Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

This was the first full weekend I spent in town, so I decided to go to church this morning. Now, I'm not a bible thumper. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure there are 6 year olds better versed in the bible than me, but I like to go to church. I enjoy the hour or so of reflection on a Sunday morning, before a busy week. It's been a while since I've been travelling over the weekends and Sundays have been about being lazy lately. Still, I'm in a new town, and visiting a service is a good way to get to know people. So I got up & went.

I felt so welcomed.

I was raised in a Presbyterian church and I know generally what to expect before I even walk i n the door. Big Presbyterian churches don't spend much time getting to know each other, there's too many people! They operate like a well oiled machine. Sunday School, Church (scheduled to the minute), coffee, and you're out. Sometimes groups will bond over bible studies. In contrast, small Presbyterian churches are families in the truest sense of the word. They notice an outsider, and (for the most part) make an effort to make them feel welcome. Occasionally they'll call them out during the service (embarrassing), but the truth is, by the time they get around to calls for concerns or celebrations, you feel right at home. And sometimes they invite you to their potluck lunch.

And sometimes they sit with you and talk to you about anything and everything. And ask you about your life and your boyfriend. And invite you to spend time with them outside of church. Sometimes they ask you to come back whenever you can, and friend you on Facebook (these are the moments when I'm so thankful for the internet).

It was a wonderful, tiny church, with about 35 members in attendance. They clearly celebrated their children (they were everywhere). They clearly cared about their community (the night before they had housed a "Room in the Inn" program, and 10 homeless men slept in the Sunday School wing). They clearly cared about making everyone feel like they were a part of the church. The minister stopped himself and changed his wording to be more inclusive about 5 times during the sermon, in the most sincere way. But what touched me most was the congregation. One elderly man, who had been a member for many years and was living in another area, had been driven to the service by another member. He had on clothes that were brand new and too big for him. He clutched $15 for the collection plate. The pastor welcomed him by name, during the service, and when it was time to get together for the potluck supper, he had no shortage of invitations to sit at tables.

I'm not one to go on and on about church. I'm not one to try to recruit or convert or whatever. But these were real Christians. Good people. Good Sunday. After a week of talking about poverty, about talking about building nonprofits and trying to make a difference, a morning in church, in reflection, is what brought it all home. It's almost Thanksgiving and I know what I'm going to say when we go around the table. I'm thankful for moments of stillness, for thoughtfulness, for welcoming people, and warm places.

30k

Nope, not how much money I'm making (I wish!). I'm currently 30,000 feet above the ground typing this blog from the airplane as I fly home from the ATL. I'm blogging on a plane because I can and I think it's cool.

I have never been so excited to sleep in my own bed.

I went through lots of training this weekend to begin my Year of National Service. Today I swore to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic as a VISTA member. We (a subdivision of Americorps- think domestic Peacecorps) take the same oath as the Military. Someone actually asked as we were about to stand and swear in if saying these words made us the first line of defense in case of a national emergency. Come on. It's called common sense. Amidst all the talk of poverty and capacity building this week, did you spend even 2 minutes in a firing range? No? Well that probably means that you won't have to stand on the beach as Al Qaeda floats up. Can you tell how frustrated I was? I'll continue this vent after we land-- holy short flight, batman!

On the ground now.

Let me preface this by saying; I understand that talking about poverty from varied perspectives, especially when you're supposed to be working towards reducing it, is important. I also had a great facilitator (Sylvia, who I'm absolutely positive is NOT hurting for money by any measure). But when you are trying to convince us of the truth behind certain rhetoric, there are rules.

For instance, you can't be totally hypocritical. The motto of the week was to be "Efficient and Effective." I'm going to say it, they could have done this whole training online. As a matter of fact, we did do it online, we just did it all again in person! We had one session that I felt like wasn't review, and was something I could actively apply to my work experience. It was good. I learned something. I would have appreciated more like it, if we were really going to have a training that lasted an entire week. Imagining what the Federal Government spent on this training...I don't even want to think about where that money could have gone.

I did meet some great people who will be affecting change in the next 12 months. Here comes my soapbox (just for a line or two). We, as a nation, are facing harsh realities about our economy and the ability to make things different. The 150 people who were at the training this weekend will make changes. They may not be huge, or noticed by everyone, but there will be constructive, positive changes, nonetheless.

Climbing down now, so that I can get to the forehead-slapping moments.

• One woman in my group referred to welfare as "entitlements." When the group facilitator stopped her and asked her to think about why her words might be considered offensive, she didn't understand at all.

• After she explained AGAIN why someone might take offense to welfare being called "entitlements" the facilitator asked "everyone understand what I'm saying?" A woman sitting off to the side, who missed the point on multiple occasions, says "Yeah, it's bad to live off of the government." Sigh, really? Did we not just spend two whole days talking about how you can't make sweeping statements or judgments? WERE YOU IN THE SAME ROOM I WAS FOR THE LAST TWENTY MINUTES?!

• Another woman INSISTED that education was not a factor influencing poverty (her evidence was she's "seen people with college degrees in the shelter"). Ok, I understand that every situation is unique, and I'm the last person to guarantee that a degree = a job, But seriously? If you cannot read, it makes it pretty hard to earn more that minimum wage. If you didn't graduate from high school, it's hard to become an executive.

• One girl had all the trigger words and idealisms. This is going to be a hard year for her. While I think that people who stay positive do better at this job, a healthy level of realism can help in avoiding frustration. You can't expect quoting your college professor all day to get you through a year of service to a rural, undereducated community.

In sum, the training had pros and cons, ups and downs, helpful moments and wasteful moments. It was an experience to kick off a year of experiences. Deep breath: here. we. go.

1 Day, 2 Posts!

On a lighter note, I had a very interesting cultural experience this weekend.

Have you ever been to a baptism that got broken up by the cops? Because I have.

Have you ever been to a baptism that looked like this:

Because I have.

Would you believe that this was a baptism for 1 year old twin girls?

Here they are in all their cake-eating glory:

My aunt is really involved with the Mexican community in her town in middle TN. She takes the (legal) children back and forth to see their grandparents in Mexico, because their parents cannot. She's God-mother to so many of them even SHE can't keep it straight! And she translates for me when I have no idea what is happening. (Which is pretty often. Anyone have the Spanish Rosetta Stone they would like to share?) Let me tell you, when it comes to parties for the kids, there are no limits! The DJ they had at this show had a more impressive light rack than the Rock of Love tour. (Disclaimer: I did not go to a Rock of Love tour concert, so I'm just assuming. I did have an unhealthy interest in the show, however.)

What. an. experience.

[Apologies for the picture quality, they were taken with my cell phone.]

Let's Talk About Stress, Baby

This is a pretty common topic for me. If I could make a living off of worry, I'd be a bajillionaire That's somewhere between a quadrillion and a umptillion, if you were wondering. I'm in a strange lull of my own stress and am currently worried about others who are feeling that elephant on their chest. It should be easier for me to recognize it in others, but I seem to have a hard time. So tell me, the three of you who leave me comments regularly, do you freak out? How does your stress run it's course? How do you solve it? I'm looking for pointers for me to use in the future (because I know that no matter how smooth my plateau feels, it'll come back around eventually) and for me to share.

Here's my usual cycle (although you could probably figure it out from my series of past posts):

1. Do anything but think about whatever problems are weighing on me.

2. Totally freak out. Hide in my apartment for a couple of days (way easier when living alone).

3. Take one of two courses of action:

A: Cycle back to step 1.

B: Solve something. (Usually the most minor problem first, then work through the others as I build my confidence.)

Does that sound familiar? Foreign? I'm interested in how everyone solves their "I'm-totally-overwhelmed-and-I-don't-know-where-to-start-making-this-better" moments.

It's Monday and I feel...

1. Accomplished. The silent auction that I helped to put together (read: walked into in a sorry state and cold called my way to success) raised $5,500+ at our fundraising event last weekend! With matching funds that is over $11,000. And my boss was thrilled. Here's just a little aside for me to say: GO ME :)

2. Nostalgic. This weekend is probably the last time I'll spend time in the house I grew up in. December 6th deconstruction/construction will begin on their new house. I took some pictures of the house the last time I was home. That's all we'll have left in just a matter of a few weeks. A lot of people have asked if I'm sad, but I'm ok. It's really up to my mom and pop, and if it makes them happy, welp that's all that really matters.

3. Conflicted. Thanksgiving's coming up. We always spend thanksgiving with family in NC. My mom & dad aren't going this year because of the aforementioned construction and move out date. Not to mention that with the issues on I-40 it would take about 8 hours to get there. So. Do I come home and spend the holiday helping my family move out of our home (p.s. I've done a ton of travelling in the last few weeks and am facing much more) OR do I have thanksgiving with M and his family. Which I think would be easy and fun, except I think it would make mom upset. Sigh. Anyone got the right answer here?

4. Psyched. M's coming Thurs-Sat and I get to find some (cheap) funnn things for us to do in my new town! I'm trying to keep in mind that it's just the first time of many that he'll be coming to visit and I'll have plenty of time to do lots of fun things with him. I don't have to get to it all in this day and a half.

5. Expectant. Official training for my new job starts one week from today. I will officially take on the VISTA title one week from Friday. One week and I'll be working 40 hour weeks like a regular person. (I won't be seeing the paychecks...but I've been working on NOT saying this every time I talk about my new job. Because, irregardless, it is a real job and I'll be doing real, important work and I'll be getting real experience.)

My over all mantra? "Here we go." And I'd like to make note of the face that I said here we go and not here I go. There's a difference. Even though I know very few people in my new town, I don't feel alone. That's huge. I would also like to point out that "anxious" didn't make the list. That is also huge. Really huge. Good things, people.

Old(ish) Dog, New Tricks

Tonight I learned that if you call AAA to check on your service request, and they have lost your service request, they will flag your call as "urgent" and you will have an agent at your car in 10 minutes or less.

Ok, so maybe I locked my keys in my car tonight as I ran a quick errand for work. That errand, which could have taken 5 minutes, resulted in me sitting alone at an indoor/outdoor bar at a restaurant waiting for AAA for over an hour. Eventually, I called them to check on my service (she had warned me that it might take up to 2 hours for someone to get to me, so I wasn't too stressed). I found out they had either never put my service call in OR lost it in some kind of computer glitch. The customer service agent told me that "it's been happening today" and that it was "nervewracking for them." Um, I'm sorry your nerves are rattled, girl sitting in a warm AAA call center, but I've been waiting for an hour and a half(!) so anything you could do to expedite this process would be much appreciated. Please and Thanks.

8 minutes later a AAA truck pulled up (lights flashing- gee, I wasn't embarrassed enough before) and my savior got out. Between this big black man and a tiny airbag, my car was unlocked in 20 seconds, for free. I think that AAA roadside service agent must be the most rewarding job in the world. If I had a 1st born, I might have given it to him.

Next time (as M suggested) instead of waiting for an hour, I will just call and act like they've lost my service call the first time, and this will all be sorted in 5 minutes instead of 95 minutes. I have a feeling there's some sort of bigger lesson here about me slowing down a bit and putting more thought into my actions, but I'm too worn out to dwell on that.

Autumn in Pictures

Beautiful kaleidoscope leaves in the Smokies through the sunroof

Why the last picture was taken from the sunroof (traffic through the smokies)

Still some green left.

M checking out the view from Clingman's Dome.

M and the Clingman's Dome tower that we walked a half mile to from the parking lot. I made it too, but just barely, so I'll spare you the pictures of me after the "hike." Rest assured I took these pictures of him.

Me and my homemade bat wings (as requested). I didn't go out-out, but I dressed up anyway!

Our delicious dinner, courtesy of KT. Eyeballs (meatballs) and worms (spaghetti).

My contribution (which went fast!). Crispy Brains (rice crispy treats cut with pumpkin cookie cutter & turned upside down...use your imagination!)

My vamp-umpkin, heh heh. Which is now rotting on M's porch. Pretty sure I'll be the one to throw it away when I go back in a couple of weeks. The seeds were delicious!

October in pictures. I think I'll do this again next month, if only to force me to unload my camera onto my computer. I swear it's like that old commercial where the subjects of the pictures are all standing around waiting to get deleted to make room for more. I bet I can find it...ah yes here it is, for reference.