recovery corps
Today I became, officially, one of ten thousand AmeriCorps RecoveryCorps members. RecoveryCorps is a one-time deal for this year, and is being funded in part by the Recovery Act, which is part of Obama's stimulus package. So it's pretty special. Or something.
Of course AmeriCorps training and orientation is pretty lame. They made us drive all the way to fucking Slippery Rock University to do stupid ice breakers and fill out about 353134890973417678 forms. But they also did some cool things, like talking about leadership styles and how different people work differently and how they get others to do what they want them to do. One of the other members, a gentelman about my father's age, brought in some African drums and we had a spontaneous African drum circle during our lunch break today. It was pretty awesome. He studied theraputic drumming in Ghana for two years and sung a few Nigerian songs as well. And of course we did all the boring administration stuff, and there are about 54316893 rules for filing out our timesheets, which is annoying and rather stupid in my opinion, but it's the government.
I start at the newspaper tomorrow. I'm really excited to get into the swing of things, although my sleep schedule is totally fucked up now. It will readjust itself after a few days of waking up early, but for now I have a horrible headache (the kind where my skull feels as if it's liquefying). I thought I wouldn't really get a chance to be a part of the AmeriCorps community because I am working alone at my site, but there are three other members who will be working in the North Side, and I imagine over the course of a year we will get to know each other (especially because we have to attend regular training events....in Slippery Rock. Laaaaaame!).
There are still crazy forms I need to fill out, like direct deposit and loan forebearance. And I need to figure out health insurance as well, but I am for sure getting it. We also didn't get our tshirts yet, but we did get pins. They're kind of cute. I'm not sure I'll go around wearing it all the time because I don't really wear pins on my person, but it's nice to have. I guess I also need to read through the giant binder of disorganized information they gave us, but I doubt I'm going to do that tonight. I am waaaaaaay too tired to do much aside from dick around the internetz and watch Bones. =D
But basically, I am excited to be serving my country and my city, and to be able to do it in a way that matches my particular skill set perfectly. This is going to be a crazy ride, but I'm sure it'll be well worth the feds' obnoxious time sheet rules and crazy weird regulations.
Of course AmeriCorps training and orientation is pretty lame. They made us drive all the way to fucking Slippery Rock University to do stupid ice breakers and fill out about 353134890973417678 forms. But they also did some cool things, like talking about leadership styles and how different people work differently and how they get others to do what they want them to do. One of the other members, a gentelman about my father's age, brought in some African drums and we had a spontaneous African drum circle during our lunch break today. It was pretty awesome. He studied theraputic drumming in Ghana for two years and sung a few Nigerian songs as well. And of course we did all the boring administration stuff, and there are about 54316893 rules for filing out our timesheets, which is annoying and rather stupid in my opinion, but it's the government.
I start at the newspaper tomorrow. I'm really excited to get into the swing of things, although my sleep schedule is totally fucked up now. It will readjust itself after a few days of waking up early, but for now I have a horrible headache (the kind where my skull feels as if it's liquefying). I thought I wouldn't really get a chance to be a part of the AmeriCorps community because I am working alone at my site, but there are three other members who will be working in the North Side, and I imagine over the course of a year we will get to know each other (especially because we have to attend regular training events....in Slippery Rock. Laaaaaame!).
There are still crazy forms I need to fill out, like direct deposit and loan forebearance. And I need to figure out health insurance as well, but I am for sure getting it. We also didn't get our tshirts yet, but we did get pins. They're kind of cute. I'm not sure I'll go around wearing it all the time because I don't really wear pins on my person, but it's nice to have. I guess I also need to read through the giant binder of disorganized information they gave us, but I doubt I'm going to do that tonight. I am waaaaaaay too tired to do much aside from dick around the internetz and watch Bones. =D
But basically, I am excited to be serving my country and my city, and to be able to do it in a way that matches my particular skill set perfectly. This is going to be a crazy ride, but I'm sure it'll be well worth the feds' obnoxious time sheet rules and crazy weird regulations.