Sweeter than a Bowl of Wheaties

I'm watching Season 3 of Snatch (our affectionate nickname for Supernatural) with my roommies and we're only 4 days away from a brand new season!

Anyways, it's been a heck of a week - a real rollercoaster ride. It was recruitment week at work - which is when we go to all the high schools and try to get juniors to apply to our program. This is one of the most important times of the year, and it means that we work about a million hours. Seriously - I literally worked 56 hours last week - it was wild! Four 12 hour days and one 8 hour day.

On Monday we showed up to work only to discover that we had developed a reputation for being the rebels - I guess that's what happens when the cops show up to your potluck. And then at our staff meeting we found out that one of our most beloved supervisors - Zach - is resigning! It was a HUGE bummer because we all love him and he sort of epitomizes what CF is about. And he knows more than pretty much else and on top of that he has these wicked mutton chops and crazy 50's glasses. So it was quite a blow to find out we only get 2 weeks left with him and it got creepy quiet in the meeting after he made his announcement. I didn't want to leave the meeting early and miss all the response afterwards, but I had to duck out to go to my food stamps meeting.

And that's the good news, I was approved for food stamps! Yay! I'll be getting $176 a month and it goes straight onto this debit card type deal - it'll be a huge help. I thought it was going to take forever and be this huge ordeal but it was so easy. As soon as she found out I was AmeriCorps she just pushed it through.

Then I got home and found out that my senior pastor back home is leaving the church way earlier than I thought - which was another huge blow and kind of made me lose my mind for a bit. Quite a way to start the week, huh?

Tuesday was our recruitment at our high school, and my group basically elected me main emcee. It was sort of terrifying because I was up in front of these 200 16 year olds and I was just winging it, trying to make an impression. This lead me to realize two things. First: I am old. And second: I am no longer cool. Still, the program went pretty well and got me super amped up for having my own class. I even had one kid come up and ask me if we'd be able to help him go to school for writing. I was like - heck yes - I can do that! It was sweet.

Tuesday night at class there were more staff there than kids, so I ended up getitng into this random philosophical debate with one of my fellow coaches for forever.

Wednesday I had my first one on one with my supervisor and it went - well - weirdly. But you know, it's all good. Wednesday night we had parent night at our high school which also went really well. We had a great turnout - which was so encouraging to see.

Thursday was supposed to be just a normal class day, but our school moved up their homecoming game because it was supposed to be Friday night and they were worried because of the hurricane. So we cancelled our late class and went to the game. We were totally creamed, but it was a lot of fun to be there and all our kids were waving to us. Another cool thing was that all the major people at the school are our students: the homecoming queen, the head of the dance team, one of the cheerleading captains, one of the main football players, and the guy running the flag after every score (of which there was one) - it just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. These are such great kids and it feels so good to know we're making a difference for them.

Friday was the only normal day of the week and we were all so wiped from the rest of the week that we just sort of goofed all the whole day - except when we had this 3 and a half hour meeting with our executive director. In keeping with my friday plan of doing nothing I laid low on friday night - Jess and I made a walmart run (which was - btw - packed with evacuees) and I grabbed Remember the Titans and we went back and watched it with Kevin. Man I love that movie - it feels so much like home. At some point it hit me that it was my grandfather's birthday and that made me sad.

Saturday I woke up to find an email from my past self in my inbox - reminding me to call my grandfather and wish him a happy birthday :( and to call my bro and ask about the baby. I did some more nothin', and watched UGA pull it out in the end against USC (then of course I called Josh to gloat). Then I went with Kevin to American Eagle to score some free movie tickets. Then I called everyone I knew and told them to do the same thing and we all went to see Burn After Reading (the new Coen Brothers movie with Brad Pitt and George Clooney). It was friggin' hilarious and it felt so good to just do something familiar like that.

Today I slept late and have since spent most of the day just hanging out and watchin' season 3 of Snatch with the roomies.

I think what this past week boils down to is that I'm really starting to settle in here. This is my life. And I kind of like it. :D

ps. sorry I'm slacking on the blog posts, will try to do better! Lots of love!