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.