Days 49 to 51

Day 49 – Sunday March 28, 2010

Today was filled with – surprise, surprise – another awesome ISP!  This time, we were back at Herring Run Nursery for the third consecutive day, volunteering with the Great Seedling Shuffle.  Lindsay, Traci, Chris, Roy, Sabrina, and I spent six hours potting, repotting, and moving to the giant tarps hundreds of plants: blueberries, azaleas, pine tree seedlings, and more.  It was fun to be getting our hands dirty on a quiet volunteer day after the busy coordinating of yesterday.  Since there were far fewer people in attendance (most of my group, I know, was in church this morning), the structure was much less formal and we all worked together to finish up the remaining tasks.

Roy, Sabrina, and I headed out the door again almost immediately, this time with Melissa, after returning home at 4.  The four of us headed about 10 miles north of Baltimore to hit up REI, a thrift store, and Best Buy, the first because Melissa had expressed interest (and who doesn’t love a good outdoor store), the second for Sabrina to get a sweater, and the third so I could have my camera checked out (it hasn’t been working for a couple of days and is now on its way back to the manufacturer for repair).  It was a productive trip and the company was excellent.

We returned home for another chill evening at the mansion.  I spent a significant while texting with friends in the greater AmeriBubble (i.e. outside the amazing Wolf One), sent out team pictures of Team Mickey – my volunteer crew from yesterday – to those members of the crew who had requested them, and showed Melissa and Traci pictures of Snan and my nieces since both had yet to see them and I’d promised Melissa I’d show her a picture of my darlingest sister and I.  Her response was that we look exactly alike.  I explained that we sound and act alike too, but it’s probably good that people here can’t see us together because that could be a bit overwhelming for them.  We’re just that…us when we’re together.  Sister love.

Now it’s time to sleep because it’s late and we have another great ISP planned for tomorrow.  It’s raining outside, which I adore, making the AmeriBubble a great place to be right now.  Good times.

Day 50 – Monday March 29, 2010

Another day, another awesome ISP.

Today we worked at the Loading Dock again.  I’ve definitely settled into a rhythm there; both recent trips have been much better than the first as I’ve begun to figure out the worker culture.  It’s almost exactly, I realized today, like volunteering at the Rhode Island Food Bank in that regard.  The first couple of days, I was just figuring out the unique break-room culture and the basic inter-volunteer interaction structure.  I was an outsider looking in on this group of white-haired volunteers who were firmly settled into established routines, even those who had ‘only’ been there for seven or eight years.  I’m also on the outside looking in at the Loading Dock, here watching a bunch of thirty-something men from Baltimore tease and swear and talk up their sports teams.  As I figure out how the structure works, I enjoy working there more and more.  Now, it’s lots of fun. 

Our task for today involved rakes, dirt (not soil, which is more intentional), and the parking lot in drizzling rain.  Some people worked with trees, but I did not.  We get lots of tree time during the service week already.  The goal is to clean up the area alongside the Loading Dock parking lot and plant $2,000 worth of donated trees and plants in that space.  Some of us raked roots, rocks, and trash into piles to move onto pallets for removal (except for the rocks, which we tossed into the trees backing the lot).  Others continued the work of a recent NTrip ISP group planting some of the donated trees and shrubs under the direction of the landscaper who was volunteering her time to set up the space.  My favorite part of the project came early afternoon, when I noticed a few inches of fencing and decided to remove them from the ground.  I proceeded to spend over an hour digging out two metal squares about 2x3 feet each which were attached to the fence, which itself was about 3 by 5 feet.  At the end, I let Chris and Nick (one of the Ravens based in Baltimore this round who was also there for an ISP) take pickaxes to the final corner of fencing to get it out of the ground about fifteen minutes before we ended for the day.  It was awesome to stand there with this giant piece of metal and fence after all that work.

While the Ravens stayed until 4, those of us on Wolf One (Lindsay, Sabrina, Traci, Chris, Roy, and I) rolled out early at 2:30 because we had numerous other errands to run.  We stopped by the post office to mail off our weekly FedEx envelope to the Point of paperwork, ISP hours, and such, refueled the Vanimal, and went to the bank.  I intended to withdraw my travel reimbursement there, but was unable to because I only had my AmeriCorps ID, which was not accepted in spite of it being government-issued identification and my reimbursement card being labeled with ‘AmeriCorps NCCC’ rather than my name.  Amanda wasn’t asked for ID and was able to access part of her reimbursement, so I’m hoping for more success tomorrow.  (The bank is next to Target and it’s usually pretty easy to convince teammates to go on a Target run.  Indeed, it’s rarely difficult to gather the minimum 3 people required to take the Vanimal out.)

We returned to the mansion for our weekly pre-grocery-shopping team meeting.  After reviewing basic policies and standards associated with work, we went over the grocery list – Melissa had amazingly already prepared one while we were ISPing based on what we have and what we’ve gotten in recent weeks (so nice!) – then wrapped up and had the rest of the evening free to chill.  I had a lovely phone conversation with Jamie as she walked to Camp Hope to meet up with friends from her university who are there on alternative spring break.  I love hearing her laugh every seven seconds; it makes me happy.

Day 51 – Tuesday March 30, 2010

We started our third (already?) service week with Parks & People back in the great outdoors, this time in the rain.  We spent about an hour in the morning moving railroad ties – and not moving too-heavy marble – from a patch of woods to the dirt road nearby.  Apparently, a city parks assistant director back in the 1980s recognized the potential for recycling railroad ties, the iconic Baltimore-row-house marble stoops, and the like, so collected piles of them in this patch of woods.  Our job was to bring them out of the marshy grasses so some big power machinery can be used to pick them up and haul them off.  The railroad ties will be used for garden beds; the marble stoops, if they’re safely lifted out of the swamp (like Yoda rescued Luke’s spaceship in Star Wars), will become benches for people to sit on at various park venues.

After making fairly quick work of the railroad ties, we headed back to the Gwynns Falls Trail for another day raking leaves off the path with the P&P trail crew.  We had a quiet, if drizzly, few hours of work before ending early – at 3:30 – when the trail crew headed out for the day.  Melissa and Jeff were off at the health clinic while we cleared trail since Jeff had hurt his wrist last night (it should be okay for use again next week) and it was quiet not having everyone there, especially our bubbly TL.  Traci, though, did a great job stepping into the lead as our ATL.  Good times.

We returned to the mansion for PT (Tuesday is now circuits day, when we rotate through three sets of ten exercises, each doing a different exercise for any given minute).  I’ve become the de facto leader of timing circuits and co-leader with Lindsay of counting down the 10-to-20-second intervals for stretches.  My b-side captain skills probably help me with these tasks far more than my math-degree skills.

PT was followed by a trip to Target and the bank so I could make a second attempt at getting my travel reimbursement.  Fortunately, it all went smoothly this time, which was quite good.  Also, I managed to avoid getting anything at Target and instead got to talk to mom for awhile, which was even better.  We headed back home in time for Melissa and I to fit in a walk/run.  She ran further than she has thus far in one go, making me super-proud.  I was also happy that she no longer questions me making her run even when it’s rainy and cold, instead just reminding me that I shouldn’t force her to run in such conditions but accepting that we will anyway.

I spent the rest of the evening making bread with Sabrina – we did both savory pizza bread and sweet cinnamon-honey-chocolate-raisin-pecan bread – and having a wonderful conversation with Jen on the phone.  I love talking to best friends, even when they insist on living multiple states away from whatever random location the NTrip chooses for me.  Anyway, Jen makes me happy.