4th of July

I just finished my last full week in New Orleans which wasn't even a full week because we got Monday off for Fourth of July. The whole weekend was a blast. Friday night was a quit night. I spent it doing laundry and beginning on the Internet. Saturday was our combined Day of Service with Water 3. Michelle (Water 3) and I got in contact with the Latina Farm Growers of Louisiana and found out that they need help fixing up one of their community gardens and picking blueberries. I of course jumped at the chance to be able to pick blueberries and the organization sounded very interesting. Their mission is to bring awareness to the hungry in New Orleans and teach people how to grow their own food. Half of us worked in the garden weeding, fixing and painting the shed, and building a new planter. The other half of us went to the west bank and picked blueberries. I was part of the second group and much to my enjoyment we had to cross the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (one of the longest bridges in the country, 25 miles.) With the other volunteers that picked with us we picked about 15 pounds of blueberries. The berries were going to be sold in a fund raiser on the 4^th. Saturday late afternoon and evening Kristy, Kelly, and I went to borders to hang out and get the Internet.

The day of the 4^th was a lot of fun. I was able to sleep in which was wonderful. I hung out at home for the morning and early afternoon just futsing around. After I made myself some food a bunch of us went with people from the other team down to the water front in the French Quarter to stake out a spot to watch the fireworks. There were about 20 people that were going to be sitting with us so we need a lot of space. We got down there around 6:30 but the fireworks weren’t supposed to start until 9 so Aaron, Kelly, Kristy, Amanda, Ashley, Alex, and I went to Café de Monde. I shared a plate of Beignets with Amanda. Beignets, French donuts, are what the café is famous for. While we were there we saw Terry Crews, the actor in White Chicks (the one on the right). My first famous person I have seen while I have been here. We went back to our spot by the river which by this time was packed with people and sat around talking waiting for the fireworks that didn’t start on time, of course. The fireworks were really good but I wish they would have lasted a bit longer. Afterwords we hung out by the river and then some people went out while the rest of us came home. Monday was spent cleaning and going grocery shopping.

As for work this past week I worked with Decon again. We spent Tuesday at a house taking out the base boards and removing the studs from the walls. We then spent the afternoon processing the wood, pulling out nails and making clean cuts on the ends. Wednesday and today I spent taking off siding and processing it. In total we processed about 1200 linear feet of siding.Tomorrow is the day that we get off work to do service learning. Through my dad I have been able to set up a tour of the BP Oil Command Center in Houma, LA. I hope everyone enjoys it.

Working in NOLA Again

As most of you now know I am working in NOLA with Rebuilding Together for the second time. My team and I have been here since the last week in May. We spent the first week and a half working in Corinth, MS before coming down here. We are living in the Purple House (outside of house is purple) this time. I like it better than the green house for many different reasons. One is recently remodeled. The kitchen is beautiful, the nicest NCCC kitchen I have had. The rooms are bigger and there are two bathrooms with 4 showers! There are a couple of downsides to the house but that is bound to happen. There is no internet so you have to go to the green house down the street or use it in the launder mat like I am doing now. The house also has no common space like a living room or even a big enough kitchen table for all of us to sit at but oh well what can you do?

Another huge difference from first round is the heat! I have never lived in a place that gets so hot and its not even August yet! I think the coolest it has been since we have been here is 80 degrees. A couple of weeks ago there was a heat advisory with temperatures around 110. I didn't realize that a person could sweat this much or from every part of your body like the front of your legs. I feel as if I have lost tons of pounds through sweat.

So far I like to work I have been doing. I spent one week painting the exterior of a house more specifically the front porch. I spent two days painting the ceiling blue. The other two days were spent painting the trim and the siding. The rest of the time I have been here I have worked with Deconconstruction or Decon. The first couple of weeks I was with Decon was spent rearranging and organizing the salvage yard. I helped to build two lean-too sheds in the yard next two the salvage store. It was cool because I learned how to use several different types of tools. I became comfortable using different saws and a grinder. I used the grinder to cut medal sheeting for the roof of one of the sheds. The other shed I got to be on the roof putting up roofing. The view from on top was amazing!

As for things out side of work last weekend I did ISP as an usher for Avenue Q, the Broadway musical. The show was great! I loved being able to see a theater production because it is one of the things I have missed in this program. And it was free which made it all the better. A couple of weeks ago Pat turned 21 and the team went out to dinner. After we out to Frenchmen and Bourbon St. to celebrate. Both of which haven't changed all that much since I was here the first time. It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate a birthday. Its hard to believe that I will be turning 21 in less than a month!

Life here so far has been good.

The Life of Water One in Corinth, MS

“Chirens, Chirens” It’s 7:10 in the morning and Water One is being awoken by Brother Jon, one of the site supervisors, walking toward our sleeping quarters loudly reminding us that we have to be ready for work at 8. To help this fact sink in he has turned on the lights 20 minutes too early (the unspoken rule on the team being the lights come on at 7:30 whether or not you’re up.) Don’t get me wrong Brother Jon was an interesting person to work with even making us laugh once and a while but not at 7:10 in the morning. We were in Corinth, MS to respond to a natural disaster caused by flash flooding, working with The Assembly of God Disaster Relief Team. When I think of disaster response, I think of sheltering and being able to use our training from CTI but alas that was not the case. For us, responding meant mucking and gutting houses. We were living in the FEMA head quarters located in the conference rooms of The Crossroads Arena. We were given the back section of head quarters which was then divided up into a sleeping area and a common space complete with a TV and cable. Our sleeping area was then divided up into guys and gals to give the illusion of privacy but how much privacy can thin blue curtain dividers really provide? It was here that we were greeted every morning by the FEMA staff and Brother Jon.

So now that the entire team and the neighboring houses are awake some of the team stumbles into the make shift kitchen to scrounge up some breakfast. Ok maybe scrounge is not the right word because there is no lack of food here. The kitchen was stocked with snacks galore, the kind of snacks that you consumed as a kid but try not to eat now. There were chips of every kind, pudding cups, little Debbie snacks, every kind of soda, and for the people trying to be healthy peanut butter, lots and lots of peanut butter. If on that rare occasion you can’t find what you are looking for our host would gladly get it for you. Breakfast was the one meal of the day on a daily bases where we had to make our own food. The rest of the meals were provided for. The day we arrived we were told that the Episcopalian Church would be making dinner for us. Thinking that this was a welcome to Corinth dinner we were just glad that we didn’t have to cook the first night there in a kitchen that didn’t even have a stove just a two burner hot plate. Little did we know that this would be a recurring thing for dinner and lunch.

As you might our team is very dietary challenged with 3 vegetarians, 1 vegan, 1 who is gluten free, 1 who doesn’t eat red meat and pork, and 1 who doesn’t eat pork . All of this makes cooking as a team difficult but even harder when people who are not used to cooking this way are told of our challenges. Over all the churches were very accommodating of our dietary needs. There were those occasional dinners were some us were only able to eat salad because everything we were served had meat in it including the veggies. I have never seen so much meat served in one meal before. Meat and desert were guarantees for almost every meal. Desert was served with every meal without fail and most of the time it was homemade. The pounds we burned working all day we gained back through the food but mostly the desert. Who can resist a homemade chocolate cake or hot brownies?

By eight o’clock the team was in the van ready to go to work, not knowing where we would be going. Most days we would just follow Brother Jon and Wade in their truck to the house or houses we would be working at for the day. This made for numerous hours of driving a day. Some days it felt like we spent more time in the car driving around then we did working. The one advantage to doing so much driving is that we were able to get to know the area fairly well. One of the areas we worked at the most was the housing projects of Corinth. Before leaving campus the entire team was fitted with respirators and given three pairs of coveralls each, all of this was for the mold and foul smell we would encounter. This is not all they are good for; they also act as your own personal sauna to help you lose pounds by sweating them off. The only difference between the two is that in a real sauna the sweat dissipates or falls to floor were as in the masks it pools in the bottom and the sides, causing puddles to drip out when you take it off.

Our PPEs came in handy when working in the apartments of the housing projects because some of them had not been cleaned out much when we got there. This meant that they still had moldy food on the counter, while others still had wet and molding clothing in the closest. Along with removing all the furniture and other personal items we also used crowbars and hammers to take out the bottom cabinets, baseboards, and doors. When this was all removed the apartments where sprayed with bleach to kill the mold. It took the team three and half days with the help of a church group for a day to gut twenty apartments. We also worked on individual homes doing roughly the same thing but we would also cut out the wall four feet from the floor and remove the floor in some cases if it was too damaged. In total we gutted about 10 houses. Mucking houses might sound like easy work right pulling out baseboards sounds easy but not so much when you add temperatures in the upper 90’s, respirators, and coveralls. All of this combined made for slow, hot and dirty work.

Over all I think the team enjoyed working in Corinth, MS if nothing else it will make for a few great stories down the road.

Transition Week Before Round 4

It was strange when everyone came back from shuffle round and moved back in to the dorms. It felt like they had invaded our personal living space. I had to really clean my room because I had taken over Mel's side of the room. The hardest of all was moving my bed back to make room for Mel. I liked having a room to myself even if it was creepy at times. Don't get me wrong I was really happy to see everyone again and to be back on my permanent team. This transition week was really no different than the last two. On Sunday Kristy, Ellen, and I went downtown to the Cinco De Mayo Festival. It was held in the streets and park across from the state capital building. There was music, food and dancing. We each got henna tattoos on our arms that lasted a little over two weeks.

On Wednesday of that week the Corps took part in a life after AmeriCorps day. This is where I came to the conclusion that I in addition to teaching I also want to explore the idea of environmental education. I think it would be inserting and fun to work at a nature center or other non-profit in education. On Friday of that week we took all corps photos in the shape of an A. This is where Daniel told us that we would be doing disaster relief in Corinth, MS. At first we didn't believe him but it turned out to be true. I then spent the rest of the morning at the state capital for the the Colorado AmeriCorps Awards given by the Governor. For lunch we had a very good cook out outside that cafeteria. That afternoon as a team we participated in a decathlon against the other teams. We played basketball and ultimate Frisbee, participated in different team building activities before it got rained out. We left for MS a little later than everyone else because we had to be fitted for respirators in order to do mucking with mold. It took three long days to get to MS.

New Photos

I have added a new photo link to the right side of my blog. The photos are from my time in Corith, MS doing disaster work.

Reflection of Third Round

So today was the last day at DCH and man was it a hard one. There was lots of tears and good byes. We went classroom to classroom to say good by in order to make sure we saw all the kids. In one class three of the students broke down after a few of my team mates did, myself included. It made you hurt to see the kids you had spent the last two months with break down like that. Some of the kids made it the whole day with out crying and then as we were leaving started to cry which got all of us going again.

One of the teachers had a lot of really nice things to say to us. He wanted us to know how much we impacted the lives of the kids and that all the staff really aprecated us being there. While I was there it was hard at times to really tell if we were making a difference but during the last few weeks it became more apparent that we were. After we said our last good by we went across the street and ate at this really good Ethiopian restaurant. The food was a bit spicy but it was good. Last Friday we preformed our drum circle for the kids it was great! I felt that the kids really enjoyed it. They also made us cards as good by gifts that were all very touching.

Tomorrow the rest of the corps comes back. it will be weird not having the dorm to ourselves anymore.

New link to photos

I put a link to photos from this round on the right side of the blog. I have also put up the last of the photos form Tulsa. So check them out.

Were Has the Time Gone?

There is only one week left in third round! I can't believe that the last two months have gone by so fast. Tomorrow is our preference of our drum circle here at DCH, which should be a lot of fun. My team and I have spent the last month learning about different beets and perfecting two of them. One is the Kuku from Africa and the other is the Bomba from Porto Rico. I love playing the drums and am thinking about finding a group to play with or even take lessons when I get out of NCCC. Along with our drumming will are also going to have a slid show and talk about our experience at DCH. We will also be preforming at the community meeting in front of the whole corps, which will be an experience within its self.

We have finished the library expect for cataloging the books, but we are over half way done. Hopefully we will be able to finish before we leave but the cataloging is taking longer than we thought. We have just finished the children's books. Besides this the library/computer lab is up and running. It has been great to see the kids and teachers use the library and how excited they are that they can check out the books.

Two weekends ago my team and I helped with Coolfax For Kids which was as street clean up sponsored by DCH. Not only did they want to clean up a section of Colfax Ave. (where the home is located) but also get the kids at the home and the community involved in volunteering. Even though it was a Saturday it was still fun to be out volunteering and interacting with people from the community. This past weekend I went to Boulder on Sunday for Earth Fest. I went with Kristy, Cate, and Shannon. It was fun to get out of the Dorms and do something different. Earth Fest wasn't that big but there was still some interesting booths.

Halfway Through Third Round

I am now halfway through my third round project at the Denver Children's Home. I love the project and the people we are working with. DCH is the oldest non-profit in Denver. It is broken into three different parts. One part of the Home is resedental where up to 30 or so kids live, go to school, and go to therapy. Another aspect of the program is Day treatment where children go to school and get therapy. The last group of kids just goes to school. Most kids stay for about three months but after being here for a month I can see why they are trying to get funding to increase the amount of time children are able to stay here. The kids are ages 11 to 18 and come from traumatic living situations. All of of the kids also come from foster families and have been to other detention centers or even to jail.

We help the teachers in their classrooms and we have been helping to set up their new library. There has been no library for the past year because it has been under construction. We have been sorting the books from their former library and the 15 boxes of books that were donated by borders. Hopefully soon we will be able to start cataloging them into the computer.

This past weekend we went to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. Water 1 came down from Boulder, part of the Fire 5 (the other team that is staying on campus) and some of the TLs all went to the game. It was a blast, even if we were sitting in the nose bleed section.

Catching Up on the End of Second Round

So I know that I haven't written on here in a long time and I apologize to those of you who have gotten on to read something new when there wasn't anything. I am now halfway through my third round project. Which means that there is less than four months left in the program. I know its hard to believe right? I found out yesterday that my permanent team and I will be going back to LA for fourth round. I am not sure how I feel about this. I was kind of looking forward to going somewhere new and I am not looking forward to the heat but what can you do. I will know Monday or Tuesday what project I will be doing.

The end of our time in Tulsa was non eventful but rewarding. All in all my team completed about 3,240 tax returns and saved our clients over $600,000 in tax preparation fees. In all my team spent over 2,000 hours doing taxes! We left Tulsa the first week of March. The night we stayed in Goodland, KS was the first night in two months that I had slept on a bed. It was wonderful! Now don't get me wrong, the cots were not as bad as I thought they were going to be but nothing beats a real bed. Our sponsors took us out to dinner the last week we were there and they even cooked us dinner too!

During transition week besides having to do the debrief form Tulsa and the brief for the Denver Children's Home some of us played trampoline doge ball. It was a blast! The place was filled with large trampolines where you could jump or play. The Water unit also went roller blading at at a rink, which I have not done since middle school. A lot of of dress up as 70's 80's. Over all it was a fun going places and seeing friends on different teams.

Photos from Tulsa

Eat, Sleep, Dream TAXES!

I can't believe that we have less than two weeks left in Tulsa. Our last day of work is next Thursday and we leave to drive back to Denver on Friday. I have had fun here and really like the people we work with but I am getting tired of doing taxes and am ready to move on to something else. I am thoroughly looking forward to sleeping in a REAL bed and having my own room for next round.

Nothing much happened at the end of last week but I did have some fun this past weekend. Friday night Amanda, Pat, Alex and I went on our team dates and went ice skating. It was a blast. I haven't been skating in almost three years so I thought I would be pretty rusty. It turned out that once I got used to being on the ice I wasn't as bad as I thought I would be. I ended up having a lot of fun. We skated for about two hours before we had to go pick up the rest of the team. While we were skating Amanda and I meet James from Kenya. He was there with some of his family and it was there first time being on ice.

Saturday was my day to sleep in and not have to do anything until 1:30pm when Pat, Alex, Amanda, Shannon, Kristy and I did ISP at the Ronald McDonald House. We cleaned out three fridges which took us about 2 hours. After that we went to the mall so Shannon and Alex could have their team date. Kristy and Pat used the wireless in the mall while Amanda and I walked around. Amanda was looking for a pair of skinny jeans but non of the stores we went into carry skinny jeans in "tall". I bought a new pair of jeans and a couple new shirts (yeah for getting paid on Thursday). As we were getting ready to leave Amanda mentioned that she had wanted to get the second hole in her right ear re-pierced but had forgotten to do it earlier. I had been talking about getting a second hole done for awhile but had not had the opportunity to do it yet. So Amanda was like we should get it done together, which is what we did. It was strange to see myself in the mirror with two earrings in at first but I have gotten used to it.

Before we had gone to the mall we stopped at Best Buy to get my wireless card replaced in my computer. The guy at Best Buy put in the new card and told me that the computer registered that the card was in there. He said that windows should be able to pick up a wireless signal now with the new card. This was not the case. Saturday night after a group of us went out to dinner we went to a coffee shop to get Internet but I was unable to get on. My computer was not picking up any wireless signal at all. I am going to Best Buy to night and hopefully they can fix it for real. Shannon and I are also going to DSW on our team date.

Sunday was nothing exciting just food shopping and doing laundry what I do every Sunday. Today I am at a different tax site because they needed more prepares here. Amanda and I got here around 10:15 and I have only done about five returns. It is a bilingual site so I have done a couple returns with people who's first language is Spanish. It was interesting and a little harder than other returns but not too bad. I feel like today is going by faster than yesterday because I am doing something a little different than normal.

Shufle (Third) Round Project!

I just found out where I am going and who my team is for thrid round. I will be staying in Denver and living in the dorms. My team leader is Ashley and I will be on Water 4. My team mates are Cati, Heidi, Sarah H. Kristine, Steve, Ian, Shawn, Shinny Dave, and Shannon and Nikki from my current team. We will be working with high school and middle school aged kids mentoring among other things. Behond that I don't really know what else we will be doing. I will find out more later. For now I am just happy that the waiting is over and I know what I am doing next round. Over all I like the project and the people on my new team. The housing is great. I will have my own room, a hot shower the runs all the time, and internet.

Happy V-Day Everyone

Today is the Monday after Valentines Days so I know I'm a little late in sending out my wish but it's better late than never. A lot has happened over the last week. The week started out like any other week. Working 1 to 5 doing taxes and working out at the YWCA in the morning. Wednesday early morning changed it all. I woke up and was violently ill. I end up missing the next two days of work and having to to to the ER to see a Doctor, not because I really need to but because I can't miss more than two days without seeing one. The visit wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only had to wait about twenty minutes before seeing a doctor. The doctor told me everything I already knew to take it easy and slowly reintroduce food into my diet. Oh well I guess, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Thursday I was feeling much better and was able to go with my team to the Tulsa Ballet. The company was preforming Sleeping Beauty. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance even though others on my team didn't enjoy it as much. The dancing was wonderful and the scenery was beautiful. Friday night some of the team went out and went bowling. I went to the coffee shop and tried to get the Internet but didn't have much luck. Before we left for to get the Internet we decided to pull a prank on the guys by putting paper under their sheets so when they sat down it would make noise. Well needless to say they found it before and decided to get us back. we came home to find Mel's cot was sitting on top of the closet, her photos next to her bed were upside down, Kristy's bear was taped to Shanon's heater, and chips were in my shoes but that was just the bedroom. We go into the locker to find all the paper we had put in their beds in Alex's shelf, Mel and my bathroom stuff had been switched in our shelf, and a smiley face had been made on the floor in front of our shelf in our lotion. We found out the next morning that they had plastic raped the toilet in the other bathroom because Alex was the unfortunate one who sat on it.

Saturday Kristy and I went to the Pilbrook Museum of Art because it is free the second Saturday of every month. The museum is housed in a 1920's villa that was built by a oil Barron in the late 1920's. He and his wife donated the villa and the land surrounding the house to Tulsa to create the museum and park in the late 1930's. The villa inside is beautiful, marble and granite are located everywhere. There are two large stained glass windows over the front doors that were beautiful. The art work that is housed in the museum is a wide variety of time periods and styles from Native American to 1600's Italian. Saturday night we went to a Tulsa Oiler's hockey game. We were given the tickets to box seats at the BOK Center. the box was amazing with nice leather seats and free dinner. The game was fun and Tulsa won. Sunday was another day filled with laundry and shopping. Amanda and Shanon both came home Sunday night. Shanon from a wedding and Amanda from going home. Then on to another week.

Winter Ice/Snow Storm in Tulsa

It is the first of February and I can't believe that we leave Tulsa in a little over a month. A ice/snow storm came through Tulsa Thursday night and Friday during the day. The storm brought in a thick layer of ice followed by about 6 or 7 inches of snow. Because of the coming storm we were let out of work early which meant that we worked from 9am to 1:15pm. It was really nice to get out of work early and be back at the center by 1:30pm. Friday work was canceled so I got my second "snow day" since being in AmeriCorps. Because of the weather we couldn't even take the vans out and were stuck in the community center. I slept in, watched a couple of movies, worked on my scarf, and had a snow ball fight on the play ground. Friday night we lost power for a couple of hours. During that time Mel took photos of us making photos with lights. They came out really interesting.

Saturday it stopped snowing and the whole team wanted to get out of the house so we made a trip to Wal-Mart. We bought food for the week and other items that we each needed. You could tell that Tulsa is not set up to handle snow because the parking lot of the Wal-Mart was still covered in snow/ice slush. Shannon and I had a hell of a time getting our cart through the snow. On Sunday we did laundry in the morning and then a few of us went to the YWCA to work out. I went swimming which was a lot of fun. The pool was really warm which was really nice. That afternoon we went as a team to the Tulsa 66ers Basketball game. We were given the tickets by CAP. Our seats were four rows from the floor. I was excited because I had never been to a professional basketball game before. Its one thing to here about a 7 ft player but is something else to see how tall they are in person.

A side note

The house that I worked on the most in New Orleans was on the their local news. I thought I would post the link so you all would be able to see the house and the woman and her granddaughter that own it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA2TiDh1nxc

The YWCA

Its another day at the office and yet again there are no clients to do taxes for at the moment. We are working the morning shift today because Tulsa is expecting a big storm to come through this afternoon and tonight. We are supposed to get ice and snow. Hopefully we will only get snow if we get anything at all. Because of the weather we are hopefully going to be able to leave around noon. Monday we got free passes to the YWCA. I didn't go on Tuesday because Amanda and I cooked lunch. I went on Tuesday and worked out in a gym for the first time ever. I took a shower at the YWCA and it made me realize that I had forgotten what a normal shower feels like. One with really hot water if you want it, normal water pressure, and consent water flow. It was lovely.

The Start of Week Three

So it's Tuesday and I am back at work. This week is a little different because I am working from 1pm to 8pm Monday through Thursday. Friday I work normal hours from 9 am to 3pm. Working until 8 is different because it means that we have team lunches instead of team dinners. Not having to be at work until 1pm also throws of the day and makes it feel much longer. We were told that they needed more tax prepares to help deal with the night time rush but I am not so sure because I am writing my blog because there is no one else here to do a return for. Doing taxes really isn't as bad as I thought they would be. I only had to ask a couple of questions today instead of two or three for each return. I could also answer more of the clients questions with out asking the sight supervisor. Hopefully they will continue to get better.

Yesterday morning I went on my "team date" with Amanda. We hitched a ride with Pat and Kristy to Oxley Nature Preserve which is about 5 miles from were we are living. The preserve is located next to the Tulsa Zoo and a nice park with a disk golf course. Amanda and I walked on several different trails for about an hour. Because we were on our team dates Amanda and I walked in a different direction than Pat and Kristy. They found the lake that is on the property while Amanda and I walked through the woods and found a small marsh. The weather was beautiful 50 degrees and sunny. It was great being outside and hiking after being inside all week sitting at a computer.

Last Friday we worked until about 3pm but only did tax returns until noon. We delivered more supplies to other tax sites for the afternoon. When we got back to the center Ellen and I went out and played on the playground. We made each other dizzy on the tire swing and hung upside down on the monkey bars. Mel came out a little later to take photos. Pat and Amanda decided to climb a tree while Drew and Daniel shot baskets. Pat got all the way to the top of a really tall one. Friday night we all went out to eat at a really good Mexican restaurant. Ellen and I were on our team date so we sat at a table by ourselves which was fun. After that Daniel, Pat, Amanda, Alex and I went to a coffee shop to get the Internet. Saturday Pat, Alex, and I did ISP with Rebuilding Together Tulsa. We put in new floor supports in a bedroom. The water from the back yard was draining under the house and had been for years. Because the crawl space vents had been closed up there was no place for the water to drain out so it just filled up the space under the floor. The water caused the wood to rot and the floor to sink in. I was able to use a nail gun, circular saw, and drill. I was surprised how much I remembered from working in New Orleans. After doing ISP I went to a coffee shop to get Internet. Saturday night Daniel, Mel, and Drew went to a movie while the rest of us stayed at the center. I work on a puzzle with Pat and Amanda. I then watched two episodes of True Blood with Shannon, Alex, Kristy, and Amanda.

Sunday morning I slept in and then went to a coffee shop with Daniel, Pat, Alex, Ellen, and Mel. My wireless adapter decided to pop out on me and would not work so I had to use someone elses computer. After the cafe we went to one of several malls here in Tulsa. It is much larger mall than White Oaks which was nice. I didn't find anything but Mel and Daniel bought some new clothes. When we got back from the mall all 6 of us went and did laundry. After dinner Pat, Amanda, Ellen and I went shopping for food for the week. It took us 45 min to get to the Wal-mart Neighborhood Market because we got really lost and ended up at the AK River. So my Sunday was backed full and then I stayed up late to watch 27 Dresses. I hope all is well with everyone reading this!

First Day of Taxes

I am at work right now but their are no new clients so I thought I would write about how the first day is going. Doing taxes aren't as bad as I thought they would be. The scariest thing is knowing that if you mess up you could be cheating someone out of a refund. You are "playing" with people's money. The tax program we are using is not hard to use you just have to remember what forms to use when they don't pop up on their own. Today so far I have worked with eight clients but have only filled 4 returns because all the other clients have forgotten certain forms that are import for filling the returns. The most that one of my clients has gotten on their refund is about $8,800 give or take. The sad part is that one couple did have to pay about 64 dollars in state taxes because they didn't have enough money taken out during the year. Another month to go!

For those of you who are wondering the address where I can get packeges here in Tulsa is:

AmeriCorps NCCC
4606 South Garnett, Suite 100
Tulsa, OK 74136

Don't send anything after the 22 of Febuary because we leave OK on March 4th

Taxes in Tulsa

I have arrived in Tulsa, OK and have been here a week and three days. We left Denver not this Saturday but the Saturday before that. We drove through KS which is just as boring as driving through Illinois. We stayed in a hotel for a night and got to Tulsa about lunch time on Sunday. The drive wasn't as bad as driving to NOLA. It wasn't as long only about 10 hours.

My team and I are living in a community center that is right behind the Police Station. The center is not in operation anymore which is great for us. The center is really big with its own gym (full size basketball court), large kitchen, and separate locker rooms for guys and gals. We all sleep in a big open common area on cots with the exception of Drew and Kristy who decided to get fancy and bought air mattresses. The cot isn't as bad as I thought it would be to sleep on but I think it helps that I have a pad to go on top of it. As I said the kitchen is really large with ten times the amount of counter space as the house in NOLA. There are even enough selves for each of us to have one. The only down side is that when we first arrived we had no fridge for the first two days and when we got them they were dorm size fridges. I will say though that you can fit more into one than I thought. The other major problem we had when we first arrived was the lack of hot water. Since I have been here I have taken two of the coldest showers of my life. The first day I just washed my hair in water that I heated up on the stove. Then the water got "fixed" but only a couple of people were able to take warm showers before it went cold again. So last Monday I took the coldest shower that I hope will be my last. Imagine taking a shower with water that on the verge of freezing. I couldn't stay in the water for very long because it was making my head throb. The hot water has now been fixed along with the heater and we can take warm showers and turn up the heat from 59 to 70 if we feel like it.

Our sponsors have been really great about fixing our problems and then getting us additional items like a TV and a box so we now get a few channels (FOX, CW, CBS). They have also gotten us tickets to see the weekend home games for the Tulsa 66's (basketball team) and to the aquarium. I really like them and from that aspect I think this project will be good.

Tax prep isn't as bad a I thought it would be. I'm not sure that I will like being inside all day so I am hoping that we will be able to spend sometime outside in the nice weather. Last week we did a little training but mostly we did office work that consisted of emptying folders and putting labels on folders. We also sorted and delivered 40,000 fliers to the Tulsa public schools about the free tax program. This week we started our IRS tax preparer certification. We had to do six different tax returns one of witch took me about an hour and half to finish. I hope I don't have to do one of these for real. We start working with clients tomorrow.

This past weekend we got out and explored Tulsa a little. Friday night the team split up and went to two different restaurants. I went to The Sushi Train and tried sushi for the first time. It was pretty good. We then went to a move at the dollar theater. I saw "Law Abiding Citizen" an intense movie but good. Saturday I went with a couple of people to Borders in order to get the Internet since we don't get it at the community center. We spent most of the afternoon there. That night some of the team went out while the rest of us stayed home and watched a movie. Sunday was laundry and food shopping day. Most of the team did laundry in the morning but it took almost 2 hours because there were so many people there. I spent the rest of the day back at the community center. I went for a run, read, and learned how to make a "granny square"! After dinner Pat, Amanda, and I went to Wal-mart to do our food shopping for the week. We spent $300 which was under budget by about $15. Next time I am able to get wireless I will post some photos of Tulsa and the community center. Hope all is well!!!!

Leaving for Tulsa, OK

So today ended our transition week between spikes. My team and I leave at 8 am for Tulsa, OK. It will take about 10 hours to drive there. We are staying in KS tomorrow night and will get to Tulsa mid morning on Sunday. My team is staying in a community center that has a big kitchen, a gym, separate bathrooms for guys and girls. We will be doing taxes for low income families. We will spend the first week on the project doing training. One good thing that will come out of this project is that I will know how to do taxes! One down side is that as far as we know there is no Internet where we are living. This means I won't be able to get on as much as I would like. I am off now to finish getting ready to leave and then head to bed because we have to be ready to go at 7:30 am.