This is a story from like a month ago and there have been other things to write about between now and then. But I like to do things chronologically, so bear with me.
During third round when I was in Flagstaff, Vaughn said that since the projects department had so many projects they wanted us to do, there was a possibility of forming a composite team or two (where they pull like one or two Corps Members from several different teams to form a new team) that office Team Leaders would lead. I told him I would probably be interested, mostly due to the fact that I felt I was really good at being UDA (and Vaughn had been saying something about how great I was like every week), but being in the field was way more challenging and another round in the field would benefit me more than another round at something I’m already good at. He said he really didn’t want to lose me in the office (which of course I take as a compliment), but that he’d keep that in mind.
It turned out there was only one composite team, which another office TL really wanted, so he got it. Ashley (the STL with the media department), Jourdan (the logistics department STL), T-Lou (short for Therese Louise, the program STL), and myself were selected for a special project in Austin, TX. We found out we were going the first day back in Denver and needed to deploy when the rest of the teams left, so we only had about a week’s notice. Things we didn’t know until maybe three days before we left: where we would live, how long we would be there, how we would eat, what exactly we would be doing, and how we would get there. Things we still didn’t know when we actually arrived in Austin: how long we would be there and what exactly we would be doing. A few days before we left, we found out we would be living in a “converted garage apartment” (I just can’t get away from those garages) called Smoot Cottage on the campus of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary with two beds, a restroom, and a house two feet away with a kitchen we would use. We would have a budget of $4.50 per person per day for food, which is what teams usually get on spike, and would cook in that kitchen nearby. We would be driving the one minivan AmeriCorps has. We were also told that we would be helping set up a call center to be used in times of disaster (hurricanes, etc.) for the whole state of Texas, but had exactly zero other details. No one, including the NCCC staff or the Austin people who were asking us for help, knew how long we would be there. It was pretty much just that we would leave when we were done. The best estimate anyone could come up with was two to four weeks.
We set off on the same Monday morning when all the teams left, feeling very much like we were going on family vacation in our minivan. We got there Tuesday evening and met Liz, the President and CEO of the organization we would be working with. She actually used to be the Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is in charge of all AmeriCorps programs. (Side note: I now kind of want to become a Chief Operating Officer someday, just so I can add “COO” after my name. I had never heard of that title or seen that acronym before.) So she knows all about AmeriCorps and LOVES NCCC. She calls us the Green Berets of AmeriCorps.
Wednesday morning, we showed up for our first day of work. We were put in a small conference room (the table could only seat six people), each given laptops, and told that this would be our work space. Liz told us that one of the biggest problems with disaster response is unaffiliated volunteers. That seems strange at first, but totally makes sense when you think about it. Liz basically said it can be more if a hindrance than a help when “Dickie Bob and his friends jump in their truck with their three dogs and a chainsaw and head down to Alabama and say they want to help.” (That most likely wasn’t the exact wording, but Dickie Bob, his three dogs, and his chainsaw were definitely involved in her scenario, and we thought it was hilarious.) This call center would not be for people affected by the disaster who needed help, because they already have the 2-1-1 hotline. Our call center would be for Dickie Bob to call and ask what he can do, so he could be matched with a specific organization that could put him to work. It had not been decided yet if our call center would also be for people to call and say they have a microwave and five bags of clothes they want to donate and ask where they can send it. The Department of Child and Family Services, or Department of Child Protective Services, or Department of Family Protective Services (I can’t actually remember the name, but I feel like the acronym is DFPS, so let’s assume it’s that last one) was supposed to be setting up and running this call center, but they changed their minds. The task was then sent to Liz, who asked for NCCC to help. After she explained all of this to us, we thought about what kind of tasks it seemed like would need to get done and attempted to divide the work into four parts. Jourdan would put together a list with contact information for all volunteer disaster services in Texas, T-Lou and Ashley would work on scripts for volunteers to use for answering phones, and I would work on finding out what software and equipment such as phones, phone lines, and computers would be available and what we would need.
Liz was absolutely wonderful and helped us as much as she possibly could. This is the President and CEO we’re talking about here. She did some of her own research and scheduled a couple conference calls and meetings for us with various people, and let us in on a crazy meeting where we had a projector hooked up to a computer that was somehow showing the computer screen of the guy in Washington DC (maybe?) who was running the meeting, so we could see his presentation and see him move his mouse around to point at things as he talked on speakerphone. Technology these days, I tell ya. Anyway, most of what we found out was that this was going to be an ENORMOUS job that we didn’t actually have any idea how to do. We spend most of our time in that room attempting to do research on other states’ disaster services, other call centers, etc., but the more we found out, the more it overwhelming it seemed.
We were scheduled to have a couple meetings with I don’t even remember who anymore on Friday afternoon. While we were out wandering the city during our lunch hour like we always did (and by always, I mean for the three lunch hours we had there), Liz emailed us and said that the meetings were canceled and could we please come to her office when we get back from lunch. When we got there she told us that she informed whoever needed to be informed that she refused to do the call center. She assured us that it had nothing to do with us and that we were wonderful. She said there were just too many state organizations and other non profits who were involved (which is the main reason it became so overwhelming for us, because it was really difficult for us to tell who all was involved and what we needed from them) and that none of them were making decisions. Also, her organization’s budget (which I think comes from the state, but I’m not entirely sure) had recently been cut by like 84% and they were having to let go of eight or nine of their 22 staff members, so they just didn’t have the money or the manpower to take on this big of a project. These other organizations just weren’t coming through with allotting a budget, giving authority, and in general just making decisions the way they were supposed to. We talked with Liz for quite a while about her life and how she got to where she was. She’s really kind of incredible. And she said that one of the most important lessons she’s learned is when to cut her losses and say no to things. With all these organizations not doing what they were supposed to, she felt like our time was being wasted because we couldn’t actually move forward on things. She said our time was too valuable and she couldn’t stand feeling like she was the one wasting it, so she told the state (or whoever) that she wouldn’t do the call center unless all these other things happened first. And she told us that we were free to go back to Denver whenever we wanted to. So instead of working on this project 2-4 weeks, we worked 2.5 days. We called our various Unit Leaders and told them that we could come back whenever, but since we had only been there 2.5 days, we’d really like to be able to leave Austin on Monday so we have a little time to explore and so our entire weekend isn’t taken up with driving since it’s a two-day trip. They agreed, so we got to spend the weekend in Austin!
The weekend was pretty fun. Unfortunately, I don’t quite feel comfortable telling the best story of the weekend (which occurred after a rally on Saturday morning with all the various AmeriCorps people on the steps of the capitol to celebrate the end of AmeriCorps Week) on a public blog because it involves some public people, but please feel free to ask me privately. It’s nothing too embarrassing for anyone, I just don’t want to post it on the internet.
Other highlights of the weekend:
The bats! Underneath the Congress Street Bridge in Austin is home to the largest bat population in the country, or something special like that. Every night at dusk, a couple hundred people gather both on top of the bridge and in the park next to the bridge to watch the millions of bats all pour out at once. We got there about 45 minutes before it started and we could hear all the bats under there making their eerie screeching sound, and then they all came out to start their night of hunting. It was crazy. Millions of bats just fly out from under this bridge and all head the same direction. We left about 20 minutes after it started and there were STILL bats coming out. I wish I had internet right now as I’m typing this so I could look up how many bats live under there. (I’m doing like I did last year in New Orleans, and typing this in a Word document at my internetless housing and saving it until I get internet and can post it.)
Jourdan and I went to something called the Renegade Craft Fair on Saturday. It was like a regular craft fair, but slightly funkier and geared toward a younger crowd. I bought some earrings from a guy who makes jewelry out of broken skateboards.
Ashley and I went to breakfast on Sunday morning at Austin Java while T-Lou and Jourdan went on like a 10-mile run. I had breakfast at Austin Java twice with TK and Lindsey last year when a bunch of people went to Austin for spring break. It is SO GOOD. If you ever find yourself in Austin, it’s at 2nd and Lavaca. Seriously. I saw other places in the city called Austin Java, but they looked different and I can’t speak to the quality of these other ones, but 2nd and Lavaca is delicious.
That afternoon, we went swimming at Barton Springs Pool. It’s like a natural spring pool that they built walls around. Or something. And by “went swimming,” I mean swam for like 15 minutes then laid out in the sun for an hour and a half. Jourdan and T-Lou both went in another time or two, but I just soaked up some vitamin D. And yet, I’m still as pale as ever.
We stopped for the night on the way back to Denver on Monday in Amarillo, which is really close to where T-Lou is from. She insisted that we go to Palo Duro Canyon. Ashley didn’t feel like it, but the other three of us went. I didn’t quite feel like doing the hike that T-Lou and Jourdan wanted to do, so I just drove the giant loop road through the park then sat and watched the beginning of the sunset at a nice overlook spot. We were there at like 6pm so there were hardly any other people. I was alone at that overlook spot for quite a while. It was really nice. I love sunsets.
So that’s the Austin Adventure. Then we all came back to Denver and went back to our regular jobs in the office. Until, that is, I got sent off on my next unexpected, not-much-notice adventure. This post is getting to be quite long, so that story will have to wait for another time. Here’s a hint though: I’m not in Denver right now.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Do You Know What Tumbleweeds Taste Like?
Because I do. And the reason why is most of my team's favorite task at this project so far.
So a couple times before, a Park Service guy has come to take three people away to Wupatki to clear tumbleweeds from a barbed wire fence. Sounds thrilling, right? Both times, the group came back talking about how fun it is. Or maybe not fun, but satisfying. No one really got it. But last week, most of the rest of us got a chance to do it.
There's a really long barbed wire fence about half to three-quarters of a mile from the highway. So we park on the side of the highway, put on our aggressively bright orange vests, and hike on out there with our rakes and McLeods (which is pronounced like McLoud). I found a picture to post because most people probably aren't familiar with McLeods, but I'm on my govy laptop, which is not the greatest. So you can do it yourself! Just Google Image 'McLeod tool.' Anyway, the wind tends to blow in one direction around here, so tumbleweeds just blow into this one fence all the time. There are antelope in that area and the silly things crawl under the fences when they're running from coyotes instead of jumping over. The Park Service only clears this fence like every five years. Five years of accumulated tumbleweeds is really kind of a lot.
This tumbleweed project works best on the days when the wind is strong enough to push you off balance a little. You can just hack into a thick patch of tumbleweed to loosen it, raise your McLeod, and let the wind whip it over the fence. It's kind of hard to describe why it's so great. It's fun when you get a really big bundle of tumbleweed when the wind is gusting especially hard and you can just watch it fly. It's also so satisfying to walk up to a section of fence with tumbleweeds four feet high and almost two feet thick that you can't even see through, then walk away with it completely cleared. It's also kind of nice to think about helping the antelope out, but I suppose that one comes at the expense of coyotes being able to eat.
The only bad part of the tumbleweed project is that you end up finding super sharp little bits of tumbleweed all over you, including inside your clothes and pockets. And sometimes little pieces can fly into your mouth. They don't really taste like anything, but your mouth is a fairly unpleasant place for tumbleweed to be. But everyone, including me, still loves doing tumbleweeds. We get excited when we hear that's what we'll be doing today. And there was one time when our regular supervisor said he thought we were doing tumbleweeds, everyone got excited, then the guy we were actually working with that day said we were doing something different. That was a disappointed team right there. (Luckily, the other project was right by a road and was deemed unsafe after only a couple hours by our regular supervisor due to the especially strong wind, so he sent us to go do tumbleweeds. Yay!)
So a couple times before, a Park Service guy has come to take three people away to Wupatki to clear tumbleweeds from a barbed wire fence. Sounds thrilling, right? Both times, the group came back talking about how fun it is. Or maybe not fun, but satisfying. No one really got it. But last week, most of the rest of us got a chance to do it.
There's a really long barbed wire fence about half to three-quarters of a mile from the highway. So we park on the side of the highway, put on our aggressively bright orange vests, and hike on out there with our rakes and McLeods (which is pronounced like McLoud). I found a picture to post because most people probably aren't familiar with McLeods, but I'm on my govy laptop, which is not the greatest. So you can do it yourself! Just Google Image 'McLeod tool.' Anyway, the wind tends to blow in one direction around here, so tumbleweeds just blow into this one fence all the time. There are antelope in that area and the silly things crawl under the fences when they're running from coyotes instead of jumping over. The Park Service only clears this fence like every five years. Five years of accumulated tumbleweeds is really kind of a lot.
This tumbleweed project works best on the days when the wind is strong enough to push you off balance a little. You can just hack into a thick patch of tumbleweed to loosen it, raise your McLeod, and let the wind whip it over the fence. It's kind of hard to describe why it's so great. It's fun when you get a really big bundle of tumbleweed when the wind is gusting especially hard and you can just watch it fly. It's also so satisfying to walk up to a section of fence with tumbleweeds four feet high and almost two feet thick that you can't even see through, then walk away with it completely cleared. It's also kind of nice to think about helping the antelope out, but I suppose that one comes at the expense of coyotes being able to eat.
The only bad part of the tumbleweed project is that you end up finding super sharp little bits of tumbleweed all over you, including inside your clothes and pockets. And sometimes little pieces can fly into your mouth. They don't really taste like anything, but your mouth is a fairly unpleasant place for tumbleweed to be. But everyone, including me, still loves doing tumbleweeds. We get excited when we hear that's what we'll be doing today. And there was one time when our regular supervisor said he thought we were doing tumbleweeds, everyone got excited, then the guy we were actually working with that day said we were doing something different. That was a disappointed team right there. (Luckily, the other project was right by a road and was deemed unsafe after only a couple hours by our regular supervisor due to the especially strong wind, so he sent us to go do tumbleweeds. Yay!)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Packing for Nothing
Well. If you've been watching the news, I'm sure you know about all the craziness with Congress not agreeing on a budget. After having continuing resolution after continuing resolution, finally it came down to if there wasn't a budget by last Friday, the government would shut down. And everything the news was saying implied that there really wouldn't be an agreement by then so a shut down looked likely. All NCCC teams were told that if the government shut down on Friday, we all needed to leave and come back to Denver on Saturday morning. So on Friday, in accordance with instructions from both Vaughn and our project supervisor, we packed up our entire campsite. This included everything. People's personal stuff and tents, the kitchen tent the park service provided for us, and all the kitchen equipment from both campus and the park service. This also apparently included my team cooking and eating as much food as possible so it wouldn't be wasted. The plan was to pack up everything, sleep in the maintenance garage, then hit the road as early as possible Saturday morning. It snowed a little on Friday morning, then just stayed cold and really windy for the rest of the day. While no one actually wanted a shut down, people sort of got into road trip mode and started getting used to the idea of spending a few days in Denver, sleeping in a hotel on Saturday night on the way back, and just having a break from camping and the icky weather we've been having. I have to admit I was feeling the same way. (And the theory was that if there was a shut down, it wouldn't be for very long, and we'd all go back to our projects when the government was up and running again, so we probably wouldn't even miss that much work at our projects.) I had to spend some time in town Friday evening finding a hotel for our trip back. After calling 12 hotels and having them either be too expensive or sold out, #13 was a miracle. It would have been far too expensive, but it just happened to be the general manager who I was talking to, and she brought the room prices down about $35 each after we got to talking and I explained the situation. (It helped that she just had a huge group of 25 rooms for several days cancel on her.) She asked what my budget was, and then just said she could make that work. And it would have been pretty nice too, with a hot breakfast that sounded really good and I think a pool and hot tub and everything. If you ever find yourself needing to spend the night in Moab, UT, you should look into staying at La Quinta. So after I made this amazing hotel deal, I went back to the camp site feeling all victorious and excited to tell my team about it. As soon as I got out of the van, my Corps Members told me that Obama came on the radio and said that they had agreed on a budget. I called Vaughn, and he confirmed that yes there was a budget and no we weren't going anywhere. Well let me tell you, my team wasn't happy. They were completely exhausted and cranky from packing everything up and they were really looking forward to a break in Denver and getting to see friends and everything. Most of us went downtown to get some food then we went back and slept in the garage. ...And then woke up Saturday morning to fairly heavy snow with about 6-8 inches on the ground already. My poor team. Obviously, no one wanted to go set up camp again in all that snow, so I called my project supervisor and he said we could just stay in the garage all weekend and set up on Monday. Whew. The main problem now is that everyone packed for just spending one night in a hotel and then being back in Denver, so most of our stuff is buried in the back of our cargo truck and no one wants to dig anything out. So for example, I'm pretty sure no one has showered since at least Friday (Thursday for me) because our towels are packed away. Well, actually, several of them got a hotel room last night, so I would hope they showered there. I want a shower too! So yeah. I think morale might still be a little low. But we're hanging in there. At least the weather is supposed to be better this week. Still fairly cold at night, but nice and sunny during the day. And I think we might be done with that stupid walkway at Wupatki. That thing was really draining people's energy because it was pretty frustrating. So things are looking up!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
My Project!
Well, here I am at my project! North Central Arizona National Monuments in Flagstaff, AZ. I don't even know where to start with this, because I don't have much time. My team got 3-week free passes to the YMCA, and we go pretty much every day. No joke. We get home from work, eat dinner, then go to the Y till it closes at 9:00. I felt like alone time tonight, so I just dropped them off and came to a coffee shop. So much to talk about but so little time! I'll do my best to do a quick summary.
First of all, my team is absolutely wonderful. They work really hard and when I ask them to do something, they just go do it. They're also silly and ridiculous a lot of the time. I got super lucky there. I have 10 people, five male and five female. I think I have the best shuffled team too. Most of the other teams have like four people from one regular team and none from another or something, but I have three pairs of people from the same team, then one from each of the other four teams. It doesn't get any more shuffled than that. I think that's a plus, since it avoids having people only hang out with the people from their regular team who they're really comfortable with.
Second, we live in tents. We have two porta-potties at our campsite and get all our water from a tap on the side on the maintenance yard garage at the nearby Walnut Canyon. You know those Jeff Foxworthy "You might be a redneck if" jokes? We make a lot of "You know you're homeless when" jokes because we wait to brush our teeth and put in contacts if we know we're going to be in a public restroom soon. Also, a few times when it's been super cold at night, we've brought our sleeping pads and sleeping bags into that same maintenance garage to sleep. Yep, we take shelter in a garage when it's too cold to sleep where we normally do.
My project is...interesting. Or something. The scenery is beautiful. We've only worked at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki National Monuments so far, but we'll probably be at a few others before we leave. You should go Google those right now since I don't have any pictures yet. There have been a few frustrations so far though, including:
Job #1 We've Had to Redo: At Walnut, in the parking lot by the visitor center, there was a HUGE dirt pile. Our first task with that was to pull out the pieces of asphalt, concrete, and rock from the dirt and make separate piles. That's right, we sorted rocks. Then we brought out wheelbarrows to bring dirt out to the Rim Trail and spread it out to be like a shoulder off the newly-paved trail. (That's what all the random pieces of asphalt came from.) We thought we were done, then our supervisor walked the trail with me and pointed out all the places that could use more dirt, so we did it again. Then after I had not been on the trail for a while, my team told me they were done again, so I told the supervisor. He then walked the trail with me again and pointed out MORE spots. Bleurgh.
Job #2 We've Had to Redo: At Walnut, we dug up a bunch of signs and moved them to other places along the Rim Trail, which turned out to be much more of an ordeal than it sounds. The ones we had to dig up all had big pieces of concrete on the bottom. Then we were told we could put the in the ground in the new place with the concrete still on, but it turns out there's really no way to make them sturdy that way, so we had to go back and break the concrete off and pour new concrete. I can't really complain because I was off the work site doing paperwork and getting some van maintenance done when they had to do the new concrete, but my team wasn't happy about it.
Job #3 We've Had to Redo: We then moved on to Wupatki. We were met by an archaeologist who explained that there was a historic stone walkway that led up to an employees-only area. The stones all had to be removed last fall because they had to put in a gas line that ran the entire length of the walkway. The archaeologist had taken 40 pictures of the walkway and the stones all got placed on numbered palates, so we would at least have a general idea of what area each stone should go in. The archaeologist didn't have any tools for us and had no idea of the technique for doing this. The project was literally "Here are some pictures of how it used to look. The stones are over there. Make it look like this again." So it began with a massive puzzle, laying the stones out to match the pictures (most of which were super distorted due to the archaeologist being pretty short, so the pictures were taken at a fairly sharp angle). We then spread ourselves out along the walkway to start digging them in once we had tools, but we had a few different opinions of how to go about doing such a thing. We were visited by another archaeologist one day, who went along looking at everyone's work and basically told us we were all doing a good job. The next day, our regular supervisor (who hadn't been with us for several days) informed us that that second archaeologist told him which group he thought was doing it right, and that everyone else would have to redo their work. That walkway was only supposed to take us one of our four-day weeks, but tomorrow will be day # 7 on it because no one told us how to do it at first.
So yeah. My team is generally pretty happy, so even though they get frustrated at having to redo things, everyone's attitude is still pretty good.
If you want to try a fun game, keep an eye on the weather in Flagstaff, then think of my team living in tents/a maintenance garage. There have been some pretty cold nights. I've started amusing myself with counting how many articles of clothing I wear. I frequently get up to 13 at night. That's ridiculous!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Upcoming Project and My Vacationing Suitcase
So. As you may or may not know, part of being an STL (Team Leader working in the office) for the Denver campus of NCCC is that you trade places with a field TL and go out with a team for the third project round, which we call shuffle round because all the teams shuffle up as well. I finally found out my project last week! It was my first choice, even though I was the 11th person to get to choose a project. It's an environmental project at multiple national monuments in and around Flagstaff, AZ. I Googled the ones listed in the project description that we will be working at and they look AWESOME. I was wanting a project in either Arizona or New Mexico all during last year, and now I have one! The only thing is that on the project description sheet, which provided the only information we had before choosing projects, under housing all it says is "Camping." Some other projects said things like "Camping with support trailer" or "Primitive camping," but mine just says "Camping." I'm fine with camping. Big Bend was absolutely my favorite project last year, and I camped for two months for that. I just want a few more details since there are lots of different kinds of camping. Really I just want to know how close we'll be to a bathroom and shower. Is that so much to ask?
The day after I found out my project, I left for Vermont for a long weekend (Thursday to Sunday of last week) visiting my brother, who is in grad school there. I had been wanting to visit and it kind of had to be before I leave for my project (which will be like March 14 I think) because once I leave for that, I won't be back until the middle of May. Obviously, the middle of May is a really bad time for anyone in any kind of school, so I had to go before.
Anyway. So I was flying Southwest, which lets you check bags for free. I don't have a suitcase here in Denver and I haven't checked a bag in like my last 5 flights, but I was able to borrow a nice small rolling suitcase from a friend and thought why not, it's free. I don't like checking bags because I'm a little too paranoid, and especially when you're flying by yourself, it's obnoxious to have to lug all your stuff around to go to the bathroom or get a snack when you don't have someone to watch it for you. So I packed up the little suitcase and dropped it off at the Denver airport. On my first flight, I got a window seat right where they put the conveyor belt to load bags onto the plane. I was staring out the window watching. I was pretty sure I saw my bag go on (it had a bright pink TRANSFER tag, which I saw the bag check lady put on, and said BDL, the Hartford airport), but it was a little black rolling suitcase that looked like every other little black rolling suitcase. The guy next to me said something about how he's had that window seat before, and it's always reassuring when you see your bag go on. I told him I think I saw mine, but I borrowed from a friend so I wasn't sure. Later, we talked about where we were going, and he said he was also going on to Hartford and said we'd have to book it to our connecting flight. I said I'm sure we'll be fine.
So I landed in Chicago, got off the plane, and looked at the monitors to find the gate for m next flight. It said Boarding, but luckily it was only two gates over. A lot of people were already on, but I still managed to get a window seat! (Southwest doesn't assign seats.) As usual, I chatted with the lady next to me a bit. I told her about how I got off the plane and this flight was already boarding, and jokingly said "I hope my bag made onto the plane." She seemed a little worried for me, but I said I'm sure it'll be fine, it was only two gates over.
I land in Hartford, turn my phone on, and see that I have a voicemail. It's someone with Southwest IN SEATTLE telling me that they think they have my bag there, but it has someone else's name on it. They also asked if I see a bag that's not mine with my name on it, to please turn it in. So I went straight down to the Southwest baggage claim office and the very nice lady there said that yes, the computer is saying my bag is in Seattle, but I could go ahead and look on the carousel if I want. I had already talked to Carl and he was running a little late picking me up, so why not. Most bags were already off the carousel by that time and it stopped not long after I got to it, but I did indeed find a little black rolling suitcase with my name on it that I had never seen before. When I went back to the office, the lady said that they could get my bag on the first plane to Hartford and it would get here tomorrow. I said Awesome!, but then remembered that Carl lives two hours away from the airport and I didn't want him or me to have to make that trip again. So she said they could Fedex it and it would get to Vermont on Saturday. I called Carl to get his address, and he reminded me that he lives on campus and they don't do mail on Saturdays. We hung up and he very kindly found a friend that lives off campus and could get mail on Saturdays, and he gave me her address to tell the Southwest people. Before I left, I asked if since I wouldn't get my bag till Saturday, did they give vouchers or anything for like toothpaste or underwear. She gave me a toiletry kit and said that if I bring receipts for buying stuff to replace what would have been in my bag, they would reimburse me up to $50. (Brief tangent: I absolutely do not understand why people get rude and angry in situations like this. This person works in the office. She had nothing to do with it. She seemed very happy that I was still smiling and thanking her even though I was going to be without my bag for like a day and a half.)
We didn't get to Vermont until like 11 that night. Carl had class from 8:30 to 12:30 on Friday morning. He had me drive him to class so that I could keep his car in case I wanted to venture out around town. It was like painfully cold that morning, so I knew that if I went back inside to his room, I wouldn't want to go back out in the cold, so I'd better just do my exploring now. I don't know how, but I found the little downtown area. The roads kept forcing me to turn, so I got confused and had given up and was trying to get turned around to go back to campus, when I saw a building I recognized from driving through downtown last night. Amazing! I had some pretty good breakfast and a cup of tea from a cute little cafe, and by that time it was still cold, but not painful anymore. I found an outdoor store that was having a pretty big sale, and bought some nice wool hiking socks and silk glove liners (which I had kind of been wanting since last year). Those decisions might have been influenced by the cold and my lack of warm clothes. (I had a sweater and my parka, but warm socks, gloves, hat, and a scarf were all in my cross-country suitcase.) Then I walked around a bookstore and decided to go back. While I was getting turned around I saw a used bookstore, which I love, so I had to stop again. I found the three books after "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (which I read in Big Bend last year) for a total of like $10! I got back to campus with perfect timing to check my email and stuff then go to lunch with Carl after his class. After that, he needed a nap due to insomnia the night before, and I went out again to the always hated but sometimes necessary Walmart.
That night, it was one of Carl's best friend's birthday, so we went with like 10 other people to an Indian restaurant. I had never had Indian food before, but with a little help from his friends, managed to order something not too spicy (which I CANNOT handle) and really pretty good. We all went back to campus for cake that a couple other friends had baked, then played a pretty intense game of Oh Hell. Oh Hell is a card game that Carl and I had grown up playing with our dad's side of the family. He had already taught several of his Vermont friends the game, and they love it. It was crazy. I think I did better than I ever had before, and it usually would have been good enough to win, but Carl and a friend who usually loses did better. Carl had a nearly perfect game, until everyone set out to take him down, and they succeeded on the last hand. It was pretty fun.
Saturday was pretty relaxed. Someone we sat with at lunch that day told us she and some other friends were going to a jazz concert that night, so we decided to go too. Jazz isn't my favorite thing ever, but this band was really good. And it was in a big building that used to be a cotton mill, but ad gotten turned into a bunch of artists' studios and performance spaces. We all went out to a pub downtown after the concert.
So I forgot to mention that after dinner on Friday, someone from Southwest in the Hartford airport called me and said that my bag had just gotten there so it was too late to Fedex that night, but they could do it tomorrow and it would get to me on Monday. I said no thank you, I'm leaving on Sunday. They said I could come pick it up, but again, it was two hours away. So I said no thank you, please just hold on to it until Sunday when I come to the airport to leave. And then they gave me a $100 Southwest voucher. So I didn't have my bag all weekend. Between the toiletries in that kit and what Carl had, the stuff I got reimbursed for from Walmart, and Carl's T-shirts, I was pretty much fine. It was kind of weird to be meeting all these new people and going out and everything wearing my brother's shirts, but it wasn't that bad. His friends are all wonderful, and most of them had heard the story of my bag going on vacation to Seattle. It was a really good trip and I'm glad I was able to go.
The day after I found out my project, I left for Vermont for a long weekend (Thursday to Sunday of last week) visiting my brother, who is in grad school there. I had been wanting to visit and it kind of had to be before I leave for my project (which will be like March 14 I think) because once I leave for that, I won't be back until the middle of May. Obviously, the middle of May is a really bad time for anyone in any kind of school, so I had to go before.
Anyway. So I was flying Southwest, which lets you check bags for free. I don't have a suitcase here in Denver and I haven't checked a bag in like my last 5 flights, but I was able to borrow a nice small rolling suitcase from a friend and thought why not, it's free. I don't like checking bags because I'm a little too paranoid, and especially when you're flying by yourself, it's obnoxious to have to lug all your stuff around to go to the bathroom or get a snack when you don't have someone to watch it for you. So I packed up the little suitcase and dropped it off at the Denver airport. On my first flight, I got a window seat right where they put the conveyor belt to load bags onto the plane. I was staring out the window watching. I was pretty sure I saw my bag go on (it had a bright pink TRANSFER tag, which I saw the bag check lady put on, and said BDL, the Hartford airport), but it was a little black rolling suitcase that looked like every other little black rolling suitcase. The guy next to me said something about how he's had that window seat before, and it's always reassuring when you see your bag go on. I told him I think I saw mine, but I borrowed from a friend so I wasn't sure. Later, we talked about where we were going, and he said he was also going on to Hartford and said we'd have to book it to our connecting flight. I said I'm sure we'll be fine.
So I landed in Chicago, got off the plane, and looked at the monitors to find the gate for m next flight. It said Boarding, but luckily it was only two gates over. A lot of people were already on, but I still managed to get a window seat! (Southwest doesn't assign seats.) As usual, I chatted with the lady next to me a bit. I told her about how I got off the plane and this flight was already boarding, and jokingly said "I hope my bag made onto the plane." She seemed a little worried for me, but I said I'm sure it'll be fine, it was only two gates over.
I land in Hartford, turn my phone on, and see that I have a voicemail. It's someone with Southwest IN SEATTLE telling me that they think they have my bag there, but it has someone else's name on it. They also asked if I see a bag that's not mine with my name on it, to please turn it in. So I went straight down to the Southwest baggage claim office and the very nice lady there said that yes, the computer is saying my bag is in Seattle, but I could go ahead and look on the carousel if I want. I had already talked to Carl and he was running a little late picking me up, so why not. Most bags were already off the carousel by that time and it stopped not long after I got to it, but I did indeed find a little black rolling suitcase with my name on it that I had never seen before. When I went back to the office, the lady said that they could get my bag on the first plane to Hartford and it would get here tomorrow. I said Awesome!, but then remembered that Carl lives two hours away from the airport and I didn't want him or me to have to make that trip again. So she said they could Fedex it and it would get to Vermont on Saturday. I called Carl to get his address, and he reminded me that he lives on campus and they don't do mail on Saturdays. We hung up and he very kindly found a friend that lives off campus and could get mail on Saturdays, and he gave me her address to tell the Southwest people. Before I left, I asked if since I wouldn't get my bag till Saturday, did they give vouchers or anything for like toothpaste or underwear. She gave me a toiletry kit and said that if I bring receipts for buying stuff to replace what would have been in my bag, they would reimburse me up to $50. (Brief tangent: I absolutely do not understand why people get rude and angry in situations like this. This person works in the office. She had nothing to do with it. She seemed very happy that I was still smiling and thanking her even though I was going to be without my bag for like a day and a half.)
We didn't get to Vermont until like 11 that night. Carl had class from 8:30 to 12:30 on Friday morning. He had me drive him to class so that I could keep his car in case I wanted to venture out around town. It was like painfully cold that morning, so I knew that if I went back inside to his room, I wouldn't want to go back out in the cold, so I'd better just do my exploring now. I don't know how, but I found the little downtown area. The roads kept forcing me to turn, so I got confused and had given up and was trying to get turned around to go back to campus, when I saw a building I recognized from driving through downtown last night. Amazing! I had some pretty good breakfast and a cup of tea from a cute little cafe, and by that time it was still cold, but not painful anymore. I found an outdoor store that was having a pretty big sale, and bought some nice wool hiking socks and silk glove liners (which I had kind of been wanting since last year). Those decisions might have been influenced by the cold and my lack of warm clothes. (I had a sweater and my parka, but warm socks, gloves, hat, and a scarf were all in my cross-country suitcase.) Then I walked around a bookstore and decided to go back. While I was getting turned around I saw a used bookstore, which I love, so I had to stop again. I found the three books after "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (which I read in Big Bend last year) for a total of like $10! I got back to campus with perfect timing to check my email and stuff then go to lunch with Carl after his class. After that, he needed a nap due to insomnia the night before, and I went out again to the always hated but sometimes necessary Walmart.
That night, it was one of Carl's best friend's birthday, so we went with like 10 other people to an Indian restaurant. I had never had Indian food before, but with a little help from his friends, managed to order something not too spicy (which I CANNOT handle) and really pretty good. We all went back to campus for cake that a couple other friends had baked, then played a pretty intense game of Oh Hell. Oh Hell is a card game that Carl and I had grown up playing with our dad's side of the family. He had already taught several of his Vermont friends the game, and they love it. It was crazy. I think I did better than I ever had before, and it usually would have been good enough to win, but Carl and a friend who usually loses did better. Carl had a nearly perfect game, until everyone set out to take him down, and they succeeded on the last hand. It was pretty fun.
Saturday was pretty relaxed. Someone we sat with at lunch that day told us she and some other friends were going to a jazz concert that night, so we decided to go too. Jazz isn't my favorite thing ever, but this band was really good. And it was in a big building that used to be a cotton mill, but ad gotten turned into a bunch of artists' studios and performance spaces. We all went out to a pub downtown after the concert.
So I forgot to mention that after dinner on Friday, someone from Southwest in the Hartford airport called me and said that my bag had just gotten there so it was too late to Fedex that night, but they could do it tomorrow and it would get to me on Monday. I said no thank you, I'm leaving on Sunday. They said I could come pick it up, but again, it was two hours away. So I said no thank you, please just hold on to it until Sunday when I come to the airport to leave. And then they gave me a $100 Southwest voucher. So I didn't have my bag all weekend. Between the toiletries in that kit and what Carl had, the stuff I got reimbursed for from Walmart, and Carl's T-shirts, I was pretty much fine. It was kind of weird to be meeting all these new people and going out and everything wearing my brother's shirts, but it wasn't that bad. His friends are all wonderful, and most of them had heard the story of my bag going on vacation to Seattle. It was a really good trip and I'm glad I was able to go.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Aahhhhh....
Hello dear readers. I write to you this fine evening (well, night by this point) in a rather contented mood. All is as it should be again. In what way, you ask? I'd love to tell you.
**Actually, first I'm going to go on a tangent. I recently (or maybe 3 months ago) found out that the title of Unit Development Assistant, or UDA as we affectionately say, was completely made up by the Denver campus of NCCC. This position exists on all campuses (campi?), but it is called Unit Support Team Leader. You see, the entire group of green-shirted Team Leaders can be divided into two categories: Field TLs (the ones who go out and lead teams on projects) and Support TLs (it's the government, so we say STL). STLs are all the TLs working in the office. There's an STL with the Community Relations department, one with the Operations department, and one with the Programs department. There is also one for each unit, which is me for the Sun Unit. Despite several staff members telling us clearly that the job of UDA doesn't really exist, the entire staff still calls us UDAs. Go figure. But from here on out, if I say something about "the STLs," that will mean the four UDAs and the one STL from each of those departments I mentioned.**
So. Here's the first thing that is as it should be. When the entire Corps is in Denver on campus, everyone eats all meals in the cafeteria. That's just how it is. When teams go on spike, they receive a budget and go grocery shopping and fix all their own food. The STLs and whichever teams happen to be local are given access to kitchens and also receive a budget and go grocery shopping. However, the city forced us to renovate the kitchens back in like early November. This was supposed to be done by the time teams left for spike and the STLs and local teams would have started using them, but it so totally wasn't. Thus, local teams and STLs were forced to eat in the cafeteria for another month. People complain about the cafeteria all the time, but let me tell you, the quality went way down when everyone left and they were only cooking for 50 of us instead of 300. It was really rather sad, as you could imagine. That was nearly four months I had to eat in that place.
Our Christmas break started almost immediately after everyone got back from their first projects. After break was what we call "Transition Week," which is the week you always spend back in Denver between projects. Last week was transition week, so everyone was eating in the cafeteria as expected. Then we got the wonderful news: THE KITCHENS WERE DONE! Kind of. There's still an inspection that needs to be done by the fire department, which means that a security person has to be around while we cook until the inspection happens to make sure we don't set the stove on fire, but we can use the kitchen! Jourdan (the Ops STL) and I went grocery shopping for the STLs on Sunday and we've been eating real food ever since! No one's made anything too exciting yet, mostly because we seem to have forgotten how. Even after these three days, we all walk into the kitchen and have to take a moment to stand in the middle of the floor and look around confusedly, wondering what to do. But I'm sure that will wear off.
The other thing contributing to my Happy Courtneyness right now is that I finally got to go back to my yoga class at the YMCA. During the first project round when everyone was gone, I got in to a pretty nice routine at the Y. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday I went to Body Pump (an hour-long weight-lifting class), and Tuesday and Thursday I went to yoga. I've been to yoga classes before here and there, and they're always kind of ok, but I've never really felt much of a desire to stick with it. Emily, the yoga teacher at the Y, is absolutely WONDERFUL in every way. She explains things very clearly, so I'm not always having to look around to see what I should be doing. She walks around to check our postures most of the time, but she'll go back up to the front to demonstrate when she's about to have us do something more complex. This class is specifically Flow Yoga, so she even includes when to inhale and exhale as you're flowing between postures, but not in a way that's annoying or cumbersome. If she's walking around and sees that you maybe don't quite get it, she quietly corrects you in a way that doesn't make you feel like a clumsy awkward oaf.
I would probably have wanted to keep going back just because Emily is so wonderful, but this is also the first yoga class I've taken where I've felt better for days afterward, not just for an hour or so like other classes. For the purposes of this post, "feeling better" mostly means "feeling not so lopsided." You may or may not know that I've had scoliosis my whole life. It's not severe or anything, but there's definitely an S curve and also a twist going on in my spine. Studying the Alexander Technique (you should probably click that link - I find it so fascinating) with the brilliant and magical K-Spang for my last year and a half of college did wonders for my lopsidedness, but that was well over a year ago now. It pains me greatly to say it, but my body has forgotten a fair amount of what she helped me accomplish. You know what also helps me not feel quite so lopsided? Flow Yoga with Emily at the Y. It's been three weeks now since I've been to that class, so even though tonight's class was a little rough for me, it was still wonderful to be back.
And now I'm going to read a little David Sedaris and go to bed. Life is good.
**Actually, first I'm going to go on a tangent. I recently (or maybe 3 months ago) found out that the title of Unit Development Assistant, or UDA as we affectionately say, was completely made up by the Denver campus of NCCC. This position exists on all campuses (campi?), but it is called Unit Support Team Leader. You see, the entire group of green-shirted Team Leaders can be divided into two categories: Field TLs (the ones who go out and lead teams on projects) and Support TLs (it's the government, so we say STL). STLs are all the TLs working in the office. There's an STL with the Community Relations department, one with the Operations department, and one with the Programs department. There is also one for each unit, which is me for the Sun Unit. Despite several staff members telling us clearly that the job of UDA doesn't really exist, the entire staff still calls us UDAs. Go figure. But from here on out, if I say something about "the STLs," that will mean the four UDAs and the one STL from each of those departments I mentioned.**
So. Here's the first thing that is as it should be. When the entire Corps is in Denver on campus, everyone eats all meals in the cafeteria. That's just how it is. When teams go on spike, they receive a budget and go grocery shopping and fix all their own food. The STLs and whichever teams happen to be local are given access to kitchens and also receive a budget and go grocery shopping. However, the city forced us to renovate the kitchens back in like early November. This was supposed to be done by the time teams left for spike and the STLs and local teams would have started using them, but it so totally wasn't. Thus, local teams and STLs were forced to eat in the cafeteria for another month. People complain about the cafeteria all the time, but let me tell you, the quality went way down when everyone left and they were only cooking for 50 of us instead of 300. It was really rather sad, as you could imagine. That was nearly four months I had to eat in that place.
Our Christmas break started almost immediately after everyone got back from their first projects. After break was what we call "Transition Week," which is the week you always spend back in Denver between projects. Last week was transition week, so everyone was eating in the cafeteria as expected. Then we got the wonderful news: THE KITCHENS WERE DONE! Kind of. There's still an inspection that needs to be done by the fire department, which means that a security person has to be around while we cook until the inspection happens to make sure we don't set the stove on fire, but we can use the kitchen! Jourdan (the Ops STL) and I went grocery shopping for the STLs on Sunday and we've been eating real food ever since! No one's made anything too exciting yet, mostly because we seem to have forgotten how. Even after these three days, we all walk into the kitchen and have to take a moment to stand in the middle of the floor and look around confusedly, wondering what to do. But I'm sure that will wear off.
The other thing contributing to my Happy Courtneyness right now is that I finally got to go back to my yoga class at the YMCA. During the first project round when everyone was gone, I got in to a pretty nice routine at the Y. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday I went to Body Pump (an hour-long weight-lifting class), and Tuesday and Thursday I went to yoga. I've been to yoga classes before here and there, and they're always kind of ok, but I've never really felt much of a desire to stick with it. Emily, the yoga teacher at the Y, is absolutely WONDERFUL in every way. She explains things very clearly, so I'm not always having to look around to see what I should be doing. She walks around to check our postures most of the time, but she'll go back up to the front to demonstrate when she's about to have us do something more complex. This class is specifically Flow Yoga, so she even includes when to inhale and exhale as you're flowing between postures, but not in a way that's annoying or cumbersome. If she's walking around and sees that you maybe don't quite get it, she quietly corrects you in a way that doesn't make you feel like a clumsy awkward oaf.
I would probably have wanted to keep going back just because Emily is so wonderful, but this is also the first yoga class I've taken where I've felt better for days afterward, not just for an hour or so like other classes. For the purposes of this post, "feeling better" mostly means "feeling not so lopsided." You may or may not know that I've had scoliosis my whole life. It's not severe or anything, but there's definitely an S curve and also a twist going on in my spine. Studying the Alexander Technique (you should probably click that link - I find it so fascinating) with the brilliant and magical K-Spang for my last year and a half of college did wonders for my lopsidedness, but that was well over a year ago now. It pains me greatly to say it, but my body has forgotten a fair amount of what she helped me accomplish. You know what also helps me not feel quite so lopsided? Flow Yoga with Emily at the Y. It's been three weeks now since I've been to that class, so even though tonight's class was a little rough for me, it was still wonderful to be back.
And now I'm going to read a little David Sedaris and go to bed. Life is good.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
My Actual Job Has Finally Begun!
Oh goodness. I didn't realize it had been TWO MONTHS since I last posted here. Sorry about that. Team Leader Training (TLT) ended just a couple weeks after that last post and the Corps Members got here to begin their month of training (Corps Training Institute, or CTI). That's when my real job as UDA began. I guess now I'm kind of at a loss for how to go about blogging. I used to do a day-by-day kind of format, but that's when I was doing things everyday that would (theoretically) be interesting for other people to read about. Now that my job is much more administrative, I'll have to figure something else out.
But I'll do my best to give you a general idea of UDA tasks.
Task #1: Every week, every team submits a Weekly Progress Report, or WPR. Obviously, this report just tell what they did that week. There are categories for quantitative tasks done on the work site, service learning, Physical Training (PT), Media coverage, team morale, things like that. UDAs are in charge of sending these out to the entire staff every Monday. Sun Unit's WPRs have mostly been getting better every week, but they still need quite a bit of proofreading before the whole staff can see them. The main problem is that they're supposed to be written in third person, and some people just can't quite remember that.
Task #2: Along with submitting WPRs every week, Team Leaders (TLs) also send me how many hours each of their Corps Members (CMs) got that week. I then enter the numbers into a giant spreadsheet that keeps a running total of everyone's hours. Everyone needs 1700 hours of service by the end of July in order to graduate from the program.
Task #3: UDAs are in charge of sending each team a package or large envelope of the team's mail that has been sent to campus. We've only done this once in the three weeks that the teams have been gone on their first projects just because there hasn't been much. No one wants to waste money to send a package that only has like 3 pieces of mail in it. Most of the UDAs also include their own things in the mail. I sent various puzzles and a quote ("It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without also helping himself" - Ralph Waldo Emerson) to each team, which I think I'll probably continue every time I send mail. I wish I could say it was my idea, but that's what last year's Sun UDA did, and I know my team always loved the puzzles (crosswords, logic puzzles, Sudoku, etc.). Sometimes teams also have something specific they need sent. One of my teams is in Houston, and there's going to be some kind of ceremony for the city of Houston to honor AmeriCorps. Obviously, they need to wear their formal uniform (steel toes, black pants, and white polo) for that, but one of the CMs didn't bring the black pants or polo. So I had to go into his room and find them in his closet to include in that team's mail.
Task #4: Every project round, one team from each unit lives on campus and has a project in the Denver area. I'm not really sure why, but the CMs on those teams have to have room inspections done every week. CMs who don't have local projects get their rooms inspected before they leave, but I don't know why local teams need room inspections every week. Anyway, guess who's in charge of the weekly inspections? Yep, the UDAs.
Task #5: Lots and lots of emails, phone calls, and texts. I'm sure this goes for other units and UDAs as well, but Sun TLs frequently call or email me with questions and requests. I also send lots of mass texts and emails. I TRY to just send one big email with all the reminders and announcements they need per week, but that hasn't actually happened yet. Other things just keep coming up after I've already sent the big email. I'm sure the TLs are all getting pretty tired of seeing my name in their email and text inboxes, but they just need to learn to love it.
So those are all the things I can think of that all four UDAs do every week. The rest of our time is spent with a lot of random things that come up. Also, all of our jobs seem to be slightly different because each of our Unit Leaders ask different things of us. Vaughn seems to be the most laid back and doesn't ask much of me, which just means it's more up to me to find things to keep myself busy. (And when I fail at that, I've gotten addicted to logic puzzles, specifically these .)
So yeah. That's how I spend my working hours. Next up will be my non-working hours, but I'll save that post for another day. Which most likely will be less than two months from now.
Oh, but before I end this one, here's where my unit is for their first projects:
Sun 1 (TL - Cody): Cal-Wood Education Center! My first project last year!
Sun 2 (TL - Brandon): Denver Mountain Parks
Sun 3 (TL - Matt): St. Louis Parks and Recreation
Sun 4 (TL - TK): Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks
Sun 5 (TL - Lupita): Boys and Girls Club in Denver (They're the team living on campus whose rooms I'm inspecting this round.)
Sun 6 (TL - GG): Project Homecoming (kind of like Habitat for Humanity, in New Orleans)
Sun 7 (TL - Meg): Houston Parks and Recreation
Until next time!
But I'll do my best to give you a general idea of UDA tasks.
Task #1: Every week, every team submits a Weekly Progress Report, or WPR. Obviously, this report just tell what they did that week. There are categories for quantitative tasks done on the work site, service learning, Physical Training (PT), Media coverage, team morale, things like that. UDAs are in charge of sending these out to the entire staff every Monday. Sun Unit's WPRs have mostly been getting better every week, but they still need quite a bit of proofreading before the whole staff can see them. The main problem is that they're supposed to be written in third person, and some people just can't quite remember that.
Task #2: Along with submitting WPRs every week, Team Leaders (TLs) also send me how many hours each of their Corps Members (CMs) got that week. I then enter the numbers into a giant spreadsheet that keeps a running total of everyone's hours. Everyone needs 1700 hours of service by the end of July in order to graduate from the program.
Task #3: UDAs are in charge of sending each team a package or large envelope of the team's mail that has been sent to campus. We've only done this once in the three weeks that the teams have been gone on their first projects just because there hasn't been much. No one wants to waste money to send a package that only has like 3 pieces of mail in it. Most of the UDAs also include their own things in the mail. I sent various puzzles and a quote ("It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without also helping himself" - Ralph Waldo Emerson) to each team, which I think I'll probably continue every time I send mail. I wish I could say it was my idea, but that's what last year's Sun UDA did, and I know my team always loved the puzzles (crosswords, logic puzzles, Sudoku, etc.). Sometimes teams also have something specific they need sent. One of my teams is in Houston, and there's going to be some kind of ceremony for the city of Houston to honor AmeriCorps. Obviously, they need to wear their formal uniform (steel toes, black pants, and white polo) for that, but one of the CMs didn't bring the black pants or polo. So I had to go into his room and find them in his closet to include in that team's mail.
Task #4: Every project round, one team from each unit lives on campus and has a project in the Denver area. I'm not really sure why, but the CMs on those teams have to have room inspections done every week. CMs who don't have local projects get their rooms inspected before they leave, but I don't know why local teams need room inspections every week. Anyway, guess who's in charge of the weekly inspections? Yep, the UDAs.
Task #5: Lots and lots of emails, phone calls, and texts. I'm sure this goes for other units and UDAs as well, but Sun TLs frequently call or email me with questions and requests. I also send lots of mass texts and emails. I TRY to just send one big email with all the reminders and announcements they need per week, but that hasn't actually happened yet. Other things just keep coming up after I've already sent the big email. I'm sure the TLs are all getting pretty tired of seeing my name in their email and text inboxes, but they just need to learn to love it.
So those are all the things I can think of that all four UDAs do every week. The rest of our time is spent with a lot of random things that come up. Also, all of our jobs seem to be slightly different because each of our Unit Leaders ask different things of us. Vaughn seems to be the most laid back and doesn't ask much of me, which just means it's more up to me to find things to keep myself busy. (And when I fail at that, I've gotten addicted to logic puzzles, specifically these .)
So yeah. That's how I spend my working hours. Next up will be my non-working hours, but I'll save that post for another day. Which most likely will be less than two months from now.
Oh, but before I end this one, here's where my unit is for their first projects:
Sun 1 (TL - Cody): Cal-Wood Education Center! My first project last year!
Sun 2 (TL - Brandon): Denver Mountain Parks
Sun 3 (TL - Matt): St. Louis Parks and Recreation
Sun 4 (TL - TK): Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks
Sun 5 (TL - Lupita): Boys and Girls Club in Denver (They're the team living on campus whose rooms I'm inspecting this round.)
Sun 6 (TL - GG): Project Homecoming (kind of like Habitat for Humanity, in New Orleans)
Sun 7 (TL - Meg): Houston Parks and Recreation
Until next time!
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