Where We Love is Home...

I am back in my home state of Rhode Island as of last Saturday and that is why this post has been so long in the making. I started to blog before I left Kentucky and then the craziness of packing for home and tying up all my loose ends got the best of me and the little start to a post I had written sat patiently waiting for me in my unfinished posts. 

Now I'm lying in my bed at home and figured I would pick up where I left off and just continue my story that I had started more than a week ago. So, lets go back to last Sunday...

One of my housemates, Jane, has been asking me for at least the last month or so when I will write about her in my blog and I keep assuring her that I will include her soon, but then I'll write the blog and somehow every time she misses the cut. And every time I feel like a jerk.

Well, Jane here is your moment to shine.



View from the top of the hill



On Sunday, Jane, Maggie, Kevin, and myself went on an adventure to find a Christmas tree in the woods surrounding our house. We had no real means of cutting it down since the splitter was in our truck which wasn't at the house at the time so we were just going to scope out the prospects. After a short jaunt through the woods, we had picked out a couple candidates that we thought could work, but none that had really stood out. We decided to go look one other spot behind our house and then we spotted it up on the hill - the perfect Christmas tree. The only issue was that it was located on the top of this large, steep hillside/rock outcropping that overlooks the highway that runs by our house.

Like we would let a small issue like that stop us.

(Correction, Maggie was stopped by this fact as she decided to observe the rest of us hunt down the perfect tree from the safety of the house which considering the amount of times I was stabbed by thorns may not have been that bad of a life choice.)

The rest of the crew headed up the hillside and with some effort found our way to the top of the hill where we could see the perfect tree waiting for us - on the other side of the barb wire fence. Once again, we were pretty determined to have this tree so Kevin bravely ventured over the fence to confirm the tree was as good as we anticipated which it was. I then had to climb back down the hill to get something to cut down the tree with, as I mentioned before, we didn't have any appropriate tools at the house. However, it is absolutely amazing what you can do with a Sawzall blade. Yup, we cut our tree down with naught but a Sawzall blade with a glove wrapped around the end so you could hold onto it properly.

Ghetto? Perhaps.

Effective? I think so.

We then had to haul the tree over the barbed wire fence and down the hill through a sea of briers and thorns and fallen tree trunks. But it was all worth it when we got to set it up in our living room later in the afternoon.

So that is my latest Kentucky adventure.

And now I am home to enjoy life in the 'real world' aka life outside of CAP for a short while. That adjustment is a whole other post by itself. One which I am too tired to tackle right now, but perhaps in the future.

Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes-

Onions Have Layers and So Do I

Layers.

Lots and lots of layers.

That is the ONLY way to survive working outside in the winter in the Housing program at CAP. Today was our first real snowfall of the winter and we are still finishing up siding at work so needless to say it was a tad, shall we say, brisk outside today. In order to survive this and to keep from being miserable, I have discovered that dressing in many layers is the way to go.

Today, I rocked an amazing outfit that consisted of:

• Leggings
• Jeans
• Two pairs of socks
• Work boots (not steel toe because that is like putting your toes in an icebox)
• 4 T-shirt like items that are as follows (in order from inside to outside)
• Tank top
• Long sleeve Under Armour
• Short sleeve T-Shirt
• Long Sleeve Shirt
• A Button up Flannel Shirt
• Down Vest
• Gloves
• Winter Hat

As my crew leader always says, when you dress in layers you always have options for warmth. Instead of having to choose between a parka or a t-shirt, I can try various combinations of the above items for an optimum comfort level.

Have no fear, I don't think I'll be trying out the legging, flannel shirt, and winter hat combo any time soon.

Too Much to Be Thankful For

This past week I experienced what I fear may begin to be a trend in my life - spending holidays away from my family. This past Thursday was the first time I have ever been anywhere but in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving, and if I end up living outside of the Northeast (as I plan on doing after CAP) then this may become more of a common occurrence than I would like it to. This is not to say that I did not have a wonderful time during my Thanksgiving break, but it was strange to not find myself sitting at the 'young people' table in my kitchen listening to my loud Italian family having the yearly discussion about how 'we really should eliminate one of the four courses from the meal' which is always followed by uproar and the firm decision that we could never do that because then someone's favorite would be gone. I am however comforted by the fact that I get to see my family in two short weeks and I probably saved myself a few thousand calories this Thanksgiving day.

Now for the re-cap of my Thanksgiving adventure to Okemos, Michigan.

I spent my break at Kevin's house with his family - his parents, older sister, and aunt - and another volunteer Caitlin who we both worked with at Camp the past two summers. We left for Kev's house on Tuesday morning and stayed until Sunday morning - the most time I've spent away from Kentucky continuously since moving here in July. The drive takes about 8 hours if you don't run into too much traffic and everything goes smoothly. This is me we are talking about so you should have already guessed at this point that things did not go according to plan and after stopping for lunch in Anna, Ohio, we went out to Kev's car (who I affectionately call Buddy - the car not Kevin) to find a flat as a pancake rear driver's side tire waiting for us. Now Kevin already despises the state of Ohio for reasons I still do not completely understand, but getting a flat tire was definitely not helping its reputation. He was able to get the lug nuts off, but unfortunately the tire was rusted to the car and no amount of kicking at it or yelling or pleading could get the tire to budge so we were forced to call AAA for assistance. While waiting for AAA to make an appearance, we discovered the front passenger tire was also really low on air and that Buddy was in desperate need of some oil. Needless to say, Buddy was in dire straights and deserved some some serious TLC which he fortunately was able to receive via a Truck Tire Stop right down the road. Despite my original misgivings about the tire place, they were really good and had our tire fixed up and us back on the road in no time and after some traffic near Ann Arbor we finally made it to our destination.



There were a couple things on our to do list for this trip, including hockey, some shopping, and a Jimmy John's trip. There was one last minute addition to the list - get my stitches out - as the hospital in Kentucky told me on Tuesday they were not quite ready to come out and I needed to return the following day. Therefore, Wednesday I found myself in a orthopedic surgeon friend of the McCullough family's office waiting to get my two stitches pulled out of my eyelid. I just have one piece of advice for all of you - don't ever get stitches in your eyelid. It is terrible both getting them in and getting them taken out. They are so tiny and your eyelid is so delicate and its just not an experience I would wish upon anyone. However, in the end I got both my stitches out and my eye is none the worse for the wear minus a tiny scar that I'm told is barely noticeable.

Myself, Caitlin, Megan (Kevin's sister), & Kevin

One place that we spent a good deal of our vacation at was the ice rink. We went on three separate occasions to be exact - twice to watch Kevin play pick-up hockey and once to go ice skating. Watching hockey can be quite entertaining, but it is also very very cold. I mean this should be an obvious fact since the place is composed of ice, but I didn't fully comprehend how cold it was going to be until after sitting on the bleachers for awhile and I noticed I could see my breath in the air. I have only been ice skating once before in my life and that was last year so I was pretty nervous about going to free skate. However, I did not do too badly at all. I even learned to skate backwards a little. Its a lot more difficult than I would have thought especially after watching all the guys at pick-up hockey seamlessly switching between forwards and backwards but then again most of them have been playing their whole life. Caitlin also had the chance to practice her figure skating skills while we were at the rink and therefore earned the prize for the most falls - a grand total of six. If you know Caitlin at all, this should not surprise you at all and in her typical style each fall was more entertaining than the latter complete with flailing arms and screaming.  

Before I continue on with the next story of my weekend, I need to throw a disclaimer out there.

*This next paragraph is not meant to insinuate in any way that Kevin is a bad cook rather that he is a highly entertaining one.*

Ok, now on with the tale. 

Caitlin trying the rice

First a little back story - Kate and I had recently decided at the house that Kevin should have a cooking show because it is so much fun to watch him cook. Once he gets more than one thing going on in the kitchen at a time - watch out! The other day he was cooking pasta on the stove top, had mozzarella sticks in the oven, and was warming up the dipping sauce packet in the microwave. It basically involved him running around the kitchen looking quite frazzled while he was trying to keep everything going at the same time without burning anything which he did manage to accomplish minus a small explosion in the microwave. Kate and I decided that we would produce said cooking show for him under the title of 'Oh Sh*t, the Pasta's on Fire' or the more PC title of 'Kitchen Catastrophes with Kevin'. I tell you this because while we were at his house Kevin decided to make rice and it could have been an episode on the show. He put the rice and water on the stove and it had been cooking for awhile when his mom came over and asked him if he was sure about the amount of rice he had put in the pot in relation to the amount of water. Kevin insisted he was sure he had done it correctly and grabbed the bag to prove his point and then realized that he had put too much rice in and now instead of the few servings of rice he had planned on making we had eleven servings of rice cooking on the stove. Because the ratio of rice and water was off, it took forever for the rice to cook and when it finally finished it was rather sticky, but have no fear it didn't go to waste as Caitlin was brave enough to help Kev finish off the eleven servings of rice.

Caitlin & I at the hockey rink

One of the last fun experience I have to share with you from our trip was the sleeping arrangements I had for the week. Caitlin and I shared a pull out couch for the trip which with any other person would most likely have been more than enough room. However, Caitlin has a tendency to be a very active sleeper. She not only talks and moves around in her sleep, but she is also a blanket hog and a sleep laugher. Yes, a sleep laugher which is just as creepy as you can imagine it would be. The last night of our trip I was having trouble sleeping and was lying in bed wide awake trying to hold onto the little bit of blankets I had left on my side when I heard Caitlin start muttering in her sleep and then burst out with this line "Damn you and your prosthetic leg!". I don't think I even want to know what she was dreaming about.

This post is just an overview of my week. There is no possible way that I could sum up the entire vacation in one post nor do I want to. This post alone has taken me way too long to write and I don't think I could handle sitting at my computer much longer. If you want to read another account of our trip than you can check out Caitlin's blog - just click HERE! 

I guess that all I have left to say is that if I had to be away from my family for Thanksgiving I couldn't have asked for a better way to enjoy the holiday than this past week.

Are You a Tough Girl?

Dremel



+



 Long Hair

 =

 2 stitches in my eyelid

I really don't know how to better explain what my Saturday night consisted of other than the above equation. Before I go on explaining, please know for all of you who are concerned that I am relatively fine and there shouldn't be too many lasting effects from this incident other than a new found respect for the Dremel.

Now for all the fun details including some gross pictures so consider this your warning if you are squeamish.



This is the tip of the dremel.
It used to be in one piece
and straight.



Last night I was sitting in my room working on some Christmas presents which I can't really explain any more other than the fact that it required the use of a Dremel because someone who reads this blog is the recipient of this present and I don't want to give it away. Anyway, I was dremel-ing away and out of nowhere my hair got stuck in the tip of the Dremel which because the Dremel spins caused the entire tool to wind up my hair and fly into my eye. The really odd part was that I was strangely calm when this happened. I grabbed the Dremel and held it away from my face and managed to turn off the power. Once I turned it off, my hair unwound from it with no problem and I started to try and figure out what exactly I had injured. Honestly at this point, I was just relieved I hadn't lost a chunk of hair to the power tool. That's when I felt a drip of something hit my hand and realized I couldn't really see out of my right eye and then I quickly came to the conclusion that rocking a bald spot for the holidays was really the least of my concerns.

I went and checked my eye in the mirror in my room and was excited to see that I still had an eyeball all in one piece, but there was a fair amount of blood dripping off my face. I decided the best thing to do was to get Kate to come check out the damage. It took a couple of yells and a "No this is really important!", but she came down the hallway to my room to see what all the fuss was about and after a preliminary "Don't freak out, but I'm going to show you something", I moved my hand off my eye and she was greeted with a site similar to this:

We went into the bathroom where we managed to clean off some of the blood and we determined that my only real injury was a cut on my eyelid and that a potentially amazing black eye was in the works. After some convincing from Kate, we headed off to the Emergency Room to get my eye looked at along with Kevin and my crew leader Tony and his wife Liz.

After waiting about two hours in the ER and explaining my story too many times to count, the doctor finally came in and looked at my eye and assured me they would be able to fix my eye up in no time. The doctor then asked me, "Are you a tough girl?" I knew at this precise moment that I was in trouble and all I could manage to say was "I guess we're about to find out". The problem with cutting your eyelid is that the area is too small to really numb so he had to just stitch it up without giving me anything beforehand. He assured me that it would feel like a bee sting, but I beg to differ. I have been stung multiple times since coming to Kentucky as the house we're working on currently is basically a breeding ground for waspers and I can assure you that getting your eyelid stitched back together hurts significantly more than getting stung. Thankfully, it was only two stitches and I was sent on my way with some antibiotic ointment and these words of wisdom: "Bethanie, when they tell you to keep your eye on the power tools; they don't mean it literally".

Today, I woke up to a much more purple looking eye than in the above photo and a sense of appreciation for the fact that this could have been a much more tragic story ending in me now having one glass eye. So all in all, I really must say as terrible as this story sounds I'm just thankful that I still have both my eyes, I'm not sporting a bald spot on the front of my head, and I will now look pretty stinkin' rugged for Thanksgiving. 

The morning after









Ain't No Sunshine

I miss the sun.

I used to take for granted the fact that I would get to see the sun and feel its rays every day from the time it rose in the morning until it went down in the evening. Yes, I knew that some days would be cloudy or rainy and that I would be deprived of my Vitamin D for the day. I understood that in the winter the days would become shorter and my time with the sun would be even more restricted.

The 2nd hill

I did NOT realize that my time with the sun could be reduced to a mere 4 hours a day. But that is what my life has come to. Our participant's house faces a huge hill and we work in its shadow all morning until about 12:30 and if we are on the driveway side of the house you are then blessed with sunshine until about 3:30 when it starts disappearing behind another hill. I literally watch the sun creep up over the tree line every morning and then watch the sunshine reflected higher up on the hill that the house sits on and wish its warmth down towards me. Today, we were working on the side of the house that never sees the sun and therefore I didn't feel the sunshine until we stopped work for lunch. But from what I understand, this sun deprivation is slightly normal for people around here. I guess its just something I'll have to get used to.

Another difference I've seen firsthand recently between Kentucky and the North East is the abundance and use of railroad crossings. At home, I would see crossings occasionally but I don't think that I've actually seen a train go by and I've certainly never been stuck waiting at a crossing before. But here, we see trains all the time piled high with coal criss-crossing all over the curvy mountain roads we drive on to and from our work sites. The other day we got stuck waiting at least 10 minutes for a train to pass before we could continue on our journey.

I can't say that I really dislike the excuse to sit and just enjoy ten minutes to relax and wind down from the busyness of the day. People move slower here. Here you take the time to talk and more importantly listen to one another and not just rush through life at breakneck speed. While living on Kentucky time, its perfectly socially acceptable for me to show up somewhere 10 minutes late and say I got stuck behind the coal truck and no one will question it or be upset.

Is a little more sunshine while I learn how to wait too much to ask?

Scaffolding, Siding, and Near Death Experiences

After I posted my last blog, I realized that it has been quite a while (at least a month) since I have dedicated a post to my actual job with CAP - working in Housing. By the time I get through detailing all my weekend adventures in a blog, I am just too tired to add on anything about what I did at work that week. Therefore, this post is dedicated to an update on the work side of my adventures with CAP.

To bring everyone up to update on what I've been doing, first, I suppose I should give a little back story about the house we have been working on. It is located at the end of a holler way out in Knott County and is owned by an older couple who live alone there. It is a small box house which as I can best explain it means that this house was never framed out with studs and whatnot. Instead it is a big box with planks nailed to the frame for the walls with drywall added on the inside and wood siding on the outside. As you can imagine, this does not make for the best insulation situation. In fact, working on this house, we've seen that the house was mainly insulated with newspapers and cloth. We even found a newspaper from the 1920s!

The list of repairs being done by CAP for this house include:

• New vinly siding
• Interior painted
• Drywall on ceiling patched
• All new windows and door
• New kitchen cupboards and sink
• Bathroom repairs including new toilet
• New front porch steps

We started working on this house in the beginning of October and we were lucky to have two very skilled volunteer groups come down and help us for two weeks. Between the group's work and the time my crew has spent working we have been able to replace all the windows, install the new front door, install the new cupboards, counter top, and sink, build the new front steps, and paint 3 of the rooms inside. I don't have any before pictures unfortunately, but I can share some photos of the repairs we have done so far.

New cupboards before we put on the counter top and sink

Kate putting together the new porch stairs



Me putting up Tyvek paper



The past week and a half or so we have been working on putting up vinyl siding on the exterior of the house. It has been quite a process because as it is with most of our houses nothing is plumb or level and things never work out quite the way you think they should. Another fun part about this house is its particular location on the hillside. The best way I can describe it is to say you can walk out of the back door into their yard, but in the front there is a walk-out basement with a 9 ft high porch above it. I have become quite good at setting up, taking down, and using scaffolding over the past few weeks. It can get really tricky trying to get the ladders out of the way of your work and getting the ladder jacks set up evenly so your plank isn't wobbly, but it does keep you on your toes. It can be quite terrifying when you first walk out onto the plank and know that one misstep and you could fall 20 feet straight down onto the ground. But as I've been told numerous times, its not the fall you need to be concerned about, its the landing.



Me, Jess, and Heather before I almost fell to my death.



There have been numerous times that I have been on the scaffolding and lost my balance for a second and scared myself a little, but never honestly came close to falling. Until yesterday. I legitimately saw my life flash before my eyes yesterday. I was standing on the edge of a piece of scaffold trying to get up a rather difficult piece of Soffit which also happened to be the last piece we were putting up for the day. Jess (Kate's sister who came to visit with her best friend Heather) was up on the scaffolding with me and was standing in the middle handing me pieces. (The picture I put in may help you picture this story a little better. I was standing on the very end of the scaffold towards the left of this photo.) We finished getting up the Soffit and then Tony came up on the ladder to check out what our next step would be and decided to call it a day. Jess decided to step off the scaffold and onto the porch rail which was in front of us rather than climbing down the ladder 20 ft or so. When she said she was going to step off the scaffold, I didn't even think anything about it, until I felt the scaffold falling beneath me. Simple physics had taken over. Without Jess in the middle, the edge of scaffold that was extended several feet by the jacks started working like a seesaw and went down towards the ground. Only problem was the ground was at least 20 feet below me. Luckily, Jess immediately realized what was happening and stepped back on the scaffold and I grabbed onto the ladder and was no worse for the wear except for the fact that I think I lost a good 5 years off my life.

Just another day at the work site.

One Last Hurrah

I don't think I've ever been so excited about the prospect of a weekend of absolute nothing-ness. This past weekend marked the 7th one in a row that I have had something going on (you can read the details of all these lovely weekends in my previous posts, if you haven't already).

However, I must say I couldn't have thought of a better way to end the busyness but with this latest adventure - a trip to St. Louis to play trampoline dodgeball for a fellow camp counselor Kristen's birthday party.

I don't think there is any way to really describe trampoline dodgeball accurately. What I had imagined in my mind prior to actually experiencing it was pretty far removed from the actual event. If you want to see what it looks like when professionals play, you can check out this video: The professionals. Our version involved a lot less flipping and cheesy music, but was played on the same type of court and was equally AMAZING.

We had the court for an hour and it flew by. I really think I could've jumped for at least another two hours. It definitely took some adjusting to as I learned after I fell directly following my first jump. But once you got the hang of jumping between the squares and established some sense of balance, it became a lot easier to avoid many more embarrassing spills. I even got up the nerve to do a couple flips by the end of the hour.



Our Dodgeball Crew

In addition to playing trampoline dodgeball, we were also able to visit the St. Louis Zoo which was highly entertaining and even more exciting it was FREE. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I went to the zoo, but the St. Louis Zoo did not disappoint. And when one of your fellow zoo-goers happens to be a Zoology teacher it makes for a much more educational experience. Including her pointing out this sign entitled 'What's So Special About a Hippo's Hiney?' which detailed how hippos help feed the fish with, well, I guess the picture can explain for me.

Please note the word bubble in the bottom right hand corner.

As much fun as the past month and a half has been, I am so glad that it is over and I can now look forward to some down time until Thanksgiving when the craziness begins all over again.

Halloweekend Festivities

Another ridiculously busy weekend has passed us by in the Floyd House:Halloween Weekend AKA Halloweekend.The highlight of the weekend was that Kate and I finally were able to reveal our costume on Saturday at the Halloween party. We have been planning this costume since the first week we met each other back in August so there was a lot of pressure to perform.

*Insert Drum Roll Please*

We dressed up as our crew leader, Tony, and his wife, Liz!



Tony, Kate as Tony, Liz, Me as Liz





The costume was a huge hit with everybody at the party and a lot of people kept confusing the look-a-like Tony for the real Tony. I wish I had a picture of Tony's reaction when he walked into the party. He was completely dumbfounded - it was great! I can imagine it would be odd to walk into a party and see an exact copy of yourself waiting to greet you. The night was even made better by the fact, that Kate and I had a clean sweep of the contests that night. She won 'Best Costume' and I ended up winning the pumpkin carving contest with my creation to the right.

In recognition of Halloween, I'd thought I'd also share a little story about an encounter I had with some wildlife last week at work. I was working underneath the porch of the house tacking up a wire with these little plastic clips to keep it from interfering with the Tyvek paper we were wrapping the house with. For this story to make sense, I have to explain the space where I was working. The front porch on this house is 9 feet high so the space underneath it is quite spacious and is actually mostly a concrete slab that butts up against the basement of their house. While you are standing underneath it you can see all the boards from the deck above and the joists that are holding it together. So I am standing on my ladder tacking up this wire and just moving right along with hardly any problems. I notice in a gap between some boards (that are maybe 6 inches from my face) a piece of what looks like fuzz which I account to the fact that this house was previously insulated with old newspapers and pieces of cloth. However, upon closer inspection, I realize it is NOT a piece of fuzz, but rather some sort of dead animal - a mouse to be exact. Its hanging upside down and all that is sticking out is its head. I can see its eyes which are closed and its face, but that's it. I called up to Tony and Kate, who were installing a door on the porch, and informed them of my discovery, but assured them I was fine. I decided to lean in for a closer look and when I was about two inches away, all of a sudden its' eyes popped open and it looked directly at me. I let out the loudest, girliest scream and jumped down from the ladder as quickly as I could.

Not only was it NOT a piece of fuzz, it was an animal, and NOT a dead one, but a LIVE one, and NOT a mouse, but a bat.



The bat's face
(My exact view when it opened its eyes)







The bat's butt
(View from on top of the porch)



Needless to say, Tony and Kate came down to check on me (really just make fun of me for being a baby) and after we all stared at it for a while and took some photos we were back to work none the worse for the wear.

Except for the fact that I am still trying to live this moment down.

Not So Broken #2

Some more photos off my camera to hold you over until my next blog post which is currently in the works. Hopefully, I'll get it posted soon. Maybe even tonight depending on my motivation level and how tired I become in the next hour or so.



Not So Broken #1

I got a new digital camera for Christmas from my parents. It wasn't anything intense, just a practical camera for taking photos of friends, family, and the like. It unfortunately met an untimely death when I brought it with me in March to Kentucky for Workfest - CAP's Alternative Spring Break for college students. One second it was fine and the next second I took it out of my nail pouch and the LCD screen was broken. Completely destroyed.Because my camera isn't of the highest quality, it doesn't have a viewfinder so that I could at least guess-timate what I was taking pictures of and therefore it was down for the count.  (Yes, I know the nail pouch was not the ideal spot to be keeping it, but when you're balancing on a rotted tin roof your options for putting down your camera are quite limited.)

Unfortunately, my camera did not have a warranty protecting it from user stupidity so I have been out a camera since then. When I came to CAP, I realized that this was going to be a bit of a problem since I would have no way of documenting my adventures and I had no extra money to fix my camera or buy a new one. Therefore, I decided to start aiming my camera in the general direction of what I was trying to capture and hoping for the best.

There is definitely a learning curve with taking pictures this way. In general, it is best to take multiple shots of whatever you're trying to capture because some may not come out focused or the subject may not be centered in your photo. However, as far as a broken camera goes, the pictures have not been that bad at all.

I've decided to start posting some of best of the photos unedited in any way. Just as they come out on my camera when I push the shutter and hope for the best. I'm including three of the ones I've taken thus far in this post, but in the future I'll try and post them as I take them.

So here goes - Not So Broken: Edition 1.

Time Flies By So Fast

I have recently come to the realization that I have more of a busy social calendar since I moved to Eastern Kentucky than when I lived in the Northeast. I don't know if that is an indication of the lack of a social life I had back home or if it speaks to the amount of adventures and activities we try to fit into our lives down here. If the past month has been any indication, I may be leaning more towards the latter.

In the month of October, our house has had some sort of activity planned every weekend whether it was a house event or a CAP wide event, we have been going non-stop and it is starting to get exhausting and we're not done yet. Here is a rundown of my most recent weekend adventures.

#1 - APPLE DAYS

On the first Saturday of October, a group of us from the house went to Apple Days in Paintsville which is a huge festival all about, you guessed it, apples! The theme of the 47th annual Apple Days was 'A Slice of Heaven' and although I wouldn't go quite that far there was some interesting things to be seen. The main attraction was the parade which we went to go see. It was the slowest moving parade I have ever witnessed in my life; at times, it was legitimately at a stand still for five minutes or more. Not moving at all. Just sitting. And that happened a lot more than  once if you can believe it. At one point, Kate and I left to go buy some popcorn and came back about ten to fifteen minutes later and we had missed maybe one car. The best part of the parade though was definitely the Shriners. They were all dressed up as hillbillies and were driving around in ridiculous cars with signs that said 'Hillbillies Helping Crippled Children'. I wish I had a picture to show you, but just use your imagination and I'm sure it will come close to the actual thing.


#2 - CAP PICNIC/WEEKEND AT THE WEIDERMAN'S

Kevin, Chris, Caitlin, Jordan, Me, Kate

This weekend was especially long as it began on Thursday with the CAP-wide company picnic in Lexington. There were a bunch of different activities going on as well as delicious food and opportunity to see volunteers from all over CAP. Some of the highlights of the day were a cornhole tournament, a 5k run/walk, bingo, and a volleyball tournament. The day was even made more amazing by the fact that my team dominated the volleyball tournament and were rewarded with a lovely trophy which I currently have proudly displayed in my room.

Kate, Maggie, Me, Rachel

One of my housemates, Rachel, is actually from Kentucky and lives less than an hour away from Lexington and she invited us to come stay at her parent's home for the weekend. So directly following the picnic we headed to the Weiderman's house in Danville. Momma and Poppa Weiderman spoiled us the entire time we were there with crazy amounts of delicious home cooked food and wonderful company. It was like we were staying at the most amazing bed and breakfast except it was affordable for a CAP volunteer. While we were in western Kentucky, we also decided to try and visit some places on the Bourbon Trail (http://www.kybourbontrail.com/). We were able to visit three of the six distilleries on the trail including: Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and Woodford Reserve.  Each of the distilleries offered a little bit of a different tour, but of the three we visited I would have to say my favorite was Four Roses so far. They had  a swing made from a bourbon barrel out front which was amazing and provided a great place for a little family photo (minus quite a few members).


#3 - SPLENDIFEROUS FALL EXTRAVAGANZA

There are a total of three volunteer houses on the East side of CAP - Floyd (where I live), Johnson, and Magoffin. Even though we all are working for CAP, we don't all get to see each other that often because of our varied programs, schedules, and the distances between our houses. The Johnson house decided to hold a fall festival AKA the Splendiferous Fall Extravaganza in order to allow all the houses to get together and fellowship. And with a name like that, you can imagine the expectations that were being set for this event. The Johnson House did not disappoint. There was a bonfire with great food - steak, pork chops, chicken, potatoes, and biscuits - and wonderful music. I was conned into helping roast the apples on the bonfire which I originally agreed to thinking that it was going to be fun and a pretty easy job. I mean, all you have to do is turn the foil-wrapped apples every once in while with tongs, right? FALSE. It actually involves running around a very hot fire with a pair of tongs trying to turn apples before they burn or are crushed by falling logs with sweat forming on your brow and tears streaming down your face because your eyes can't handle the intense heat for such an extended period of time. But it was all worth it when the apples were sliced up and served with vanilla ice cream, homemade caramel, and crumb topping.


#4 - VOLUNTEER RETREAT

This past weekend we all spent up at Camp Shawnee at the Fall CAP Volunteer Retreat. Its a time for all the volunteers from both the east and west sides of CAP to come together and fellowship and

#5 - HALLOWEEN

This weekend activity has yet to actually occur, but just as a preview of my next weekend I thought I would include it here. Next weekend, I will be attending a Halloween party hosted by an independent living volunteer. Kate and I have been planning our costume since we first met in August and we have kept it a huge secret so unfortunately you all will have to wait till next weekend to know what it is, but rest assured it will be amazing. And don't worry there will be photos.

You Know You Live in Eastern Kentucky when....

...you have witnessed the following list of things in under ten minutes.

• A man riding his ATV on the main road as if its a car.
• A shirtless man aimlessly wandering in the middle of an intersection blocking traffic.
• A tractor driving on the road holding up traffic on the main road as if it also is a car.
• A group of random people directing traffic on a main road around a car accident (legitimately, waving people through and holding others up).
• You have been warned of said accident by a huge coal truck flashing its lights at you.
• A huge cloud of thick, black smoke coming out from behind some one's house where they are burning a large pile of garbage (which goodness knows what that contains).

That was my life yesterday and basically every day that I have spent here to some degree.

How could I not love it here?

A Lesson in Patience and the Like

The title of this post really only has to do with one small part of my life as of late, but I couldn't think of a better title so it remains 'A Lesson in Patience and the Like'. But I guess it is appropriate, as I'm sure you all have been patiently waiting on me to get my act together and finally update you all on my most recent adventures and for that I do apologize. Although excuses are generally lame and insufficient, I will try and explain the details of my ridiculously busy life as a way of explaining away my lack of communication.

The day after my last post I left for Maryland to go to my cousin Shane's wedding. Although I spent most of Friday and Saturday in the car alternately driving to and from the wedding, the trip was well worth it as I was able to see my lovely family whom I have missed dearly. I don't think I realized how much I missed them until I was face to face with them again on Friday night. Even though I only got to see everyone for a very short amount of time, it was a nice refresher to help me survive until I get to see everyone at Christmas.

Immediately upon arriving back at the house, I had to head up to Orientation for a full week. I know you may be thinking 'But Bethanie haven't you been in Kentucky for a while now?'. Well, CAP runs an Orientation every few months and I missed the last one by two weeks so I found myself heading up to be oriented just about two months after I arrived here. It was a very long week of lengthy meetings and group discussions and seminars with the final crowning moment of the week being a group of us reading the Volunteer Handbook from cover to cover out loud. Fascinating, I know. I would be remiss however in leaving out the wonderful moments I had with my fellow volunteers in between the sessions. I got to see some of my friends that live on the other side of the state who I don't get to see very often due to the distance between our volunteer houses. And I was able to form even closer bonds with some of my roommates that I don't work with everyday.

And all of that brings you up to date to last week in which I spent a good portion of my time exploring a new hobby - building mini corn hole. I had never heard of corn hole until I came to Kentucky, but for all you North East people its a game that involves two boards that you set about 20 feet from each other. The object of the game is to throw bags into the hole in the board or on top of the board. You score 3 points for getting it in the hole and 1 for on top. (You can find more specific and complete rules at http://www.playcornhole.org/rules.shtml). I decided to try and replicate a tabletop rendition of this game that I had seen being sold at a festival we went to. I made a set for Kate because her birthday was today and I must say I am pretty proud of how they turned out. Maybe I'll start selling them to supplement my $75 bi-weekly stipend. 

And now last but definitely not least, the reason behind this blog's title. I have completed another task off my 101 list - #34: Build a piece of furniture. I learned over the past four or five weekends how NOT to build a picnic table and in the process ended up with what you see below - 10 feet of beautiful treated 2x6 lumber in the shape of a table.

The issues we (Kate and I) encountered on this adventure were endless and would take far too long to recount to all of you, but I feel I should at least give you the highlights. But before I give you that, I must share a disclaimer for at least part of our struggles. The plans we were given were written up for us by a former CAP volunteer. Unfortunately for us, his hand writing is less than desirable leaving a little too much up to our interpretation.

So with that in mind, here are the best of our worst moments.

• Mishap #1: we cut a 45 degree angle on the table legs instead of a 15 degree angle which resulted in our table being suitable for extremely vertically challenged people.
• Mishap #2: we used the wrong type of bolts/screws to put together the legs of the picnic table which meant we had to remove them all and replace them which meant re-drilling all 16 holes.
• Mishap #3: we had re cut the legs of our tables with the correct angle but when we set our bench we realized our table was now only comfortable for people with very long torsos. For people of normal height/build, your feet were on the floor and the table top was just under your chin.
• Mishap #4: in order to make our table comfortable for average people we had to shave some inches off the top of our table which meant re-drilling half the holes (again).
• Mishap #5: we set the benches so that there was only a 12 inch overhang on each side, but then we realized most people need a little more cheek room than that so we had to take apart the entire bench in order to make it a roomier 18 inches.

Well, I think that about sums up our most thrilling moments with the table, and now you probably understand what I meant about a lesson in patience. Every time I look at the table now, I am alternately proud and enraged. Its the most intense love/hate relationship I've ever had with someone/thing. But it is another thing done off the list and for that I am happy.

Holding Our Heads High

"I can go out on my front porch look at the cars passing by and hold my head up high now."



This exact quote was said to my crew leader last week after we fixed an elderly participant's water pump which in turn allowed him to have running water in his house for the first time since June. Up until that point, Wade had been collecting rain water in buckets around his house and using that for all his water needs except for drinking water.

The reason I'm mentioning this story is because remembering these kinds of moments are what help me get through the tougher days here in Kentucky. This week in particular has been really difficult for me. We have been tying up loose ends on several homes since I got here and so the work right now is minimal as we are transitioning into a new project. Monday and Tuesday we spent between 3 houses including Sue's (the one with the trampoline), Wade's, and Cheryl's (the first house I worked on when I got here).

Today, we went to go look at the new project we will be starting soon. Its in Knott County - about 45 minutes to an hour away from the office - quite a drive to say the least. This project is going to be quite extensive - including putting up siding/underpinning/soffit/fascia on the whole house, painting the entire interior, replacing all the windows, and redoing the kitchen - including new cabinets. Today was the first day we had seen the house and we spent the day taking measurements and doing all the preliminary work so that we could order the necessary materials.

The past three days have just dragged for me. Its hard when the projects are down to the end and the work to be done is only enough for one or two people; it makes the day seem much longer than normal. I would much rather be running around and sweating and busy any day. I don't know why but these days have made me more tired than the week I spent mucking out houses during Disaster Relief. I think the worst part of it is that I feel like we're not accomplishing anything right now; like we are just stuck in this strange in between time.

But then today I was thinking back on the jobs we've completed and I remembered how grateful the people were that we were able to help.

People like Wade who now has running water and a washing machine.

People like Sue who told us that when she looked at her house now she was proud of it rather than embarrassed.

Those moments are the reason I am here and why this in between time is okay. Because without it we would never get to the point with our participants where they can say they're genuinely proud of their home.

And so regardless of little it seems like we accomplished this week, I am going to hold my head up high because I know in the end it will all be worth it.