In the Big Easy

The End is the Beginning

2009-08-06T09:33:00.002-05:00

It has taken me so long to get to this final posting because I’ve been thinking a lot about what I wanted to say and also I wanted to give myself some time at home and a chance to reflect. I’ve been home for ten days now and I still feel a bit out of sorts. My last couple of weeks in New Orleans was a lot of fun and saying goodbye was harder than I expected.

My last two weeks in New Orleans were pretty action packed. On the day of my birthday (July 15th) was 20 of my coworkers’ last day at work. We spent most of the day not actually working but hanging out at our jobsites talking about the things we remember about each other and the experience as a whole. The end crept up on us pretty quickly because we all worked pretty hard throughout the summer (and a hot one it was). I still had to work for a week and a half after everyone left. It was strange coming to the warehouse every morning and having it so quiet. Usually, there were people running around all over the place getting ready for their day. I did have a good last week and a half on the job. I tried my best to take advantage of the fact that I wouldn’t be working on houses again for awhile and really tried to take in and enjoy my last days. I’ll never have access to that many awesome power tools and supplies again in my life. My construction skills have come a very long way over the course of the year. When I started, I had none and barely knew what any of the tools were. Now, there are a lot of things I think that I can do. If anybody ever needs help with anything in their homes, I’d be happy to check it out. I’m going to need to get my rebuilding/repairing from somewhere.

My last full weekend in New Orleans was a good one. On my birthday, a bunch of us went to happy hour at a bar (Mimi’s) right near work for a few drinks. We stayed there for awhile sharing stories and reminiscing about the year. It hadn’t really hit me yet that the end was upon us because I still had another week and a half of work to go. After Mimi’s, Pat and I went to this great pizza place and had a few slices there and a few more drinks. I didn’t feel like staying out so I went home after that. When I got home, I noticed that my roommates baked me a big chocolate cake (I have no idea how they knew it was my birthday since I barely talked to either one of them). I really wasn’t into my birthday this year but that didn’t stop Sean and Sean from having a little get together at their house on Friday night. It ended up a very fun night and we definitely busted out some old school games, such as Circle of Death and Catch-Phrase. It was nice to see how many people showed up for my birthday and I had a lot of fun.

Saturday, I took it easy all day because I registered for a three mile trail run that was to take place on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. The run was about 30 minutes north of New Orleans and me and a friend from work and one of his friends were running it. It was the 3 of us and another 1,700 people in the race. I had never run a race like this. Over the past couple of months, I have been running a lot more and trying to get myself in better shape. I had run 4 miles on the soft turf at the gym the previous Sunday, so I was pretty confident that I could get through this trail run. I woke up early on Sunday morning and got to the race about a half an hour before it started. I was pretty nervous because I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to walk, not that anybody but me would have cared. The first mile and a quarter were on gravel and I kind of struggled through it which made me nervous about the rest of the race. I felt a lot better once I got on the trail, which was very narrow. At the very beginning of the trail, there was this huge mud-pit that people kept diving into. It was pretty funny but I was interested in finishing the race. I had a good pace going on the trail but it kept backing up. There were so many people and the trail was so narrow that whenever there were any obstacles on the trail (trees, big ditches, unsteady bridges, etc.) it would slow down and people would start walking. When I reached the end, I still had a decent amount left in the tank, so I sprinted the last quarter of a mile through these huge puddles and reached the finish line. They didn’t keep track of your time for you and I didn’t have a watch so I don’t know what my time was but I was proud of myself for finishing the race. It was a great feeling crossing the finish line because three months earlier, I was lucky to run a mile and a half. Now that I’m home, I’m definitely planning on keeping up with the running and doing a 5k sometime in the near future. After the race, we enjoyed some food and beer (even though it was 9 in the morning). When we got back to New Orleans, we went swimming for awhile at my friend’s pool to cool down. It was definitely a great Sunday and I’m looking forward to keeping up with the running.

The last week of work went by fairly uneventfully. Even though it was the end, I was still working very hard to get as much done as possible. I wanted to go out on a good note and try to leave a good last impression of my work. People often remember you a lot by the last impression that you leave, so I was trying my best to go out working hard. Every day of the last week, Dave, one of my co-workers, would come up to me and say, “This is our last Monday (Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.),” which definitely was weird. The last day kind of came and went. Driving in that last morning was strange because I knew it would be the last time. It really has felt like I’ve been in New Orleans for a long time but now that it’s over, it seems like it flew by. I can remember my first day and week of work and what I was doing and who I was working with. It’s amazing to me how much I’ve learned and how much I’ve done on these houses, as well as how much we’ve done as a group. During the course of the past year, we’ve completed almost 100 homes, which is a lot to finish in one year. I have had so much fun working on these houses and meeting some of the homeowners. It is going to take me awhile to adjust to not doing this anymore. I could not have asked for a better work experience. It was exactly what I wanted to be doing and I could not have asked for a better staff and group of AmeriCorps to work with. Everybody worked so hard all year because nobody wanted to be the weak link and feel like they were letting the group down. We all worked hard for not only ourselves, but for each other. The spirit of the 26 of us made this year go so well and let us accomplish what we did. I have memories of everyone in the program and will take those with me as I continue on in life. It was a completely unique experience that only we will fully understand. I’ve done my best through this blog to provide my insights and feelings so that you all could better understand my experience. But it’s kind of cool to know, that only the 26 of us will truly know what this experience meant, and that is something we will share and be connected to forever. Even though I got to know some people better than others, I’m grateful to have gotten the chance to have met and be impacted by everyone. I definitely want to stay connected to the AmeriCorps and Rebuilding Together New Orleans family even though my term is over. At the end of the last day, I said goodbye to everyone and walked around the warehouse one last time. I walked to my car and headed home, and that was it, I was no longer an AmeriCorps member serving with Rebuilding Together.

Earlier in the week, I sent an email to everyone in the organization about getting together at Finn McCool’s on Friday night since a lot of people, including myself, were going to be leaving New Orleans. A bunch of us went to the Seans’ house before going out. I was happy we did that because it was nice to hang out with my good friends before going to meet everyone else. I have felt ready to leave New Orleans for a few weeks now and didn’t think it would be that hard to say goodbye to everyone. But it was a lot harder than I thought. I realized that I have made some really good friends, people that I plan on keeping touch with even though we aren’t living in the same city anymore. We were all kind of in the same boat in coming to New Orleans. We all barely knew anybody (and in my case, I knew no one) and our families were elsewhere. Over the course of the year, a group of about eight of us became really close, kind of like each other’s families. As the night went on and I got to hang out with everyone, it was sad to know that we may never all be together as a group again. I know that I’ll see everyone again at some point. But, it was hard to come to the realization that it wouldn’t be with everyone together and even if it was, it wouldn’t be the same. I had a great time the last night, but it was definitely much harder for me to get through as I anticipated. I’m really happy with the friends that I have made and know that they are people I will stay friends with going forward.

I picked my Dad up at the airport on Saturday morning and I took him to VooDoo BBQ for one last good meal (Mojo burgers are so delicious). We drove around the city for a bit, looking at some of the houses I worked on. At about 3 p.m., we loaded the car up, and started heading back to Chicago. It was kind of weird to be leaving the day after the program ended because it just happened all so fast. I got to New Orleans two days before I started work and left one day after it was over. As I started driving back with my Dad, I couldn’t help but think back to our ride down to New Orleans. All I kept saying was, “What have I gotten myself into?” Well, looking back, I think I got myself into something great. Choosing to go down to New Orleans and volunteer for a year was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I took a chance and couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Prior to going, I was in such a rut and so unhappy, that this was exactly what I needed. Each day was a new experience and a chance to meet new people. I think I’ve bettered myself in numerous ways over the past year. I feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally, and am ready for whatever is next in my life. I have gained such a great perspective from spending time in New Orleans and know that I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to. I have everything in front of me, and while that makes me a bit anxious, it’s also very exciting. I’m not sure where life is going to take me (or where I’m going to take my life) in the next few months. In the past, that would have been horrifying for me. This time on the way home, I kept jokingly saying to my Dad, “What am I going to do now?” While, I don’t have a completely specific answer to that question, I have some idea. And I’m okay with that.

My Dad and I had a nice ride home. We had some good talks and father-son bonding time. We drove about 8 hours on Saturday before stopping for the night somewhere in Arkansas. On Sunday morning, just as I had crossed back into Illinois, I got pulled over for speeding. I knew I was speeding and was pissed I didn’t see the cop. As he came up to my window, he asked me why I was in such a hurry. I told him that we’d been driving for awhile and were just trying to get home. Because the car was so packed, he could see I was coming from somewhere. I mentioned that I was coming back from New Orleans, so he asked me what I was doing down there. So when I told him that I had just finished volunteering for a year rebuilding houses, he looked at me and let me off with a warning. My Dad and I were pretty amused by the whole situation (except my Dad was worried how this was cutting into the excellent time we were making).

I’ve now been home for ten days and am still adjusting to being back in Chicago. I don’t think it has fully hit me yet that my AmeriCorps experience is over but it’s definitely starting to. The experiences that I had in New Orleans and the lessons I’ve learned are things that will stay with me. This year of my life is something that I will keep with me for the rest of my life. It has and will continue to shape who I am as a person. I’m also so happy that I created this blog. I have so much enjoyed being able to share my experiences and feelings with you throughout my time in New Orleans. I’m not the kind of person to share how I feel all of the time, but this blog really brought it out of me. I hope y’all enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to looking back on this blog later in life and being able to relive my time in New Orleans. I loved writing it. However, with that said, this is going to be the last posting. I was a little lazy with the blog towards the end and I just need a little break from it. If something I do in the future calls for another blog, I will be sure to start another one up. But for now, this is it. I’ve had a great time writing and sharing my experiences and if you ever want to know anything more about my experience, please ask. I wanted to thank everyone for their support throughout this year. Knowing I had such great family and friends to lean on really helped me get through this experience. It definitely made it easier. So thank you. I’m sure I’ll be mentioning New Orleans in everyday conversations for awhile, so I’m sorry if you get sick of it. But it is a part of who I am now and I’m proud of everything I accomplished this year. And for me, the end of my AmeriCorps year is the beginning of something else. Talk to y’all later.

Final Blog is Coming!

2009-07-24T18:17:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about my last post. Tonight is my last night in the NOLA and am about to go out and enjoy it. I will post sometime on Monday or Tuesday after I get back into Chicago and have had a little time to reflect. I think my last blog post may just be the best one yet so stay tuned!

The Paint Project, Exit Frenchman

2009-07-13T09:51:00.001-05:00

Well, it’s kind of crazy, but my time in New Orleans is starting to wind down. I have another 9 days of work and 12 days total here in New Orleans before I head back to Chicago. I’m definitely ready to come home and relax a little bit but it just feels weird that this experience is almost over. On one hand, it does feel like I have been in New Orleans for awhile. But on the other, it feels like I just got here and things that happened toward the beginning of the year don’t seem that long ago. I’ve definitely had some random déjà vu moments over the past couple of weeks from when I first got here. I don’t think that it has really hit me yet that I only have two weeks left here and what this whole experience has meant to me. I’ll probably have another posting or two for the last couple of weeks that really reflects on my time here.

The 4th of July weekend was pretty uneventful for me because I was sick. The Wednesday before, I was at work and was just feeling awful and decided to go home. When I got back, I took my temperature and saw that I had a pretty bad fever. I laid around the house for a couple days but was starting to feel better by Friday. I decided that I needed to get out of the house for a little while so I went down to the French Quarter and on the river to walk around. It was so hot it was unbelievable. I was sweating 20 minutes into walking around. And after a couple of hours, I was dying and came back home. It’s not a good idea to be walking around town when the heat index is 108 degrees. I guess I learned that lesson the hard way (although you would think I would have already known that). On the 4th, I was feeling a little bit better and went to a friend’s apartment Saturday night to watch fireworks. New Orleans launches their fireworks from different barges on the Mississippi River. My friend’s apartment was pretty close to the river, so we had a good view of the fireworks. They weren’t great, but better than I expected. I feel like you have to watch fireworks on the 4th. Everyone was in a pretty festive mood which was fun. It took me a few more days to completely shake my flu but I was back to normal by Monday and Tuesday.

As part of my term of service with AmeriCorps, I have to put together my own service project which is separate from my normal work duties. Myself and four other AmeriCorps have been working together to put together our project for the past few months. And it finally took place this past Saturday. Back in March, I found a school to partner up with for our project, the Andrew Wilson Charter School. The Andrew Wilson Charter School, currently located in Uptown, will soon be moving back to Broadmoor where it was located before Hurricane Katrina. Over the course of the past four years the interior hallways and classrooms of McDonough 7, the temporary home of Andrew Wilson, have weathered the usual wear and tear of hundreds of elementary students using the facility everyday. Our project was to serve Andrew Wilson by bringing the interior of the old Uptown location back to the condition it was in before the storm. We recruited over 100 volunteers to come help us out and paint the hallways and stairwells of the school. I couldn’t believe how many people we ended up getting. We also had to turn down two other groups of 30 because it would have been just too many people. The day was supposed to last from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Because there were so many people, we finished and left the school by 1:30. It was great to see all of our hard work and planning be successful and see the volunteers enjoying themselves. I definitely think that some of them will volunteer with Rebuilding Together again because of their experience in helping with our project. As part of this project, we had to raise all of the money for supplies on our own, which came out to be about $1,500. When we started looking for supplies, I called one of the Sherwin-Williams paint stores here and got them to donate almost $300 worth of materials. After that, we were still pretty short on money. So I got in touch with one of the partners I worked with at Ernst and Young to see if he’d be interested in helping me out. The partner got in touch with the office in New Orleans (I didn’t even know they had an office here) and they ended up donating $1,000 to us. I knew working for E&Y would pay off eventually (ha). We ended up raising all of the money we needed and had some left over to buy pizza for our volunteers. Overall, I think the project was a big success and am pretty proud with my effort and the outcome. I was dreading doing this project all year but it turned out well. I’m definitely happy that it is over though.

Saturday night, after the project, I went with some friends down to Frenchman Street, where there was a lot of live music being played at the different bars there. Frenchman Street was one of the first places that I went out to when I first got here. I remember that right before Hurricane Gustav, when some people had already evacuated, going to see some blues music at the Blue Nile. As I was leaving Frenchman Street, I realized it was probably going to be the last time I went out there. I had a lot of fun on that street and it will definitely be a big part of my memories of my time in New Orleans. It definitely is a unique street and I recommend checking it out if anyone ever comes down here. I guess I’ll be saying goodbye to a lot of things over the next couple weeks.

I decided to take today (Monday) to relax a little bit and take care of a few things that I need to do before I leave New Orleans. I don’t have much time during the week and next weekend I’m running a 3 mile trail run called the Spillway Classic. You can check out more details about the race if you’d like at active.com. Other than that, I’m just trying to end on a high note and finish up strong. I’ll try and post next weekend after the race. I’m hoping for two more postings before the end of the month. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the blog once I get home, but I guess I have some time to think about it. Well, that’s it for now, talk to y’all later.

...Milk Was a Bad Choice

2009-06-21T12:15:00.001-05:00

Since coming back from my mini-vacation in Mississippi, life has been pretty calm. It has recently gotten so insanely hot down here that it feels like I’m living in an oven. Everybody at work sweats through their shirts by 10 in the morning because of the heat. The heat index definitely gets into the triple digits by the early afternoon. The heat makes the days and week at work go by slowly because it consumes me. There’s never a minute I’m not drenched in sweat. It’s kind of insane and I don’t know how I’m going to survive another month and a half in this heat. On the weekends, I’ve been trying to stay inside because I’m outside all week and don’t feel like dealing with the heat. If you don’t believe me in how hot it is, I implore you to come check it out for yourself. It’s miserable.

At work, I am done with my Construction Manager Assistant rotation and am back working on houses. This past Monday, I had one of the most physically intense days of work up to this point. We just hired a new handyman named Bart. He and I worked in this room in which the sub-flooring had been ripped up and just the framed walls and floor joists remained. Our job was to use to jacks to lift up part of the house and replace the floor sills that were sitting on the foundation, as well as to replace piers that were not sturdy. We were digging, moving heavy pieces of lumber, mixing concrete and mortar, and jumping over the floor joists in order to move around the room. Between the heat and all of the physical labor, I was hurting by the end of the day. But we accomplished a lot and I learned a great deal working with Bart (whose voice sounds eerily similar to Tim McCarver the baseball announcer). Other than that, work has been pretty same old, same old. I’m at the point with work where I’m kind of winding down with it. I’ve enjoyed all of the construction and everything that I’ve learned, but am definitely ready to take a break from doing the work. I haven’t had a real vacation in a long time (since before I joined AmeriCorps) and I’m very burnt out on working right now. I haven’t had a week off to just relax in a long time. So I’m trying to take everything in these last few weeks but I am looking forward to getting a break.

Last Thursday, Pat and I went to see The Hangover which was absolutely hilarious. I wasn’t sure if I would like it or not but it turned out to be pretty hilarious. I definitely recommend it, despite the reviews from our favorite reviewer at Metromix. On Friday, I worked a fundraiser for the Preservation Resource Center (which Rebuilding Together is a program of) called “Ladies in Red.” It was a pretty formal event in which people paid a lot of money to get in. I had to work the food for the last hour of the party and was able to eat and drink for free before that. This event was similar to the Julia Jump which I wrote about in a posting in April. The event was a lot of fun and just something different to do. This past Friday night, I went to an amateur boxing event at my friend’s gym. There were three fights and kegs of beer for $15. The fights were just okay but the whole thing was very entertaining and I’m glad I went. However, there weren’t any knockdowns which kind of sucked. I think I’m ready to go an MMA event whenever I can. Other than that, I’ve gone to a few parties at friends’ houses over the past couple of weeks.

Summer is pretty relaxed here and there isn’t that much going on because of the heat. Being outside all week really takes its toll on me and I’ve been pretty tired on the weekend. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to be doing once I leave New Orleans which has been a little bit frustrating and stressing me out. So I’m trying to take a step back and not think about it as much because I’m sure everything will work.

Hope everything is going well with everyone. Sorry this is a short post but I really don’t have much to report. The last two weeks have been pretty uneventful. So this is all I’ve got. Talk to y’all later.

P.S. Happy Father’s Day Dad. I love you Dad (in Will Ferrell’s Old School voice).

Lots Goin' On

2009-06-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

I was planning on posting a new blog on Friday but ended up taking a mini-vacation to my friend Sean’s aunt’s house in Moss Point, Mississippi for the weekend. I thought it would be a good time to get out of New Orleans for the long weekend (we had Friday off) and relax a little bit. The last few weeks have been pretty hectic so a weekend of relaxation outside of New Orleans was exactly what I needed.

When I last posted, I was on my way to Chicago to visit for Memorial Day weekend. I was definitely New Orleans’d out and needed the trip home. My Dad picked me up at the airport Friday afternoon and drove me back to their house. It had been six months since the last time I visited so it felt great to come home. When I arrived home, I saw my cousin, Zach, for the first time in over year. The past two years on his birthday in the first week April, I traveled to the University of Arizona to hang out with him. Last April was the last time I had seen him. Now that he’s staying with my parents, I got the chance to spend the weekend with him and will get more of a chance when I come back in August (more on that later). I had a great family dinner at Wildfire with my Mom, Dad, Zach, and Grandpa. It had also been a long time since I had seen my parents (back in January when they visited) so it was great to see them as well. There are definitely times being here in New Orleans where I do miss my family (I can openly admit that). So having the chance to make the trip home and spend some time with them was much needed. After dinner, we dropped Zach off at work at Social Twenty Five and met some of his co-workers. We all had a shot of tequila and chatted for awhile. After being at the bar and talking with Zach’s bosses and co-workers, I got the sense they really like him and will take good care of him. We left Zach at work and my parents dropped me off at my friend Julie’s house where I was able to spend a little time with her and Matt Brash. We watched the end of the Blackhawks-Red Wings game, which I have to say I had very little interest in. I know the rest of the city was going crazy over it but I just couldn’t get into it. After the game was over, I met Eric, Jordy, Evan, Brett, and Ben at Butch McGuires and then Shenanigans on Division Street. We had a lot of fun that night and some shenanigans definitely occurred (which I won’t get into, ha).

I woke up the next morning pretty early (I guess my body is just used to being up early) and was hungry. So I called Marc and Molly and met them for breakfast at Nookie’s, which has pretty good food. It was nice to catch up with them. When coming down to New Orleans, I knew there would be people that I lost a little bit of touch with and that there would also be people who I probably would end up getting even closer to. Marc and Molly are definitely two people that I have found myself becoming even better friends with since I’ve been down here. I also feel that way about a lot of my good friends. The people I’ve kept in close touch with over the past year, I really feel that our friendships have grown. I appreciate the support I’ve gotten from everyone since I’ve moved here. It has meant a lot to me. I spent the rest of Saturday just hanging out on the couch and napping and hanging out with my family.

Saturday night, Zach was working and reserved a table for my friends and me at Social Twenty Five. Before going there, I met some friends for dinner at Rock Bottom. I’ve always liked the food and beer at Rock Bottom. I didn’t want to drink too much at dinner because Zach had already warned me that he was going to be making sure I had plenty to drink when I got to Social Twenty Five. And he kept up his end of the bargain. When I got there, he kept sneaking me shots of tequila. The kid took care of me, I must say. We had a great table and a lot of people came to hang out, which I really appreciated. It was great that so many friends could get together and have a good time. I tried to spend time with everyone but know there are people I didn’t get to hang out as much as I would like. To those people I apologize and hope we can spend some time together when I come back in August (again, more on that later). After everyone left Social Twenty Five, I went over to hang out with my friend Ethan, who was next door at Hub 51. By the end of the night, I was pretty exhausted and decided to head home. I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out that night; I had a really great night.

During the day Sunday, I watched the Blackhawks game with Brian and Steve (a.k.a. Bean and Stevo), who I lived with for the two years prior to New Orleans, and a few of their friends. Brian broke the news to me that he was planning on proposing the next weekend, which he did and she said “yes.” So I just wanted to take this chance to give a shout out to the Bean and congratulate him on his engagement. We watched the game for a few hours, and after they lost 6-1, I went home. Later that night, I had dinner with my parents, Zach, and our family friends at Glenn’s Diner. I absolutely love the food there. It’s mainly a fish place but it also serves breakfast all day, as well as some other things. I had pretzel-crusted walleye which was delicious. We had a good time catching up and eating great food. After dinner, Zach and I went over to Marc and Molly’s new apartment and spent some time drinking there before going out for the night. We met some other friends out at a new bar called Theory and then headed over to Social Twenty Five for the rest of the night. I stayed out until 3 a.m. for the third night in a row. I don’t think I’ve had three nights like that since Mardi Gras. By Monday, my body was hurting me.

On Monday, I met Zach, Marc, Molly, Evan, and Brian for lunch at Dublin’s, another one of my favorite restaurants. I almost always get the fried chicken tenders which are amazing. After lunch, Zach and I went and hung out for a bit with Marc and Molly and then went to spend some time at my cousin Brian’s (Zach’s brother) house. Brian and his wife, Rachel, had a boy, who I hadn’t seen yet. So we went over and spent a couple of hours hanging out with Brian, Rachel, and their son, Dylan. He’s a really cute little guy and as at the age where he’s developing his personality and becoming a real person. It was nice to catch up with Brian because I hadn’t seen him in a long time. After Brian’s house, I had a few friends over to watch the Lakers game and order dinner. I had lunch with Marc on Tuesday, hung out with Zach during the afternoon, and headed back to New Orleans that night. I had a great time at home. There wasn’t enough time to see everybody as much as I would have liked but I did my best to spend as much time with friends and family as I could.

I returned home to New Orleans late Tuesday night because my flight was delayed. The total trip took about five hours and in that time I finished the book I had just started, The Brooklyn Follies. I really enjoyed the book and recommend it to whoever is looking for something to read. I was exhausted the next day since I got back so late and stayed up a bit to finish the book. The week at work was pretty normal as I continued my time as Construction Manager assistant. Last weekend, I didn’t do too much because I was preparing to move on Sunday. My lease ended on May 31st, so I had to find another place to live. Over the past few weeks, I responded to numerous Craigslist postings for sublets for June and July. I found a decent place to live about five minutes away from my old house. It was brutally hot on Sunday and the move was pretty exhausting. My friend Jon helped me move some of the heavier stuff over to my new house, which I really appreciated. By the end of the night, I was settled into my new place, which I really like. For whatever reason, the cable hasn’t worked in my room. But I really don’t mind and actually kind of like not having it. This past week at work I was back working on a house, as well as my service project which is coming up in July (I’ll explain more about that in a future posting). The four-day week was pretty uneventful.

After work on Thursday, a bunch of us went to the New Orleans Zephyrs game (the Florida Marlins minor league team). It was a beautiful night and it was nice to be outside and watch a little live baseball. At the game my friend Sean mentioned going to his aunt’s house in Mississippi for the long weekend. He mentioned that his aunt and uncle lived right on the Gulf of Mexico and were going to be out of town for the weekend. I didn’t really have much else going on so I jumped at the chance to go. Early Friday morning, Sean, Sean, Jon, and I left to go to Mississippi for a weekend of R&R. I’m at the house now and it is in a really beautiful area. They have a pool in their backyard which we’ve been hanging out at all weekend. We stopped at the grocery store when we first got here on Friday and have been cooking all of our own food. It has been great to get out of New Orleans and relax a little bit. My trip home was great, but wasn’t really too relaxing. So this weekend has been great. We’ve all been sleeping a lot which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since I needed to catch up on some.

We’re going to be heading back at some point today and have another full week at work starting tomorrow. I only have 7 weeks of work left which is kind of crazy to think about. This experience has been so incredible but it is definitely winding down. I’ve been giving a lot of thought about my plans after AmeriCorps and what I want to do. As of now, I’m going to be coming home in early August and staying at Marc and Molly’s apartment for a couple of months. In October, I’m planning on going to London and getting some type of job there and living there and travelling for a few months. The details about this part of the plan are still very much a work in progress, but it’s what I’m looking to do. And unless I find some amazing opportunities in Europe, I would come back to Chicago after a few months of living there and find a job in Chicago. That’s the plan for now. Things always change but I’m hoping that the part about going to London doesn’t. I will keep you updated as I start to figure things out. I’m definitely trying to enjoy my last couple of months in New Orleans but am looking forward to coming home for a couple months and really catching up with everyone. Wel, I’m really tired from writing all of this so I’ll talk to y’all later.

He-Man Moment No. 341

2009-05-23T09:15:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-05-10T11:01:00.000-05:00

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.

Chillaxin

2009-04-19T15:20:00.002-05:00

Since my last posting, not too much has been going on. During my weekend with Matt and Matt, we did so much in those four days that I was pretty worn out for the next week afterwards. We experienced about as much of New Orleans as possible in that short time. The next weekend, it left me feeling like there was nothing for me to do, which I know is not true. There are still lots of places I haven’t gone and things I haven’t done that I want to before I leave here, whether that’s in three and a half months or longer. As of right now, I’d say that I’m about 90% certain that I’m going to leave New Orleans and go somewhere else to do something else (although I’m still not really sure what that’s going to be). I’ve made some really good friends here that I know that I’ll stay in touch with but I feel like a year is going to be enough time for me in New Orleans.

Last weekend was relatively low key. Last Thursday, a bunch of us went to One-Eyed Jacks for 80s Night. Shortly after getting there, I realized that it just wasn’t my thing. The place was insanely crowded, it was impossible to get a drink, and it was a thousand degrees in there. So I ended up just calling it a night. I stayed in Friday night and watched No Country for Old Men which was I thought was a really good movie, though I didn’t completely get the ending. Saturday was a pretty nice day so I decided to get up early and go to the gym and play some basketball. In the afternoon, I went to this area next to the Audobon Zoo, called The Fly. It’s kind of like a beach with no sand or swimming. Its right up along the Mississippi River and people lay out, BBQ, throw around the football, and just hang out. I wish I had found it earlier in my stay here but I’m glad I stumbled upon it. I think it’ll end up being a great place to go as it continues to warm up. Saturday night wasn’t much more eventful than the previous two nights. I went to my friend Sean’s house and a few of us hung out and had a few drinks. It was a pretty boring, low-key weekend but that was kind of what I needed.

This past Friday night, Pat and I went down to the French Quarter and saw a band called Supagroup, which formed while the band members went to school at Tulane. They played for a little over an hour and put on a really great show. There’s not too much rock in New Orleans, so it was a nice change of pace. It was one of the few shows that I’ve been to down here that didn’t involve horns. Yesterday, Pat, Jon, and I went to a bar in Mid-City to watch the Bulls game and the Chelsea soccer match. It was a good time, just relaxing and playing a little shuffleboard. After the games, we went to the French Quarter Festival that is taking place this weekend. There were a ton of people walking around taking in the music at the different stages, as well as eating a wide variety of New Orleans-style food. We caught a couple of the bands and enjoyed our day walking around. Since we went out at around noon, we came back around 9 and I was sleeping by midnight. This weekend has been good for me in terms of catching up on some sleep. Today, I’m running a few errands, taking some time out to blog, and will probably go get some groceries later. Nothing too exciting, I know. I figured I’d take it easy this weekend with Jazz Fest coming up the next two weekends. I won a free ticket through work which is nice. Not sure which days I’m going yet, but will probably go once each weekend.

The last two weeks at work have been very interesting. Besides being a House Captain, House Captain Support Staff, or in the warehouse, there’s a fourth part of our rotations, Construction Manager Assistant. This means, that all three of the Construction Managers have one AmeriCorps as their assistant to help them out with their job. I’ve been going around with the CM named Case for the past two weeks and will continue for the next two weeks. Being a CM Assistant has provided me knowledge and experience with a different part of the process than I’m used to. Every Tuesday, the organization has a meeting with all of the Directors and CMs and go over the week and things that are upcoming. I’ve also been able to sit in on meetings where they decide which houses we are going to be working on and what funding they are applying to those houses. Usually, I’m part of the last part of the rebuilding process, the actual rebuilding. But a lot more goes into it. We have to find the homeowners that need help with their house, evaluate their houses and figure out what needs to be done, develop a budget and a workscope, decide if the house is a good project for RT, and finally, determine if we have funding for the house.

Case and I have gone on quite a few technical evaluations (TEs), in which we go to a house and determine what needs to be done. We’ve gone to houses that need everything from gutting, to interior work, exterior work, plumbing, electrical, painting, etc. Other times, the homeowner may just need a couple of those things to be done. For each house, we take pictures, walk around the premises, measure the interior and exterior of the house, and discuss other things that we notice. We try to focus on rebuilding and fixing problems that are of the most potential harm to our homeowners. A few of the houses we looked at had major plumbing issues that needed to be fixed. So we would prioritize that on our budgets and workscopes. I’ve really learned a lot about how the process works and have met some pretty nice people that are looking to have their homes rebuilt. One of the houses we looked at two weeks ago, is opening for work this upcoming week. Along with TE’s, I sit in on meetings that Case has and observe and drive around with him to the different sites he has currently open. For the last three days of this past week, the two of us and a couple of the other AmeriCorps were at a house building a tile countertop for the kitchen. Case is a pretty good guy and we get along well. I think I’ll have another two weeks as his assistant before I go back to working on houses everyday. I’m going to try to put together a posting in the next week or so that gives a better idea of what I do on a day-to-day basis as a CM Assistant.

Lastly, back in November, a guy named Dan Janos with Volunteer Nation came down to New Orleans and conducted interviews with a couple of AmeriCorps at Rebuilding Together, including myself. Dan is trying to put together a TV series called Volunteer Nation that is based on volunteers and their organizations. Dan had gone to a few different cities meeting with different people and different organizations in an effort to put together a trailer for the show. He recently emailed me and let me know that the trailer had been finished and they are hoping to pitch the idea to different channels and see if the show can get picked up. I’ve attached a link to the trailer on the website. Check out the website for more information as the show seems like it could be pretty interesting. Also, see if you recognize a familiar face and voice around the 0:20 second mark. I’m not sure who that is, but he seems like one of the coolest guys you could possibly meet. I know I wish I was him. Anyways, hope everything is going well for everybody. Continue to stay in touch because I like hearing what everyone is up to. I miss everyone and everything going on at home so I like to stay in the loop. That’s it for this posting. Later y’all.

http://volunteernation.wordpress.com/

Slide Shows

2009-04-10T09:54:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to let y'all know that I figured out how to put slideshows up. So if you look to your right, there are 8 albums I've put up. The top one is the most current, the one after that is the second most current, etc. I'm hoping to have more albums up soon but enjoy the ones that I've already posted.

Also, if you scroll down on the right hand side, there's a gadget that lets you become a follower of my blog. Sign in and become a follower so I know who is reading my blog. Thanks.

Holy Mackalaney

2009-04-06T18:15:00.001-05:00

Before I get started with this post, I just wanted to let you know that I considered a number of different options for the title of this post. These options include the following:

“You better shut your mouth…”
15 Buh
He’s Still Got It
DotCom.com
Big Bad Boone and Pais Monster in the NOLA
Who is Staz Dawson?
Ride That Bull, Bourbon Cowboy-Style
Mad Cow Disease Was Here For Awhile and Then Went Away. Your Thoughts?

These were just a couple of the names that I considered before choosing “Holy Makalaney.” Anyways, sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted, I have a lot of ground to cover. I’ll start with the last few weeks of work, move on to some other things that have been going on, and finish it up with details of this last weekend in which Matt Brash and Matt Pais came to visit the NOLA. So here it goes…

Since my last posting, I’ve had three weeks of work go by (I know it has been too long). Currently, our office is located about 15 minutes away from our warehouse and we share our office with another organization. To become more centrally located, Rebuilding Together recently purchased a building that is across the street from our warehouse that we are hoping to turn into our new offices, volunteer housing, and another warehouse. The building has been abandoned for almost ten years and used to be a funeral parlor on the first floor and a dance club on the second. So during the first week since my last posting, I had my second set of spring breakers come down to help gut out (deconstruct) the building. Before we can renovate the building to our liking, we need to strip it down. Myself and two other AmeriCorps led over 30 volunteers in taking down the ceiling, removing some older parts of the structure we no longer are going to need, removing old pipes from the ceiling, and salvaging as much of the materials inside of the building as possible. The group that came down worked really hard and we had a lot of fun and were able to accomplish quite a bit over the course of the week. I had never done any type of deconstruction project and learned a lot as the week went along. However, I think I like doing the rebuilding more as opposed to taking things down. Deconstruction has become a big part of our organization and is necessary as the city continues to try and rebuild.

For the second week since my last posting, and the last week of spring break, I was the House Captain Support Staff on house that Rebuilding Together has been working for almost six months now. When we first got to this house, it hadn’t been touched since the hurricane. The refrigerator and freezer were still inside, there was garbage everywhere, and termites had eaten through a significant portion of the house. Over the last six months, over 100 volunteers and AmeriCorps have worked on the house, including myself (meaning I worked on this house prior to this week). We recently found out that the homeowner is getting kicked out of her FEMA residence on April 18th. So we are scrambling to finish the house. Dave, a fellow AmeriCorps, has been the primary house captain on the house since we started working on it. So Dave, myself, three other AmeriCorps, and 15 volunteers worked on this house over the course of the week. The volunteers were in charge of flooring the house (which is pretty big) and touching up the paint anywhere that was needed. I was in charge of tiling the shower and sink area in the bathroom. I had tiled a floor before but never the shower and sink before. I had never had to figure out the layout either, which proved to be a challenge. We recently received a huge donation of all different kinds of tile. The tile that the Construction Manager chose for the bathroom was from the donated tile. The problem with it was that since this tile was hand-cut, all of the pieces, specifically the edges, were all a little bit different. These made tiling the shower and sink much more difficult. The Construction Manager assigned to the house isn’t as much of an expert on tiling as the other two. So he pretty much just left it up to me to figure out how I wanted to do it. Not really knowing where to go, I came up with a normal pattern of just putting them in rows and columns. After tiling about 10 rows, I came to the conclusion that with the tiles all being a bit different in shapes, it just didn’t look good. So after spending four days on this, another Construction Manager came out on that Friday and helped me rip down all of the tile that was on the wall and come up with a new pattern. He came up with the idea of staggering the tiles so that they weren’t right on top and next to another tile. This helped hide the fact that the tiles were all a little bit different. By the end of that week, I had a good idea of how I was going to do it the following week. Last week we didn’t have any volunteers (to give us a little breather after spring break), so myself and Leo, another AmeriCorps, finished the tiling by Wednesday. I must say it turned out pretty nice and I definitely felt it was worth it to start over, even though I had spent almost four days working on it. So that’s pretty much what has been happening on the work front. I was off Thursday, Friday and today which has been nice. It was a nice little break and I’m looking forward to getting back to work and finishing up this house.

Other than work, I haven’t had too much going on lately. I’ve started to think a little bit about what I’m going to do when my program is over, but it’s going to be a long process. The only other big event we had was a fundraiser a few Fridays ago (March 20). To give you a little background about the fundraiser, Rebuilding Together is a program of the Preservation Resource Center (PRC). Every year the PRC has a fundraiser called the “Julia Jump.” This year, the Julia Jump was at the Bienville Club in the New Orleans Superdome. Tickets for the Julia Jump are pretty expensive and the items they auction off go for a considerable amount of money. The fundraiser had little tables set up all around the room that had food from all of the local restaurants. Also, there was an open bar which was great. The AmeriCorps were allowed to attend for free, as long as we volunteered for one shift. The event was five hours long, so volunteering for an hour was no big deal. I had to work the ticket table at the end of the night. And since nobody was coming at that point, I only had to work for thirty minutes. Other than that, I was able to walk around and enjoy the event. I ate a lot, not too much though. There was some amazing food, including mini steak sandwiches from this place called Mother’s. Those were probably my favorite. The open bar was great too. There were probably about 30 of us from Rebuilding Together and another 20 or so from the PRC that worked the event. It was a really good time. Our Executive Director pulled me on the dance floor for a song which was pretty funny. At the end of the night, everyone was dancing, or attempting to dance, which was pretty embarrassing. But everyone seemed to have a good time. The night was a lot of fun and a good way to unwind. Also, it was nice to see everyone dress up. We never really get a chance to see everyone dressed up too often. I must say that some people need some work on what they consider business casual and looking nice. Some people have a little bit of a ways to go on their fashion. I, on the other hand, am very well dressed and looked pretty damn good. Ha. Other than that, I’ve gone to a couple of BBQs over the past few weeks and just been hanging out with friends. I really don’t have anything else too interesting to report.

This past weekend, my friends Matt Brash and Matt Pais came down to New Orleans to visit me. Brash got here around noon on Thursday. We went to Stein’s Deli for lunch and had a delicious corned beef sandwich (like I’d get back at home in Chicago). After digesting, we went to Tulane to work-out and play some basketball. I haven’t played competitive basketball in a really long time and had no idea how long I’d be able to play full court for. We played two games of half court and two games of full court games. I was pretty happy with myself that I was able to play for so long without getting too tired. We both had a really good time playing and it brought us back to our college days. Later that night, we went to see a free comedy improv show at the La Nuit Theater (which I’ve mentioned in my last post). The show was very funny, as usual. We thought that Pais was going to be coming in around 11, but his flight was delayed and arrived around 1:30 a.m. Brash and I hung out at my friend Pat’s house for awhile and waited for Pais’s flight to arrive. We went and picked up Pais and called it a night.

The goal was to be up and out of the house by 11 a.m. the next day, which we surprisingly managed to accomplish. I took them to the house I had been working at for the past week and a half. Since it was a Friday, there were people working on the house but I was able to take them through. I think they were able to get a good sense of the type of work I have been doing and were pretty impressed with how the house looked overall. After that, I took them to some of the houses I’ve worked on in the neighborhood of Hollygrove. From there, we went to our warehouse for a few minutes. The warehouse has come a long way since the beginning of the year and is much more organized and clean from the time we started. After the warehouse, went to VooDoo BBQ for lunch, which was delicious. It’s one of those spots that you have to go to when you visit. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the different neighborhoods, including the Lower 9th Ward. I think Matt and Matt were pretty shocked at what it looked like. There were a lot of open lots where houses used to be. It was pretty desolate. We ended up driving around for a pretty long time before coming back to my house to chill. At around 7:30, we went to a party that my organization was having. The event was called “Party to the Corps” and was meant to raise awareness about AmeriCorps and Rebuilding Together for students and people right out of college. Additionally, it was an event that was also meant to thank our local volunteers that have come to work with us over the past year. The event was at the Maple Leaf Bar and there were two good local bands that performed. It was a very good turnout. I think the Matts enjoyed meeting all of the people that I work with. It was really nice having them there too. I felt very comfortable and like I was going out back into Chicago. We were talking to anyone and everyone which made it a great time. At one point, I walked outside, looked across the street at this little store, and saw Pais jamming on the drums with a guy playing the guitar. The party was a huge success and we all had a great time. Also, Pais was in love with his camera and took a ton of great pictures of the party. For some reason, he liked getting half of everyone’s face in the picture. And as for himself, he decided that he needed to open his mouth for every picture that he was in. After the party, we decided that we weren’t done yet for the night and decided to go to the French Quarter. We met my friend Meredith at the Bourbon Cowboy on Bourbon Street. This place has a mechanical bull that people were riding throughout the night. At one point, a girl got on there and decided to ride the bull without her top on for a good 10 minutes, which was awesome. I feel like only in New Orleans does stuff like that happen. After awhile, we continued walking down Bourbon Street before heading home. Overall, I think we were all in agreement that Friday night was our craziest night out of the weekend. We were out from 7:30 until almost 3 in the morning.

Since we got in so late on Friday night, we got off to a late start on Saturday. We went to Buffa’s in the Marigny for lunch, which is another staple of New Orleans (it’s been open for 70 years). Afterwards, we walked through the French Quarter and Jackson Square. We stopped to get beignets at Café du Monde, which is a must for all visitors. We hung out by the river for awhile after that and just relaxed and chatted for awhile. It was good to catch up with the guys and it really made me feel at home. We went back to my house and watched the first Final Four game and napped since we were pretty wiped out. The three of us went out for a late dinner at The Praline Connection on Frenchman Street which has great southern/creole food. Once we finished eating, we walked down Frenchman Street to the Spotted Cat where a band was playing inside. We spent the next hour or so drinking, listening to the band from outside, talking and reminiscing. I think we could have hung out there for hours but there were a few other places I wanted to go. Mimi’s, which is a bar I’ve gone to a few times, was our next stop. It was pretty empty, which turned out to be fine. The guys wanted to go back down to Bourbon Street one more time, so we headed over there. We went back to the Bourbon Cowboy (ha) but it wasn’t nearly as good as the first night. We were all pretty wiped out by 2:30-3 and headed back. I slept for a couple of hours and then we drove Brash to the airport at 5:30 a.m. I was dead at this point. It was nice that Pais came with me to keep me awake since I was so tired.

With Brash back in Chicago, it was just Pais and myself on Sunday. Around noon, we went to this Earth Day Festival on the bayou. It turned out to be pretty stupid but we walked around outside for a bit. We ate lunch at The Bulldog, which is a bar I go to often but had never eaten at. The food was pretty good, nothing special though. During the day yesterday, New Orleans held a half-ironman race that a few of my friends participated in the relay event. The race ended in the French Quarter, so Pais and I met them there after the race was over to hang out for a bit. We went to the after party at Republic and had a few beers there with the participants and their friends. I was glad Pais was able to meet some of my friends that he didn’t get a chance to meet earlier in the weekend. The after party was a nice way to spend the afternoon. To wind up the night and the trip, we went to Cooter Browns (where I went to watch football every Sunday) and watched the opening baseball game. I drove Pais to the airport at 4:30 a.m., and that was the end of the Brash and Pais visit.

The weekend was absolutely a great time. It really meant a lot to me that they came down to visit. Along with Ben and Evan who came down in February, they could have done anything with their vacations but chose to come down and visit and see what I’ve been up to here in New Orleans. It was great to catch up with them and some of the conversations we had were absolutely ridiculous and insane. It hasn’t always been easy to be away from home and go through this experience, but knowing I have good friends back at home has made it a lot easier. It also was important to me to show them the work I’ve been doing and the houses we’ve fixed. I think they really enjoyed that part as well as getting a chance to see the whole city. We did pretty much everything you can do in three days. I think we are all pretty wiped out and I’m glad I’ve been able to hang out today and catch up on sleep. Well I’m exhausted from the weekend and writing this post. Hope you all enjoy and I’ll write another one soon. Later y’all.

Spring Break Pt.1, St. Patty's Day, and So Much More

2009-03-15T19:45:00.001-05:00

Being as I’m in New Orleans, I am not nearly as hung-over today as I would have been had I spent the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago. I’m actually pretty functional today, so I thought that I would post another entry.

Last weekend, I went with a few friends to see a comedy show at the La Nuit Comedy Theater near my house. I have wanted to check out shows there for awhile and last Saturday night turned out to be as good a night as any. The comedy group “Comedy Sportz” has a weekly show on Saturday, so that’s what we went to. “Comedy Sportz” has groups all over the country, including one in Chicago, which I actually had never seen. The idea behind “Comedy Sportz” is that there are two teams with three improv actors on each team and a referee that acts as the M.C. for the show. The two teams play a variety of improv games in which they come up with songs, raps, and scenes on the fly. All of the people in the show were very talented and I was pretty amazed with how they feed off of each other and are able to produce such a funny show. These actors made it seem so easy but I’m sure that’s because they’ve had years of experience. The four of us who went had such a good time that we went to a free show there on Thursday night. Three different comedy groups (with all of the actors being around my age) performed and they were all extremely funny, especially the last two. The theater is fairly small (seats probably around 50 people), so in between each show, the actors would walk around and talk to the crowd. Hearing some of their stories and how they got into improve was very cool. A lot of them were currently taking improve and classes at the theater and were trying to convince us it would be something fun to try out. It’s definitely something to think about and would probably be fun. So maybe it’s something I’ll do before I leave. All four of us said it was something we’d consider. We all had a really great time at these shows and found it interesting to watch and study the actors in how they perform.

This week at work was very hectic. As I said in my last posting, March is a very busy month for us because of all the students who come down to New Orleans on alternate spring break trip. Since my foot has finally healed, I was back working on houses last week. I was the House Captain for a house in Hollygrove and was working with a fellow House Captain, Bridgette, who was acting as my support staff for the week. Bridgette is one of the two girls who started in March, so this was my first time working with her. We had a group of 18 students who came with Hillel from the University of Hillel. Out of the 18, 15 were girls. When the group first I arrived and I noticed this, I was happy that they were going to be painting the exterior of the house. Most of the girls painted, while the three guys (and one girl) built a fence on the homeowner’s property. Leroy, the homeowner, is in his mid 60s, is a veteran and has experience working in construction. When we arrived at his house on Monday, he was outside waiting for us and, shockingly, ready to work. He spent a good portion of the day talking to the volunteers and showing them what he wanted and the best ways to paint. At first, this was a big burden lifted off my shoulder. But by the end of the week it just became annoying because he was all over everything that everybody was doing. His heart was in the right place, but it became frustrating to everyone on the site. When he would leave for a few hours, everybody would joke that we needed to hurry up and finish before he got back or else he would find something else that he didn’t like. Leroy was a really nice guy and interacted well with the group, but we all just wanted him to let go a little bit. Working with so many 18-21 year old Jewish girls was quite hilarious. Some of their conversations were pretty ridiculous and Bridgette and I often times found ourselves looking at each other laughing. It was 80 degrees and sunny almost every day and it felt great to be back working on houses. I was feeling a bit burned out before injuring my foot, but the time in the office rejuvenated me a lot. Last week was the first week in awhile that I spent on site, and I had such a good time. It was 80 degrees and sunny everyday. So I was nice and burnt by the end of the week and worked up a good sweat everyday. Overall, I found it to be a very successful week, as we nearly completed the week’s work scope, and I had a lot of fun with my group. I was supposed to meet up with the group in the French Quarter on Saturday night, but as I’ll tell you in a bit, I didn’t make it.

Because my foot has healed, I have been able to begin working out and running again. After working outside all day and going to the gym a few times after work, I’m feeling better physically than I have in a few months. I’d like to think that I’m pretty motivated to workout right now and will find a good routine in going to the gym. I think my daily schedule will help me be more successful in regularly working out. It has always been a struggle for me, but because I get home at 4:45 every day and live 10 minutes away from the gym, I can be home having worked out by 6:30 or 7. In my old job, it was always a struggle to find time to workout and still have time for myself. But now I have the time.

So now that I’ve told you about everything else that has been going on over the past week, I’m sure y’all want to hear about my (Saturday before) St. Patrick’s Day. I knew going in that there was absolutely no way that it could compare to my St. Patrick’s Days of the previous two years. The parties that my apartment threw the last two years were pretty legendary. A feeling of nostalgia hit me yesterday when I realized that there was no party and all of my friends were going to be out drinking in Chicago. Despite all of this and the fact that it was raining when I woke up, I set out to have another memorable day. I went down to the intersection of Magazine Street and Louisiana Avenue with Patrick, Jon, and Jordan around 1:00. There are a lot of bars near that intersection and a parade was going to be passing through. We had a pretty good time drinking and hanging out waiting for the parade, which came around 3. After going through Mardi Gras, I am pretty paraded out, so this one was just alright. I had a good time and was pretty drunk by 5, when Jon, Patrick, Patrick’s girlfriend (Megan), and I went down to the French Quarter. We walked around there until around 8. It was pretty empty in the French Quarter and I realized that St. Patrick’s Day in New Orleans just isn’t the same as it is back home. I was drunk and tired by 8 but Jon and Megan wanted to stay out. So Pat and I went back to Megan’s car and napped for an hour. We were hoping that when we woke up, we’d be ready to go again, but we were both still exhausted. I tried to stay out as long as I could because my volunteers from the week told me they were going to be there around 11, but I just couldn’t do it. We stopped for burritos on the way home and I fell asleep around 10:30. I wanted to make it out again, but had been out too long and couldn’t do it. It was a good day, not incredible, but good. There’s always next year.

I have another packed week coming up, so I’ll hopefully have another posting for you next Sunday, at which time the Illini will be headed to the Sweet 16. ILL-INI…

Giving the People What They Want

2009-03-07T12:43:00.002-06:00

I know that since my last amazing post about Mardi Gras, you have been anxiously awaiting my next one. So, I’m coming to you with it a little bit faster than I usually do, because I have a lot going on, and I just want to. Just trying to give the people what they want (another posting that is). Anyways, here it goes…

Partied out. Worn out. Exhausted. That’s how I felt after Mardi Gras. It definitely took me a few days to recover from the madness that had ensued the previous week. I was luckily given the Wednesday after Fat Tuesday off in order to rest up a little bit before going back to work on Thursday. Except to get go grocery shopping, I didn’t leave my house at all that Wednesday. My body hurt and I barely had enough energy to drag myself out of the house. I didn’t do much last weekend because I really just didn’t feel like it. Ha. Most of my other friends didn’t go out either. On Saturday night, I did go to a BBQ at my friend Amanda’s house. An interesting mix of people from work was there. I anticipated only staying for a couple of hours but ended up hanging out there for a lot longer than that. It was nice to relax, have a good dinner, and talk with people from work that I don’t always get to spend a lot of time with.

This past week at work I spent most of my time either in the office or working on the service project that I have to do during my term of service. The people who are on the AmeriCorps National Grant (I explained the difference between AmeriCorps National and AmeriCorps State in a previous posting), which includes myself, are required to come up with a service project which is separate from our normal jobs. I am working with four other people on this project and we’ve been throwing around ideas for a project over the past few weeks. Since I have been stuck in the office because of my foot, I have had time to explore some options for our project. A couple of weeks ago, I met with the Volunteer Coordinator at the Andrew Wilson Charter School in the Broadmoor neighborhood because we were hoping to use the school for our project. After meeting with Ms. Janice (just an fyi, people in New Orleans often call other people Mr. or Ms. and their first name; so people that I meet from New Orleans often call me Mr. Adam; it’s just a way of showing respect to people down here), she told me that she was going to talk to the principal of the school and get back to me on possible ideas for a service project. I set up a meeting with myself, Ms. Janice, the Principal (Ms. Sheila Thomas), and Cat (one of the girls I’m working with on this project) for this past Wednesday. By the end of the meeting, we had agreed upon an idea. After Hurricane Katrina, the building the Andrew Wilson Charter School was originally in had to be repaired (and later added on to). So for the past two years, there school has been in another building. For the 2009-2010 school year, they are planning move back to their original building. Our service project, which is going to take place on Saturday, July 11, is going to be to recruit around 100 volunteers to help pack up the school they are in now, and move everything to the other building. We are also hoping to use those volunteers to perform some minor repairs in the building they are currently occupying. The school is very excited that we are helping them out and I think the event has a lot of potential. In addition to the service day, we are going to be running a book and school supply drive. We are hoping to collect as many books and supplies as possible between now and July 11 and also have a place to drop off books and supplies on the day of the event. If you have anything that you would like to donate to this school, whether it be a book or school supplies or $5 for the project, anything would be very much appreciated. The five of us have to recruit the volunteers, come up with all of the funding for the project, promote/advertise the event, and try and get media coverage of the event. If you have any more questions surrounding this project, or want to donate, or have suggestions/comments, please let me know. Any input is helpful. I’ll keep you updated on the status of the project as it continues to move forward. At first I wasn’t excited at all about having to do a project, but I think it’s going to be a challenge to pull off and could end up being a lot of fun.

This project took up a lot of my time this week (mainly the early part of the week). I went to the doctor on Thursday to get a check up on my foot and he said he thought it was all healed. He took another x-ray of it and said he’d call me if he saw something. I never heard from him, so it looks like I’m fine. I went back to normal work yesterday and had a good day. Our organization hosts over 700 volunteers during the month of March because of college spring break. We have 260 volunteers coming next week. So our job yesterday was to prepare for the upcoming week. It was pretty hectic because people were running all around our warehouse. But it felt good to be back. It was 80 degrees here yesterday and I enjoyed working up a nice beastly sweat. I have had all of this energy stored up from sitting in the office that I was ready to get going again yesterday. The doctor told me to ease back into things with my foot but that didn’t really happen yesterday. I have to be a little careful about pushing it too hard right away because I can’t afford to injure it again. But I definitely plan on starting to work out again soon and unleashing some of that stored up energy.

Now that Mardi Gras is over and the AmeriCorps year is over half over, our program has started to think about its direction for next year. Cambria, one of my supervisors, has been having little focus group meetings (of about 5-7 people) at her house to discuss the future of the organization and where the AmeriCorps members see themselves next year. The meetings are optional, but I decided to attend one on Thursday night. Just to give you a little background on our organization, last year there were only 14 AmeriCorps between the field and the office. This year there are around 40 people. The organization has been growing at a rapid pace over the last year and we are still working to figure out the most efficient way to run everything. Communication can be difficult when there are only a few people in charge and a large number of people reporting to those people. It was nice to have a chance to sit down and offer my suggestions on how things can run more smoothly for the remainder of my term of service and for future AmeriCorps groups. It seems like the organization is hoping that 7-10 of the current AmeriCorps stay on for another year. I thought that was going to mean, that the people that stayed on would be salaried employees of the organization (making a small salary, but still a salary). But I guess that the organization is hoping that 7-10 of the current AmeriCorps do another year of service, with the only added incentive being an extra $100 per month towards rent. I think that is expecting a lot from people to do another year of service and I know that I don’t really plan to volunteer for another year. However, in this struggling economy, more people might do it than I think. The five of us at the meeting never got into what we are planning to do for next year, because honestly, I don’t think anybody has any idea. The meeting turned out to be very helpful for everyone. Cambria got ideas from us on how we thought things could work more efficiently, and we got an understanding of the direction of the organization. She said that we’d be having more of these meetings in the future if we wanted to.

I told myself when I first came to New Orleans that I wouldn’t begin to think about what I was going to do next until after Mardi Gras. Well, with end of Mardi Gras and this meeting on the future of the organization, I have begun to ponder my options. As of right now, I don’t know whether or not I’m ready to come back to Chicago. I always see myself ending up in Chicago, whether that is in a year or five years, who knows. Right now, I feel like I’m still pretty young and don’t have much responsibility in front of me. So this is the time in my life when I can take a couple of chances and see what’s out there. I have started reading a couple of books that I hope will help me find a focus and figure out where I want to go and where I want to take my career (in whatever field that may be). Deciding to volunteer with AmeriCorps and come to New Orleans took a lot of soul searching and consulting with friends and family. And I’m sure, whatever is next for me will require the same. I created this blog for my friends and family, the people that I am close with and know me best. So in saying that, to the people that know me pretty well, if you have any suggestions or ideas for me on what to do after my term of service is up, things you think I may like doing or suit me well, anything, please let me know. This is going to be another difficult decision for me and any input I can get from others would be much appreciated.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will continue to try and write them more often. I enjoy writing them and I know that the people like reading them. Talk to y’all later.

Party Gras 2009

2009-02-26T19:29:00.001-06:00

I am happy to say that I have physically survived my first New Orleans Mardi Gras experience, although maybe just barely. Mentally and emotionally I may never recover. The first major parade of Mardi Gras week started on Thursday night with the Krewe of Muses, which has a reputation for being one of the best parades of the Carnival season. One of my goals for Mardi Gras was to watch the parades in different spots all over the city. I was able to watch Krewe du Vieux (the very first parade of Mardi Gras which I talked about during my last post) in the Marigny and the Krewe of Oshun and Pygmalion in one part of Uptown. My friends and I went to a new spot in Uptown along the parade route on St. Charles (we watched it from St. Charles and Third Street). There were two parades that proceeded Muses, which run one right after another. I honestly didn’t think catching beads would be so much fun, but I had a great time and cleaned up. I didn’t get any great throws (items that people on the floats throw to the crowd) but was happy with the number of beads I caught. I wasn’t overly impressed with Muses but had a good time hanging out with my friends. The parade ended around 10 p.m. and shortly after that I got the call from Ben and Evan that they had gotten into town.

I barely had enough gas in my car to get to the airport but I got there with just enough and picked up Ben and Evan. I showed them around my house and then we decided that even though it was late, that they were only in New Orleans for a short time and that we should go out. I took them to a place called Le Bon Temps Roulet, in which the Soul Rebels Brass Band that plays there every Thursday night. I have mentioned seeing the Soul Rebels in a previous post (sometime back in October I think). The three of us had a good time and I think Evan and Ben really enjoyed the show. It was a pretty mellow first night but I knew it was going to be a long next few days so I wanted to pace myself.

Ben and Evan had reserved a hotel right near the French Quarter and on the parade route for Friday and Saturday night (which I stayed at as well). We headed down to the French Quarter early Friday afternoon and had a few hours to kill before being able to check into the hotel. Obviously that meant we had to go to Bourbon Street to see what was happening there. It wasn’t too crowded (yet) in the afternoon but there were people on balconies throwing beads to people on the street. The walk was fun and we got only a glimpse of what to come later in the weekend. After walking around a bit, we checked into the hotel and got ready for the night’s parades. I invited some friends (Pat, Jon, Jordan, their friends from college, Sean, and Sean, etc.) to come drink with us at the hotel but was unaware that it was a $20 charge for guests to get into the hotel. I felt bad that they weren’t able to come in and hang out. So instead of them coming in, we brought the party outside. We found a good spot on the parade route right near the French Quarter and set up shop there. Pat, Jon, and Jordan’s friends from Fordham were all really nice and outgoing and definitely helped make the weekend a lot of fun. I enjoyed hanging out with them and getting to know the type of people that my friends hung out with in college. People had been camping out all day to get there spots was a little crazy to me. I never could wrap my head around the idea that people spent hours and hours sitting around waiting for these parades. I enjoyed the parades but it seemed kind of ridiculous to stake out a spot for 8 hours. Anyways, we watched the parades go by which took about three hours. It was nice that Ben and Evan got a chance to hang out the friends that I have made down here and see a little bit more about what my life is about here.

After the parades were over, the group (around 11 or 12 of us) walked back down to Bourbon Street. At this point of the night, it was insanely packed. The streets were filled from sidewalk to sidewalk with people. Ben, Evan, and I got separated from my other friends for a little while, so we just kept walking down. Evan and I also kept losing Ben in the crowd. We would walk ten feet, turn around and realize he wasn’t behind us. Then we’d find him, walk another ten feet, and he’d be lost again. I know a lot of people have ideas about what Bourbon Street is like during Mardi Gras because of what is shown on TV. It’s not quite as wild as what you see on TV, but it’s definitely something that’s hard to explain unless you experience it for yourself. And for those of you wondering, yes, I did see a ton of boobs (of all shapes and sizes, ha). There weren’t too many girls willing to flash for beads, but there was enough for it to enjoyable. However, anytime a girl would flash, there would be a whole crowd of people around her taking pictures. It was so creepy, I can’t even tell you. A few times, there must have been 15 guys taking pictures of girls flashing. To me, it was a little much. Enjoy the boobs and move on. That was my motto. But I guess if these girls are showing their breasts in the middle of the street, those are the consequences. It was also funny that some of the women on the balconies would try to get men to flash their penises for beads. Luckily, I did not see any old man wiener, or any wiener for that matter, on Bourbon Street, but I’m sure there was a ton of them shown throughout the week. The three of us walked down Bourbon Street for a little while and then met back up with my friends at a bar just off Bourbon Street. Before going in, it was obvious Ben was having a little too much fun and wasn’t sure if he should go in. Evan took him back to the hotel room where I guess he puked his face off. But the big guy pulled it together, as much as he could, and came back out with Evan to meet me and a few of the others at Johnny White’s. The bar was pretty low key for the French Quarter. We spent a couple of hours there and decided to call it a night.

It took us awhile to get started on Saturday but Evan, Ben and I were able to get moving and went to lunch at Café Pontabla in the French Quarter. I don’t usually eat at restaurants too much, so it was nice to change things up. I wasn’t really in the mood for any creole cooking or cajun food but we did get a fried alligator appetizer and Ben had the creole combination which included jambalaya and gumbo. The big parade on Saturday was the Krewe of Endymion. It started in an area called Mid-City. Some people in the neighborhood camped out for two days to get their spot on the parade route. Needless to say, this parade is a big deal to the people of Mid-City. A normal commute from our hotel to Mid-City would have been five to ten minutes. Because of how packed the city was, it took us almost 45 minutes to finally park. We stopped at a party that a friend of mine from work was having for a few minutes, as well as met some other friends who were playing guitar and hanging out in the park. After that, we walked around for at least a good hour trying to find my friends and a good spot to watch the parade. We never ended up finding them and decided that we would be able to catch the parade back in the French Quarter. Almost all of the parades ran behind schedule and took forever to get all the way through. Ben, Evan, and I ended up back at our hotel in plenty of time to see the parade. Throughout the weekend, we often got frustrated with the walking situation. Because our hotel was right on a parade route, it was hard to cross the street at times. This was just one of many travel issues I had during the week.

We found a spot for the parade that was pretty close to the one from Friday night. I wasn’t overly impressed with this parade. It was pretty much like all of the others so I didn’t understand what everyone got so excited about. At one point during the parade, I was talking to Ben and Evan about how these parades could be better if they had musicians performing on the floats (or something of that nature). Within five minutes, Kid Rock and REO Speedwagon were each on floats that passed our area. About a quarter of the way through, we decided that we were a little “paraded out” and went back to the hotel room. My stomach really started bothering me so Evan and Ben went to the casino for a bit while I stayed at the hotel and rested up. I met up with them at the craps table where Evan had a nice run. Ben’s foot had started to hurt him but he toughed it out and hobbled along. While we were in the casino, it began to rain. We decided that we weren’t going to let a little rain spoil our night and headed back to Bourbon Street anyways. It was even more crowded than the night before, so we decided to go to one of my favorite bars in the French Quarter, Erin Rose. It is right off of Bourbon Street and is a friendly, little dive bar. We chatted with the bartender and every time I looked over at Ben, it looked like he was passing in and out of consciousness. I didn’t think he’d make it too much longer that night but once we got ready to leave, he was fine. The rest of the night was a blur and only those present are fortunate enough to get a full account of the events that took place. Read into that however you would like…

By Sunday morning, I was hungover, exhausted, and my stomach was still hurting. I was hoping to take Ben and Evan to see some of the houses that I have worked on but too many streets were closed and there was too much traffic to take them. So we ate lunch, hung out at my house for a bit, and they called it a trip. I think that they had a good time and we ended up doing a lot in the time that they were here. I drove them to the airport and came home to lie in bed. I knew that there were parades going on Sunday night, but I needed a night to recover if I was going to get through Monday and Tuesday.

I spent the better part of the next 24 hours at my house, barely leaving my room. It was much needed and by Monday afternoon, I was rearing to go again. I met Jordan, Pat, Jon, and their friends along the river near the French Quarter. We sat along the water and people-watched for awhile and enjoyed the nice day. There were a couple of stages set up nearby for Lundi Gras (Fat Monday), so we walked over and watched an hour of Rebirth Brass Band, who is pretty popular here in New Orleans (they play at a club every Tuesday night). Watching their performance outside near the river with all different kinds of people that had come from all over, I got my first real sense of how much Mardi Gras means to the city and the people of New Orleans. Everyone was singing, dancing, eating, drinking, and simply enjoying the experience. The band was very good and I had a great time watching and feeling what Mardi Gras was all about for the first time. A lot of people down here don’t have much and Mardi Gras is the one thing they have to look forward to every year. Once the show was over, we walked around for a bit, picked up groceries and went back Uptown. We caught about an hour of Sunday night’s parade, which was pretty much like the rest of them and then went back to barbeque. A little after midnight, I called it a night and anxiously awaited Fat Tuesday.

When I woke up early Tuesday morning, the day felt a lot like Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day at U of Illinois. My friends and I headed out a little after 8:30 a.m. and we decided to catch the city’s biggest parade, Krewe du Zulu, in a different spot than we had watched all of the other parades. To give a little bit of background, Zulu celebrated its 100th Anniversary this year. We decided to watch the parade in Treme, one of the neighborhoods I work in, which was at the end of the parade route. As we were looking for a spot to set up, I realized that we were the only white people that I could see. I didn’t mind it at all because I thought it would be fun to watch the parade with people who actually live in New Orleans and would really appreciate it. And I was right. I saw a lot of interesting things. One of the guys that was standing right next to me had his little son in one arm and a joint in the other. I saw a woman sitting in a stroller with her baby on her lap smoking also. Some of the parents got a little rougher with kids than I’m used to seeing. Anyways, the parade was absolutely amazing. The floats, costumes, and marching bands were all spectacular. This was the biggest parade of Carnival with almost 50 floats. This parade was also known for having the best throws. As the floats would come by, all of the people would rush up to catch whatever they could. It was amazing how much fun everyone was having, especially the kids. The people in this neighborhood don’t have a lot to get up for so they absolutely love Mardi Gras. Everyone was barbequing and sharing food with each other. To me, this was what Mardi Gras was all about. It was for these people. There was so much joy and energy and I could just tell how much this meant to them. I could not have been happier that we chose to watch the parade in Treme, with people who appreciate Mardi Gras. The whole experience definitely helped me put things in perspective in terms of how lucky I am to be in the situation that I’m in and how nice it felt to be a part of the whole experience. We had a great time watching the parade and got some good throws as well. The parade lasted over two hours and we hung out in our spot for awhile after the parade was over.

We then gathered our belongings (mainly beer) and strolled down to Bourbon Street where the people-watching was incredible. There were so many unbelievable costumes. People were dressed as anything and everything. It was hysterical. We would hang out on one block, drink and people-watch for an hour, and then move a few more down. Everybody was singing and dancing and having a great time. Pat’s friend Mike and I took a shot of whiskey and at that point, I had the perfect buzz. It was an absolutely perfect day out (I actually came away sunburned) and I felt so incredibly happy with where I was at. There is nowhere else I wanted to be at that moment. We walked around Bourbon Street for another couple of hours, ate some burritos, and went back to Pat, Jordan, and Jon’s house to continue the festivities. We had left before 9 a.m. and returned back just before 7 p.m.. We played beer pong and sat around the bonfire till close to 1 in the morning. Everyone was so completely wiped out from the day that we decided that our Fat Tuesday was over. Fat Tuesday was honestly one of the coolest days ever and a day I will never forget. I don’t know how many more Mardi Gras my mind and body could physically handle, but Mardi Gras 2009, especially Fat Tuesday, was absolutely incredible. I have waited for this since I moved down here and it definitely didn’t disappoint. I tried my best to explain everything and give you the best details that I could, but until you experience it for yourself, you will never truly know. I am so exhausted right now that it is going to take me a few days to recover. No partying for me this weekend. I am all partied and Mardi Grased out. I hope you enjoyed the post (I know it’s long) and if you want to hear more stories, just let me know. I’ll be putting up videos in the next couple of days. So from Mardi Gras 2009, goodbye and “Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulet.”

First Mardi Gras Videos

2009-02-15T17:05:00.006-06:00

Krewe du Vieux (2-7-09) - Just a quick clip from the parade

Krewe du Oshun (2-13-09) - Friends appearing in this video are Greg, Patrick, Jon, Jordan, Angelica, Caitlyn, Jordan, Sara, Amanda

Krewe du Pygmalion (2-13-09) - Another quick clip

Just the Beginning

2009-02-12T22:39:00.002-06:00

I actually wrote a post on Thursday night but when I went to save it accidently deleted so I hope the second time I’m writing this turns out as good as the first. In my post titled “Starting Fresh,” I mentioned how my right foot had started to bother me. I went to the doctor and she told me she wasn’t sure if it was broken or if there was just inflammation in my foot. The doctor gave me some medicine and the pain went away, so I thought everything was fine. A little over a week ago, it started bothering me again. It hurt in the same exact spot as the first time and was actually a little bit more painful the second time around. I went back to the doctor a second time and she recommended that I get an MRI done on my foot. Last Friday (February 6th), I had an MRI done, which took a lot longer than I thought it would. They had me lay down completely still on the machine for 45 minutes. I couldn’t really move so I was pretty bored after a few minutes. Luckily they gave me headphones to listen to the radio. The results came back showing that I had a broken seasmoid bone in my right foot, which is underneath my first and second toe. I was given a boot last Monday and saw a podiatrist on Thursday. I’m not in much pain because I was given more anti-inflammatory by the doctor. Wearing the boot isn’t that big of an inconvenience except that I have to take it off when I drive. I have to wear the boot for three weeks which kind of sucks because I’ll have to wear it during Mardi Gras. I’m not going to let that stop me though.

Last Friday night was my friend Pat’s birthday party which he had at his house. We went and picked up the keg of Miller High Life (delicious) after work. It was a pretty big turnout of about 30-40 people which is bigger than the gatherings that we usually have. There was a good mix of people from work and other friends. He had RockBand, beer pong, and a bonfire going, so I think a good time was had by all. With the first Mardi Gras parade the next day, I told myself I was going to take it easy that night, but obviously that didn’t happen. Before the parade, I went to my friends’ Sean V. (my supervisor at work) and Sean M.’s (the Supply Manager with our organization) house to do a little drinking and hang out. People often refer to them as the Seans because it’s just easier. After the Seans’ house, Jon, Patrick, Jordan, the Seans, and me all went to a former Rebuilding Together employee’s (Josh) house. Josh lives right at the beginning of the parade route. So he had a bunch of people over for the parade. It was fun seeing some of the Construction Managers and Warehouse staff at his house because I never get a chance to see them socially. Everyone had a lot of fun and the parade was pretty cool for my first parade. Krewe du Vieux is the first major Mardi Gras parade and took place last Saturday night, a little after 6 p.m.. The parade begins in the Marigny and slowly meanders its way through the French Quarter. The theme of this year’s Krewe du Vieux was “Economic Stimulus.” The Krewe du Vieux is one of the most anticipated krewes with the hand-made floats and adult themes.

The weekend ended up taking a lot out of me and I spent most of Sunday just lying around trying to recover. I’m happy to say that last Sunday, I officially caught up to the current episode of Lost. I watched the premiere episode on Christmas Day when there was nothing to do and it took me a month and a half to completely catch up. And I must say, it was well worth it. The show is absolutely amazing. I used to think that 24 was the best show on TV, but after watching Lost, there’s no doubt that it’s Lost. If you ever have the time, I would recommend watching the series.

Anyways, because of my foot, I spent most of last week working in our office. I found that I’m going to have to wear the boot for three weeks, which is a little disappointing. I like that work that I have been doing and am not looking to working out of the office. The first week there was a lot of copying and I didn’t have a lot to do much of the time. I wrote bios on five of my fellow AmeriCorps which was fun and I think is set to be published in our monthly newsletter. With this injury, I think God is trying to tell me that I’m supposed to work in an office and hang out with my good friend, Microsoft Excel. I am trying to be positive because it’ll only be for a couple of weeks.

This past weekend, there were more parades that took place. I went to two on Friday, the Krewe of Oshun and Krewe of Pygmalion. Oshun is named for the Yoruba goddess of love and intimacy. Pygmalion takes its name from the Greek legend of a Cypress king who sculpts a statue of the sea nymph Galatea. Both were fairly short parades and are more family oriented. I watched it with a group of six or seven friends from work and we made it a good time. I have some videos from the first three parades that I went to that I’ll post later today. The beginning of the parade season has been a lot of fun and it’s only going to get crazier this week. I got the Kantatafish and Big Z heading down here for the weekend so that should only add to the insanity. I also saw the North Mississippi Allstars at Tipitinas on Friday night. Standing on my foot all night was a little uncomfortable but definitely worth it. They played a great show, which lasted almost three hours. The lead guitarist in the band has also been playing with the Black Crowes (the best band of all time) for the last year or so and is very talented. In preparation for next weekend, I decided to skip Saturday’s parades and take it easy. I watched “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” which was very funny (watch the outtakes too, hysterical).

Other than that, I’m just trying to mentally and physically prepare for Mardi Gras, because from everything that I’ve heard, it’s absolutely nuts for a week. I’ll keep you updated on my well being and if I’m surviving. Hopefully, there will be more posts to come. Talk to y’all later.

Hitting the Wall (and trying to push through it)

2009-02-03T17:56:00.002-06:00

Right after I made my last post, I headed to New Iberia, LA to do a service week and help rebuild in that area. The New Orleans affiliate of Rebuilding Together that I work for has 25 house captains (like me) from two different grants. Twenty AmeriCorps members are on a state grant and the other five (including me) are part of a national grant. Also included in the national grant, are other AmeriCorps members serving with Rebuilding Together affiliates all over the country. In total, there are 40 people on the national grant (30 of us who started in September and 10 more who just started). The service trip to New Iberia is more of a big deal to all of the other national members because they are coming from all over the country and their jobs are more office oriented. For the five of us from New Orleans, it was pretty much just a normal week except we had to stay in volunteer housing.

The five of us (Leo, Mary, Cat, Dave, and me) carpooled up to New Iberia which took about three hours. Leo is from south Texas and has been raving about Whattaburger for the longest time so we stopped at one near Baton Rouge on the way up. I didn't think it was anything too special and I felt like I was having a heart attack the rest of the way up. We arrived at the volunteer housing late Sunday afternoon (I was pissed at the time we had to get there because I missed both championship football games and couldn't see how my fantasy football championship was going- don't worry I won). The volunteer housing was just one big room with 20-25 bunk beds and long tables for eating in the middle of the room. I already wasn't looking forward to the trip and this just confirmed it was going to be a long weekend. People filed in for the next few hours and it was good to see some of the people again. The last time I was together with this group of people was during my orientation back in September. Sunday night was pretty laid back for the most part. In the middle of the night I woke up to this ridiculously loud noise (I had no idea what it was). After a minute, I realized it was the old guy snoring in the bunk below me. My Dad snores pretty badly but this guy blew him out of the water. I had to listen to my Ipod on over half-full volume just to drown this guy out. I barely got any sleep for the rest of the night (or rest of the week for that matter). I probably only got about 4-5 hours a sleep a night which was brutal.

The volunteer work we did in New Iberia was actually a lot of fun. We learned how to build handicap ramps that led into people's homes. Since most of the other Rebuilding Together members that were there work in an office and don't spend much time in the field, it was a chance for me to show off my skills (which I did). I was in a group with Leo and we delegated jobs out to others when appropriate. Building a handicap ramp is one of the harder things I've done so far. It takes a lot of patience and a math to make sure the angles and spacing are correct. My group ranged from 8-12 people a day and I had a good time working with the people in my group. After working, we would go back to the volunteer housing, where there wasn't much to do. It was a lot of being around people at all times and constantly talking to people and trying to come up with things to do.

Overall, it was an okay week but it really took a toll on me. The lack of sleep and just being in a room with all of those people and germs affected my body. Because when I got back Saturday around noon, I slept for five hours and felt extremely groggy when I woke up. I felt this way for much of the next week. Last week at work, I just didn't seem to have much energy. Leo and Cat missed a couple of days last week because they got sick in New Iberia. I didn't feel sick, I was just exhausted. I kind of hit the wall last week. I was going to take off last Wednesday but felt alright when I woke up so I've just been trying to power through it. Last week was pretty low key for me. I just tried to catch up on some sleep and relax.

By the weekend, I was feeling much better. On Friday night, I went to a bar called Finn McCools (not the some chain as the on in Chicago) which was a good time. It was nice to relax a little bit with some friends from work. On Saturday, I hung around for most of the day (I couldn't get myself out of bed) and went to the French Quarter Saturday night and to a place called Mimi's for a little dancing. Unfortunately for everyone at the bar, I didn't get that drunk and really give them a dancing show. There are two new girls who just started with our affiliate that were with us in New Iberia. I convinced them to come on Saturday night to hang out so it was nice to see them starting to feel comfortable here and get used to the people they'll be working with. I didn't do anything special for the Super Bowl but thoroughly enjoyed the game (I think this is the first year I didn't do squares which was kind of a bummer).

Now that it is February and I'm pushing my way through "the wall," there is a lot coming up that I'm looking forward to. Since a lot will be going on, I'll definitely try and post a little bit more and take more pictures. Once I get a CDs worth of pictures, I'll let you know and I can send one to whoever wants it. The first big Mardi Gras parade is Saturday night so it looks like the insanity is about to begin. Hopefully I'll be alive when it's all over. Talk to y'all later.

Starting Fresh

2009-01-18T10:14:00.004-06:00

I know it's been a little while since my last post but I've been pretty busy over the past few weeks. I'll start where I left off last time. For the New Year’s weekend, we were given a four-day weekend which was a nice little break for me. On New Year’s Eve, a friend of mine had a party at his house. It was a lot of fun because a lot of people that I work with were there and a lot of them are people I don't really see too much outside of work. Around 11:00, we walked from my friend's house to this park in the part of New Orleans called Mid-City. As part of the tradition for New Years, there is a Christmas tree-burning, where everyone brings their Christmas trees to the park and there's a huge fire where people gather and hang out and bring in the New Years. On our walk there, people everywhere were lighting off fireworks which lit up the sky. The bonfire was probably around 12 feet high and I was able to take some great pictures. I'd say that there were definitely over one thousand people there and it was a great way to bring in the New Year. After the fire was over, we went down to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street was packed with people. If New Years Eve is any indication of how crazy things get in the French Quarter, Mardi Gras is going to be pretty insane. I took it easy the next couple of days and tried to recover from NYE and get ready to get back to work.

I've been working on the same house pretty much for the past couple of months and it's getting pretty close to being finished. The first week after New Years, I had some volunteers at the house and we put in the kitchen countertop, upper kitchen cabinets, and did some touch up work around the rest of the house. My Mom and Dad came to visit on that Thursday and they came to volunteer at the house on Friday. I gave them the task of putting finishing on the kitchen cabinets which required them to use a Circular Saw. Given how handy my father is, I thought he'd be able to handle it. But unfortunately he was unable to make straight cuts and not chipping the finishing. So I had my parents’ just do some touch up painting. It was nice having them at the worksite so that they can see what I do on an everyday basis. It was fun telling them what to do for a change. I'm sure my Dad loved it.

When my parents got here on Thursday, I took them around to see some of the houses that I've been working on and gave them a little tour of the city. We went out for Japanese food Thursday night which was delicious since it's been so long since I've had any. On Friday, they volunteered during the day and at night the three of us went out to dinner with three of my friends: Pat, Jon, and Jordan. I had a good time at dinner and I think everyone else did too. My friends really appreciated the good meal and enjoyed meeting my parents (or so they said). It was nice to be able to have my parents meet some of the people I'm closest with down here and get a better sense of my life in New Orleans. After dinner, I met up with friends at a bar. On the walk home, I noticed that my right foot started bothering me but didn't think too much of it. On Saturday morning, I met my parents at their hotel around 10 (which is pretty early for me to be out on a Saturday) and we walked near the pier along the Mississippi River for the bus tour we were going to take. Before we even left for the tour, the guide spent a half hour on the bus talking. Throughout the tour, the woman never took a breath to stop talking. She literally was going on and on for three hours. It was nice to see the city and get its history, but I had such a headache by the time it was over and I still hear that woman's voice in my head (just awful). After the tour, for some reason, my Dad wanted to go to the Civil War Museum (I didn't even know he was interested in that stuff). We trekked over there and by the time we got there, my foot was really starting to bother me but I just kept going. The Museum was pretty small and I guess my Dad saw what he wanted to see (I don't really know). That night we went out for dinner again (I swear, all I did was eat that weekend) and then my Dad and I went to the casino for awhile. By the time we left the casino, I was hobbling down the street back to the parking garage where I left my car. But it had gotten pretty cold, so my Dad starts power walking down the street and there I am, on one foot, trying to keep up. I was glad to see that my Dad was so concerned. My parents left on Sunday and I just spent most of the day staying off and soaking my foot.

It wasn't feeling any better Monday or Tuesday, and of course at work I was lugging around cabinets and moving things all over the place. By Tuesday, I realized that I needed to get it checked out. I went to the walk-in clinic and they took a couple of x-rays and told me that I actually had a small stress fracture in my foot. I really have no idea how it happened. The doctor gave me some medicine and the swelling in my foot has gone down considerably and is feeling much better. I took the day off on Wednesday to rest it and by Thursday, I was feeling a lot better.

My friends Pat and Darren have a friend from high school that is in a Tulane Graduate program and lives down here. She had a party Thursday night that the three of us went to. It was fun to play a little beer pong and re-live some of my college days. Everyone there was real nice, and it was good for me to meet some new people for a change. I usually don't stay out too late on Thursday nights because of work the next day but we were having fun and ended up staying out till around 1. I was pretty exhausted at work the next day but I pushed through.

On Friday night, a bunch of us went to happy hour at Phillips Bar. It's usually pretty packed for happy hour. So we had a few drinks and shot some pool for a little. Jon started talking to this guy who is friends with the person who lives in the Belfort Mansion (which was the house for the MTV Real World New Orleans cast). The guy took us over there because he said his friend was having some people over. The house was absolutely amazing. It was enormous and was probably one of the most beautiful houses I've ever been to. This house had a pool, guest house, balconies surrounding the entire house, and a prime location on St. Charles Avenue. We got to the house and it turned out that the owner of the house lived their with his partner and they had a bunch of gay guys over. I've become better around being around gay people down here but this was just a little too much for me (ha). We stayed there for a little while and then moved on to another bar. It was cool to see the house and they invited us over for their Mardi Gras party but I don't think I'll be attending.

It has been a busy few weeks and it doesn't look like things will be settling down much anytime soon (which is a good thing I guess). Mardi Gras is right around the corner and from everything I hear, is absolutely amazing. I'll definitely write another post before Mardi Gras but if it takes a little time after that, I'm sorry. Besides my parents, I officially have my first two visitors coming down here for Mardi Gras. So now that they've gotten things started, I expect to hear more from people who want to come down here. There are so many things I want to show everyone so I hope as many people can make it here as possible. Talk to y'all soon.

The Year That Was

2008-12-30T17:29:00.000-06:00

Looking back on the year that was in 2008, it has been one crazy year from where I started to where I am right now. At this time last year, I was returning from a trip to Europe and was not too motivated for my second busy season at Ernst & Young. Little did I know that a year later I would be on my own in New Orleans.

Going into busy season at E&Y last year, I knew that I wasn’t really happy at Ernst & Young. A couple of months earlier, I had met with an accounting and finance recruiter to see what other jobs were out there and nothing seemed appealing. Along with my unhappiness at work, I was in a rut personally as well. I can be a very anxious person and just felt that my life was kind of at a standstill and every week and month wasn’t much different than the one before it. Throughout my life, I have been on this path that has kept me relatively happy but very conservative and secure. I have never been the type of person to take chances or challenge myself and it occurred to me that I am still very young and that living a conventional life was probably the cause of the funk I was in. By April, I had become even more anxious after working long hours for the prior three months. I had a trip to Arizona in April and a bachelor party in Vegas in May to kind of keep me occupied. I remember thinking on the way home from Vegas that it was time to finally do something. I was unhappy at work and unmotivated to do a lot of things for myself personally. I started writing down some goals for myself and gave myself a July 15th (my 25th birthday) deadline to make some sort of decision on what I was going to do about a job and the next phase of my life. I found that writing goals down really helps me get things done because once I write it down, it’s there and I can always see it. Through talking to my family and friends, I came across AmeriCorps and started looking at possible opportunities in New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Washington D.C., and Boston. I decided that it would be a great time for me to go live somewhere else for a year or two and made this a focal point in trying to find a place to volunteer. I found the best opportunities to be in New Orleans and applied for three or four positions at different programs. I did not get accepted for the first few programs in which I applied.

However, at the end of the day on July 25th (a Friday), as I was sitting at my desk in the office finishing up for the week, I got the call that I had been accepted as a House Captain for Rebuilding Together New Orleans. The organization wanted me down in New Orleans by August 25, so I had exactly a month to get myself ready. When I got home from work that day, I remember thinking to myself (and definitely freaking out) that this was actually happening for me. I was going to live in New Orleans for a year. As soon as I found out I was going, I became very anxious and nervous. I knew the opportunity was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, but that didn’t do much to calm my nerves. It was a good nervousness though. I was taking a chance on something in a way that I never had before. And while that scared me, I knew it would be a great thing for me.

The month before I left for New Orleans was a difficult one for me. I had so many things to do just to get myself ready to leave Chicago and physically move to New Orleans. A lot more went into it than I ever had thought. It was also difficult saying goodbye to family and friends that I knew I wouldn’t see again for awhile. I had never lived outside of Illinois and away from family and friends, so it was very hard for me to leave and go to a place where I knew nobody. I drove down to New Orleans on August 21-22 with my Dad and just remember saying over and over again, “What did I get myself into?” Because I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into and who I would meet and what I would be doing on a daily basis.

It has been over four months (in which you can see what I’ve been doing through previous postings) since I’ve been gone and I can honestly say that joining AmeriCorps and moving to New Orleans was the best decision I’ve ever made. Every day here is a new day and I’m having experiences that I never imagined. I have also met so many different kinds of people, which keeps life fresh. There is still so much more of New Orleans that I need to see and experience that I get antsy at times and worry that I’m not going to have enough time to do everything. However, it isn’t always easy. I definitely have days where I want to hang out with people or do something and there’s nobody around or people don’t want to do what I want to do. There are also times when I have nothing to do and just spend the day kind of vegging out. But that’s the challenge. I have learned so much about myself and feel like I have gained a lot of confidence. When you are in a rut and things are the same day after day, it’s easy to have insecurities and lack confidence, which is where I was in my life. But having pride in what I’m doing and having taken this chance has given me a lot of confidence in myself. Also, through the things I’m doing at work, I realize I’m capable of a lot. I am gaining new skills and learning how to manage others. I just needed to push myself and continue to push myself.

And with the New Year coming, we all have the opportunity to push ourselves. We never really know what we are capable of unless we our challenged. Up until I decided to come to New Orleans, I wasn’t doing or trying many things outside of my comfort zone, which made life easy and secure. But it also put me into the rut that I was in. It took stepping outside of the box and trying something new for me to snap out of it. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same person as I was before coming down here. I know it’s definitely not easy, and I’m not saying that everyone needs to make a huge life-changing decision every year or all the time, but I encourage you to try and do one or two things in the next year that you never thought you would do. Take a chance on something. You may like it, you may not. You may succeed, you may fail. But at least you took a chance and went out on a limb to experience something different. I promise that it will be rewarding in some way. There is a whole world of possibilities out there and it’s so easy to fall into a routine that lets us forget that.

I hope everyone can find something new and exciting in the New Year that challenges you and helps you find happiness in a place that you never expected. Happy 2009!

Keep On Keepin' On

2008-12-23T18:38:00.002-06:00

Since coming back from Chicago, it has taken me a little while to get back into the swing of things but I'm back in good "Adam" form (not "Weiny" or "The Ween" form since that doesn't exist in New Orleans) right now. The past few weekends have been pretty eventful and fun. Thursday nights have turned into burrito and dollar drafts at Felipes nights. I can't get enough of their burritos, I could eat them three times a week at least. The past couple of Fridays, a big group of us from work have gone out to happy hour and stayed out from there. It's nice getting a chance to spend time with people from work and see how they are when they have a few drinks in them. Needless to say, things get much more relaxed and I get a chance to see how people are in a normal situation, as opposed to everyday at work. Also, one of my buddies down here is pretty good at the guitar (not nearly as good as Vamsi for those needing a reference point; but forget Vamsi because I doubt he even reads this). So we've had a couple of good jam and singing sessions. My voice is definitely as good as I think it is. The nightlife has started to pick up as we discover new places to see music and new bars to go to. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a bar called One-Eyed Jakes which I'd never been to before and saw a pretty decent band, Deerhunter. The sound at the venue was better than I thought and it was packed with people. Since it is still pretty warm down here (don't be too mad at me, it did snow down here for about 3 hours and I've had some pretty cold days working outside), friends of mine have been having bonfires, so a bunch of people get together and hang out. This last Friday after happy hour, I went to a bar called Pat Fannies (I don't know why but I love that name; I think it's because I can reverse the P and the F and call it Fat Pannies) where there was some type of holiday party going on. That turned out to be great for me because I was able to get my hands on a couple of brownies and cookies, as well as free beer and Wild Turkey shots. When we left, I was craving pizza so badly but there is just nowhere good to get it down here late night (very disappointing). So if anybody wants to send me a couple of frozen deep dish sausage pizzas from Lou Malanatis, send them to 5836 Willow St. New Orleans, LA 70115. I would greatly appreciate them. Anyways, my time outside of work the past few weeks has been a lot of fun as I discover new places and hang out with people that I wasn't before.

Work has been very intense over the past few weeks. I have been the House Captain (in charge) of a house, 2601 Arts St, for about the past month. I had a group of AmeriCorps members from another non-profit group called City Year, for one day. As part of their program, they are required to do training or service every Friday. Since this is a normal part of the work schedule, they were not really into doing much. The fact that most of them just wanted to get done with the day and move on made it difficult to really accomplish anything. I had them working on fixing and priming windows and they ended up making a huge mess which pretty much negated any good work they did for the day. It was an extremely frustrating day. The next week, a group of us worked on installing baseboards around the entire house. For those of you that don't know what baseboard is, it's the inch (or so) piece of wood that goes along the bottom of the entire interior house. Baseboards are mainly just meant for aesthetic purposes to cover up any rough edges in the floor. Most people don't even notice them, but we spent a week installing them. Putting them in and making them fit given the pieces of wood we had felt a little bit like piecing together a puzzle.

To give you a little background on how our organization is structured, we work in five neighborhoods, with each having a professional construction manager (CM) that guides us on the work to be performed. Along with many other of their own things to complete, they also help us if we run into issues with the actual work itself. Over the past couple of weeks, two of our construction managers have left the organization which has left things pretty chaotic for the other three CMs and stretched the organization as a whole pretty thin. I had a group of 8 Georgia Tech students for the entire week last week and a lot of the work they were going to do was contingent on other things getting done in the house. However, those things required the assistance of the CM and since he really didn't have much time to come by the house and finish, I was left scrambling to find things for my volunteers to do. It wasn't his fault because he just had so many other things to do to cover for the other CMs leaving but it made for a very frustrating week. I could kind of tell that the volunteers weren't enjoying the work they were doing and became less motivated as the week went on, and I couldn't really blame them. It was definitely hard because Rebuilding Together has been working on this house for almost seven months now and we want to get the homeowner back in his house. But at the same time, we want our volunteers to have a good experience so that they keep coming back down and donating money. So, it was a very stressful week that I couldn't wait to end. We didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked, but my CM for this house was pretty understanding about the whole situation. The situation was a good learning experience and what a being a House Captain is all about. I think I will be better prepared to handle a similar situation the next time it occurs.

Life has been moving along pretty nicely since coming back from Chicago and I'm looking forward to a four day weekend this week and next week. A few of us are looking into going to Baton Rouge this Friday or Saturday just to check out the city. It's not ,too far away which is nice, so I'm hoping to make a day trip out of it this weekend. Almost all of my co-workers went home for the holidays so it's nice that things are relatively quiet right now. I figured that I just visited a month ago and am not really ready to come back home just yet. I had a good time with y'all but I thought it would be better for me to stay down here for the holidays and New Years Eve. I'm not really sure what I'm doing for New Years Eve yet but there are a couple of ideas that arer being thrown around. Anyways, I'll be posting a "Year in Review" type entry before the end of the year. Since it has been such a crazy year for me, I thought it would be a good chance to look back at the year as a whole. Well that's it for now, and seriously will someone send me down some decent pizza? I'm not kidding, I'm dying without it.

The Quarter Pole

2008-12-08T18:35:00.002-06:00

I have now been down in New Orleans for about three and a half months which means that my service is just over a quarter (maybe closer to a third) of the way complete. On the plane back to Chicago, I had a chance to sit back and reflect on my time here so far and I realized that how this whole experience has affected me hadn't really sunk in yet. It was hard to believe that just three months ago I picked up and moved to New Orleans. I kind of just played back some of the events of the last three months in my head and can't believe some of the things that I've experienced. Heading home, it really made me feel like I have been down here for a long time. Almost every day I'm learning something different or having some experience that is new for me. On my way to Chicago was the first time that New Orleans kinda felt like home (at least for now). However, I desperately needed the break and was very excited to go home. The previous month of work had been really intense with all of the volunteers and big projects that were going on. I realized that in November alone I painted, deconstructed stairs, learned how to tile, installed hardwood floor, glazed windows, built a fence, and learned how to install kitchen cabinets. So I was definitely ready for the break and to get home to see my family and friends. Originally, I was only supposed to come home from the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving till Sunday. But since we had been working so hard, our supervisors gave us the entire week off. So I changed my flight and came home Sunday afternoon instead.

The week at home was much needed and everything I could have asked for in a visit. I had a great time getting to see everyone and felt like I was very busy the whole week and running from place to place which is exactly what I was hoping for. I ate way too much, which I wasn't used to. I think I gained three pounds in a week (it's okay though, I'll burn that right off now that I'm back at work). I wanted to thank everyone that I was with over the week for making my visit such a great one. You all made me feel happy to be home and reminded me just what great friends and family I have back in Chicago. It made me feel good that so many people were willing to come and hang out and make my visit special. I thought that going home would help me recharge my batteries a little bit, but by the time my visit was over, I was even more tired than when I arrived (which I think had to do with staying out till 4 in the morning a few nights), but it was well worth it. My visit to Chicago definitely made it harder for me to leave and go back to New Orleans but I know there is still a lot for me here.

It really has taken me about three months to get settled here but I feel good about being here and how things have been going and am ready for the next part of this experience. I've now gotten used to all of the different personalities at work and am really enjoying working with everyone. Everybody has their little quirks and things about them (as I'm sure I do) and we all kind of appreciate that about each other. Up till now, I have mainly interacted socially with people from my program so I think that is something I need to work on now that I'm back. That's the great thing about being down here on my own; it is up to me, and only me, to go out and meet people and make this experience what I want it to be. That can be tough sometimes too. I can be lazy and don't always feel like trying to find something to do. So that is kind of a work in progress. Life also moves a lot slower down here than in Chicago which is something I'm getting used to. There isn't something going on or something to do at every minute of every day like there is at home. That has been an adjustment and will continue to be.

At this point in time, there is a certain group out of the people from my program that I generally hang out with. And that's fine for me. I don't click with everyone, so I spend time with the people that I want to. A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends down here said that "it's up to each one of us to help make each other's time here fun." That just struck me as such a cool thing for someone to say. It is kind of up to me and each one of us to get what we want out of this experience but it's nice to know that I have met people that generally care about other people and their experiences here.

I know this post is a little bit different than what I usually write but I thought that since I have been down here for over three months now, and just visited home, it would be a good time to reflect on the time that I've spent here already and what lies ahead. I really did have a great time in Chicago and coming home was exactly what I needed. But now that I came home and don't know if and when I'll visit before the end of this program, it is time for all of you to start visiting me in New Orleans. Anyone who has any interest in coming down here, please get in contact with me so we can work out a time. There is so much I want to show all of you down here including the sites, some of the houses that I've worked on, as well as some of the better drinking and music establishments New Orleans has to offer. So come on down!

Starbucks Project Pictures

2008-11-14T19:31:00.009-06:00

These are the pictures of 4437 Eden, the house I was in charge of for the Starbucks project. These pictures were taken after the volunteers were done. By the way, you can click on the pictures and they will open in a new window.

Yes, I'm Alive!

2008-11-14T18:33:00.007-06:00

The past few weeks have been quite hectic but I have survived them and I'm looking forward to finally telling y'all about it. When I last left you, I was getting ready for our big Starbucks project at the end of October. During the last week of October (starting Monday, October 27th), Starbucks hosted their national managers convention in New Orleans which brought down over 10,000 employees. As part of their week in New Orleans, they were to all take part in a service activity with one of the non-profit organizations in the city. Rebuilding Together was given 4,000 Starbucks employees for 4 shifts over a 3 day period. Based on these numbers, we had 31 houses open and a few other small side projects for the volunteers to work on. The Friday before the build, all of the AmeriCorps (which includes me) spent a crazy 12 hour day at our warehouse pulling supplies, loading trucks, and getting ready for the week ahead. We were told that we would have to be at the warehouse the next Monday at 6 a.m. in order to be ready for the volunteers to show up at all of our sites at noon. Because of the late night at work Friday and the hectic week that was to come, I decided not to go to the Voodoo Music Experience that took place October 24-26. The people who went enjoyed it but I just decided last minute not to go and went out a couple of nights in the city to relax.

On Monday morning, I arrived at the warehouse bright and early at 6 a.m. where we got our instructions and logistics for how everything was going to work for the week. The director of Rebuilding Together, Kristin Palmer, gave us all a good pep talk and reminded us that this week with Starbucks was the largest service project in the history of New Orleans. Kristin is a very inspiring people and everybody in our organizations love her speeches and encouragement. She is an especially postive person and influence on the organization who has been working with Rebuilding Together for years now. After our meeting, we all went out to our sites to prepare for the volunteers. I was in charge of the house at 4437 Eden and was to have my volunteers scrape and prime and paint the exterior of the house. It's important to scrape a house of all of the old paint and paint chips before applying new paint. The house was enormous and very tall so I was skeptical about whether my volunteers could finish. I had gone over with my construction manager, Brad, the plan of attack and how I could space things out each day and what colors needed to go where. I spent all of 10 minutes with Brad a week before the build going over the color scheme so by the time Monday rolled around I had kind of forgotten so decided I would just make it up as I went along (and I had a general idea of what I was doing).

After I was dropped off at my house, it took me a couple of hours to get everything set up for the volunteers and noon crept up on me pretty quickly. So I went to the designated drop off area and had 20 volunteers come back with me to the house. I gave them an orientation about our organization, our policies and procedures, and information about the homeowner (who as of that Monday, I had yet to meet). The homeowner, Thomas Points, was originally from New Orleans and actually moved to the south side of Chicago when he was in high school. He joined the army and went to Vietnam. When he came back, he started his own landscape business and got married. He moved into the house we worked on two years after his wife passed away. When Katrina hit, he was displaced for over 20 months. His house was under 8 feet of water during Katrina and when he returned, his whole first floor had been damaged. Thomas lives on the second floor but hasn't had the money or time to fix up the first floor yet.

The shift went very smoothly and quickly. A couple of the volunteers had to get up on 28 ft. ladders and rip down the rotted gutters. I was pretty surprised that many of the volunteers were willing to get up on the tall ladders (throughout the week, not just Monday), which made things easier. I had a really good time leading this group, many of which were from Canada. They ended up getting everything done that I was hoping and the group Tuesday could come in and get right to work. I think some of the older adults (and when I say older I mean 50s) were getting a little tired of me telling them what to do by the end of the day because they started to make fun of me every time I asked them to do something or reminded them about something.

Tuesday was the big day because we had a morning shift (8 a.m-12 p.m.) and an afternoon shift (12:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.). When I arrived at the worksite at 5:30 a.m., I was able to meet Mr. Points. He was so appreciative of all the work that was being done for him and he said he wished he could have skipped work to help and hang out with everyone. I never got to see him again to see what he thought so I'm hoping he was happy. I had about 25 volunteers during each shift and they both went great. The volunteers were very enthusiastic and had a great time. A couple of the young girls took some nice pictures with myself and Brad (when he stopped by) which was pretty funny. Brad described these girls as "sexually charged" which never hurts a worksite I guess. By the end of the day, I was losing my voice and sick of hearing myself talk (which is very rare). It was quite an exhausting day but I had a lot of fun with the volunteers.

The last part of the project was one shift on Thursday. Even though I told Kristin I wasn't sure if I could have the house finished, she told me that we'd give it a shot. So I ended up getting somewhere between 35-40 volunteers for the last shift. This last group really worked hard and I think because I kept telling them that I didn't think they could finish, that pushed them to work harder. These volunteers got an unbelievable amount of work done and were pretty chatty and fun during the process. Between the four shifts (and about 16 hours worth of work time), they got done with about 95% of the house. I will add some pictures of the almost finish product after I'm done with this posting.

After the project was over, we were given a half day on Friday which was great because it was Halloween and we were all exhausted. I got to drive a huge UHaul truck back to the rental place on Friday which was cool. They are hard to drive but it was a fun experience for the 30 minutes that I got to drive it. The Starbucks build was exhausting but it was the best part of my experience down here so far and probably the most rewarding. It took such a team effort from everybody in the organization to manage this many volunteers and have everything run smoothly, which it did. I had a great time leading the volunteers and being in charge of everybody and what was done to the house. I think that the volunteers enjoyed themselves and really felt a part of the whole project and that they were making a huge difference in the community. It was a whirlwind few days but I loved it and look forward to having more volunteer groups in the future. I could keep going on about this so if you'd like to hear more, let me know I can tell you. This is your blog too. For whoever reads this, let me know the types of things you want to hear about. I'm giving you what I can think of, but if there's anything I'm leaving out, I will start posting more and adding it.

I was able to catch a quick nap on Friday after work and pick out a pretty cheap costume at a costume store. I dressed up as a hippie with a crazy shirt and sunglasses. I met up with my friend John who had two girl friends in town. They had both just graduated college and were living in their hometown in New Jersey (where John is from). We drank at John's house for awhile and then went to a party at his neighbors. The neighbor's house was all decked out in Halloween decorations and they had jumbalaya, kegs, and jello shots. We stayed for about an hour and got nice toasted over there. We were trying to head down to Frenchman Street but couldn't get a cab down there. We ended up just hopping in a car with two people from the party who were going to Frenchman. They were definitely weird and told John that his costume looked gay (which he is, but it was pretty rude the way they said it). I was happy to get out of the car. Frenchman Street, which has a ton of bars on it, was packed from sidewalk to sidewalk with people in costumes. It was completely nuts. There were so many people and everyone was in good spirits. We stayed on Frenchman Street for awhile but it was unbelivable crowded so we decided to walk into the French Quarter and went to a few bars there. We ended up at a gay bar, which was pretty funny. But it wasn't one of those gay bars with wall to wall techno music and guys without their shirts on. This was a pretty normal bar, only it was a gay bar. So I only felt somewhat uncomfortable (probably a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10). I ended up running into some of my Starbucks volunteers and they bought me a couple of drink which was cool (though I made it clear to them that I wasn't gay, not that there's anything wrong with that). We ended up staying out till about 4 in the morning and it turned out to be a pretty good Halloween. I somehow had energy the next day and went back out and saw some pretty good live music Saturday night.

We spent the following week (after the Starbucks project), trying to finish up some of the houses that weren't done yet. The house I went to was even bigger than mine. I was pretty much up painting on the roof or 28 ft. ladders for three days straight. After the three days, I hated that house. Dave, another AmeriCorps, spent most of the week on a 40 ft. ladder which was freakin' crazy. I wouldn't get up there (that thing was so wobbly; not for me). On Thursday of last week, Leo (an AmeriCorps) and I, spent the day deconstructing the outside staircase of a house. It was at least 80 degrees that day and the sun was glaring down so it was hot. We spent the whole morning swinging sledgehammers at the stairwell, which was made of bricks, concrete, and clay. By lunch, I was exhausted. My arms were dead. This stairwell easily went up about 8 feet. We spent the afternoon shoveling everything into a dumpster. Luckily, more people came in the afternoon to help us out. It was honestly the most exhausting and tiring day of work I have ever had in my life. I was sore for the next three days. It was honestly the most exhausting and tiring day of work I have ever had in my life. I was sore for the next three days. At the end of the day though, I actually felt great. Exhausted, but great. By the end of the week, I felt pretty burnt out.

I also forgot to mention that on Tuesday, I woke up earlier and performed my civic duty of voting. Watching the election coverage was very interesting and I’m very happy Barack Obama is the new president. I’m sure we all have our opinions on the matter so that’s all I’m going to say about that. On Friday night, I went over to Sean, my supervisor’s, house and who had a few people over. He lives close to City Park and Bayou St. John, so we went out on the Bayou and hung out there because it was such a nice night. I pretty much spent all of Saturday in bed and went to the New Orleans Hornets game Saturday night with Leo and met up with another AmeriCorps, Steve, after the game. Overall, it was a pretty relaxing weekend. I’m pretty tired of typing right now, so I’ll post again soon with details of this week, though it wasn’t too eventful.

Again, please let me know if there are things in the blog that you’d like me to talk about/add. I know I’m not posting enough, which I’ll try to get better at but please give me feedback if you want. Hope this was as good for you as it was for me (that’s what she said, this post I mean).

Blogger's Block

2008-10-20T14:50:00.000-05:00

I am trying to get through the blogger’s block I have recently developed and put a good post together for y’all (I’m in the south so I can say that). I last left you with details of the first weekend of our big October build project in which I led a group of volunteers in the exterior painting of Mr. Jones’s home. The second weekend wasn’t quite as eventful for me. Because we had worked so many hours, we were all given off either last Friday (Oct. 10) or Monday to try and keep our hours down a bit. Since I didn’t have to work on Friday, I went out to see a band called the Soul Rebels at a small local bar. When seeing live bands down here, you never really know what you are going to get. But I must say that they were awesome and the crowd made it fun as well. It was a seven-member band and the bar was just this small little bar that was packed with people and a very diverse crowd. I guess the band plays at the same bar every Thursday and Saturday nights so I’m sure I’ll see them again. On my day off on Friday, I took it easy and caught up on some sleep and TV that I hadn’t seen. Some people from work had a BBQ Friday night which was fun, but pretty low-key as most of us had to work Saturday.

My job for the Saturday of the October Build (Oct. 11) was to be in our warehouse and get it setup for the volunteer groups to return all of their supplies at the end of the day. That really didn’t take too long, so the warehouse manager and I drove around to about 15 of the 30 houses we working on and visited with the volunteer groups to see how they were doing. It was pretty cool to see how much work a group of 20 people can get done in a couple of days. Most of the houses weren’t finished as far as our supervisors would have liked, but I think that was to be expected. Once the last volunteer group came back with their tools and supplies, the Director of Rebuilding Together New Orleans thanked us for our efforts and brought out beer for us all to drink together in the warehouse. It was definitely a nice way to end the October Build project. Most of us were pretty wiped out Saturday night and didn’t go out, myself included. The next day, I went to my new usual spot, Cooter Brown’s, to watch the Bears game. Now that the season is a couple of months old, I’ve started to see the same people at the bar every week, which makes it more fun.

Before I left work on Saturday, I was told that I was finally getting out of the warehouse (after three weeks) and back out in the field. On Monday (Oct. 13), I was assigned with three other people to go out to this farm and help clean it up because it’s being converted into an urban gardening training facility. I guess what that means is that they are using the farm to teach people how to garden different plants and crops and do it in a way that is “green” (I don’t really understand the whole project, but that’s okay). So we spent the day cutting razor and barbed wire off the fence on the perimeter of the garden because it needed to be reinstalled. There were wasps flying around everywhere which didn’t really help my attitude for the day. I’m down here to help the people and the community, but I don’t get paid enough and it’s not worth it to me to be working near huge wasps nests. We all kind of gave up on that project and spent the rest of the day digging up old concrete which was a pretty good workout. I was definitely happy when Monday was over and to learn that I didn’t have to go back out to the farm. For the next three days, I was with a team of three others, installing hardwood floors into two different homes. The other people I was working with had done this before so they showed me to how to do it and it was a really fun thing to learn how to do. It’s a pretty tedious process because the boards are pretty thin and there is a lot of cutting involved to make certain pieces fit. Overall, it is a great skill to learn and I’ve been having a good time with it and with the people I’ve been working with. I think I’ll probably get to do a little bit more flooring this week but I’m not completely sure. We had meetings on Friday that gave us the information for the Starbucks project that is coming up. Starbucks is bringing down 4,000 volunteers for three days at the end of the month which is going to be even crazier than this October Build project we just finished up. I’ll get into more details about the Starbucks project once I get the details but I know it’s going to be a busy few weeks ahead.

Because of all of the hours we have been working, we were given today (Monday) off, making it a nice three day weekend. Thursday night, I went to a Mexican restaurant (Felipe’s) with a buddy and ate a delicious burrito, had a few dollar drafts, and watched a little bit of the Red Sox-Rays game. We ended up staying for awhile and talking to the couple (Derrick and Jane) sitting next to us. They have lived in New Orleans their entire lives and we were just talking to them about what our organization does and what specifically we do. It was great to see their reactions because they didn’t really know much about Rebuilding Together but just thought it was such a great thing and by the end of sitting with them, they were interested in getting a volunteer group together. I really enjoy talking about what I’m doing right now and the organization. Rebuilding Together has such a long way to go but I, as well as all of the other members, like telling others about the organization and take a great pride in helping it get better. It’s nice to talk to others about something you enjoy doing and an organization that is helping out so many people. Derrick was also telling us how he works with the electrical equipment for the New Orleans Saints and how his main job during a game is to be on the visitors sideline making sure the coach’s headset is working properly. He said he was on the sideline for the Saints opening game against the Buccaneers and that John Gruden spent the entire game swearing and screaming at the quarterback, Jeff Garcia. I guess John Gruden is just as nuts in person as it appears on television. Derrick was hoping to go with the team on their upcoming trip to London but didn’t think he would get to go. We tried to see if he could get us tickets to a game or into the locker room but didn’t think he could (or probably just didn’t want to). They were a lot of fun to talk to and we gave them Rebuilding’s information before we left so that they could call to volunteer.

The rest of the weekend was pretty standard. I went out with people from work for awhile after Felipe’s and was pretty tired for our meetings the next day. Friday night, I went to a bar called The Maple Leaf to see another band play. They were just okay, but it was good to get out of the house because had I not gone to see this band, I probably would have just ended up staying in. During the day Saturday, I rode my bike around for a little while (the thing is such a piece of shit, but I guess that’s what I get for spending $75 on a bike). That night, a person that works in the office had a party at her house for a bunch of people which turned out to be a lot of fun. It was the first time that I noticed that it was starting to get a little colder out at night, and when I got there, she had a cool bonfire going in her backyard.

I think I’ve made it through my blogger’s block enough to put together a decent posting (not my best, I know). I’ll get myself back on track with the next posting because there’s a lot going on over the next few weeks. So I will be sure to keep posting and deliver it with the special Adam (I’m a no nickname guy down here, which is awesome) “touch” that I usually have.

October Build

2008-10-09T17:27:00.001-05:00

This is a picture of the house I worked on last Friday and Saturday, along with the volunteers and Mr. Leonard Jones.

It's October?

2008-10-08T23:11:00.002-05:00

Many of you may be wondering why it has taken me so long to post. I want to assure you that I have not forgotten about this blog and all of you. It was really that I just wanted to let my last posting ((Dis)Orientation) to really set in. It was a very important post and one that I was very proud of, so I wanted to make sure that you had plenty of time to read and re-read it before moving on with my next post.

Anyways, life has been pretty good down here lately. Luckily, I am a thousand miles away from anything relating to the Chicago Cubs or else I'd probably be much more depressed. That's all I'm going to say about that. I have been super busy with work. Last weekend and this upcoming weekend (and October in general) is the busiest time of the year. We had around 25 volunteer groups working on 25 houses last weekend and it will be about the same this weekend (many of the groups work both weekends, so it's not actually 50 volunteer groups). The past couple of weeks I have been working in our warehouse getting supplies, tools (you all know who you are, kidding, I meant real tools, like saws and such), and material ready for our weekend builds. It has been pretty intense at the warehouse and at work in general to make sure the weekend builds go off without any problems. On Friday and Saturday, I was house captaining about 10 Tulane MBA volunteers each day. Our project was to caulk the exterior of the house in order to weather-proof the house (prevent water from seeping in through the sides of the house), paint over the caulked areas, and prime and paint the new framing around the windows that were recently put in. It was a great experience leading these volunteers. They didn't work as hard as I would have liked but they had a good time (at least that's what they said). The house we worked on was a double shotgun house (which means that in you have to walk through one room to get into the next room). The homeowner lived on one side and was fixing up the other side to rent out. I was able to spend sometime with Mr. Leonard Jones throughout the weekend and he was very thankful and appreciative of the job we were doing for him. I think if he could have gotten up on the ladder himself, he would have been painting right there with us (unfortuantely he was a little too old).

The most interesting conversation I had with Mr. Jones was his Katrina story. He had sent his family to Texas a few days before the storm but decided to stay back. Hours before the storm hit, he walked to the Superdome (which was probably about a mile or two) from his house and decided to leave his car behind (which he now regrets). He was at the Superdome for three days
and said he didn't think he could last in there another day. There was so much chaos, people everywhere, terrible food, and nothing to do. Luckily, he was transported to the airport and flown to Mobile, where he stayed with his sister. He didn't really say how long he was there but said when he got back that you could see the water line was all the way up past the top of his front door, which is pretty amazing. Talking to Mr. Jones and the other homeowners I have been able to so far is one of the aspects of the job I like more than anything else. In talking to these people, you really get a sense of how much these people love and care about their city and how they want it to be rebuilt back to the way it was. If you are interested in learning more about our October Build project, you can click on the following link, http://prcno.org/utilities/news/1035.

It took me a few weeks of work to start to feel settled in. I'm finally getting to a point where I don't feel exhausted everyday after work. The past couple Mondays, a bunch of people from work get together and play beach volleyball at this really cool bar that has tons of courts and cheap beer. I'm not horrible at it which is nice (a lot of the girls are worse, which doesn't make me feel totally inadequate). We also played barefoot soccer, while drinking, in City Park a couple of weeks ago. The park is really a cool park besides the mosquitos and is where the Voodoo Music Festival will be at the end of the month. I think a lot of the people in the program are still getting to know each other, so we all aren't great friends yet but are definitely becoming more comfortable around each other. Now that I feel settled, I definitely need to start looking for other activities or things to do that will make it easier to meet people. It's a new situation so I'm just trying to feel it out. It definitely hasn't been easy, but I am definitely enjoying the experience and trying to take it in as it comes. It's crazy that it's October because time feels like it's flying and it is still so freakin' hot down here. It's been 85 degrees and muggy everyday down here this week so it definitely doesn't feel like the October I'm used to. I am definitely not complaining though, because besides the past 3 days, it has been beautiful down here.

On a really important note, I also learned this weekend that it is legal to have an open container in the car as long as the driver isn't drinking, which is awesome. So on Saturday, we drove around for a little while drinking in the car, looking for a bar to go to. It's the first time I've legally been drinking in a car (wait a minute, I've never been drinking in a car before).

Anyways, I'm going to go watch highlights of John McCain from the debate last night so that I can get to sleep quickly and not be exhausted tomorrow. Talk to y'all soon (and it won't be so long next time).

(Dis)Orientation

2008-09-16T21:40:00.001-05:00

Sorry it has taken so long for me to post, but I’ve been pretty busy and worn out this last week.

After the Saints game during the day last Sunday, my week-long orientation began Sunday night at the Marriott hotel in downtown New Orleans. Just so all of you have a better understanding of the organization; there are 25 of us volunteering with Rebuilding Together New Orleans. There are 20 people that are on one grant, and me and four others on another grant. The five of us on the grant together are part of national Rebuilding Together, which had its orientation for the five of us, and 35 other new volunteers. It’s kind of confusing, if you really care, I can explain in more detail if you would like. The first night of orientation was pretty standard. We were introduced to everyone and served dinner. A few of the higher-ups at Rebuilding Together spoke to us and gave some pretty inspiring speeches. To see how passionate these people were definitely left a little impression on me and had me thinking I made a good decision in coming down here. The impact Rebuilding Together makes all over the country was even greater than I had thought. One woman told us a few stories about the home owners she encountered and to hear what they had to go through put the whole program in perspective. We really are helping people who can’t afford to live in a safe and healthy home.

Anyways, Monday was a pretty boring day of orientation because we pretty much just went over the policies and procedures we’ll need to follow for the year. I went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for lunch, which was delicious and a cool experience. Since I love Forrest Gump, I liked the trivia questions the waitress was throwing at us (though I surprisingly didn’t know all of them). At night, we had a scavenger hunt around the French Quarter that seemed pretty stupid. So the people in my group made a horrible attempt at it and instead went to The Coco Club which had a house band that was really good. They were a family band covering a lot of good songs of all genres and added their own funk to it. One of the guys in the band rapped a little in some of the songs and then busted out the trumpet on the other. It was pretty cool. I have to say (and I know I’ve bragged to Matt Pais too much) that the music down here is so good. There are so many places to see music and if you are open to it, it’s so nice going out and seeing different kinds of music.

Tuesday was more of the same from Monday. I found a lot of the icebreaker and activities that they had planned and a lot of the discussions pretty interesting. We had a pretty deep discussion about poverty on Wednesday and who is considered to be in poverty, the reason why poverty exists, and what we can do to fix it. The discussion definitely got me going and I was pretty into it and offered a lot of my opinions on the matter. If you are interested in discussing with me, I’d be glad to. I just don’t feel like rehashing the entire discussion in this post but I will say that I found it to be a great discussion. For the afternoon, we were split into three groups and went out to different worksites. The five of us from New Orleans went to a site together which was nice, and two of the other volunteers in the New Orleans program were there too. We learned how to insulate a house which I can say first hand is not fun. That stuff is hard to cut and there are little pieces of fiber glass that get into your skin and are very itchy. It was great seeing how much work we got done in a half day Wednesday and a full day Thursday. One of the things I really like about this process is that, at the end of the day, I can look around the house and see what the team got done for the day. It’s nice being able to physically see what you have accomplished in a day. After our workday on Wednesday, we took a drive around the Ninth Ward (the part of New Orleans most devastated by Hurricane Katrina) and spoke with a few of the community leaders. There are so many empty lots where houses used to be that you really can’t believe it until you see it. We didn’t see that much of the Ninth Ward so I’m hoping to take another tour of it. Another volunteer in the program, Dave, who has spent some time in New Orleans before this, offered to take me around again whenever I want. I’m hoping to do that soon.

We had a good day of orientation on Friday and then everyone went out to bars on Frenchman Street afterwards. The first bar we went to had a seven piece band that was a mix of a jazz and folk band (very hard to explain). After a few hours there, we went to another place where a reggae band was playing. They were sooooo good. The bar was half full (not half empty) when we first got there but was packed by the middle of their set. Everyone from orientation (except for the five of us staying in New Orleans) departed back their home cities on Saturday afternoon. I took a well deserved nap and watched the OSU-USC with some friends and had a pretty relaxed night out.

Sunday, I went to a bar called Cooter Brown’s to watch the Bears game by myself. The bar had all of the noon games on and was packed with all different kind of fans. People would yell but I’d have no idea what TV it was coming from. For the second half, I ended up sitting next to a couple of girls in Bears’ jerseys who were pretty nice. The end of the game sucked so I went home disappointed and got myself ready for my first real week of work.

Orientation was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got to know some pretty cool people from all over the country who have a passion to help others. I enjoyed listening to others explain why they chose to do this program and explaining my reasons as well. If you don’t know already, or want to talk about those reasons more, again, I’d be happy to. After the week of orientation, I really feel good about being down here and know that even though it may be tough at times, I’m ready for this experience and the challenge that comes with it. This last month (almost) has been so crazy but has felt great about my ability to adjust to this new life and things that have come up (though I do miss all of you, ha). That’s it for now. I’ll update again soon. Sorry it has taken so long. I’ll be better. Also, I’m still working on a slideshow of pictures but it’s not working out for me yet so I’m trying to get that figured out. If you want me to send you a CD of pictures when I have a bunch, let me know.

Comin' Home

2008-09-11T20:22:00.003-05:00

What is up y'all? It has been a very long week but even with that, I'm still going to make this an awesome post. So as I left off in my last post, I returned back to New Orleans on Thursday, had my power back on Friday morning (which was nice, except for having to clean out all of the gross food in the freezer and fridge), and went straight back to work on Friday. It was a very hot and humid day and I spent it working outside at our warehouse moving heavy doors and windows around. I got decent color so I was pretty happy about that but was pretty tired by the end of the day. I was planning on going out Friday night but found out at the end of the work day that I was going to have to be back at the train station (where we helped people evacuate) at 8 am on Saturday morning. I got a lot of sleep on Friday night because I was exhausted after a day in the sun. I have found myself slowly gaining more energy but for the first couple of weeks, it was hard to have the energy to do much after work. There are definitely things on the agenda that I need to get going but have been a bit worn down. I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning but couldn't find breakfast anywhere because Walgreens and the gas station near me were still closed. I arrived at the train station and it was relatively quiet. My first job was to unload MRE's (Meals Ready-to-Eat) from a truck, which was provided by the Red Cross. Originally, we were told to put two boxes of MRE's on each bus going back into the city but this is where bureaucracy reared its ugly head. At first, we were told to put two boxes of MRE’s on each bus. Then, we were told not to put any on there. And then, we were instructed to give them out, only if people asked for them. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what the actual resolution was because myself, and the rest of the volunteers with my program (about 15 were there that day) were told to assist residents off the buses that they took to evacuate and help them get their bags and onto the buses that were going to take them to their communities. In the morning, we never got a huge rush of buses so it was pretty orderly. It was difficult at times to get people their bags and the correct number of bags. In the afternoon, there were numerous buses coming in at all times, which made things very hectic. People were getting off the buses before we could unload them so there was a lot of yelling and disorganization but we managed to get by. As hard of work that it was, I really enjoyed talking to the people as they came back. Many seemed worn out from the trip. These people evacuated the previous Friday-Sunday, sat in a shelter for a week, and the spent another whole day in a bus getting back. I felt terribly for these people and what they had to go through. What was kind of shocking to me was that people seemed genuinely disappointed that the hurricane wasn’t worse. Their thought was, “Why did I have to leave if the hurricane wasn’t going to be that bad?” I wanted to say, “because at least you are alive and there’s a good chance your house didn’t blow down or flood,” but obviously I didn’t say that. The toughest part of the day Saturday (besides not eating lunch till 1:30, but it was a good Subway sandwich) was seeing how hard it was for the people with special needs to travel and what they had to go through just to stay safe. Three people died on the way out of New Orleans just from having to go through the evacuation process. It felt really good to help these people out and when they weren’t screaming at us to get us their bags, or a wheelchair, or a cart, they seemed genuinely appreciative that we were there helping them. I’m not just saying this because I was a part of this, but if it wasn’t for our program (Rebuilding Together), bringing people back into the city would have been so much worse. The National Guard, the New Orleans Police Department, FEMA, and the Red Cross barely did anything. The Red Cross had 5 people standing around water handing it to people on the way out. We got over 12,000 people back in between Friday and Saturday and I can’t imagine how it would have gone without us. It makes me question these organizations and their commitment to serving. I’m not saying that these organizations don’t help people, but they are extremely disorganized and don’t understand how to handle situations. It made me feel proud to be a part of an organization that was able to be effective and efficient and help these people. Our program director was very happy with our efforts and how they day turned out. She took us out for beers afterwards, which was nice after a ten and a half hour Saturday. I came home, showered, had a light dinner, and went to some friends’ house. We had a few beers and were going to try and go out for the night but were all far too tired and never made it out.

I woke up Sunday and someone from my program called me and told me he had a free ticket to the New Orleans Saints game that started at noon. We had discussed the ticket the previous day but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. So when he decided he didn’t want to, I jumped at the chance to go. I ended up going with two other girls from my program. Both of these girls are very nice and very into volunteering and into the program which I respect but I don’t really know how much we have in common and didn’t have a ton to talk about. Nonetheless, I had a good time at the game. It gets insanely loud inside the Superdome (which I learned is the biggest dome in the United States). After being so used to Soldier Field, the inside is just alright and I feel like could use some renovations. At one point during the game, I definitely got caught up in thinking about what it was like in there during Hurricane Katrina and that people walked miles in deep water just to get there and was stuck there for days. But then Drew Brees threw his second touchdown pass which got me back to thinking about how he was killing my team in fantasy football. I was happy the Saints won because with Gustav and the possibility at the time of Ike, the city needed something good. Getting out of the Superdome was insane. What usually would be a ten minute ride home, turned into over an hour. I feel like my whole life (dating back to my days long ago at Ernst & Young) is sitting in traffic. When this whole thing is done, I’m going to write a book about my experience and call it “Avoiding Traffic” (not really, but maybe I will). Anyways, I got back home and had to get ready for orientation which started at 5 p.m. This is where I’m going to leave off for now. I’ll get into orientation in my next posting. It has definitely been an interesting week so far. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from those of you who I haven’t yet, and I’ll try and get in touch with you all as well. Have a good one.

Sepetmeber 2008 Pictures

2008-09-11T07:21:00.002-05:00

Flickr: Organize your photos & videos

Ee-Vack-You-Way-Shun

2008-09-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

What seems like a month ago, was actually last Sunday. I woke up around 4 a.m. in order to get to the office by 5 a.m. and the New Orleans train station by 6 a.m.. Our task was to get the residents of New Orleans on the buses and out of the city. Everyone from my program who was there (this wasn't mandatory, only people who wanted to stay back and help were there) got their assignments for the day. My assignment was to hand water out to people before they got on the buses. I have to admit, before the whole thing started, I expected there to be mass chaos but everything was organzied every well. The residents were able to get through the line pretty quickly and off on their way. The whole experience was very interesting and humbling. Many residents were in pretty low spirits and I definitely heard a few people say that they wouldn't be coming back to New Orleans if the hurricane turned out to be bad. Most of the people taking the buses out of town came from the "swamps" as we were joking. But I really felt bad for these people. There were a lot of people who looked strung out on drugs and came from the worst areas of the city. Many of them were carrying as much as their arms could carry and some people barely had anything. They had travelled all day with their stuff just to get to the train station. Then, spend the next few hours on a bus out of town so that they could sit at a shelter for the next week, waiting to come back. Just handing them water and maybe making their day a little bit better made me feel like I was doing something. It was definitely a difficult day seeing these people and knowing how bad of shape the city is in and the effort it's going to take to turn it around.

We went back to our offices around 3 p.m. and rested up for a bit and ate in order to get ready to evacuate ourselves. Our plan was to head to Atlanta. I was driving with two other guys, one of which didn't have a license so was pretty much useless (and later turned out to be pretty annoying because why is someone who has no license a passenger seat driver?). We left at 4:30 and drove about 60 miles without any traffic, then the fun started. As contra-flow had stopped around 5 p.m., we went about 10 miles in the next three hours. I felt like I was driving home from Lake Forest on a Friday, only worse. On a normal day, we should have gotten to Atlanta in about 7 hours. We pulled into the house we were staying at around 8:30 a.m., 15 hours later. I honestly don't know how I made it through my 3:15-6:00 a.m. shift but we made it. There were about 12 of us staying in two different houses in Atlanta. My supervisor knew a couple of families in Atlanta so I stayed at one of the homes. I slept until about 4:30 in the afternoon and then went to a BBQ at the other house people were staying at. The family was really welcoming and had a nice house. We ate on the back deck and the house had a very southern feel to it. Both houses did. A lot of flowers on the couches and blinds. The back deck had nice furniture and lights outside. There were woods in the back of both houses. I almost felt like I was back at camp. It was nice.

The next day (Tuesday) we were given the option to return to New Orleans as first-responders back in the city (leaving at 3 p.m.) and help people return. Everyone except for me, and two others (Pat and John, who I mentioned in a previous post) wanted to get back. But given the long drive we just had, and the fact that I wasn't going to have power, I wasn't in the mood to hurry home. So everyone else headed back, and we stayed with John's aunt, who lived in Atlanta. I dropped my car off at her place and then we headed into downtown Atlanta. There really isn't much to see in Atlanta, I realized. We walked around the business district, went to the Olympic Park (the 1996 games were held in Atlanta for those that don't remember), and walked through the CNN Center. Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola Factory had closed. After walking around for awhile, we stopped at a pub, had a few beers and watched the U.S. Open. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. The next night Judith (John's aunt), Patty (Judith's neighbor and one of the most narotic Jewish women I've ever met), John, Pat, and I all BBQ'd and watched Sarah Palin's speech (don't get me started on that). Between the first family I stayed with and Judith, they were both so welcoming and took great care of us. They both made us feel right at home and probably even went overboard in looking after us. I almost didn't even mind being "displaced" for a couple days, though I was looking forward to getting back to New Orleans.

Thursday, we got an early start and about 10 hours later, we returned back home. After this trip to Atlanta, I had put close to 2,500 miles on my car since departing from Chicago two weeks early. Upon my arrival home, I was welcomed with no power. So I took a shower in the dark, grabbed a couple things and stayed at the house down the street (that has 5 people from my program staying there). That pretty much sums up the evacuation and my experience with it. I never really felt too bad for myself because what I was going through wasn't nearly as bad as what many of the residents we helped evacuate had to deal with. I had a nice place to stay and was able to enjoy another city while they sat in a shelter. The whole experience made me feel lucky to have what I do. Well, that's it for now. I'm still trying to catch up on what has been going on and will hopefully do so in the next day or two.

Before I Left

2008-09-03T09:56:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't been able to make any posts over the last couple of days, I'm going to try and write a few over the next couple of days to catch up. Before I was forced to evacuate on Sunday, I had a pretty nice weekend. After work on Friday, I started getting myself ready to evacuate by going to Walgreens and filling up on gas. I went out with two of the other volunteers (Pat and John) to a place called The Blue Nile on Frenchman Street, which definitely seemed like a cool street with a bunch of bars and restaurants. The bar was pretty dead because people had already started to evacuate but there were a couple of bands that played that night (I never got any of their names) that were both really enjoyable. There are so many places to listen to live music in New Orleans so it should be a lot of fun to bounce around and broaden my musical horizons in the next year (I'm already starting to listen to a little more jazz, ha). Unfortunately, Friday night ended without a late-night, disgusting meal since nothing was open but I guess that's okay. There aren't nearly as many restaurants to go to or order from so I've pretty much been cooking almost all of meals which will probably be healthy and help me save some money (although I did just find a burrito place and a wing place down the street from me which could be dangerous). On Saturday, I woke up and had absolutely nothing to do which was a totally liberating feeling. It was nice getting up and knowing that I didn't have to work, I don't really know anyone, and could go and do whatever I wanted. So I ready my little touristy book/guide on New Orleans, got my map and was on my way. St. Charles street is one of the more popular streets in New Orleans and runs in a U-shape. There are a lot of beautiful houses and nice parks off of St. Charles. In New Orleans, it seems like each major street has it's own personality. St. Charles street feels like a nice neighborhood that has small restaurants and shops. I took St. Charles all the way down into the French Quarter, where I hadn't looked around yet. I parked my car close to the Quarter and got out to walk around. The area definitely reminded me of France because of the very narrow streets, the small homes, and the balconies hanging above. I actually wasn't that impressed with the French Quarter. I got myself onto Bourbon Street and it just seemed kind of scummy and dirty and smelled bad. Maybe it will look better and be better at night but we'll see. There seemed to be a lot of jazz clubs which was cool but a lot of the bars and clubs there seemed shady. I'll definitely go back and give it a chance but I wasn't that impressed with what I saw. I walked through a couple of parks which was nice and sat down and listened to some music along the Mississippi River and watched boats go by. I stumbled upon Cafe Du Monde, which is a famous coffee shop in New Orleans. They are famous for their Beineigts (that's probably not how it's spelled) and Cafe au Lait which were both delicious. It was definitely a nice afternoon treat and very cheap. For anybody that visits, that is definitely a spot we'll have to check out. I walked around for a little while longer and then went home and took a nap for a bit. I found out that I would have to be ready to help with the evacuation at 5 a.m. the next day and since everything else was closed, I took it easy Saturday night and watched college football (damn the Illini). I will try and make another post tomorrow about helping with the evacuation which was an incredibly interesting experience that I want to share. My hands are just getting a little tired now so I'll either do that this afternoon or tomorrow.

Man with the (evacuation) Plan

2008-08-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

It looks like if and when Hurricane Gustav approaches the Lousiana coastline, I will be heading east to Atlanta. Myself, as well as many of the other volunteers in the program, will be staying back to help assist with the evacuation by getting residents on trains and buses. That is all I really know about it at this point but will know more in the next day or so, exactly what I will be doing to help with the evacuation. About 12-18 hours before Gustav is set to hit Lousiana, we will be taking off towards Atlanta where I guess we have free housing and food set for us. I’ve never been to Atlanta and think it could be fun to bum around the city for a couple of days. At this point, everything is unknown because the path of Gustav may change over the next couple of days. It seems nobody really knows where it is going to hit but I have been hearing on the news that it may land in Houston as opposed to Lousiana. Keep watching the news for information. Today is actually the third anniversary of Katrina (and the 32nd anniversary of Allen and Barbara’s holy union – woo woo) which is crazy because there is still so much left to be done here and now there’s another hurricane fast approaching. From what I’m hearing, it seems like the city, as well as FEMA, is much more prepared this time around as evacuation plans are set and food and water are ready to be brought in. Anyways, I just wanted to give an update of what was going on with the hurricane and my evacuation. I’m pretty tired right now after a long week of painting, chopping wood, moving heavy doors and windows, cleaning our warehouse, etc., so it’s a short post today. I’m going to take a little nap right now before figuring out what to do tonight. I’ll make another post before/if I head to Atlanta.

No Mucho Gustav

2008-08-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

Well, after only five days down in the Big Easy, it seems life over the next few days is going to be anything but that. Hurricane Gustav, which is currently over Haiti right now is headed towards the Gulf Coast. The hurricane is expected to hit the U.S. somewhere between the Florida panhandle and south Texas on Sunday afternoon. My program has set up an evacuation plan for us where we can either drive out ourselves or take a train towards Memphis on Saturday morning. As of now, if we have to evacuate, I’m planning on parking my car at the train station and heading towards Memphis with other people in the program. The chance of the Hurricane hitting New Orleans is still unknown. I’m not really that concerned for my own safety at this point as it seems that Rebuilding Together has a pretty good plan ready for us. Also, it seems like the city is fully prepared and ready to handle an evacuation that could begin as early as tomorrow night. I am worried about how this Hurricane could affect the city of New Orleans. Many people who left New Orleans after Katrina still haven’t come back and another hurricane would mean even less people would probably return. The city is in bad enough shape already that another hurricane would be devestating. Also, I fear that a major hurricane (they are predicting a possible Category 3 or 4) would greatly impact my opportunity with Rebuilding Together. I have just gotten started and don’t know what would happen with the program if we are not allowed to return to New Orleans for an extended period of time. Right now, it’s too early to tell but I should no more by tomorrow or Friday.

My first few days on the job have been a great learning experience. My last post discussed my first day which included an orientation. On Tuesday, I got down and dirty and went to a home that I will be working on for the next couple of weeks. The house is a 4 room, shotgun house (meaning you have to walk through one room to get to the next room) and I spent a lot of time applying primer to the walls and painting. We also had to move a lot of different things to clear space and get the rooms ready to be painted. I probably would have had to walk to and from the copier about 5,000 times at Ernst & Young to equal the physical labor of one day with Rebuilding Together. It felt good to get out there and sweat from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. If this doesn’t get me into shape, I don’t know what will. Today, I had First Aid training in the morning which was at the Trinity Christian Community (TCC) Center. As soon as I walked in, I saw a picture that said “Jesus will save you,” so I knew I was in the right place. Many of the other volunteers applied through the TCC and the TCC is paying their living stipend and in charge of their progress. At the First Aid training, I was there with 7 other people, all who applied through the TCC. It was one of the first times in my life I really felt different than everyone else. At home, almost all of my friends and all of the people I associate with are similar to me. It was a very strange feeling to be, in a sense, the minority. I’m not Christian or Catholic and I didn’t just graduate college like many of the other volunteers. I feel a little self-conscious because of it also makes me feel good to be different because I know that many of the others haven’t met too many people like me. I have a lot to learn from them but feel that I can offer a lot to them. Anyways, the First Aid Training was very informative. I’m well on my way to being a doctor (harris), kidding. We did learn basic CPR and how to treat injuries and I feel better suited to handle an injury or emergency. With volunteers counting on us, it is important for us to be able to respond to situations that arise. The end of the day had me moving and organizing broken window frames and front doors in our scrapyard, and paint in our warehouse. It has certainly been an interesting first few days and I hope the experience can continue uninterrupted. I will keep you posted and hopefully Gustav stays away.

First Day at Work

2008-08-25T18:24:00.000-05:00

Today, I woke up early (6:15 a.m. is early for a guy who hasn’t had to get up in the past two weeks, which was nice by the way) and got to work by 7:45 where I was met by the other volunteers and a large semi-truck filled with packages of insulation. I said hello to my supervisor and asked her where the gloves were and spent the next hour helping the others move the insulation into the warehouse. At 9:00, I was told I had to go over to our offices with another one of the volunteers since we both missed some of the presentations that were given last week. The first presentation was done by the director of the Rebuilding Together Program. Just to give a little background, Rebuilding Together New Orleanse is a program within the Preservation Resource Center (PRC). Rebuilding Together is comprised of staff members on salary, AmeriCorps Vistas who mainly work in the office working with homeowners, sponsors, obtaining grants, etc. I am an AmeriCorps Direct who will be a House Captain. My role, at least what I know of it so far, is to lead the volunteers that come down to New Orleans so that they know where they need to go and what they need to be doing. I’ll get into more detail about my job once I figure it out myself. The Director of Rebuilding Together, Kristen, gave us a brief introduction to the architecture of the city. Houses in New Orleans were built based on who was occupying them and where it was located. For instance, many houses built in the French Quarter and occupied by the French were Victorian cottages. It was pretty interesting to learn about the architecture since I have no real background in it. I tried to remember as much as I could but I’m still learning. I think once I begin working on houses, I’ll start to have a better idea. Kristen also talked a lot about Hurricane Katrina and the affect that it’s had on this city. I didn’t realize how bad things were down here at the time of the hurricane and how slowly things are moving. She talked about how long it took FEMA to get down here and how there was complete failure at every level of our government. In the efforts to restore the city, Rebuilding Together and the PRC are making it their mission to restore neighborhoods and the communities in New Orleans. They are very specific in working to bring back the people who already lived in New Orleans before the hurricane. The city has lost approximately 35% of its population since the hurricane and the program is doing what it can to bring back those who resided here. Rebuilding Together works with low-income elderly, disabled, and first responders to get them back in the house that they lived in before the hurricane, which is the main difference between Habitat for Humanity, which completely rebuilds houses (not necessarily for low-income homeowners). There are so many problems down here, I can’t even begin to tell you. Kristen was telling us that people are very passionate about living in the houses the way they used to be. Her presentation was very informative and gave me a greater sense about exactly what is going on in the city. I feel like I could go on for a little while so maybe I will in future posts. I have attached a couple links that provide more information on Hurricane Katrina if anybody is interested. Also, I have included some interesting New Orleans facts.

http://neworleans-hurricanekatrina.com/

Hey Everyone

2008-08-24T10:27:00.000-05:00

So I have finally made it to the Big Easy and am writing this post from my room in my new house. I left last Thursday night and drove down here with my dad. We drove for about five hours and then stopped in Carbondale, IL to get some sleep and break up the trip. We hit the road Friday morning and about 10 hours later we were in New Orleans. The only delays on the way down here came from me getting on the wrong highway for a few miles and a car on fire on the side of the road. We finally got to my new house around 6 pm on Friday. The address of the house is 5836 Willow, New Orleans, LA, 70115 for anyone interested. The house is a nice, small place which I will be sharing with two girls who are seniors at Tulane. I've only met one so far for a few minutes and she seems nice but I've barely run into her at all yet. My room is a little smaller than the one I had at my old apartment but I have my own bathroom which is nice (for obvious reasons). I dropped my Dad off at the airport at around 12:30 yesterday and was officially on my own. I'm not going to lie, I am a little freaked out about this whole thing but am keeping positive and know that this experience will be life changing. Shortly after dropping off my Dad, I went to a BBQ that AmeriCorps had for all of the new volunteers. The training for my program actually started last Monday (August 18th) so most of the other volunteers have been down here for a week or two. The BBQ was a good time and I was able to meet a lot of the people. A group of 5 of the other volunteers live in a house (which is definitely nicer than mine, ha...which I'm jealous about) so I went over there last night before going out. Cabs are pretty expensive in this city so it seems like someone is going to need to drive most nights which sucks but I'll have to make do. I went to two bars on Magazine Street, which is a pretty big street down here, with 3 of the other volunteers. We went to The Bulldog which was a pretty laid back place. The main beer down here is Abita and there are all different types (similar to what Goose Island is in Chicago). After The Bulldog, we walked down Magazine Street for a bit, and it was surprisingly pretty dead. I guess most places and restaurants don't stay open late, even on Saturday, I'm not really sure. At Ms. Mae's we watched the first half of the USA Basketball Gold Medal game, stopped at McDonalds since we hadn't eaten in 12 hours, and then headed home. Overall, a good first day. Today, I have to get some groceries since I have no food and get ready for my first day tomorrow, which I'm very excited about. It doesn't seem like I missed too much the first week and will hopefully catch up quickly. Well, that's it for the first post. I'll post again in the next couple of days with an update on what exactly I'll be doing down here and how my first couple days on the job went.