Anyway, I love teaching these disaster courses to volunteers. Every singe one has been so much fun, and I hope that it's a job I can continue doing after my VISTA year is over. This was a particularly involved class, and so far Shelter Operations is my favorite to teach.
Tuesday was filled with road trip fun. Mike, Holly, and I met up in Eutaw, Alabama, for lunch at a great barbecue place and then a quick trip to do a shelter survey at a church in Forkland followed by a tour of Livingston. Then, Mike and I continued on to Aliceville in Pickens County to teach the Disaster Services Overview course. We only had three people in our class, but they were three crazy sisters. It's so reassuring to see people in every county come to our classes and have a good time because honestly some of this stuff is boring.
After class I got to have an impromptu meal in a historic home in Eutaw that my coworker lives in. It has a wikipedia page and the most "haints" in the whole town. When we teach another class in Aliceville next week, we're having a sleepover!!!!! That includes his four roommates not just the two of us...
Wednesday was epic for one reason only. I have no idea what happened at work, but the Donner Parter pulled the DP on every team at trivia and won! Jenae, Maggie, and I got $50 and 8 points for the league. We were wuite happy to beat all of our nemeses including: The Red Elephants and Chico's Bial Bonds. Here are the current three members of the Donner Party in full graduation garb. Our fourth member Marzi is in a hot air balloon in New Mexico.
One of the best parts of my job is making up things for the community service volunteers to do. I hope they find it as an endearing quality. I really enjoy hanging out with them and getting them to do all of the jobs I had to do my first week. Thursday, we made two of them clean the inside and outside of our Emergency Response Vehicle so that all of us could take a field trip to the secret warehouse for the city of Tuscaloosa. If I told you where it was, Holli would kill me if Billy Green hadn't gotten to me already.
All of this had to be done so that I could be in the ERV for the University's Homecoming Parade. I had such a great time with the Bama Corps club. This was mostly due to me getting to sit in the car and wave from the air conditioning. The only bad thing about the parade was the treatment of Spectrum. They were walking in front of us, and many people in the crowd gave them disapproving looks or vocalizations while applauding our car driving by. I will never understand that kind of unfounded dislike, but I suppose I'm not really a neutral party in that matter.
Saturday, due to some sad directional circumstances, I missed he entirety of Flannery and Chrisoph's wedding. Luckily, I made it to the reception to see my Birmingham crowd of friends and see the bride and groom in their wedding wear. It's odd seeing so many people getting married when i feel like I am so far away from it.
The rest of the weekend was spent realizing my surprisingly high weight gain over the past four months and hanging out with Will, my brother, at home and being devastated by my mii's weight gain on Wii Fit as well.
I took a class on working at an Emergency Operation Center yesterday and today. Thus the title. Class was a great networking opportunity because I got to hang out with my friend Lee and meet all of her coworkers as well as a national employee who was able to give me advice about working at the national office in Washington DC. The class was filled with all of the important disaster employees in the region as well as Ruthy. Ruthy was a fun older woman, who was just oblivious to so many things. She made an ash tray out of playdough and a blunt to go in it out of pipe cleaners during class. This was not an assignment.
The reason my life needs an EOC is because I feel like everything is just a little off kilter. I love work so much, but it's one of the only things I have to do right now besides trivia and watching reality television with Sarah. I'm considering moving to Birmingham next semester, but things feel off there as well at times. I'm trying to get more involved in things by teaching classes in Birmingham and working out and joining Capstone Alliance in town. Hopefully, it will do the trick soon.
Now with my Wii Fit workout over and a strong craving for sweet tea it is time for Sarah Michelle Gellar and The Ringer. You should all watch it. It's getting better each episode.
I appreciate the shout-out!! Also I LOL'd at Ruthy making an ashtray out of Playdough. I tried that for Jim once during his smoking days but it just didn't pan out.
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