Surprise!

I will be returning to Tulsa, OK on the 17th of December (thanks mom) and will be in town until the 3rd of January! Book your plans with me now.

-J

The Wrap Up of CTI - Next Chapter: SPIKE

It's been a little while since I've last written anything in here, sorry. I've been quite busy with living, breathing, eating and sleeping; computers are way down on the list.

I found out my first SPIKE last week, we're going to Salt Lake City, UT to work with the food bank collecting and organizing food for impoverished, hungry individuals. We will be there for one month until December 16th, and we leave on Monday. We'll be staying at a camp for special needs kids that is currently in the off-season in the mountains bordering the city. When we get back from Christmas break (am I going to Tulsa for break!? Find out next time!) we will spend a week at the Sacramento Zoo doing animal work and general maintenence, then a week of firefighting training getting our Red Cards, then a week at the zoo again, then a week getting chainsaw certified. Exciting times, I know.

Other notable notables:

--- I recently found out I can still do some tumbling. I attempted and successfully completed a round-off back layout on Holmes Field; it's basically a backflip but with your legs straight out, like you're "laying out". Get it? It's fun.

--- Yesterday was the talent show. There are a LOT of very talented people here at this campus, definitely way more than you would meet in everyday life. I was extremley surprised and impressed by the level of ability some of the Corps members have. Also at the end all the TLs (Team Leaders) performed a "tradition" where they all lined up and each one chewed an Oreo cookie, then brushed their teeth with toothpaste and spit the goo into a cup. Then the last two TLs drank it. It was disgusting... My old Pod Leader Patrick was the one to drink a cup.

--- Today we "graduated" from the Corps Training Institute to become official Americorps NCCC members, I got a certificate with my name on it and everything. To celebrate our team laid them on the ground and did pushups, kissing the diploma on every down. I love my team.

--- I just went to a "poetry slam/open mic night" for Corps members. I just intended to watch, but got inspired and wrote/performed this while I was there. It killed, I was pretty happy about that, seeing as it was the first time I'd ever written anything and performed it, and it was on such short notice. I wrote it on the back of the Americorps pledge, quite fitting I thought.

I see these people bearin' hearts,
Up on a stage in stops and starts,
And though delivery is shakin' their breakin' my heart is achin'
These lyrics awaken in me a sense of somber connection.

To the threads we all weave,
And the air we all breath,
It grows this seed in me,
A seed into a tree,
A boy into me,
Full-leafed and Green,
Wait, scratch that, Silver,
Or Gold, or Blue.

Don't be the crease that's in the fold,
Be the page that touches page and brings old soul to old soul,
Please make a difference to the whole.

I see these people bearin' hearts,
Up on a stage in stops and starts,
And it's makin' my heart race,
For the future of our nation's face,
Americorps, from a place, to a place,
Go forth with grace.

-J

Camp Mendocino and the Great Spike Mystery PART II

We were roused in the morning to the sound of PHYSICAL TRAINING. For what I'm not sure, probably working us up for a delicious stew, those cannibalistic Buddhists... We were forced to swing precariously from ropes:


Ascend terrifying heights:


Even fight to the death for survival rights:


They also forced us to put on little plays for their enjoyment. The little play my "team" created was so enjoyed by the Buddhists that they not only allowed us to leave, but they also gave us this token of their admiration:



We left that terrifying and awe-inspiring place with our sanity and dignity in shambles, but we survived, and are now stronger for it.

Tune in next time for the jaw-dropping, fist-clenching final chapter of CAMP MENDOCINO AND THE GREAT SPIKE MYSTERY where our hero discovers where his first spike will be!

P.S. If you would like to see more pictures from the harrowing tales of Camp Mendocino, please visit my facebook page as that is where I upload all my photos.

Camp Mendocino and the Great Spike Mystery

For the past four days I've been deep in the redwood forest, struggling to survive without showers, heaters or plasma TVs, it's difficult to comprehend I know. During the first 24 hours our team of highly trained individuals was nearly slain by a wild beast.Luckily for us it was too busy climbing over rocks to notice our presence or I'm sure we would have been doomed. From there we journeyed down a set of ominous train tracks:
They nearly led us to disaster. Once again however lady luck looked us in the eye and said "heck yes, go battle some wilderness, I got you fools" and we found a Buddhist Temple that took us in and gave us work and food:









We were then given a place to sleep for the night, only to be woken up to the sound of DANGER in the morning. Tune in next time for another installment of the jaw-clenching tale of

CAMP MENDOCINO AND THE GREAT SPIKE MYSTERY

Day's 12-18 - Units and Teams

Over the past week we learned who would be in our teams, who would be our team leaders and what Unit we would be in. I already knew I'd be in the Silver Unit because of my application for a Fuel Reduction Team (FRT), but my team was still a mystery. On Sunday night everyone gathered in the main building and our loving pods split into our assumed new Units. There were about 70 of us in the Silver Unit including two other members of my pod, both FRT-bound. We recieved our clue, and proceeded to the water tower near campus. There we all stood around for about 10 minutes until I took intitiative and searched the area for a clue of some sort. I found our map and we all walked to our destination. There our Team Leaders greeted us and told us about our Unit and their expectations for us. The next night we found out who our teams would be through the same sort of process.

I am Silver Two, with Wareth, Mike, Maggie, Christina, Finley, Anthony, Ron, Ben and our Team Leader (TL) Paul. We have 7 men and 3 women and are potentially the hardest working, highest-potential team. After our first dinner half our team volunteered for Physical Training (PT) the next morning at 5:30 even though we had the day off, we jogged in between locations during training and we were the first team to have a definite chant and general "team unity".

Our chant I wrote goes like this:

TL: Silver who?!
CM: Silver Two!
TL: Silver who!?
CM: Silver Two!
TL: Burn it, clear it, chop it, rock it! Silver who?!
CM: Silver Two!

I'm extremely pleased and excited to work with my team as they are all like-minded in their expectations and interests for the year. We also decided on team positions, I am a Media Representative and also our PT Coordinator.

Also, today I along with others in the Silver Unit helped Habitat for Humanity move pre-fabbed walls, paint drums and inventory some of their things for an Independant Service Project (ISP).

Overall the members of the Silver Unit are probably the most competitive, hardest working and most driven individuals out of any of the teams mainly due to the 4 FRT teams (that's not to say other units and teams don't work hard, but the general nature of those who signed up for FRT are those types that like to challenge and push themselves).

Tomorrow: Camp Medocino - 4 days, 3 nights of team-building and service projects! Outdoors in the redwood forests in open-air cabins! Woot!

-J

Days 9, 10 & 11 - Meetings and Greetings

After our baseline on Wednesday we were put into groups depending on our physical fitness. I am in the "Rivercats 2" group, which is second only to "Rivercats 1" based on my mile time. Apparently the push-up and sit-up portion doesn't determine your group because we all do those exercises together.

Anyways, on Friday morning we ran 2.5 miles at about an 8 minute mile pace, which sucked because I was feeling sick with a sore throat and fever. Apparently the exercise (and voluminous amounts of sleep) helped me recover, because I'm fine now.

Today we met the mayor of Sacramento and listened to some speeches about volunteering and homelessness in Sacramento. Then we all broke into our pods and went to various homeless-related projects around the area. Ours involved picking fruit in an abandoned orchard for the homeless shelter to use.

So far the program as a whole has been absolutely fantastic. I've met people from pretty much every state and made friends in just a short week and a half that are closer than friends I've had for years (not you). Everyone here is energetic and excited to do something to change the way things are. We're all idealists and we're all committed to putting in hard work to help where we're needed. We realize that we won't change the world all by ourselves, and that we may not be the one to turn a life around, or save a life. Today we heard a speech from a man that was homeless for 11 years before he turned his life around. He came from a middle-class family, college-bound, not what you think of when you imagine a homeless person. He told us about how he became addicted to drugs and couldn't hold a job, and how he eventually ended up homeless, stuck in Sacramento. He said something during his speech that really drove home our purpose. He said "the people you meet may not always be grateful to you, they may not always be thankful for your help, but I'll tell you that every time someone gave me a meal, every time somebody handed me a blanket or a warm handshake, it gave me that chance to turn my life around. It gave me one more day alive, until I was at a point to change. I wasn't always ready to change, and you probably won't be the person to save someone. But you're giving them a chance to do so when they are ready." We're not the doctor that saves the life ultimately, but we're the people that give the CPR that keeps blood flowing through the heart. We're the people that keep the hope and the chance for redemption alive. And when I say we, I mean all of us, and that includes you.

-J

Day 8 - Baseline & The Red Cross Disaster

Today we woke up at 5:00 am to do our baseline physical tests. After stretching we were tested on how many push-ups we could do in 2 minutes and how many sit-ups we could do in two minutes, then immediately after we ran 1.5 miles. I was at the top of my pod by far with my 100 push-ups, 77 sit-ups and 12:04 time. I finished the run in the top 20 and I was near the top for both the push-ups and sit-ups of everyone.

After that we all ate breakfast and made our dinners and then had meetings all day about the Red Cross Disaster Training. It was the most boring and insulting talk I've ever heard. They talked for nearly 6 hours about absolutely nothing and made us watch goofy videos from the 80's that weren't anywhere near relevant to us. I felt like I was in some grade-school assembly where they asked us questions like "if you're trying to give people food, you don't want to give them too much, because then it's wasteful, but you don't want to have too little either because then some people won't get food, right everyone?" "riiight..." That really happened. Many many times... Sigh... But now it's over and dinner is next. And perhaps some soccer!

-J

P.S. There are photos posted on facebook of some of the past few days.

Day's 6-7: Hanging and Hard Times

On Monday nothing exciting happened. I played piano and we sang some songs about Lysol, babies, and adventures.

Today however was another story. We had a day full of classes including "sexual health and healthy relationships". It was pretty much like high school all over again. We also learned about the "governing council" that's pretty much like student council. I'm planning on trying to join. We also made bumper stickers to promote Americorps NCCC, mine won over the crowd unanimously with my slogan, "Americorps NCCC, because real life is terrifying." After that myself and 3 other members of my pod took the "pack test" in which you walk 3 miles in 45 minutes with a 45 lb weight vest on. The Team Leaders said it was really easy and that everyone passed, they lied. It was quite difficult to power walk at that speed and not run or jog. The girl from our pod that tried it didn't make it along with a couple of other girls. The other two guys and myself did, but it was strenuous.

After that myself and Steven (my roommate and pod member) were supposed to make dinner for all 35 people in our two pod conglomeration, and we had to make it with ingredients left over from everyone else's meals. So we made breakfast burritos with tater tots and salad. It was the best meal yet according to many. All in all, success!

Tomorrow is our Baseline for our physical training groups. Hopefully I'll get in to the A group, but we'll see.

-J

P.S. If this blog is boring to you, you may want to skip ahead a few months to the firefighter training days. Right now it's boring because all we do is go through powerpoint slides of procedures and health benefits and blah blah blah.

Day 5 - ?

Physicals, food, soccer game, stuffed bell peppers, capture the flag, Risk. Done.

-J

Day 4 - Meetings and In n Out

Today was a pretty boring day as far as our scheduled activities went. We were in meetings about safety and meetings about benefits and even meetings about meetings. But afterwards we played some 7 v 7 soccer on Holmes field which was both a great workout and really fun. After that we had enchiladas that our pod made. We no longer have food provided for us, instead we go to the grocery store and pick out our ingredients and the corps pays for all the food but we have to make it ourselves in this massive kitchen that has like 10 mini-kitchens for all the pods. It's me and another guy's turn to make dinner on Tuesday, we'll see how that goes. After dinner myself and two of the girls from our floor wandered around until we bumped into Jered (one of the guys from my pod) and Hunter (also from my pod) and a couple of other guys and we walked to In n Out. Which was a 45 minute walk. I had no idea it was so far, but it was an adventure.

Today is a day off, we just have physicals at 1 so nothing interesting to report.

-J

Day 3 - Work

Today we had our first activity with our pod (the pod is our temporary team we have through basic training, after the first few weeks we will be separated into our final teams based on our physicals, health, stamina, choice of Fuel Reduction Teams, etc). We helped clean up a park and there was AN ISLAND ADVENTURE. We also did other stuff like clean up a little trail area, fill in the damaged trail with dirt, boring stuff like that. But then 3 of us got to row across to an island in this pond (I rowed) and help maintain it a bit. Afterward we got ice cream which was delicious. All and all it was a fun day but filled with lots of manual labor. I took on the brunt of it, shoveling and carting wheelbarrows to and from the damaged areas, so I'm pretty dirty and tired. However it's only 5:30 so we plan to adopt the work hard, party hard mentality (without the heavy drinking as it's not allowed on campus).

Also, last night we went to a local Mexican restaurant which was fantastic with some girls from our floor and a few other people. Tonight, dive bar.

-J

Day 2 - Soccer Tourney

Today we woke up at 6 am to eat breakfast and meet in our groups. It was overcast and sprinkling rain. Everyone went to the main building to see a presentation on safety, fuel reduction teams and general "what's going on" type stuff.

On safety: Tip of the day- If you are female, don't walk around in skimpy clothing as you may be solicited for sex, or pandered to by a pimp. If you are a male, don't solicit sex from a prostitute (apparently a certain area of town is like the mecca for all the prostitutes in the region) as she might be an undercover cop.

I think I might join a fuel reduction team, it's not what it sounds like. It isn't the team that walks everywhere like I suspected. "Fuel Reduction" means fire fuel reduction. It's the team that spends a majority of their time in the mountains of various areas clearing brush, setting up controlled burns, and gets certified in Fire Fighting 2 and chainsaw operation. It is apparently extremely physically demanding, and you spend most of your time in the wilderness, burning stuff and theoretically saving lives pre-disaster situation. It's also the team that responds to wildfires and other fire-related disasters. Let me know if you think I should do it by answering the poll to the right.

I'm also setting up a 3v3 soccer tournament for our day off next week. I'll keep you updated as it progresses.

-J

Day 1 - The Concert

Today was a hectic one, filled with flights, sights and frights (there weren't really any frights, it just rhymed). After waking at 4 am to get to the airport and arriving in Sacramento (the travel was largely uneventful) at around 2 Pacific time we began processing through the various stages. This involved all sorts of uninteresting things like "boot fitting" "uniform fitting" "ID badge creation" etc etc, the generally un-fun activities you associate with the U.S. government. After this people basically wandered about in a haze of sleep-deprived excitement and uncertainty. I however was pulled back towards my comfort, music. I found a piano just a few doors down from my room after moving in, and spent the better part of my free time jamming out. For around an hour I was alone, then a girl joined me in the lounge. Then I turned around a bit later and found 5 people sitting there. Within 30 minutes of people popping in and out the place was packed and everyone was hanging out. Somehow (I think because the window was open) my personal playing turned into a mini-concert and I was dubbed "the phantom pianist" because everyone on campus could hear the music from the window. Then we learned that homeless people sometimes climb through the windows to take showers if they're left open, so we should be careful to lock them when not around.

-J

Destination Adventure!

This is the first post on this mandatory blog I'm doing so all you suckers can go "oh that's cool" once and then never visit it again. I'll update it from time to time with pictures, stories, blatant lies about awesome things I didn't really do just to make you jealous, you know, the basics. Be sure to comment on everything I do because honestly it will be your fault when I jump off a bridge in a deranged act of e-loathing due to low blog comments. That's about it, I've got around 150 things to do in the next few hours.

-J