He-Man Moment No. 341

I am trying to change things up a bit with this blog posting. I’m not writing this from either of my normal spots (the Community Coffee on Magazine Street or my house). Instead, this posting is being brought to you from 30,000 feet in the sky. That’s right. I thought I’d catch up on the blog while flying from New Orleans to Chicago and on my way to seeing family and friends. Since I have a couple of hours to pass, I’m going to make sure I take my time and deliver a solid posting. I don’t know why, but there’s a heavy smell of mayonnaise coming from somewhere around me. Kind of grossing me out. Anyway, here it goes…

As I mentioned in my last posting, I was going up to Lake Charles, LA for a week of service. I had done a similar trip like this back in January when I went to New Iberia, LA. Details of this trip can be found in the posting from February 3. Lake Charles is approximately 3 hours and 200 miles away from New Orleans. To give you a little background on the trip (and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I figured I’d mention it again), Rebuilding Together New Orleans has 26 AmeriCorps House Captains. There are two separate grants that make up the 26 House Captains. There are 19 on one grant and seven on the other, including myself. Along with the seven of us from New Orleans, there are 30 or so other AmeriCorps members working at different Rebuilding Together affiliates throughout the country on this grant. The 40 of us on this national grant were the ones who met up in Lake Charles for the service week. I’ve been with this group of people twice before, at the service week in New Iberia and during orientation back in September. Each time that we’ve all hung out, we’ve become a closer group. The seven of us from New Orleans are a close-knit group but aren’t as close with the other members of the national program, mainly because we are out working at houses all of the time and rarely in front of the computer. Conversely, many of the other people are close with each other because they are always talking on the computer, emailing each other, and bouncing ideas off one another. This service week would be the last time we’d all be together, so I tried to go into it with an open mind, even though I was not looking forward to the trip at all.

I rode with my friend Leo over to Lake Charles late Sunday afternoon and arrived to the church we’d be staying at around 7:30 p.m. The church had both positives and negatives about staying there. The positives were that there were two indoor basketball courts, a weight room, a pool table, and ping pong. All meals were provided to us and the food turned out to be pretty good and healthy. Double bonus. The negatives were that I’d be sleeping in a small room on aero-mattresses that were no more than 6 inches off the ground. Also, there was no real area to just kind of sit or lay down. Overall, it was a pretty decent place to stay but I was worried about how well I’d be able to sleep given how much trouble I had in New Iberia. Sunday night we had a couple of activities planned for us, but afterwards, we got a group of 6 of us and played basketball for a couple hours. Monday morning we ate breakfast at 7 a.m. and were split into the two groups that would be going to different houses. I was grouped with a lot of the people I had worked with in New Iberia, so I was happy with how we were split up. The house we were working on was about 30 minutes away from the church. When we arrived, we were told what we were going to be working on for the week. Since nobody else had any tiling experience, Leo and I volunteered to tile the family’s shower. The other members of the team were going to build a handicap ramp and fix the sub-flooring in one of the rooms. The couple that owned that home was two of the nicest people and probably the homeowners that have had the most effect on my time in Louisiana so far.

Chester and Eva Whatley have lived in their home in Lake Charles for over 30 years. Back in August 2008, right before Hurricane Gustav, Chester had a stroke. He is slowly recovering but he can’t walk without a walker anymore and has trouble speaking. The plan was to put in a new shower pan and tile the shower because Chester was having trouble with the big step it took to get into the bathtub. Eva told us that since the stroke, Chester doesn’t talk or laugh much. But when we showed up to fix his house, he came out of his shell a little bit. He was joking and laughing with all of us and you just got the sense of how appreciative both of them were to have volunteers working on their house. They have two sons, Chester Jr. and Wally that are both absolutely hilarious. They spent a lot of the week working with us. Every time that they’d have to lift a lot of weight or worked on something and thought they did a good job, they would always say “That was He-Man moment number 165 (166, etc). Just really friendly, funny guys. On Thursday, Eva cooked us gumbo, potato salad, and cake for lunch to thank us for everything. So the ten of us or so sat around her kitchen table, ate lunch, and shared stories. We all talked about our backgrounds and our service. Eva shared stories about driving around the country with Chester and when he was a truck driver. She also told us about the stroke and how they had to evacuate which made it hard to move Chester around. Even after all of this time, you could see that when they looked at each other or talked about each other just how much they still loved each other. It was honestly a very touching moment and I think one that all of us at the table will remember for a long time. On Friday, the local news station showed up to do a story on the Whatleys that was to be aired on the 6 o’clock news. They filmed me mixing tile mortar and did interviews with a couple of the other volunteers. I’m not too much of a media whore so I thought that since I was Volunteer Nation’s first ever Volunteer of the Week, I could let other people have the spotlight. We ended up working late that day and were able to watch the story on the news with the Whatleys. They really enjoyed it and their phone started ringing off the hook after the story aired. There was also a news article along with the television footage, which I’ve attached below. Working on the Whatley’s house and getting to spend time with them made the whole trip worth it.

http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?s=10372259

As for tiling the shower, it turned out to be much more difficult than Leo and I anticipated. On Monday, we ripped out the old shower and put together a list of tools and materials that we were going to need for the week. Before we could start tiling, we had to add extra framing to the shower to make it sturdier. Also, the shower pan that was bought was a little smaller than the old bathtub. Because of this, Leo and I had to build a wall that came up to the edge of the new shower pan. There turned out to be a lot more prep work than we had anticipated. Without getting into a great deal of detail, we ran into other problems tiling the shower based on the materials that were purchased and because of the plumbing. Needless to say it wasn’t the best tiling we’ve ever installed, but the shower was functional by the end of the week, and that is what really mattered. Our group worked well together and I enjoyed spending time with everyone and getting to know them better.

Out of the six nights that I spent in Lake Charles, I played basketball during three of them and went out the other three. The basketball was a lot of fun and it felt great to get back out there and play. We played 5-on-5 full court for a couple hours for three nights and I was surprised I was in decent enough shape to last. We also just shot around a lot during the week because there was nothing else to do and I feel like I’m starting to get my shot back. The other nights we went out and grabbed drinks. One night we went to a bar at the casino, another local bar, and the last night of the trip we went to a karaoke bar. Leo and I had planned on leaving right after dinner on Friday night but we ended up deciding to stay and go to the karaoke bar and had a great time. For those of you wondering, I didn’t sing. I know I don’t have a good voice so I didn’t want to get up there in front of all of those people. I am so happy I stayed the last night because we ended up hanging out until 4 in the morning. I really feel that I made some good friends on this trip. Most of them I may never see again or may only see once in a long while, but the people I spent time with have good hearts and our passionate about what they are doing. Everyone brought such a great energy that it was hard not to have a good time and enjoy everyone’s company. Overall, I was surprised that I had such a great time and was very happy I changed my attitude and opened up to the trip. I’ll miss a lot of the people I met and am hoping to stay in contact with a few.

Leo and I drove back to New Orleans on Saturday morning and arrived back at around 2 p.m. I was absolutely exhausted and getting a cold. I slept pretty well on the trip after the first night. But the mattresses were very uncomfortable, so no matter how well I slept, I woke up feeling like I didn’t get great sleep. I laid in bed all day on Saturday and Sunday. I was feeling pretty crappy on Sunday night so I decided I was going to take the day off on Monday. I spent the rest of this past week just kind of hanging out and trying to get healthy for this week. I watched the Lost season finale which may have been the best two hours of television I’ve ever seen. Absolutely incredible. I feel a lot better now and am looking very forward to returning home for the weekend. I have been ready to come home for a few weeks and can’t wait to see my family and friends and party my face off. I hope to see as many people as possible this weekend. When I get back to New Orleans, you can bet that I’ll have a good blog of the weekend’s events. See y’all soon.

All That Jazz, Volunteer of the Week, and More!

I know that it has been a long time since I’ve posted a blog, but honestly, not too much has been going on lately. Since Matt and Matt visited, and we did so much over that weekend, I’ve been feeling like I’ve experienced most of what New Orleans has to offer. Whether that’s true or not depends on perception. I’m kind of just New Orleans’d out right now. Because of that, I haven’t felt like writing a post. But today I woke up and told myself that I had to write one. I have to keep giving the people what they want. Ha.

The big thing going on over the past few weeks in New Orleans was the Jazz and Heritage Festival. It took place at the Fair Grounds Race Course (the horse track) on April 24-26 and April 30-May 3. There were a lot of local acts that performed not only at the festival, but at local venues around town over the course of the 10 days of the festival. Tickets were kind of expensive for the festival and the local shows. But I won a free ticket from work and decided to use it on April 30. I almost bought a ticket to see Dave Matthews on the 26th, but haven’t really been listening to him anymore and didn’t want to spend the $50 to see him. So I used my free ticket on the 30th. The festival started everyday at 11 a.m. and went till 7 p.m.. I got there around 12:30 p.m. and it was a beautiful day. It was nice and sunny and pretty hot, but not too hot. When I got there, I met up with my friend Sean and Jordan and also ran into a couple of other people from work near the main stage. I got there in time to catch the end of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes who are a local band that also often perform around town. They were pretty decent and a good way to start off the day. After their set, we walked around the grounds for awhile. It was a pretty small festival compared to the ones I’ve been to before. We ended up at the Congo Square stage and watched some band from Africa for a little bit. It was interesting, but not really any of our types of music. Sean had been raving about Anders Osborne, who was performing on the main stage about a half an hour after Johnny Sketch. So we went back over there and watched his performance. I had never heard of Anders Osborne before but really enjoyed his show. He’s another artist that is from New Orleans but he tours all over the world. He’s a combination of jazz, funk , and a little pop. Overall, he put on a good show. After his set came The Meters, who are a funk band that originated in New Orleans in the late 1960s/early 1970s. A lot of people in the area really love them. I thought they were just alright and was really just waiting for the last performance of the day, Ben Harper and Relentless 7. Since we pretty much just hung out at the main stage all day, we ended up in the second row and right in the middle by the time Ben Harper came on. I’ve seen Ben Harper a few times, but this was the first time with his new band. I was hoping they’d play a few older songs. They played two old songs, one cover, and all the songs from their new album. It was definitely a different Ben Harper than I’m used to but still very good. He plays a lot of slide guitar on this album, which is really cool since he’s so talented. It turned out to be a great first day at Jazz Fest. I wasn’t sure if I’d go again but was happy after that day.

I decided to go again Saturday, mainly to see Kings of Leon, because I have never seen them before and have been listening to them a lot over the past few months. I went with Pat and his girlfriend Megan around 2 p.m., which was a little late, but thought we’d be able to get in pretty easily, based on Thursday. But parking near the Fair Grounds was really rough and we had to wait a good 20 minutes to get tickets. When we got in, the place was just packed with people. There were honestly too many people. We went to the Blues tent and sat in the last row for awhile and listened to whatever band was on stage. It was alright, but we were so far that I couldn’t really get into it. After that set, we walked around a little bit, or at least tried to since there were so many people. We got some food and headed to the main stage to see Dr John, another local artist who has a huge following in the south. We tried to walk to the back of the crowd, but there were so many people, we ended up just kind of getting stuck in the middle somewhere and watching for a bit. We figured we’d walk over to the stage where Kings of Leon would be performing so we could get a good spot. On the way, we stopped to watch a folk band for a little while which was alright. About 20 minutes before K.O.L. went on, we got our spot. After their first couple of songs, we snuck our way through the crowd and ended up getting pretty close. K.O.L. put on a great show. They played a lot of songs off of their new album, as well as some older songs. The y pretty much just play their songs and don’t really do too much jamming out, but it was still a great show. The lead singer has a unique voice and the lead guitarist is really solid. They played for an hour and a half. I wish they would have kept going but the festival was over the day. While the second day I went was much more crowded and the music wasn’t as good compared to the first, I’m still happy I went because K.O.L. made it worth it. After it was over, I went to a bar with some friends to watch Game 7 of the Bulls-Celtics series. I knew the whole time they were going to lose but was still pretty into it. It was a long weekend, but a lot of fun. My first, and probably only, Jazz Fest experience was solid. I’m happy to be able to have experienced it.

At work, I’ve pretty much just been riding around with the Construction Manager I mentioned in my last posting. We’ve been doing more Technical Evaluations of prospective homeowners as well as performing minor repairs on houses we are about to close. The seven of us on the national grant are going up to Lake Charles, LA for a service week. It’s pretty similar to what I did back in January. I’m really not looking forward to going up there and sleeping on a cot and in a room with 40 people, but it will be nice to get back to doing some normal work. I’ve enjoyed my time with the CM and have learned a lot about how our program works, but am ready to get back to working on houses. I just wish I could do it in New Orleans, instead of driving four hours and staying at a church all week. I also have some issues with how the national office treats the seven of us from New Orleans, but I don’t really feel like getting that right now. Not that they shouldn’t, but I feel like they are trying to squeeze everything they can out of the AmeriCorps. What we are doing just never seems to be enough. They keep asking more of us and to fulfill more requirements. It’s pretty annoying. If you really care, you can ask me more about this.

Before I go, I have one last thing I wanted to mention. In my last posting, I talked about Volunteer Nation and how they came down to film in New Orleans for their trailer back in November and how I ended up in their trailer. Well right after they released the trailer, one of the guys called me to tell me I was going to be in it and we ended up talking for awhile. I mentioned how I put a link for the trailer in my blog. He asked me to email him the link to my blog, so I did. A few weeks later, I received another call from them telling me how much they liked my blog and how they were going to be starting this new concept on their website, called “Volunteer of the Week” and that I was going to be their first one. This past week, I was Volunteer Nation’s first ever “Volunteer of the Week” and nobody can take that away from me. They wrote a little bit about me, put some quotes in from my blog, and added my picture on the link. I don’t know where they got that I was an amateur musician. It must have been because I mentioned in my blog that I bought a $5 harmonica. Otherwise, I have no idea how they thought I was a musician because anyone who knows me knows that I have absolutely no musical talent whatsoever. Anyways, I thought the whole thing was pretty cool. I don’t really know what I did to deserve it, but I’m happy with it. I’ve attached the link at the bottom of this blog, so get check it out.

That’s about it. I’m getting ready to go play in a softball tournament, and then I get to go up to Lake Charles for the week. So exciting. Talk to y’all later.

http://volunteernation.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/volunteer-of-the-week-adam-weingarten/

P.S. I just wanted to wish my Mom a Happy Mother’s Day. Love you Mom.