Written on March 9th (Aleena's Birthday!)

This past weekend my team and I went to the Memphis Zoo! It was fun, even though I had been there before with Lynelle and it was absolutely freezing! I was wearing two sweatshirts and mittens and was still cold…so some of the animals weren’t really out, but we got to see the giraffes so it was all good J

Work has been very “blah” lately. We have been ripping numerous amounts of newspapers and magazines to make papercrete while we have been at ArkWings, and then when we work with Wolf River Conservancy lately we have been cutting down privet, the world’s most annoying overtaking plant there is! To while we were on our way to the little island/peninsula place where we cut the privet down, there was a huge river flowing through our path! There is usually a small stream with a makeshift bridge made out of brush to cross on, but since it had rained a lot this weekend, it was flooded…which was so bad until I realized that my rubber boots that are made large enough to wear sneakers in, had a hole in them so my foot, sock, and sneakers got SOAKED! It was so annoying! All morning I had to work with a wet foot and then go through the whole process again on the way to lunch, on the way back from lunch, and when we were done working, so needless to say, but feet were freezing by the end of the day and all I wanted to do was buy a new pair of sneakers and take a hot hot shower to make me feel better! But we had to do PT first…and then I showered, and as far as my sneakers go, hopefully they will dry out eventually (probably not anytime soon though!) and then maybe I can wash them? My only saving grace was that on my way back from lunch I found a dollar on the ground! There was no one else around who it might have belonged to, and it was just $1, so I pocketed it and took it as a small blessing from God, letting me know that He doesn't completely hate me! Haha. Oh, and speaking of God, today was the first day of lent, so most of my teammates and I have chosen to give up junk food of some kind. I am giving up sweets, which includes all candies, ice creams, desserts, etc. EXCEPT for fruity things that can also be considered semi-healthy. Oh and I am not giving up flavored coffees…that would just be too much, considering it’s how I stay warm at this chilly Starbucks while I get internet!

Also, today I announced to my team that I am finally feeling homesick. I say finally, because I had been doing really well being away from everyone back home, but today is Aleena’s birthday and Zac’s knee surgery for his torn ACL/MCL, Jonny’s birthday is coming up, and Nate’s sister-in-law Lisa is expecting a little baby girl soon, so there is just so much more going on at home that I would like to be around for rather than being here in Memphis where the newness and excitement has warn off from this project and we are all just ready to move on!

On another depressing note, I guess The House has passed the idea to cut all National Service organizations, like AmeriCorps…which would be a total bummer and I hope that it doesn't actually happen, because not only is this an amazing program overall (even though I have been negative lately), but the jobs I am looking into when I get back to Maine are all AmeriCorps State jobs working with nonprofits that wouldn’t exist! I just can’t imagine this program not existing! It is such a good experience and I mean come on, we work for hardly anything! Why would they want to get rid of cheap, well-done labor?! Anyways, hopefully this won’t happen, but it is something we are all kinda worried about now.