Keep On Keepin' On

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

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

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!

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).