Fer ‘Merica

I have just been watching tv all evening, so I guess I could do something semi-useful and update my good ol’ OD.

Today… hmm… work today was interesting. We pretty much drove around the city today removing stakes from trees that were planted a few years ago. The problem with following up with those sites is that people usually no longer have their stakes, or someone else from our organization removed the stakes but didn’t record that information correctly. This basically means that we spend a lot of time driving around to places that don’t have stakes. Really we just look suspicious driving down the streets in our shitty, beat up white van traveling at 15 mph and examining all of the houses closely. Nothing like a van full of people driving by your house, looking at you all intent like. I guess this is what Americorps meant when they asked us to do shit for America– our interpretation of the Americorps pledge.

"I’m doooin’ shit for AMERICA!!!"

Anyway, so we did that. We did stake removals in the morning and afternoon, then for the last hour of the day we sat in the office cracking walnuts and thinking of ways to redecorate. We also had a small meeting, and after that we were free. Thanks to daylight savings time it’s always dark when we get out of work, and that’s really weird… it always makes me a lot more tired than I should be.

OH, yesterday we had disaster preparedness training. It was really some presentation that told us we should be prepared, instead of telling us steps to take to become prepared and confident to handle disaster situations. Oh well. They talked a lot about terrorism… or rather, imminent terrorism. Oh, and how high rise buildings fold like pancakes when they fall. On our way there myself and 6 others were in a van, and some of our team members pulled up beside us and told us we had a flat tire. WE DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THE SITUATION AS WE HAD NOT YET HAD DISASTER PREPAREDNESS TRAINING. Everything turned out fine, our vans were just donated and have pretty much everything wrong with them (not that I’m complaining, of course).

I had the house to myself this evening so I made some spaghetti, played on the internet and watched horrible reality TV for 3 or 4 hours. I talked to Paul a little… he’s taking the GRE tomorrow morning and spent the day today forcing himself to relax. I think he’s prepared though and will be happy with his test scores. This stage of stress will be over for him by tomorrow afternoon, and then a new level of stress begins: APPLYING FOR GRAD SCHOOL. Yay.

I guess we’re still not technically together, though I don’t really know because we have avoided labels this entire time. It’s kindof okay, but I’m usually rational/analytical and like being able to label things and fit them into concrete categories. I hate in-between stages… it’s kindof stressful in a weird way, but I’m trying not to think about it.

There’s a guy at work who is quite smitten with me and hasn’t really been trying to keep it a secret. I’m bad at this kind of thing though because I can’t flat out turn a guy down (I mean in a really direct way, because I perceive that as being mean even though it isn’t). ::sigh:: Aside from the fact that I don’t know really what’s happening with Paul and I, it’d be a sticky situation because we work together. Plus, whatever, I’m not even thinking that way right now. People are already pairing off in our group though, hooking up and what not. I’m waiting for all of the drama to unfold!

So I guess that’s my entry. It’s nearly 11pm and I guess I should get to bed soon.