On the Road to Sacramento; Reflections

In time the snow will rise, in time the snow will rise- Sufjan Stevens

Driving back from Salt Lake City was like passing between two worlds. In the morning before we left on our first day of road tripping, we met up with Silver 3, another Fuel Reduction team like us, who had been stationed in Wyoming working with Habitat for humanity. We all drove, caravan style, from Salt Lake City to Reno, about 11 hours on the road. It was so strange being back with all my old friends, who during the month of CTI (training) I had become so close with, especially Cody, my old suitemate on campus, and seeing them again seemed so strange but also so comforting.

We had been living in a world where the only people that existed, were the ten members on our team, who I had grown to love and appreciate so well. The only activities that existed were the ones that we could access from our cabin; hikes, snowball fights, and of course our 9-10 hours that we spent working at the Utah Food bank daily. It was like our first project had been a perfect little experiment tucked neatly inside a snow globe, complete with an absurd amount of snowfall and filled with little people that continuously did the exactly same thing every day and smiled the entire time, no matter how good or bad their day was going.

As the landscape around us passed from daunting rock-faced mountains to the hours of painfully deserted salt flats and then into the cozy foot-hills, I sat in the other team’s van and quickly found out that not all team’s experiences were as neatly folded as ours had been. While winding through the miles of snow covered mountains, touched only by the pine trees and railroad tracks, I heard stories of negative fourteen degree days, wearing coats a mittens to bed, using outhouses nearly flooded with frozen refuse and team members at each others throat constantly.

It was easy to think at a first that my team would never get to the point of fighting but I guess when you are sleeping on canvas cots in an unfinished basement versus sleeping snugged up in a fire-heated cabin in the mountains, then things are different. I am still as enthusiastic about Amercorps as I have always been, but I have no Idea what we will be waiting for us on the other end of January.

For now I am just so excited to go home for the Holidays, to see my family, and dogs and my friends. The more time I spend away from home; backpacking and road tripping this summer to all my travel in Americorps, the more I appreciate and love my roots. Massachusetts has got some solid people.

The Turkey.

If you don’t want to sink, you’d better figure out how to swim – jeanette walls

Seeing that we are living on $4.50 a day for our eating allowance, we have become a bit like gremlins. Its really not that bad because when you combine 10 peoples living allowances than you get $45 dollars a day for shopping but then you factor in again that I live with 7 boys between the ages of 17-24 and you begin to understand why four gallons of milk is always gone within 2 days.

Now, when food comes into the food bank and it is improperly labeled (aka no label or in plastic baggies or what have you), or it is damaged beyond help (cracked, opened, broken) it gets weighed and thrown away. This is where the gremlin part comes in, we scavenge that food like no other. Daily we take home boxes of opened cookies, unlabeled cans, and cracked jars of salsa. Which is why when we found out about the turkeys we were so ecstatic.

The Turkeys were pre-cooked, expired, and re-frozen. There were thirty of them, give or take and they needed to be eaten immediately. We waited for a few days and asked multiple times about the turkeys and Finally were given the green light, that yes, we could take one home because they were not going to be able to distribute all of the Turkeys in time and already some of them were questionable.

The pre-cooked part was essential; we don't have a kitchen in our cabin, only a microwave and refrigerator. We let the turkey thaw in our house for a full 24 hours and when the meat was ready. Christina and I methodically and carefully as possible carved our prize ( well as carefully as we could with pocket knives). It was amazing. It was the first time we had had meat in the cabin that wasn't Walmart deli meats or canned meats. I think I ate at least 20 turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches. The plates of dark and light meat were gone in days.

Well now we back to no Turkey but what can you do. Back to spam and rice.

On the 22 day until Christmas My true love gave to me....

I can gather all the news I need on the weather report- Simon & Garfunkle

Wooooohhheeee well it has been a little while since I have last written but I have been In a whirl wind. Thanks giving was really nice I took a chunk out of my day to call both my dad’s side of the family and my mom’s side of the family and I basically talked to everyone in the fam which was really nice. Everyone sounded great so thanks for that guys.

The warehouse has been really hard lately we have been bringing in about 25000 pounds of food a day more or less which is sweet but boy is it tiring. We found out that per week we have been collecting and sorting a little more than half of the food that they intake. Yay Americorps!!!.

We had a pretty sweet Independent service project the other day, we helped out at and animal shelter!!!! Which, if any of ya’ll know me, would realize that that is right up my alley. I basically spent 4 hours cuddling with cats. It was great. They had this one big room just PACKED with cats, it was CAT CITY 2009! And as soon as you walked in they all surrounded you. So cute. So cute.

For all ya’ll that haven’t heard yet, I’m coming home the 22^nd! I’m really excited to see everyone. I’m going to do an Americorps recruiting event at the High school that day too, which will be pretty cool. I hope I get some H-Dub kids to join up.

Today Instead of working in the warehouse and driving around doing pick-ups, I worked in the 2-1-1 Call center. Which is a referral and information center for people to call if they want to get a hold of volunteer opportunities, need information on addiction help support groups, are looking for financial help for he holidays are anything non-profit really. It was interesting but actually really sad. We got a lot of calls from people who had multiple children and were looking for a place that they could get free winter jackets for them because all of their kids had no jackets. Or we would get calls from 14-year-old girls who needed a place to contact for teen pregnancy classes. It was really deep but I felt like I was doing a lot of good and the people I worked with were really cool.

Once again running out of time to write but you guys are probably getting bored of this novel anyways. On a closing note I did a 24 hour fast a few days ago to better understand hunger and poverty in the working world because I am seeing with it so much especially with the food bank and all. It was really difficult to work a 9 hour day with nothing in my stomach and it really made the work I’m doing have some meaning.

OK well I love you guys, happy Holidays.

5000 Feet Above Sea Level. 2389 Miles from Home.

"I heard a little girl and what she said was something beautiful. To give your love no matter what." - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Just a little check in while I have Internet. The closer we come to Thanksgiving, the crazier the docks get. I think I am going to working the docks at the food banks warehouse for the next couple days because there are suppose to be an insane amount of donation drop-offs. Apparently in order to volunteer serving food for the homeless on turkey day in this city you have to sign up months in advance... so that is out of the question but we are going to be working (and some of us running NOT ME) in a 5k for charity on T-day. Then our supervisor Harvey has invited us all to a dinner he puts on in the afternoon. so I am excited.

Today is our first day off since we've got here. I spent the morning making phone calls and catching up with people. Then We all watched a little Beauty and the Beast because the cabin we are living in has a Tv and a VHS player but the DVD broke so the only three movies that were in the Cabin were Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Mummy haha. And Now we are at the Library picking up some Wi-Fi then we'll explore the city a little.

Tomorrow we are working at this Bike Co-op that collects and fixes up bikes and then gives them to people who don't have them. This is an Independent service hour for us (we have to complete at least 80 hours of these). I am excited to check it out but it will be a LONG DAY, we are working from 9am-9pm! haha I'm buying a red bull.

OIY!

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" Kris Kristofferson

Well. Blogging from this point out might be a little difficult because I do not know how often I will have internet but we will work with what we have. Also I broke my camera so we will not have pictures for awhile.

The Drive from Sacramento to Salt Lake City was like driving being stuck in a deja vu movie reel. At first it was exciting because it really looked like the wild west, I know that sounds silly but really looked like the old westerns. The ground extended until the horizon, the soil red and cracked and tumble weeds tugging to free themselves from the dilapidated barbed wire fences. But after 10 hours of this exact same landscape it all looked pretty bland. I drew a picture of my surroundings in my journal just as we drove into Nevada and 8 hours later I looked at my picture and the landscaping looked exactly the same still.

We would drive through a town and then we wouldn't even see the slightest hint of civilization for about 3 or four hours. The town we did drive through were made up of trailer homes, convenience stores and maybe 1 warehouse-like church. I can't imagine living like that because It would be at least an hour or 2 drive to do any shopping or anything. Even the big cities had only couple thousand people.

I am at the Utah Food bank now. I have been working for 2 days now. The work is hard. We are working in a warehouse. We do a lot of different jobs. While we are at the warehouse we help unload big truckloads of food donations, check them in, sort them and put them away. We are dealing with tens of thousands of pounds of food personally each day. We also are driving Uhaul trucks all over the city to pick up food drive donations. The people here are amazing. Often we will go to a chain store like a jiffylube to pick up a box of food and we will find a huge maybe (5x5x5) box just bursting with canned goods and when we ask the store workers, they will say that they only just put the box a day and a half ago or something. Its crazy.

People also donate weird things. We find unmarked ziplock baggies of mystery powder, cat and dog food, half eaten boxes of gummies and boxes of things boxed way back in 1994. Our work days are Tuesday through Saturday 12- 9pm. Next week will be a crazy busy week because it is Thanksgiving. There is suppose to be a snow storm this weekend big temperature change from Sacramento.

OK well sorry the last part of this blog was confusing I am rushing because I got to get to work

Good Luck. God Bless. Love ya'll!

Race to the top of the tallest building.

Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing

Helen Keller

In order to successfully graduate from NCCC I have to complete 1700 service hours. Most of the hours will be through NCCC with my team but 80 of those hours need to be Independent service hours. So I started working on those hours this past Saturday. We arrived at the tallest building in Sacramento at 6am and we helped set up for a benefit race put on by the Lung association. The race is a timed even where groups of runners set out to run up all 35 floors of the building. It was crazy there were old people and young people, athletes that ran it and even little kids who walked the whole thing. One guy ran it in 3 minutes and 47 seconds!!! that is 10 flights of stairs a minute! Another guy ran it 7 times! I had a wicked sweet job. I stood on the roof, the view was amazing. It was a helicopter landing pad with no walls and I could see everything! It blew me away (quite literally seeing that the wind was crazy). I just cheered people as they came to an end and passed out water.

Salt Lake City Here we Come

No, this is how it works, You peer inside yourself, You take the things you like, And try to love the things you took, And then you take that love you made, And stick it into some, Someone else's heart, Pumping someone else's blood - Regina Spektor

We leave for Salt Lake City in 9 hours give or take. I am all packed and ready to go but it is definitely bittersweet.

I went out last night into Sacramento with all of my buddies. It was so much fun just chilling with all my friends here because we have been so busy, running around because this last week was the last week of training that we haven't really hung out as much. I am really gunna miss everyone so much. We have spent the last 5 weeks together every day basically that it will be weird to not see them for the next 6 or more weeks. Josh, who is going to the Gulf Coast I probably won't see for another 4 months! Its actually really sad. So we all went out last night as a celebration/ going away party. It was a celebration because all of us Graduated training, but also because Sandyha got into Med School and Jersey got into Law school.

We all slept in Sandyha's room last night and then woke up at 6 to see of Kent and Cody because their group is going to Wyoming to build houses. After that I went back to bed until 11:30!!!!!!!! It was the longest I have slept in since I got here. I spent the entire day just cleaning my room and packing and getting ready for the trip. I am really gunna miss all my friends but I am excited to be able to get to know my team better. I am REALLY excited to see salt lake and Utah even though it is gunna be wicked cold. The good thing is that after Christmas break I am gunna be on campus for a month and so will Jersey, Kent, Cody and Sanyha.

AHH It is so soon. I have 2 days of driving but hopefully I'll get WiFi or something so i can keep ya'll updated... haha if there is anyone out there

South Lake Tahoe

"And I'll talk real loud, God damn right I'll be heard" - Modest Mouse

Just came back from Lake Tahoe for the weekend and it was amazing!!! We had eight people and we found a really nice motel called the Stardust Motel. The guy checking us in was really cool and he gave us a suit (three rooms) for 120 a night. It was close enough to walk to the Casinos. My buddies a gambled a lot. one of my friends won 300 bucks but then another one lost 180. We hiked around lake Tahoe. It was pretty cold out, maybe 50 and we all went swimming in the lake it was FREEZING! I had the most amazing time but now I'm even more sad that I'll be splitting with all my friends on NOV. 16th for our first project.

OH and also It turns out when I was sick last week (I had to go to the doctor and sleep for like 40 hours) I actually had the Swine Flu, just a fun little fact. They just called to tell me the test results.

Camp Mendocino where the RedWoods Grow

Hey Guys. I know I just posted but I figured I would give a nice quick re-cap on my Camp Mendocino trip. Camp Mendocino is a camp where they take inner city kids from San Fran during the summer. We went up there to help fix up the camp and do some team building exercises. It was beautiful. We drove through desert, and mountains and red rocks for hours until we got into the Redwoods district. Then after driving for miles and miles without even a speck of civilization, we took a dirt road that slipped between jagged hills and rocky ledges over a river. We drove on this road for almost an hour, EVERYTHING was dripping with moss and we drove so far into the forest that it became wicked dark because the trees were so tall and dense.

We stayed in plank cabins, windows with no glass and no doors or electricity. It was freezing. In the nights it got to about 40 degrees or colder, waking up for PT every morning at 5:30 was hell but it didn't matter because the land was soooo beautiful. I literally didn't change out of my clothes once because it was so nippy, I wore long johns under my entire uniform and my parka. Even in the mess hall, which was heated, we could see our breaths. We got three huge meals everyday and a different team helped prepare/ clean up for it everyday. We were at camp for 4 days with all 60 people in my unit. We hiked, did a ropes course, went on a zip line through the the woods and helped scrub the camp from top to bottom. At night we had camp fires. On the last night I pulled my stuff out by the fire and slept there instead. The sky was outstanding.

PICTURESThis Is one of my team mates Christina

Big Tree
Anthony being a crazy son of a bitc
Christina, My team mate

Destination: Nowhere Near

"This is My life, and Freedom's my profession"

-Gogol Bordello

So Lets get straight to the point. MY FIRST MAJOR SPIKE. Most people are going for about 6-8 weeks to their first projects, but because I'm on FRT, I need extra trainings to become a Forest Firefighter and I need trainings in chainsaw use. SO on the 16th of November (2 days after my induction) We will be driving to Salt lake City, Utah and working at a giant Food bank. We will be driving around the city and picking up foods from donaters and such. It will be cool because I am getting certified to be an authorized NCCC driver so I hopefully will be able to drive the sponsor vehicles around the city! We will be living in these sweet cabins just outside the city in a really gorgeous area. I am sooo excited.

We will be there for a month and then we will come back to Sacramento for my trainings. In Sac, we will have 2, 40 hour week of training and then (DADADAD

Speaking of teams, my team is really great. It was hard for me to move from my temporary pod who were all crazy and goofy, a lot like me, to a team who are a lot more focused but I am really happy with me team. They are are super nice and wicked reasonable as well as fun. Other teams are already having conflicts but its hard for me to see any major conflicts coming about at all.

There are a lot of really cool projects for the other teams too. The entire gold unit, which about 7 teams, 60 people, will be heading to the Gulf to do house rebuilding. A lot of other teams are going places to build houses, Wyoming, So Cal, etc. One team is going to be camping on the beach in the Catalina Islands and removing invasive species. AHHH so many cool projects.

My Birthday

I'll start out by telling you guys that my friends were soo sweet to me on my Birthday. It was Oct 20 (i know I'm a little late) but, it turns out that they had been secretively asking me questions about my cake/ pie preferences and had found out that pumpkin pie was my favorite thing so for my birthday my Pod all pitched in to buy me a pumpkin pie and a Boston Creme pie and brought it out at dinner and got the whole dining hall singing happy birthday to me and then bought me a card with a firefighter on it (cause I had just passed my FRT test) It was just really nice I was about to like cry hahaah.

OK well I have to run off to help organize a school supply bank ( for families who can't afford to buy school supplies). I'll tell you about that when I get back. I'll also fill ya'll on in on my time in the redwoods AND

I GOT MY FIRST SPIKE (project)!!! So keep checking in if you wanna know what I'll be doing for the next two months!!

Redwoods here we come.

We choose to create our own freedom and our own world, because freedom is not available without effort

-Eugene Hutz

Today is Thursday and in three days I will be going with my entire Silver Unit (about sixty Corps members) way up north to the Redwoods to Mendocino! I am so excited to get away from this Area. The weather might be nice but from what I have seen of Sacramento It is not a gorgeous area. It is just really flat and all of the trees look like they were they were imported and put there on purpose instead of just growing naturally.

The redwoods are going to be a fantastic change of pace. We are going for 4 days and we will fix up a Boys and Girls camp. The camp takes children from cities like San Diego and San Francisco, children that might never get a chance to attend a summer camp otherwise (or even leave the city) and brings them by the Skunk Train, a huge snaking Steam Engine complete with singing conductors that winds its way up north through the forest. It's all a big secret what exactly we will be doing up there but they were very quick to tell us that YES, PT (physical training) will still be going on every day. WAHOO!

I bet Ya'll are wondering why I haven't talked about my new team yet, seeing that I just got them and they are going to be such an integral part of my corps experience? Well I actually have been wicked sick for the last threeish days. I think that in the that time I have slept about 45ish hours AHH. I'm feeling a lot better seeing that my 100 and some odd temperature is gone but I am still hacking up a lung about every 5 minutes. In order to take time off from my NCCC duties I had to go to Sick call and get a doctor's note. Even though there was 5 of us (all my neighbors) who had the exact same sickness and all of us had gotten sick the same time, for some reason I was the only one tested for swine flu.. I don't know why.

Sorry I know I said I would tell you guys about my Birthday But I'll have to push that onto next post. THANKS FOR READING!!!!!!!!

My Amazing Pod

Josh Cleaning a garage door at the Senior Gleaners

My Halloween Costume. Mostly all my uniform with some other pieces added in.

The Uniform.

So Much to tell so little time!

First off I just wanted to say that I'VE BEEN EXCEPTED INTO FRT! I'm going to be a Category 2 Forest Firefighter! And Also Cody got accepted too so this is very exciting. Also we had another daylong project the other day that consisted cleaning cans off at a food pantry for about 5 hours so that confirmed my choice to join FRT. I would much rather be chillen in the woods and doing Physical Labour than doing monotonous work like that. Even though both types of jobs are really really important.


Two and a half weeks into Americorps and It already seems like I have been gone for months... I might have said that in one of the Blogs before but I just can't stress enough, how quickly everyone became friends and how tight of friends we have become!



I'm pretty bummed out right now though. We have been in our temporary Pods for the last couple weeks and yesterday we got broken up into our permenant teams yesterday and I am just sooo sad to leave my podmates. Usually pods are only together a couple of days but because over half of the team leaders were deployed to American Samoa the last few weeks to aid in the tsunami they only just got back yesterday so that is when we were split up into Teams. I dunno why but all of us just clicked and we literally hung out all day, from PT, to the trainings, to afterhours and dinner. I am goining to miss them all so much. The sweet thing is that I still have the same Team Lader as before. Paul, he is the man. I am so pumped to be working with him for the next 9 months.

Ah I have so much to say about my birthday and my first deployment and the fact that I might have gotten swine flu But ya'll will have to tune in tomorro or something when I have more time to writ.e

PACK TEST and fast food.

Today is Sunday and it was suppose to be our first day off but I actually had my pack test today. That was our test that determined whether we are qualified to be on the FRT (Fuel Reduction Team).

It was nice to be able to sleep in, I slept all the way to nine-thirty which was amazing but then Josh (one of my hall mates) knocked on our door and woke s up (hah great) We ended up going to In And Out for breakfast. They are this big famous burger joint out here I got fries, which sucked, an AMAZING strawberry/ Chocolate shake and a burger.

Then a couple hours later we had the test. It was pretty hot out and we had to do three large loops around the base parking lot wearing this really huge uncomfortable 45 pound vest. I brought my ipod and blasted Girl Talk while speed-walking. It was tough I had to push myself to keep up this ridiculously fast pace. I was sweating buckets. We had to come in under 45 minutes. I ended up coming in at 41 minutes and 31 seconds!!!!

No one that I know of got in faster than 40 minutes. Cody, she is one of my Suit-mates and in my Pod also tried out and she passed too! Now I'm just waiting to hear if I'll be accepted. eeesh

OH and here is my address

Finley Janes, Class 16, Pod 10 Americorps NCCC Pacific Campus 3427 Laurel St. McClellan, Ca, 95652

First Project and FRT????

Well most of training consists of boring lectures on swine flu protection, sitting on the floor watching 4 hour presentations on Corps Policy and mustering up with our pods to get filled in on scheduling stuff. But we actually had a project yesterday. Apparently it was community gardening day yesterday so half of the troops went out into the Sacramento area and helped in public gardens. We went to the sickest public elementary school ever! I don't even feel like anyone at home will believe that a place like the exists. I mean I thought my school was pretty good but this place! They had a little garden outside every classroom, and since it is Cali, the kids get to walk outside to other parts of campus. They also had an orchard, a vegetable garden and a green house... what??? I felt like this school really didn't need 11 members helping them out seeing that they had everything running so smoothly but never the less we helped weed, make a compost pile holder and mulch. It was amazing seeing how happy and productive the kids were working in the gardens. They were so focused and driven. I have never seen so many kids that age with that much work ethic.

Other than training and projects I am making pretty big decision right now that will determine what I will be doing over the next year. Normal NCCC members just get assigned projects at random. They might be making trails in national forests all over the west coast. they could be helping re-build houses in the hurricane areas or aiding at a disaster. That is why i joined Americorps cause I want to work hard, work outside and learn some new skills, as well as the travel aspect of it. The only thing is that I also could be helping people with their taxes, answering phones in an office or tutoring little kids after school... these things don't thrill me as much. I wouldn't mind doing them BUT I have a little alternative I might be able to do. FRT- Fuel Reduction Team. These are the teams that only focus on forest fires and reducing the fuel near communities to help control the fires. Pros- I get my CHAINSAW certification, I am guaranteed to spend most of my time outside, i get to work with fire, I get wildfire fighter certification and I am gunna get it killer shape. Cons- I probably won't leave California, IF there is a disaster down south I probably won't get shipped out (but I guess it is not likely we will get shipped there anyway because usually Mississippi campus gets those) and I will mostly be doing the same projects the whole time.

Well either way I can't get onto FRT without passing the Pack test which is tomorrow. The Pack test is a 3 mile hike on under 45 minutes wearing a 45 pounds pack... I REALLY wanna pass. But I figure that I will let this test make my choice of whether I do FRT also it depends on if I even get selected because there is only 44 slots...

ok well I'll try to post some photos soon.

California, CALIFORNIA! (In-processing)

I don't even know what to start with because soooo many things have changed in the last few days... I guess I'll start with at the beginning (its a very good place to start). Welly well well, Mom drove me to the airport in the morning, we left at 3:45am in order to get there in time and I demanded we bring Maggie (my German shepherd) in the car with us. Before I had even made it past security I ran into another Boston Americorps. Apparently the Boston NCCC members are taking over because sitting in the waiting area before the flight I looked around and realized that all the young people were probably going to Sacramento too, they were (I asked them). We had about a 15 minute layover when we landed in Phoenix and when we got on the PHX-SAC flight the ENTIRE back of the plane with inundated with members, all asking the same questions (age, location, school), swapping roomers about the program or sharing nostalgia about the last time they smoked (drug test on Sat.).

IN-processing was just a a chaotic-ly organized mess of paperwork, fitting for the uniforms and getting little orientation pep talks. EVERYONE WAS NICE. Group leaders, staff, members. Literally there was no one, and still has been no one, that has been mean or majorly annoying.

The campus is small, only three building; 2 dorms, 1 multi-purpose room, 1 office building. Everything is decently nice. Nothing is spectacular. The rooms are all different. Some have a nice wardrobe for both roommates, some have no storage furniture at all, some have one set of furniture. Some people have three people in 1 room hahah. Josh, one of my friends down the hall, somehow lucked out because his roommate was a girl so they moved her to a triple and he has a single now with TONS of storage furniture.

They have warned us early on that drinking on campus (for anyone) is strictly prohibited and apparently has dire consequences. But there are some bars in walking distance for people of legal age. Apparently there are basically two bars nearby. One is for team leaders and the other for members and they DON't cross paths, haha.

Uniforms are hideous but amazing. They are huge baggy shirts with Americorps Labels, long sleeve, short sleeve or polo. We also got sweatshirts and vests and bandanna all with americoprs labels. We got big floppy sunhats and hard-helmets and big SICK steel toed boots. The pants are baggy high waisted extra long and COMFY haha. When you are on duty you where you're uniform as instructed NO EXCEPTIONS.

AHH I have so much more to say but no time to say it!

I'll write agian soon to tell you guys past the first day.

Packing List and such and such

When Packing I took a lot of Care with how I configure my clothes and belongings into my suitcase.... and by that I mean I just tried to shove as much stuff into my suitcases as possible without really knowing exactly what I packed. I have a sort of Safari going on in my room and car, so I have had to do some major bushwhacking to to get through the mountains of dirty Laundry(actually it might even be clean I wouldn't know), and had to do some gold panning to find the very few pieces of things worth taking in the mess on my sewing table and bureau. I ended up doing ten thousand hours of laundry and resulting in a packing list that must look something like this, but of course we all know that the exact contents within the suitcases won't be revealed until I start unpacking in Cali.

FIRST SUITCASE

5 pairs of pants (one khaki/nice just in case)

probably about ten shortsleeve (some just tees, some cuter tees, some tank tops

4 long sleeve shirts (black white and gray) to wear under my uniform when its cold

5ish workout shorts and shirts and spandexs

about 5 or six sportbras

Probable about 5 regular bras and undies

4 pairs of shortish

a thin little exercise sweatshirt

a fleecy sweatshirt

a cardigan

one nice little black dress

my Red Sox cap (obviously wouldn't leave that behind, need to rep my boys)

winter cap

a couple cute scarves

my fish mittens

four pairs of wool socks

4 pairs of tall socks to wear with boots

normal socks

My toiletries case

-toothbrush, shampoo, make-ups, hairbrush, ect

SMALLER SUITCASE (this one I was REALLY just tossing things in)

Running sneakers

Hiking shoes

birkenstocks

mockasins

cute flats

flannel booties

flippyflops

headbands

toe warmers

a bunch of DVDs

a bunch of pictures

all my chords and chargers for my computer and cellphone and ipod

ipod speakers

first aid kit

a little pouch of writting supplies

my journal

a little pouch of my jewelries

my other purse

batteries

some belts

2 pocket knives

(um probs more stuff but i can't think right now)

CARRY ON

All my documents they say I have to bring

a pair of wool socks

some movies

my laptop

a book

a little journal

my cellphone and ipod

AND THEN I also shipped a box

2 plates

2 mugs

1 cup

2 bowls

little floor rug

bed pad

comforter

2 sets of sheets

blanket

silverware

winter and fall jacket

pillow

SO WELL thats all I think. I guess we'll discover the rest when I unpack in TWO DAYS!!!!!

Less than a Week!!!! WATCH OUT

It is Thursday night right now and I leave on Wednesday Morning!!! Its real soon. I've been wicked pumped to forget to this time of year (packing and prep) but now that it is here it is a little sad. Fall in Mass is the shit. Everything smells clean and fresh and homey, like leaves and wood stoves and the ocean. Suddenly everything I have been so stoked to venture away from has come into focus and I realize that all my friends and my area are wicked sweet, BUT all the same I am sooo ready to get a move on out to California.

I am basically done with packing. I have squeezed SO MUCH CRAP into my suitcases. I'm pretty sure that I packed way too much but whatever I can always send some home if I want.

I got my plane tickets by email a couple days ago. We got them a week before we are to take off. Mine leaves at 6:20 from Logan then flies to Phoenix and then Finally boots me over to Sacramento where some Americorps person will pick me up. YAYYYRRR

Getting Ready

Ok well for those who don't know I have Joined the Americorps NCCC. Applying was a long process of being wait listed but I have been accepted and am wicked thrilled to find out that I am going to the Pacific Region, Sacramento Campus. This means that I could be serving in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, the Pacific Territories and probably some other states but i can't remember. So I went shopping and bought all my bedding, and towels and dishes and such. I think I'm going to ship them ahead of time so that I don't have to carry it all on the plane and what not. I am pretty pumped because I just graduated High school so this will be my first year where I don't have to go to school. I'm also pumped because most of all my friends are all off to school so I have just been working and bumming around with nothing to do but TWO MORE WEEKS. I haven't got my ticket yet but it'll probs be here in the next week AHHHH