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.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Chillaxin
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/
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/
Friday, April 10, 2009
Slide Shows
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.
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.
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.
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