Time’s flying

Every Friday, I have to write a journal for AmeriCorps, summarizing what I’ve done over the past week.

As a result, I can tell you exactly how many weeks I’ve been here

.

In today’s case, it’s 12. That’s three months as the weeks count, though my arrive-in date to Minot was, I think, June 18.

But 12 weeks down means 40 to go, and that is a very weird thing. I feel like I just got here, even though it’s started to get chilly in the mornings. (Although, come to think of it, it was darn chilly some of those June mornings, too.)

I’ve done quite a bit since I got here, more so than during PC service. Most of that is I’m not dealing with a Japanese volunteer countering my every move and I have a supportive supervisor. So yay on that.

I am, however, falling behind in blogging. Not writing, though. This is my third blog post today, as I wrote two for www.hopevillagend.org. I think I did three Facebook posts, too, for Hope Village. So at times I feel like I run out of things to write.

This week, though, I had a cool highlight. The National 9/11 Flag came into town and I went up to the university to see it.

I have a whole backstory surrounding its arrival, but if you haven’t heard it I’ll spare you. Suffice it to say, YES it was the story. And YES, it was cool.

This flag was damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, but was pulled from the wreckage and displayed.

 

Now, it’s been restored by survivors of other disasters. Where there had been holes, flags from other disasters have been sewed in.

The thing has two little white patches, too: one is made up from a piece of the flag that draped Abraham Lincoln’s coffin and the other has three stitches that were made from thread taken from THE “Star Spangled Banner” flag – the one Francis Scott Key saw through the rockets red glare. And I got to hold it.

So it was very cool to see that, with the long procession of fire fighters and personnel from the air force base here.

We also have Stars of Hope in town, which are an artistic and cathartic thing for the flood survivors to do. They had a painting at the university here and the stars look really cool. 

 Tomorrow they’re being placed in the community. I’m in a back seat position on that bus now, but I do hope things work out all right for the community on that one. A team up from Joplin brought them in and I’ve had very little interaction since the initial news conference.

Truthfully, I have no idea of what’s going on but neither does anyone else. I just hope it works out all right.

But man, that flag was cool.

Skip it

So nothing happened the week before last. I swear. That’s why I didn’t write anything.

Nah, that’s not true. The thing is, it was an emotionally exhausting week and I basically tried to recuperate last weekend and didn’t get around to it.

We’re having some big (or potentially big events) the first and second week of September and I was at the reins for the news conference.

It went extremely well – we only have three media outlets here – but one person wasn’t happy with how it went down. She wasn’t present at the event and … anyway, I don’t know or want to go into it, but let’s just say it was exhausting.

Not stressful, though. It’s kind of weird. All that – and it was A LOT – just didn’t stress me. If anything, it made me more apathetic. I thought it was very odd for me to react that way, but ah well.

So, although I wouldn’t say the thing is under control or anything, it’s moving along in a way that hopefully will go off all right.

This past week has extremely busy, not that most of mine aren’t these days. I routinely work 12-14 hour days and make my little commute (across the parking lot) home at 9:30 or 10 p.m. after starting the day at 7 a.m.

But this week I had a couple of meetings that knocked me out of commission for the regular stuff, so I had to carve out time out of the air to get that stuff done.

We’re trying to figure out how to parlay a $25k donation into $100k, so I’ve been working on that. My supervisor and I did some brainstorming and next week I need to follow up on that kind of stuff.

Really, I feel like I’ve been in meetings for two weeks. I’m not really sure what “routine” is, but I’d welcome it.

I did take a day off (at least mostly off) yesterday. My sitemate and I headed down to Bismarck to meet her boyfriend, who had Guard training.

Her highlight was seeing him, but mine were otherwise: I got to eat Cracker Barrel *plus* I learned there’s a 5 Guys. Woo-hoo!

So I had the CB Saturday special (chicken and rice – I LOVE that stuff) and we went to see “The Campaign,” which I loved but Ashton hated. I laughed through the thing but she felt it was the stupidest movie ever. It was dumb, I admit (c’mon – it had Will Ferrell in it), but I really needed the humor.

Bismarck, it seems, doesn’t have a whole lot more than Minot, but we did fine. We went to a museum, to DQ (this was before I learned they had 5 Guys) and to the mall, which was dead. However, they had a used CD spot in the mall and I got Keith Urban and Mark Willis’ greatest hits plus a Rodney Atkins one – the one with “When You’re Going Through Hell.” They had a lot, so maybe if I go back I can check it out again.

Bismarck is only an hour and a half away, which I didn’t realize. I thought it was more of a solid two, but it’s really an easy drive. I almost commuted that long on 696 from Hazel Park to Novi when it was rush hour for softball.

Next week – tomorrow – I’m taking my car to get $1500 in body work done – I’m fixing the dent that Bob (accidentally) gave me and the key scratch I got at the ranch, plus getting a $35 piece of plastic to replace the one that fell off sometime when I was in Indonesia. It goes where fog lights would go if I had fog lights.

The plan is to drop it off in the morning then have Ashton pick me up there and take me to the 8:15 meeting. After the 9 a.m. meeting, I have to hope I can get a ride back to Hope Village. I was thinking my supervisor would be there, but I’m not so sure – he’s speaking today in Williston and I wasn’t sure if he was headed straight back or not.

But either way, there are usually 2-3 people who make their way back to Hope Village after those meetings so I’ll figure it out.

The car should only take three days or so to fix, so I probably won’t even miss it. Yesterday, when I went to go to Bismarck, I realized I hadn’t driven it since Monday’s meetings. A spider had even set up residence on my side mirror.

I evicted him.

What’s in a Name?

I finally got around to painting a sign for my RV.

Almost everything here as a name. This tradition predates me, but I think it’s cute so I said early on that I needed one for my little abode. I got the wood for it a few weeks ago but lacked the time to do it.

Most of the stuff is either named for something Biblical or something local and up until now I had intended to call my place “the bled” because it’s Arabic for “country” and I am the last house on the road. 

But I changed my mind late in the game – after my first draft – and figured it might not translate well to this community. First, I’d have to explain it to everyone, which gets kind of tiresome, and second, the fact it’s in Arabic might be a little offensive to some.

So, after painting over “BLED” in red paint, I took a look at the other colors I had to work with, saw yellow and figured I’d go with the Nole.

My home-for-now has a “This is Seminole Territory” sign out front now with as close to garnet and gold as I could get.

I like it.

I also did Ashton one that says “Minot AFB” and filled in the blank next to “Why Not Minot?” with the rest of the air force mantra “Freezin’s the Reason.” (Although, now that I think about it, I think I left out the “’s.” Considering that I first misspelled it “freezen’,” though, I’m not all that concerned about it.

Shortly thereafter, I pulled photos of all the signs I had taken around thus far and posted them to our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.273947246047031.57431.181740875267669&type=3).

Immediately after I did that, someone posted where was the sign of one particular bunkhouse? I’d missed it, so I took the camera back out and shot about five more photos, including the one with the sign on my car, and updated the album.

Facebook is fast, that’s for sure. I totally detest it, but I’m forced to update three different sites now, plus our regular web site.

That one, www.hopevillagend.org, has been revamped incredibly since I started working on it. I spent what seemed like an entire day uploading photos, which are here: http://www.hopevillagend.org/campus-photos/. I also added links to all the media I could find, which also took a month of Sundays.

Anyway I am now doing the bulk of the work for the Hope Village FB site and what I can on two others. And I am doing all the work for the regular site.

So, in addition to painting and uploading stuff this weekend, I took a time out to update my resume. At the rate I am going, this entry is going to be longer than PC’s, and I’m still only two months into a 12-month tour.

The Bright Lights of Denver Were Shining Like Diamonds

I guess they were, anyway. Although I flew into Denver on Friday, I didn’t see squat of the Mile High City.

Instead, I spent my time in Aurora, which is a fairly boring suburb but contains, at least, a really nice softball complex, a Ted’s Montana Grill, an Outback Steakhouse and a Chick-Fil-A. Oh, and many hotel rooms, one of which in particular featured comfy pillows and an actual bathtub.

None of those things can be found in Minot, so I had a great weekend away even though I didn’t do squat. Honestly, that was much of the beauty of it. It’s been awhile since I’ve done squat. In fact, since my swear-in of June 14, I haven’t had a day off. Technically, I hadn’t had one before that, either.

So no complaints about the weekend in the Denver area. I took long naps, enjoyed pillows and salmon (not at the same time) and got to see Zippy.

Now it’s back to work and of course I feel extremely behind. We have a HUGE thing coming up starting Sept. 5 and I am in the middle of it.

It’s great fun but extremely stressful.

This past week was also fun and stressful. A partnership I put together made me a hero.

My supervisor *finally* got with the Zac Brown Band auction winner  (I'd been harassing him morning and afternoon until he did) and the guy gave us a $10k check and a promise for $90k more.

The initial check was for a "Gator," a John Deere 4-wheeler to haul things.

Steve, our site leader, didn't know about the meeting or the money, but he's the guy who wants the Gator.

Slight backstory: All our buildings here are named. When we got the two new reefers and I told Steve they were now "Cain" and "Able" and ever since he's been joking that I will name every new thing we get. (Note: I swear, the naming things predated me.)

So after I learned of the money -- but before Steve did -- I went into his office and found him sitting at the computer. I put my arm around him and said, "Just so you know, it has to be 'Seminole.'" He looked at me really weird and I continued, "I just can't call it 'Gator.'"

For about three seconds, he had a look of total confusion and then he put it together. It has been a long time since I've seen anyone that happy. He couldn't believe it. Guy's been walking on air ever since.

In other news, the wheat field behind my RV has been harvested. It was quite a Monday!

(If you enlarge the Gator shot and look closely, you can see my feet and my Chacos.)

Fair play

Today’s Monday, which means I’m late with this update but these days what else is new? I’m totally swamped but enjoying it.

I’m six weeks into this 12-month gig and haven’t had time to come up for air yet. That might come this weekend, when I head to Denver for Zippy’s tournament, but who knows.

The laptop isn’t making the trip, which means I might go into DTs or similar if I can’t check my email but I do need to get away.

Technically, the two-day excursion isn’t taking any time off as I’ll leave Friday night and get back around midnight on Sunday, but it is time away so that counts in my book.

Honestly, I was thinking about it and I can’t fathom when I’ll take my 10 vacation days. There are some road trips I want to do from here, but right now I either don’t have the time or money.

Really, it’d be nice to just settle into some kind of routine. Until that happens, I stress about being away. There’s so much to do.

But for the past two Saturdays, I have gotten off campus.

My Zac Brown Band ticket winner also bought tickets to give to volunteers. I did that through drawings and the winners of two insisted that I go with them, which was fine with me.

So last Saturday, I got to see the Zac Brown Band, which was very cool. I felt like it was a little closure since I did all that work leading up to the tickets in the first place. (Indeed, multiple people – including my supervisor – told me I should have just taken those tickets for myself anyway, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.)

I’m not all that much of a concert goer but I had a good time during the ZBB. Truth be told, though, I’d have preferred the Eat and Greet – or really, just the Eat.

But I do really like their music (and have now bought two of their CDs) and had a good time, even if I was a bit “on guard” since I was with a volunteer.

The fair was cool, though small. It’s the state fair, but I’m told some of the other cities in ND have larger fairs, so I’m not sure how that works.

This past Saturday, I got to go again. Ashton, my new counterpart as a VISTA, won the tickets and insisted I go with her. I didn’t want to initially (especially since the village coordinator had wanted to go) but caved.

Man, I am glad I did. I had a BLAST.

Yes, the show got started late due to a maelstrom, complete with high winds, hail and evil lightning. But once it got going – about an hour late – it was just awesome.

Ashton and I sat in the grandstand instead of SRO, which was where the tickets were for, and really could barely see the stage. The ZBB had had screens up, but Foreigner didn’t. Not sure whether they did and took them down during the weather delay or what, but I cold only see inch-high people.

Which was fine. It was essentially a cover band at this point anyway, and man, did they cover. I think the only song I knew from them that they *didn’t* do was “Double Vision,” and we missed the first song (prior to the rain delay) and that could have been it for all I knew. And the lead singer sounded exactly like Lou Gramm.

The drummer, whoever he was, was leaving the band after that gig and we knew it was over when they came out and, as he was banging away, started disassembling it and then had hootchie cootchie dancers all over him. Nice send-off.

They brought in the high school choir, which was really special since the school was the one that flooded. The band’s foundation gave a donation and said all CD sales from that night would go directly to the choir, which was nice.

Essentially, it was a fun evening to go and get out, even if now I do feel like I’m hours behind.

I need someone to invent a 40-hour workday, then I’ll be just fine. Fair enough.

Guess who's in charge?

 This weekend, I’m on my own! Our new village coordinator is out of town and I am the inmate in charge of the asylum. Yay!

It’s sort of a combination between cruise ship director, golf cart driver and stressed out flunkie.

I’ve already greeted (and forgotten the name of) our new cooks, who are entirely welcome since the last crew was a bit … uh, well I’d rather not say. And one of the cooks, half the married couple, has voiced a few complaints already. Joy!

But they seem nice and I think they’ll be fine. If they can produce some not-sour tea (let’s not just keep dumping new tea in the old … it does go bad) they will be my friends. The current guys don’t even remember to put out lunch.

And one of the issues was easy to fix. The complaint was the fact that the AC didn’t work, but I fixed that immediately by turning it ON.

Saturday morning, I had to wake up early to do announcements and all that and then had to do six loads of laundry to wash all the sheets. We only use the fitted sheet (the volunteers bring their own set) but it still took awhile.I saved time by using the golf cart, but I forgot I had to charge it (actually, I just didn't know how far it would go on a charge and pushed my luck).

I also cleaned the bathrooms, just dumping the trash and refilling the TP and PT.  Three hours total. This is a little insane, but it wasn’t like it was heavy work or anything, just time-consuming.

The other night I sat in on an orientation because I had to start doing them myself for the people in the groups coming in. I hadn’t planned on it. I mean, I’m working 12- and 14-hour days right now and I knew I had this weekend come up and I need to cover Steve.

So that night, I had just taken a shower and was headed back to my RV, assuming I was just going to faceplant and get some sleep. But Steve caught me and asked if I was going to sit in on the orientation.

My first thought was like, sheesh, no. I just want to go to bed. I’m not even wearing underwear, for God’s sake. But once I got back to my RV I realized I really needed to do the dry run and went back in. (And I did put on underwear.)

Saturday so far has been fine if exhausting but Sunday is just going to be rough. I need to figure out how to get food since we don’t get lunch here but I have no idea when the groups are due in.

Mostly, I’m just feeling totally scatterbrained today because there are so many irons in the fire.

As seen on TV

So, the question came up to me the other day why I haven’t bothered applying to any PC Response (short-term PC) gigs lately. That’s something that interests me, definitely, but my applications haven’t garnered much attention.

But the thing is, I’m here for a year. And I like it. I’ve gotten more job satisfaction out of Minot in the first four weeks than I did in all of my PC service.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved Morocco; I still miss Morocco. Daily. (Oh, and remind me to tell y’all about EC’s doppelganger, found right here in Minot, though he’s not a possibility.)

But here, I’m doing more what I signed up for. PC is really vague. You form your own job and you sometimes have to fake it. You also have great friction, at times, when your site doesn’t agree with what PC wants. I mean, the times I got into real arguments about my job description was when I tried to do what PC wanted and it conflicted with my mudir’s idea of my job.

So here I have a definite job description and although I do stray from it from time to time, I know what my goals are. They’re measurable.

And if I walked out right now, I feel I’ve done more than I did in 27 months of PC.

My first event was this week; the open house that had been planned, but not really detailed, before I arrived. It kinds of got handed to me and two other committee members.

All told, we had probably between 100-150 people. Not bad, really -- we had NO idea what to expect.

My coup had been securing two fair tickets to the Zac Brown Band's performance at the fair ad well as their eat and greet beforehand. The band is big on that, so it worked out great.

I think I already told the story that, before I got here, someone had asked the fair if another one of the acts could do something about flood relief. The person they talked to – not affiliated with the artist at all – said no. I was like uh, it’s not that person’s call.

Not being totally ignorant of music and PR, I know that bands schedule time in for community relations stuff, and honestly, it doesn't get a whole lot more community friendly. But those committee people (not the two I was working with) were just so completely appalled that I'd consider going around the fair person I just didn't even bother to tell them.

But, with the OK of my own supervisor, I did. And got an immediate response from the ZBB saying sure, we'd be glad to help. (Some people make things so much harder than they should be.)

In the last week, I've been on TV, in the paper (http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/567274/Hope-Village.html)
and on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNkOco_a18M) promoting Hope Village and the like, so I had no idea what to expect.

Well, the open house went just fine. I did tours and information sessions and got some positive feedback. We'll see if anything like money comes from that, but it was fun.

The auction went phenomenal. I mean, phenomenal. I was hoping to raise enough to get one of these sanitizer machines used in power washing. They're $400 and we needed two.

I entered a bid to start us out, and I put it in Wendy's name. I was kind of worried for three days there, but eventually someone placed a real bid of $50.

My rules called for raises in $1 increments, so I was surprised when the next bid was $100. And then the next was $200. Then it went to $400, $500 and $550.

Then I got a guy who's from here but lives across the state who put in a bid of $1,500. I was stunned and still am.  The winner ALSO bought six tickets to the rest of the shows and I’m to give them away (two to Kid Rock and Foreigner and four to the rest of the bands). PLUS, he handed the tickets back so I could re-offer them to Bidder No. 2, who agreed to follow through with his original bid.

So all told, it’s about $2.5k, which, as I put on the release, is about the cost of the diesel fuel we use monthly to keep the food cold.

What is even better, though, is that the winner is really interested in community service in Minot. I’m hoping we can work together to get some regional and/or national attention in here. Maybe some kind of alumni hockey game or something.

So far I’m a great success, so I hope I can maintain the momentum.

Until now, I haven't really looked past the open house, but now I am trying to sit down and figure out what's next. I have a LONG line of stuff to do, but mostly, I'd been planning for that and now that it's over I'm a little lost.

It's still ridiculously hot here, and since it doesn't get dark until 10:30 or so it's hot all day. My RV doesn't have air so I kind of wander around to find a place to sit and work. I’m really attracted to the rec chapel because it has AC.

Tomorrow I have to present a PowerPoint presentation to the Lions’ Club. Yes, me, speaking in public. Believe it.