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.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Holy Mackalaney
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.
“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.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Spring Break Pt.1, St. Patty's Day, and So Much More
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…
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…
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Giving the People What They Want
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
