attic, and taking wallpaper down in one of the bathrooms. I was in the latter group, scoring the wallpaper and using a steamer to help pull down the old pieces and get the room ready to be painted. My specific job was to get the higher-up pieces, since I was the tallest one in there at the time. Cindy, the lady in charge of the shelter, also had me doing some random jobs because of my height, like changing out light bulbs. Glad I could be so helpful based on my height haha. The following couple of days of transition in Vicksburg were used for van cleaning, packing, and saying goodbye to friends from other teams for yet another SPIKE. 

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"

Friday was MLK day around here in Vicksburg. We all went to the gym for special presentations in the morning and listened to some awesome guest speakers about MLK and the huge difference he has made in all of our lives. One of our speakers was the son of MLK's secretary and he had lots of old letters and pictures from MLK to his mom that he shared with us, it was pretty neat. Another one of our speakers was the youngest Freedom Rider in Jackson, being only 13 at the time and thrust into the civil rights movement (and into jail with MLK multiple times). He also shared some amazing stories about MLK and times back then. Our last speaker of the day was an 88 year old white man who was a journalist in New Orleans at the time of the Freedom Riders and MLK. He worked for a more liberal newspaper and didn't agree with the KKK/white supremacy, so he had an interesting perspective and even though he was white, his life was threatened many times. All of the stories we heard were really inspiring and all of the speakers told us multiple times that if MLK was here today, he would be really proud of us (AmeriCorps), which made me feel really good about what I am doing and dedicating these 10 months to service. Monday we are working with a children's shelter for the MLK day of service, so I will fill y'all in on that later!
This morning I got up early and volunteered at the "Chill in the Hills Vicksburg 10k walk/run" with about 30 other AmeriCorps members. It was tough getting up early, but totally worth it! I took people's info when they got done the run, congratulated them, and handed the into off to the runners to get it all ready for awards inside. After the original race, there was a 1 mile fun run for kids, and I got to place a medal around each of their necks when they finished :) They were all so adorable! We also got to meet and get our picture taken with Patrick House, the winner of season 10's Biggest Loser, who is from Vicksburg! It was really neat to meet a TV star and local celebrity :)

I think it's funny that we are next to him in our huge AmeriCorps parkas...it looks like I need to be on the Biggest Loser myself! Haha

After all of the races were over, we headed inside for some homemade southern chili and raffle...where I actually won something! A lovely candle :) 

Woohoo! It was exciting for two reasons: 1. I never win anything and 2. they pronounced my last name correctly! 

The Icy Mullet

Yesterday's weather here was sunny and mid 50's, but when I woke up this morning there was ice on the ground, people scraping off the vans, and even SNOW in some paces on campus!

Yes, it is only 30 degrees down here today and it is COLD! I thought that I had left this wintery weather mixture in Maine, but I guess I was wrong! Depending on how much people freak out down here about this crazy weather pattern, we may not have any trainings tomorrow...which I would be okay with :) OH I forgot to mention that this round, Norah and I will be Co-Assistant Team Leaders (ATLs), which means I will have more responsibility than just the average team member...I don't really like being in charge and having to tell people what to do, but having another "partner in crime" will be better, and I don't think I really have to worry about my amazing team doing anything crazy that I will have to deal with!
In other news, yesterday was a slow-paced Saturday...I was with a handful of friends driving around trying to think of fun things to do in the Vicksburg area and we weren't having much luck...we tried going to the mall, which ended up being like going back in time to the 1970s...to a mall with only a few stores, Elvis music playing the whole time, and only about 13 other people in the entire mall. We kept ourselves busy for a good 20 minutes "racing" coins and watching Drew and Rob in a "hurricane simulator" that blew their hair around, and supposedly went up to 80mph, but they didn't believe that to be true. We left there and headed to Wal*Mart where Rob so generously sacrificed his beautiful hair for our entertainment while getting a MULLET! The hair dressers didn't know what it was, so we had to Google it for them and show them a picture hahaha they thought it was hilarious and it took both of them to complete the task, as well as them taking pictures with their phones to show all their friends! Needless to say, it made the day amazing and we were all very grateful for Rob's sacrificing his hair for our entertainment!

We ended the night with a nice, huge dinner at El Sombrero where some other friends joined us and there ended up being about 20 of us at one huge table in the middle of the restaurant! Good times. :)

Holiday Break

I didn't update my blog over break, because I was too busy actually SEEING all of my favorite people back home! It was wonderful to be back in Maine, where it actually felt like Christmas with pretty, white SNOW on the ground :0) My first full day back home started with a dentist appointment, Christmas shopping, hair appointment, watching the last quarter of Zac's basketball game, and then back to my house for an Ugly Sweater Party! It was quite an eventful day. It was awesome to be around all of my Maine friends again, catching up and enjoying each other's company--it was like I never left, we just picked up where we left off.

Christmas Eve was spent with Nate's family, it was so nice to see them all and see how big 3 year old Owen has gotten while I've been gone! He was impressing me with his iphone knowledge, since I can't even seem to figure them out! After that, Nate joined my family at Penny Memorial United Baptist Church for the Christmas Eve Candle-light service, which was really nice. I was glad that Nate got to experience one of my family traditions :) Then we all headed out to Richmond, where we got to open and wear our traditional matching pajamas, this year they were tye-died by Aleena, Nate and I :)

Christmas day was full of seeing family and good food! We started out being woken up by Jonny around 8am in Richmond where we opened presents and then had brunch. We then headed into Augusta to Lynelle's house for dessert and catching up with that crew :)

Next we headed over to the Whitcomb Hotel (haha) for Mandy's birthday and hung out with them and ate some more yummy food :)

After that we headed to the Cooley's household, a family tradition for years. It was nice to see them again and I got to meet the new babies of the family! Kristi's son Noah and Tim's daughter Claire :) They were both super-adorable! The last stop was of course to the movies where we saw True Grit. It was a decent movie, and yes, another family tradition!
Tuesday night trivia was booked solid when I got there to get a table, which I couldn't :( so Heather, Beth, Amanda, Emily and I went to Heather's house and had a Girl's Night instead!

The next big adventure was roadtripping to New Hampshire with Nate to visit the Bourgeois side of the family, starting out with going to Nana and Pepe's house in Rochester. We sat and chatted there for awhile, while eating some yummy snacks and opened some presents, including an awesome framed picture of my brother, Shaq slam dunking in his Celtic's uniform! Then we headed over to the restaurant in Meredith, it was such a beautiful drive around lake Winnipesaukee!

Once at the restaurant, we met up with my dad, uncle Michael, and uncle Jerry, chatted, and ate some delicious italian food! It was awesome to see everyone!
One day I helped Nate buy a new car! He had been stressing out about it for awhile, so we researched some options one morning, and by the evening, he had purchased a 2005 Audi that we both loved!

New Years Eve, a few friends and I went to Slate's restaurant in downtown Hallowell for a nice classy dress-up dinner and then hung out at my house until midnight, then went to bed! Haha I feel like I am too old to stay out too late these days :-p

My last excursion over break was a mini roadtrip to Massachusetts, where Nate and I stayed in an awesome hotel in Lexington with a full kitchen in it! It also had the best continental breakfast I have ever had! We checked into the hotel, took a nap since Nate had worked all night, and then headed over to Krista and Leah's apartment in Marblehead for dinner :) We ordered some great food and watched The Bachelor, needless to say, it was an amazing night! The next day, all my friends were working, so Nate and I went to see Tron Legacy in IMAX 3D at Jordan's Furniture, which is way more than just a furniture store...it is a true experience!

 It was a great movie, I loved it! Then we window shopped at the Burlington Mall the rest of the day and got "shot cakes" which are the world's best invention...ICE CREAM filled CUPCAKES!

They were soooo yummy!!! After walking through the entire mall without buying anything, we figured we would quit while we were ahead and headed across the street to Barns & Noble where we got coffees and read magazines. We ended the evening at North Beverly Roast Beef, a Gordon College favorite and met up with 10 of my closest college friends! It was awesome! We totally took over the place like it was a private party, and all caught up and laughed with each other for a couple hours...it was awesome!

My last day home was of course spent wiping tears off of my cheeks, having a really hard time saying goodbye to my family, friends, and home in Maine. It was an awesome two weeks home, but it still didn't seem like enough time! My mom, Jonny, and Nate dropped me off at the Portland jetport at 4pm to head back down south. It was so hard to say goodbye, but once I got on the plane, I reminded myself that I really do enjoy the south and everything I'm doing with AmeriCorps, so I should be happy to head back down and get back at it, doing good things and serving others instead of just selfishly hanging out with friends at home...actually doing something with my life. I got back to campus in Vicksburg after midnight and went right to bed, since the next day I started right back up at 8am! My team had our briefing for our next round project in Memphis, and it actually sounds really awesome! We are working with Wolf River Conservancy and Arkwings, living in a mansion for a couple weeks until we move into a cottage, and basically having different little projects every week! We are all really excited about this round now that we have more information on it!