Disaster Relief

My team was called to respond to the tornado damage in eastern NC (Bertie County, about 3 hours from Greensboro) today, so we will have to clean and pack up everything tonight to be ready to head out at 7am. We are all kinda bummed because we really enjoy this project, but we understand that in AmeriCorps you have to be flexible! It will be an experience I am sure, seeing all of the destruction from a few days ago and trying to get it all cleaned up quickly so we can get back to our project in Greensboro! Although most of my teammates and I are bummed to be leaving Habitat, we are happy that we can offer our help to those who desperately need it right now.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

We ended our work week working on the crawl space some more, which was kind of a downer compared to working on the roof, but we were in the safest place during a crazy thunderstorm that hit...instead of a tornado! That is one scenario where I prefer a thunder storm! Saturday night the boys and I went to The Idiot Box comedy club, which was really fun! Then we went to a local pub, Natty Greens where I got a delicious chocolate raspberry cheesecake! Then we walked the mile home, but I was in shorts and it was pretty chilly! Sunday I slept in until about 11:30am, to try and make up for having to get up at 6am all week...and then we went to a Greensboro Grasshoppers minor-league baseball game at 4pm. It was a great day for a baseball game, nice and sunny, but not too hot, and the stadium was really new and clean and we had great seats for only $8! Now that is something that we on the AmeriBudget can really afford :) I also met up with my college friend who I played bball with freshman year at Gordon, Meredith!

She goes to grad school at Duke, which is only like 45 mins-an hour away, so it was great! She had never been to Greensboro before and she got to meet my team and we got to catch up, which was really fun :) Today we volunteered at Greensboro Urban Ministry, the boys were serving food in the cafeteria, Norah and Alleigh were sorting food in the food bank, and Neva and I were sorting and folding clothes in the clothing store portion of the building. It was a really cool place, and we are signed up to volunteer there every Monday so thats cool. I had such a bad sore throat last night that I wasn't able to sleep much, and this morning it was even worse, so standing up, folding clothes for 4 hours was kinda tough for me...but I think on a day when I am feeling better it will be really fun!

No Time for Lunch!

Today we worked on finishing the roof, because there is supposed to be a big storm tomorrow (but hopefully not!) We worked so diligently that we didn't even stop for a lunch break! Yup, that's right...we worked 9 straight hours today up on the hot roof! Crazy, I know! But we did manage to finish by the end of our work day :) And yes, I did get up on the tippy top of the roof!

It was actually really fun! I got a funky sun burn on the tops of my knees, but other than that it was a really great day! Oh and I was randomly picked for the monthly drug testing, so I had to go to a place in the morning to pee in a cup haha I wasn't worried about the results of the test, but having to pee on demand freaked me out, so even though I can normally pee anytime, I chugged a bottle full of iced tea before going in, so I could actually fill the cup :-p haha sorry, that's probably too much information! Anyways, it was an interesting and exciting day! I also just had dinner at a mexican restaurant called Mexico (how appropriate!) with Nate's cousin Amanda and aunt Deborah! It was really fun and we chatted a lot about traveling and the different places we have been...it was a wonderful night!

Raising the Roof and Bringing Down the House!

You would all be so proud of me today! I actually got up ON the roof and put on some shingles and it was actually really fun! I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would and even felt safe up there, thanks to the scaffolding I helped put up :) I also discovered that I am really good at roofing! We had to stop roofing mid-afternoon because it was so hot and sunny that the shingles were getting all hot and sticky/melty, so I moved into the house to demolish a wall and then bust down some cupboards! It was really exciting...I never thought that I would have the strength to knock down a wall...but it's actually easier than I thought! I also got my muscles working before I got up on the roof, by carrying heavy packages of shingles up a really tall extension ladder onto the scaffolding...that was super intense! I never would have done it, except that one of our site supervisors, Matt (who is 6'8 who bears a striking resemblance to Michael Phelps, but gets really embarrassed when anyone mentions it) didn't give me a choice! He told me to go get some shingles and carry them on my shoulder...I was like "okayyy...to where?" and he said "up the ladder" and as terrified as I was, it seemed like I had no other option, so that's what I did! He kinda chuckled after like "I can't believe she actually fell for that and is doing it!" But I don't know him well enough yet to read if he was kidding or not, so I joined the boys in carrying the shingles up the ladder! I made like 6 loads and then had to stop...those things are heavy! And on top of that, climbing a ladder up to the roof with only one hand is even more scary! Also, my shoulder is really sore and tender right now, because I don't really have broad shoulders so there was a lot of weight on only a little bit of bone! Anyway, the weather has been beautiful, sunny and in the 70s lately, so I don't have much to complain about! The only thing I can think of is that my finger nails have been getting so dirty lately and I've been wearing gloves, so I don't know how that is happening! Neva, Norah and I have come up with an idea to paint our finger nails a dark color (I chose purple, of course) so that we at least won't have to look at the dirt! I have also been getting a great AmeriTan on my arms and back of my neck! Woo!

Nate Visits Greensboro!

Where to start!? First of all, the craziness with the budget and everything was such a stressful time for my time and me especially! If the budget wasn't passed (or if AmeriCorps wasn't IN the budget), we would all be sent back to campus in Vicksburg to pack up and leave...immediately--And Nate was coming that same evening! I was freaking out because I thought that we would be sent back to MS that morning, and Nate would be in NC that night, with a hotel room and rental car and I wouldn't even be able to see him :( But thank goodness everything worked out and I got to spend the weekend with him! His flight got cancelled due to weather in Newark, so I got to spend an extra day with him, which was also really great! We drove around and hit up all the free things in the area, the Botanical Gardens, Bog Garden, National Military Park, and then went to the movies twice, to see Source Code and Hanna (both were really good but pretty intense!) We also went out to eat a lot (of course) and we even got to go out with his cousin who lives in Greensboro one night! It was a wonderful visit and really nice to see a familiar face from home.
As far as work goes, I absolutely LOVE working for Habitat and all of the awesome people we are working with! We have been setting up lots of scaffolding to do roofing (I have yet to actually get on the roof...I spend my time being on the set-up crew instead!) and we even cleaned out a crawl space under a house one day....we found lots of spiders and dead rats...gross! But our site supervisor, Richie wouldn't let me out of the crawl space job, since I got out of going up on the roof :-p Our housing is great, I'm still getting internet and we are currently eating dinner that a local church brought for us and watching TV, so life is good :)

It's always an adventure when I'm around...

The end of transition in Vicksburg was pretty good, we had a "fish fry" one night and it was supposed to be outside, but was moved to the gym due to a downpour. The gym had no power, so it was a nice romantic candle light dinner...and there was really good sweet tea! After the dinner ended, it was about 7:30pm and as we headed outside to our dorms across campus, something felt strange...it was randomly bright and sunny and looked like it should have been about 3 in the afternoon...not after the sun had set...but it had stopped raining, so I was happy...that was, until I heard people talking about "the calm before the storm" and how that is the exact weather/sky right before a tornado! Ahhhh! No worries though, we didn't end up having a tornado to my knowledge...thank goodness!
So we packed up our 15p van and a dodge mini van (we were psyched to get a mini van rather than a huge cargo van or truck this round) yesterday morning and started out on our 12 hour drive to Greensboro, NC. With AmeriCorps and the Government vehicles we can't drive more than 10 hours a day, so we drove 8 yesterday and stayed in Atlanta, GA at a (not so) Quality Inn, where we ate dinner at Chipotle (delicious fast-food Mexican) and then went to see Tangled (for the second time) at a cool $2 theater! It was a great night. Today we finished off the trip driving 4 hours through GA and South Carolina, stopping at Pizza Hut for lunch, where this one was unique and had a $5 lunch deal with a salad, bread sticks, cini-sticks, and a personal pan pizza! We stopped again in Lexington, NC about 30 minutes from our destination to switch drivers one last time, when I managed to lock the keys in the van! Ahhhh I didn't mean to...I didn't know that the keys were still in there, but everyone else was inside using the bathroom, which was where I was headed, so I didn't want to leave the van unlocked and available for anyone to steal! Alleigh had left the keys in the cup holder, thinking that I was staying in the van...simple mistake....but leading to an adventure, of course! So we called GSA (the government version of AAA) and a guy came in about 30 minutes and busted in and got the keys for us...so it wasn't terrible, but kinda funny! The team was in good spirits saying that "something had to go wrong, otherwise it would have been a boring road trip!" That made me feel a little better!
Anyways, we finally arrived in Greensboro at 4:31pm and got a tour of our sweeeeeet housing...with get this...INTERNET and CABLE!!! MY computer even gets the internet, so it is amazingggg! YAY! The only downer is that we are sleeping on cots...not beds, but no biggie. We are also in a really awesome area and there are so many shops and cool things to do! We ate dinner at Zoes Kitchen, an adorable little place that is kinda like Panera, but even better! I got a half of chicken salad sandwich and a piece of chocolate cake :) We are also super spoiled because our sponsors told us today that they have churches lined up every day of the workweek until we leave to bring us dinners every night! Crazy! We are really excited that this round is off to such a great start....totally opposite of our last round! It's really a great change!
Also can't wait to see Nate in T-minus 3 days! Wooo! It's also supposed to be in the 70s-80s down here this week...yay! Sorry you New Englanders are all still getting snow! Ahhh!

Sunny Saturday

It's a beautfil 75 degrees out today and it just happens to be a Saturday so we can actually be outside to enjoy it! I slept in til about 10:30 today, which was a-ma-zing to finally sleep past 6am for once this week! After waking up, I went for a walk with Mollie and a couple other friends for PT and then laid by the pool for a few hours, taking a break to walk to Sonic to take advantage of their Happy Hour 2 for 1 slushies! Until today, I had forgotten how it felt to be warm and it seems like we haven't gotten to see the sun for months, so it really is a beautiful day! Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, so I will most likely have the same routine of sleeping in and heading to the pool...oh, how I love weekends :) Monday will be spent cleaning the van again, cleaning our rooms, and packing up for our last round! We head to NC on Tuesday, stopping in Atlanta to visit with Mario's family, and staying in a hotel, because we can't drive more than 10 hours in one day with the government vehicles. I'm pretty excited about the hotel! I love hotels! Then we complete our journey and arrive the next day at our 4 bedroom, 2 bath, brick house in a perfect central location, seemingly only 10 minutes away from anywhere we would ever want or need to go. Then we have 2 days of orientation before starting to actually work on Saturday, then Nate will be visiting me for that first weekend! Yay! I'm really looking forward to this upcoming week!

Basline PT

Yesterday morning was another early one, having to be up and at 'em for 6am! Wooo! I got 42 crunches (same as last time?), 41 pushups(more than last time), and my motley crew of Mollie, John, Colin, and Neva finished the mile and a half run keeping a consistent jogging pace and crossing the finish line at 16:11, which is 4 minutes slower than my last time, but pretty good considering we were just jogging! Overall I was happy with my results and didn't make myself feel sick over it being so consumed with competitiveness, so all was well :)