Thursday, August 18, 2011

Iowanna do that - All mostly there

The results are in. My last project with AmeriCorps is scheduled to be in the place where I started; Camp Courageous in Monticello Iowa. Neither excited nor disappointed to be going. The plan is to be a special needs camp counselor for two months. I’ve never done that before so it will definitely be a learning experience. Of course it wouldn’t be my AmeriCorps experience if something hadn’t gone wrong or bad, and the powers that be made sure to find a way to punch me in the face, even at the end. This project is pretty nice. No manual labor, catered food, beds, showers in housing, laundry on site, wi-fi, and even a kitchen. The downside? It’s not a very big side, but we have to work 7:30-9:30 mon-fri. What really hurt though was the fact that our original third round project was given to another team. Sound dumb, well it is. We were robbed of the project for the third round, and then instead of giving us the project back for our last round, they gave it to another team and gave us the other project. But I can’t be mad. Like I already illustrated, I wanted a nice housing situation at the end and I got it. But come on AmeriCorps! I wanted to paintball. Jeez. I think this situation fell on us because some of my teammates are lacking on hours and the Camp Courageous project has plenty of hours. Not sure if that’s the reason, but it’d make sense. Did I mention there’s essentially no cell service at Camp Courageous? Oh well, guess we’ll see how the project turns out…better not feel like the super wash spin cycle at the Laundromat.

Speaking of Laundromats, my dumb butt dun did it again. I put yet another nice cell phone through the wash before I had it for a year. Sorry sis, and thanks for letting me have it. Wish I could have had it for longer because I really liked that phone. I’m starting to think that me being distracted hardly ever results in something good. I don’t know what was distracting me, but I definitely saw my phone in my pocket, and still washed it. And it wasn’t until 30 seconds after the water had started destroying my communicator that I realized my phone was getting its sudsy suds on. I know you guys think I’m a germaphobe, but I promise I wasn’t trying to get it extra clean. At least I was able to salvage the sim card, so if you ever decide to text I’ll still get it.

Being here has really shown me how little free time the Corps provides. I want to write, but I have barely any time. You see how long it took to write another blog didn’t you? I still have weekends to write, and that’s still good, but sheesh I just want to write all the time.

It’s crazy to know that I’m on the last leg of my AmeriCorps journey. Used my arms in Milwaukee to cut down invasive species, lent a hand in Mississippi to help clean up Mother Nature’s mess, provided an ear in Minnesota to hear the stories of various veterans, and threw my back in North Dakota mucking and gutting houses. A little over two months and I’ll be free! At least for a couple months, before I have to go be a slave to something else.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Didn't win, but was an editor's choice finalist in this contest

I didn't win this contest but I was an editor's choice finalist. Here's the link to the story and the shiny banner they gave me:

http://writingcontest.then​ovelette.com/jeremieguy/