The Scene is Safe

This week marked my official certification to teach Health and Safety and Disaster courses for the Red Cross. It was a beautiful three day affair invoolving reving dummy adults, children, and babies. These classes were much more informative and beneficial than some of the disaster courses I took. They're still using the same jokes about using "Staying Alive" and "Another One Bites the Dust" as the perfect beat for CPR chest compressions. Being at the training center in the mall also meant that I got to eat Taco Casa three days this week.

Jessie May was also here this week! I was so happy to see my Mae FN one last time before she's in London all semester. We had a great time going to trivia and midnight sushi and just hanging out. I'm so glad everyone is moving back to Tuscaloosa. Now if my dumb roommates will just get here. I doubt they'll read this, so I'll insult them.

Also, Martha and I took home our second third place prize at trivia on Monday, which resulted in us getting points for the fall league!

Saturday I taught my first Disaster Services course in Disaster Preparedness at First Baptist Church in Northport. It was a rather basic class, so it was a good first one to teach. I think it went really well, and they all seemed very grateful for us to come and teach them some basic CPR skills as well.

This weekend consisted of a great Angels in America cast party with an interestingly titled drink and wonderful conversations about a sundry assortment of topics. I stayed out much later than originally intended, but it was worth it. I also helped my father set up for his annual messy games night at church Sunday, which involved spreading pudding and flour on slipnslides and tying so many water balloons that the cuticle on my left pointer finger has been rubbed raw. I got to end my Sunday evening with a lovely screening of Birdemic via Netflix. It's hard to say that a movie is on par with Troll 2 for being the worst movie ever, but this deefinitely comes close. To off set this terrible cinematic experience, Chris and I watched some Arrested Development before I came home and went to sleep listening to The Help audiobook.

This week isn't looking overly interesting especially since I am avoiding calling all the board members to make them RSVP for the meeting this week. Hopefully, it will pick up when my new supervisor and old friend gets into the office.

For Hire

The title is inspired by a message that was taped on someone's graduation cap this weekend, which segues nicely into this being a post about my graduation this weekend.

Before this weekend, work was pretty slow. Mike and I are FINALLY scheduled to take the instructor course at the end of next week, so I can actually start teaching disaster courses. Thursday, I left work early to go get my teeth cleaned in Hoover, but it turned out that I was exactly two weeks early. Oops. I had at least made plans to stay there already to see Angels in America on opening night, which was wonderful and worth the drive. I also got to spend time with quite the interesting character, who asked me to feel his heartbeat during the show. I would like to thank Chris for that opportunity.

I was so happy to see everyone who came back into town this weekend, which made me realize how few people I actually knew in my year because I only needed to see 10 or so people. I hate that everyone couldn't make it back because the ceremony was great and not terribly long. My campus minister gave the opening prayer, which was a nice surprise. I loved that he made it vague enough to apply to anyone and not specifically Christian as many Southerners tend to do. Then they gave honorary degrees to the family of thos six students who died in the tornado. I wasn't ready for that emotional moment, and I thought it was a great decision on the University's part. I don't know if I would have been able to come back to get a degree for a dead family member.

After the ceremony, my family stayed for a quick second to get lunch before I was left to twiddle my thumbs and nap in my internetless and cableless apartment for hours before going out to celebrate graduation with Melinda, Donald, and Mitchell. It felt like being in school again, which this summer has severely lacked.

Sunday I helped Jake, Tommy, and Michelle move in to their new home named "The Kingdom." Michelle's mother's food was worth moving a few appliance and sofa pieces. I'm so happy that people are finally getting back into town. Living in a four person apartment by oneself can get quite boring. I also went to see the most recent Pirates movie with Chris last night. It was good but had one of the weakest subplots I have ever witnessed. I think this a brief overview of everything that happened. I miss everyone who was in town already, an dI'm excited for more people to start showing up to make Tuscaloosa feel normalish again.

Moments in the Woods

Week 5 brought with it a new visit named Michael Wolfe from Missoula, Montana, or "Wolfman" as the executive director calls him. It's been nice to have someone as equally clueless as to what to do until we start teaching. I felt bad that I didn't have more knowledge to offer him after having worked there a month. This week was actually a little more productive than normal. We took a super exciting field trip to Fayette, AL, a large small town in West Alabama. While that last sentence seems to be full of sarcasm, it was actually nice to get out of the office and meet some people that I'll run into when working in that county. The trip also included a wonderful lunch at a barbecue restaurant. Food is always a highlight in any good venture.

Also, this week I had a very angry woman yell at me on the phone at work. If I have learned one thing, it is that not everyone can be helped when you are working the parameters of a larger organization. This is not what people want to hear, however. I tried to explain to this woman how we could help her, but she wasn't pleased with my response. I have the unfortunate feeling that this will not be the last phone call like this I take.

In non work related news, per Michelle's suggestion Chris and I went to see Harry Potter at a drive-in in Harpersville, an actual small town down 280. It was an interesting experience listening to a movie through a radio at a place that didn't take debit cards but did accept checks. The movie was far more enjoyable the second time even with the mugginess of a summer night in Alabama.

I finally got to eat at Camp Taco, asked a waiter at Pacific Rim to give me children's chopsticks, and payed $20 to have my hair not noticeably cut. The coming week promises a visit to the sparsely populated Lamar County and the actual graduation ceremony that should have happened a few months ago.

A Very Kitchy Christmas

I cannot believe that I have worked at the Red Cross for a month now. That is crazy. This week proved to be the most fruitful in terms of tasks. The highlight being that a woman who spoke mostly Spanish came in, and I got to translate between her and a caseworker. I was just glad that she actually understood me after a semester's hiatus from Spanish class. I also took my second training course in Shelter Operations. My teacher was rather old and deaf and believed "oriental" was a word that could be used to refer to an entire group of people. Needless to say, I learned very little about actual shelter operations, but I have an 80 page manual to look at that she never used.

In non work news, the Chudley Cannons got 4th place out of 25 teams in trivia last Thursday, and we were pretty pumped. I also got to go to my favorite restaurant in Birmingham, Rojo, with my favorite Puerto Rican/ German hybrid, Karissa Bursch, and then enjoyed a wonderful porch party in Southside with some great theatre people.

The later half of the weekend consisted of a Christmas in July party with kitchy Dirty Santa. I ended up with frog salt and pepper shakers and twelve beers to replace two that had been taken accidentally from me the night before. Some of the best gifts had to be the crawling witch hand and the four reusable mustaches, which I helped to pick out.

I saw Drowsy Chaperone today at Theatre Tuscaloosa, and it was wonderful. I was so glad to see my friends enjoying themselves in something that was so funny and well done. Now to end my weekend with food and Arrested Development before meeting the new VISTA at work tomorrow.

I less than three 22nd Street

Week three of Americorps has proved to be the most thrilling thus far. I actually took my first disaster course on Disaster Services: an Overview. It was rather basic, but I am just glad to actually start doing my job. I also got to create an incident report on the online system, which may not sound fun, but with my love of filling in blanks it was quite the event. It's also rather important to know how to do.

The best day of the week was the most frustrating due to lack of work activity on other days. On Friday after three hours of sleep post Harry Potter, which I won't blog about because no one wants to hear me complain about it, I was eager to do something at work to avoid sleeping on my desk.

I got what I hoped for. I was asked to go pick up 6 CPRO books from the Birmingham office. Sounds easy, right? Sarah, the Health and Safety Director, gave me the address and phone number, and I took a company car for what should have been an hour drive to southside of Birmingham. Well, the address they gave her was not the correct one. It went to their blood donation center. The only thing they knew to tell me was that the office was on 22nd St. I spent the next hour and a half searching 22nd Street for this mysterious other office. They had an office on northside, but it moved to southside even if they didn't change this address on the internet. All three of these buildings are on 22nd street. That just seems a little odd.

I have another class next week, and another VISTA will be arriving soon. I had a great weekend at the Wesley Reunion and an ETC improv show as well as hearing some random New Orleans band and watching 30 Rock. Hopefully, the highlight of the work week won't be getting lost for an hour.

Keeper of the Keys

Well, week two was more entertaining than week one. I am still really excited about starting what I am supposed to be doing, but I enjoy the random office tasks that I am getting to do.

My favorite had to be when I was given a bag of keys and told to find out what they went to in the the office. I was able to label most of them, but some are still without a known purpose.

Other than that, I've spent hours in the Access volunteer database and answering phone calls. I'm starting to learn a little more about case work for disaster victims since I can't do too much else before I take all of my classes.

The only distressing thing to me about this job is that it's discrimination clause for volunteers does not protect against sexual orientation. I knew the Red Cross refused blood of gay men and women based on old stereotypes from the GRID era, but I had no clue that they would exclude an entire group of people from being discriminated against. Luckily, this is just a corporate thing. I don't think the majority of the people I work with feel that way.

In other news, Martha and I got third place out of twenty-two teams at trivia last week. The 4th of July was amazing. Creighton makes the Wesley Foundation a sadly different place. Harry Potter premieres Thursday at midnight. I have found a fellow Buffy lover with whom to converse, and it's wonderful.

Livin La VISTA Loca

I love cheesy entry titles.

Anyway, this first week at work has been so much fun mixed with a little bit of boredom. The person that would have been my main supervisor left the Red Cross before I got here, so none of the training I need to do was prepared. It's kind of okay, though, because it gave me a chance to settle into the work environment. I did a bunch of office work, which I oddly enjoy.

I love everyone I work with so much even if I am younger. They are all so passionate about what they do that it's inspiring. Most of them are volunteers! They work full days of work for no pay just because they love the organization. I am beginning to feel the same way, and I've only been there a week. I'm excited to see how the job develops especially once the other four VISTAs show up in the next few weeks.