Back to work

I kind of feel the need to soften the blow a little of the last entry. I don't hate volunteers and I'm not avoiding them. No one has accused me of either, but I think that I have come across as a little intolerable in my previous entry.

So I had a great weekend. On Friday, me, Nikki, John and Ervin went around Port Arthur and Beaumont a little. We did some thrift store rummaging. I got a great pair ofplaid shorts, a tube top, and a t-shirt. We then found this little shack that served some great barbeque so we stopped for dinner.

As I mentioned, New Orleans plans fell through and it doesn't really bother me. Instead, Nikki rented a car and we drove to Austin with John, Levi and Noelle (a girl from Wolf 4). The drive was about four hours. We got a little lost once we got to Austin and tried to find the hotel, but it worked out okay after driving around for a little while. The highway system in Texas is a little confusing. Google maps even finds it confusing -- every time we've taken directions for a location, we end up going in circles for a little. Texas must know that their highways are troublesome because every exit ramp is equipped with its own U-turn lane. It's incredibly convenient. Of course, I'm sure it's no big deal to have something like that since there aren't any tolls. Doing that in Jersey or PA would get expensive. You have to know where you're going when you drive around the Pennsyljersey area.

Anyway ... two other AmeriCorps teams converged on Austin for their spring break as well. They weren't Earth teams, but we knew a few people in them and it was nice to just hang out with some Denver people. We all went to dinner together at a place called Stubb's. It was apparently a famous barbeque joint, but none of us were impressed. After dinner, we all went down to Austin's 6th Street, which is their main strip. I have to say, Nikki is a bad influence on me. She, Noelle and I went off on our own and did a little bar crawl. We started off the night getting shots for each other. I drank more that night than I have in my entire life. Yeah, apparently I drink now? I don't know when I acquired a taste for it, because I'm pretty sure that I only went out three times during CTI and I only drank one of those times. Well, whatever.

We ended the night at a place called Nuno's, where there was an incredible blues guitarist named Jamie Krueger. I strongly suggest that everyone look up his myspace page, especially if you enjoy blues. His solos were awesome. And we were treated to a guest appearance by Pinetop Perkins, one of the last great Mississippi blues musicians. He's 95 and he was rocking out! It was a really cool experience and the music was great.

The next day, we decided to see the state capital, which was also located near University of Texas's Austin campus. So we spent Easter Sunday wandering around the little college town. We got some Tawainese food for lunch and there was a stellar vintage clothing store. Alas, I didn't buy anything, but there were some really cool items in there. There was a Church of Scientology along the main drag as well -- the first time I've ever actually seen anything having to do with Scientology in person. We also came across the campus's Hindu club celebrating Holi. There was colored powder everywhere. We really wanted to get in on it, but we had to drive the four hours back to Port Arthur in a rental car and we didn't think that Enterprise would appreciate it. It's a shame because it looked like a lot fun. I first learned about Holi when I was looking through National Geographic pictures online or something. It's the most beautiful festival, and it's one of the most amazing things that I've ever heard of. To celebrate the beginning of spring with bursts of color by throwing dyed powder over everyone and everything sounds like such a joyful experience. Truly one of humanity's highlights.

After all that, we made the drive back home. Along the way, Nikki pulled an abrupt u-turn so that we could appreciate some bluebonnets (the state flower of Texas) along the side of the road. It was a great weekend, but we also enjoyed finally arriving back to our mod. That night, I ended up watching Hook with a few of the Wolf 4 people.

The next day, I did grocery shopping. When we got back for lunch, the New Orleans crew had returned home. Harrison and Ervin also returned with a bunch of crabs; apparently they had gone crabbing that morning. They caught about fifteen so a bunch of the team enjoyed a fresh lunch. I had a sandwich. I wish that I liked crab and lobster, but I don't so ... more for them. I waited around for longer than I would have liked, but I finally got to do laundry. When we got back, there were suddenly a bunch of cots set up. Spring breakers. But this group seemed a little guy-heavy. It turns out that it's a group from the Air Force Academy. Cool! I had to text my dad. We also have a high school group staying here, with a social studies teacher and his wife. They're being a bit of a pain, but some of the kids are really cool. The Air Force guys seem pretty laid back so far.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to work with them today -- Earth 5 and Wolf 4 went to a different work site in Sabine Pass. We had one house to work on and it was mostly touching up and finishing. I personally had a little bad luck today -- every time I tried to do something, something was wrong with it or something set me back. We started out caulking all of gaps in the house, like along the baseboards and around the window sills. There were no caulking guns, just tubes of caulk (we had a significant supply shortage since we had only one trailer for most of the day). It was fine for a while, we just pushed the tubes up manually, using rods or paintbrush handles when the tubes got too deep to reach. Well, I was moving right along caulking around a bathtub when my paintbrush went right through the end of my tube and disappeared. Caulk everywhere (okay, stop with the jokes). I ended up just scooping it out of the busted end with my fingers so I could finish the job. Oy.

Next, we tried to hang some closet doors. But eventually, after trying to fix some errors that were made (by a supervisor!) and resetting the doors, the trim got so chewed up by the nails that we just decided to leave it for tomorrow (we were also out of trim). Finally, I moved on to cutting a hole in the laundry room wall so we could put a piece of sheetrock in and put some sheetrock mud up to smooth out the hole. Well, there was no sheetrock mud. Honestly! It was just one thing after another, a situation that was further aggravated by the fact that we twenty people were sharing about two hammers total for most of the day, and two air hoses for the nail guns. Sheesh. Hopefully we'll be better prepared tomorrow. It's kind of out of our hands, as Habitat is in charge of supplying us with equipment and materials. Still, the one supervisor today noticed how irritating the working conditions were today (not just for us, for him as well), so I think he's going to try and make things run a little smoother tomorrow. I'm actually not sure if we're going back to Sabine Pass tomorrow or not. Incidentally, Sabine Pass is the same town where the Creepy Park is.

Today was the day that we got a visit from the NCCC Denver director, Barbara Lane. Because things weren't so productive today, we finished early and she arrived just as we were cleaning up. But it was okay, we talked to her for a decent amount of time. She came back to the Y to see how we were making out with the living arrangements. And, to our surprise, she got us some cheesecake, ice cream sandwiches and popcicles for an after-dinner treat! That was a real treat. Dinner was great too, Nikki made turkey brats with sauteed peppers and onions. Tomorrow, I'm planning on making stuffed chicken breasts. I hope it works out okay, our kitchen situation isn't the most comfortable; but so far, the food has turned out to be pretty delicious and filling.

I'm debating as to whether or not I want to go to the effort of making a birthday cake next week. It'll be my 23rd birthday next Tuesday, but it will also be our TL's 21st. If I made a cake, I would go all out and do the fondant thing again. But I feel like that would be a lot of time, money and effort in less than ideal conditions. It's not like I'm baking at home, so I don't know how well I'd be able to pull it off. I'll think about it. We'll see. I might just become apathetic about it and not bother.