Dear U.S. government

I would appreciate your benefits a lot more if they weren't so damn difficult to get. After faxing an application for food stamps and having it get lost in the system despite multiple follow-up phone calls, then waiting in the office for two hours because 1) you changed the hours that caseworkers can see people without telling me and 2) you have a sign up that says "wait here for applications" even though you actually have to wait on the other side of the room first, I fully intend to find some extravagant recipes and milk the next nine months of free food for all they're worth.

(Also, you should maybe train your employees to be a little more sensitive, ie. not say things like, "They tend to come in droves. Maybe they all took the bus at the same time." Uh, I drove here. Thanks for knowing a lot about poverty.)

Catching Up

Dear loyal blog readers,

I would like to apologize for, frankly, sucking at blogging thus far during my VISTA year. You should know that work is keeping me busy and that I am sort of on my way to being a responsible adult.

One thing I love about working at College Bound is the playfulness in the office. I have laughed until I cried several times during lunch. The Director of Finance played a prank involving "regulating" the girls' bathroom (labeling each stall with names of employees who were assigned to use it, in order to balance out usage) during one of my first weeks. All of the supervisors left early one day (to buy the AmeriCorps members presents, presented to us at the holiday party at our CEO's house), so we decided to surprise them by "decorating" their offices with wrapping paper, including covering the main doors and wrapping many of their office supplies. When they came back one of them karate-chopped through the paper on the front door and we spent around an hour following all of them to their offices, cheering as they unwrapped their "presents" ranging from laptops to Coke cans to individual paper clips. We also take birthdays very seriously. So far since I've started working, everyone who has had a birthday has gotten a card signed by all of their coworkers, and we have surprised them with some sort of baked good (or multiple baked goods). I was particularly proud when I was able to bake brownies for my own roommate without her knowing that they'd be given to her at work the next day! (I had been planning to bake them at a coworker's apartment, but an ice storm made it impossible to drive anywhere that night. Luckily, my roommate decided to visit our neighbor for just the right amount of time.)

All of the departments at College Bound go by superhero names within the office, and since the arrival of our new Development Director (aka my new boss), who is fantastic, Team Development has evolved into the FUNDERcats (a play on Thundercats). Also, I recently joined a lunch group, which means now I only have to bring lunch once a week, and the rest of the week other people cook delicious lunches for me like chili dogs and sloppy joes. I have been particularly impressed and touched by their willingness to accommodate a vegetarian - I bet they never knew that so much "fake meat" existed!

As a final note about College Bound, I encourage you to read the article about us that was featured on the front page of the Post-Dispatch the Friday after Thanksgiving. It highlights a few of our seniors and their process of turning stories of hardship into impressive college application essays. Our students' accomplishments amaze me. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_ca05bd1a-045d-53e8-b387-ce7f219c76c9.html

What we do for our students is so much more than academic - I have put together care packages, chaperoned film screenings of award-winning documentaries and listened to coworkers negotiate buying winter clothes for unprepared collegians - and it is clear that we are changing lives. I love hearing our success stories, like the collegian who visited in December and proudly showed off his new tattoo - a stylized version of the College Bound logo on his ankle.

In non-work-related news, I am slowly adjusting to the world of paying bills, negotiating car repairs and the fact that many businesses do not cater to those working a 9-6 schedule. Now that I no longer have a college meal plan to fall back on, I am more in the habit of cooking for myself, which I enjoy. I have recently decided that my New Year's resolution is to bake or cook something new every week (or maybe every other week - I'm not sure if every week is too ambitious). I love drooling over the Food Network and baking blogs, and I think it's about time that I put some of the recipes I've collected to good use.

Time to enjoy the rest of my first three-day weekend as a working woman. :o) I will try to update more regularly from now on!

Oh, they oriented me all right...

I'm almost done with week two of three of training, though it really feels like the past two weeks have been a month long. The real world is exhausting. I was able to function on a pretty little amount of sleep in college, but now I find my eyelids drooping in meetings unless I get at least seven hours of sleep (which I forced myself to get last night, what a difference!). The other VISTA who is training with me at College Bound and I decided that our brains were close to being fried today - the weekend will be a welcome break.

Here are Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) and onsite orientation in a nutshell.

Sunday, October 31st, around 11:30 PM: Finish packing, book a cab to the airport for the next morning and double-check itinerary. Realize that despite the fact that you told AmeriCorps THREE times that you were moving to St. Louis from Indianapolis, and despite the fact that both you and your parents looked at your flight itinerary before, you are booked on a morning flight from Indianapolis, not St. Louis. Panic and call parents with life crisis #8,764 (number is approximate). Decide to call AmeriCorps State Office in morning because according to your paperwork, nothing can be done without their approval.

Monday, November 1st, around 7 AM: Get up and begin calling AmeriCorps State Office, only to be told when you finally get through that you should have just called the travel agent in charge of PSO. Call and get your flight changed to a 3ish flight out of St. Louis. Arrive in Albuquerque and discover gratefully that you are not the only one coming late. Arrive at hotel only to be told that "dinner was at 6:45" (you were aware, thanks) and that you can't check in and get your PSO materials until breakfast the next morning. Oh, did I mention that you've also been assigned a room with a roommate but only one bed? The bright side of the evening includes dinner at nearby Jason's Deli with two other latecomers and getting yourself switched to a room of your own.

Tuesday, November 1st through Thursday, November 4th: Meet a handful of the 150 other VISTAs at PSO from other southern states. Learn a lot about poverty. Learn probably more than you ever wanted to know about poverty, and get angry about it. Have I mentioned yet that you talk a lot about poverty? Go over your VAD (VISTA Assignment Description), which tells you what you'll actually be doing for the next year (sort of). Explore a little bit of Albuquerque, but mostly when things are closed because you're in training until dinnertime and shops close early for unknown reasons. Luckily, find a Mexican restaurant with delicious margaritas and a friend who's willing to treat.

Break for the weekend, when you meet one of your favorite singers, Dave Barnes, after arriving back in St. Louis just in time to see the last half of his concert at Blueberry Hill (note: singers are impressed when you tell them you came to their show all the way from Albuquerque, even if they know you live in St. Louis), and help raise over $166,000 for children's hospitals by dancing for 12 hours at Dance Marathon. You know, the usual.

Monday, November 8th through the present: Start on-site orientation at College Bound. Learn pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about College Bound's history, mission and programs. Meet all of the wonderful College Bound staff, who make you laugh your way through lunch everyday. Learn that you have a lot of work to do and that you "can't start soon enough," according to your supervisor. Help lead College Bound students through BizTown, a town/business simulation through Junior Achievement, and observe them in the classroom. They are funny and energetic and facing incredible odds. You are happy to work for them.

I'm getting sleepier just thinking about everything I've been doing lately. But I have a feeling life isn't going to slow down anytime soon... Wish me luck!

Here we go again!

Well, here we are again. Another adventure, another blog. This time my journey will be closer to home, but I don't think that will make it any less adventurous.

For those of you who may not know, I graduated from Washington University in May (hooray!... boo), and two days ago I moved back to St. Louis to start a job. Specifically, I'll be serving as an AmeriCorps*VISTA for the next year. VISTA stands for Volunteer in Service to America, and VISTA is the branch of AmeriCorps that specifically deals with poverty. The other branch of AmeriCorps is State, and State members perform direct service - tutoring, counseling, etc. VISTAs do not perform direct service but are responsible for the behind-the-scenes work at organizations, such as development (fundraising) and volunteer coordination. My official title is Development/Education and Awareness VISTA, and the site where I'll be serving is a nonprofit organization called College Bound. College Bound works with under-resourced high school students in St. Louis, with the ultimate goal for them being graduation from a four-year college or university. I'll be responsible, along with my co-VISTA, for writing grant applications, planning fundraisers and working with various donor groups.

As a VISTA, I am a "federally funded national service participant" (words from one of the online tutorials I went through in preparation for orientation), which basically translates into "you're going to do a lot of great things for your country, and we're not going to pay you very much for it in hopes that you gain a better understanding of poverty." Though I try to be reasonable with money, I've never really had to follow a strict budget, so that will be a new experience. My roommate, a friend from college, is working for College Bound through AmeriCorps State, so I'm sure you will hear stories of the ways we come up with to pinch pennies.

I've been anticipating the start of my job since I got hired in March, so I'm very excited to get started, but also a little overwhelmed. I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I will meet my fellow VISTAs, learn a lot about poverty and what we can do to fight it, and hopefully have some time to explore the city, since I've never been to New Mexico. I also hope that they'll finally explain why there is a star in the AmeriCorps*VISTA name. Why not just a space? Does AmeriCorps want us to feel like stars? Is serving like getting beaten up until you see stars? Do we get a free ride into space when we finish our year? So many possibilities...

*SHAMELESS PLUG* I will get back from PSO just in time to dance on an alumni team at Dance Marathon 2010! Dance Marathon, or DM, is a fabulous event at Washington University that raises money for Children's Miracle Network. All of the money goes to two outstanding pediatric hospitals in St. Louis. I was a team leader, or Morale Captain, my sophomore year, and then served on the Executive Board for two years. I am so excited to dance again (without having to worry about a single logistical detail!), and I'd love to raise as much money as I can. If you feel so inclined, you can donate online and read more about my DM experience here: http://www.dmstl.org/profile/2467. Thanks so much for your support of all my nonprofit endeavors!