for my mother....

because she has been bugging me to update this thing.

today's life lesson: "life is not a straight line." wise words from gwen, a member of the delgates board in cape cod. we had a get together with some delgate members this morning to discuss "life after americorps"...which is scary, and exciting (but mostly scary) at the same time. we broke in to small groups and rotated through a few of the members and had them share their professional life story to give us an idea of how they got to where they are today. gwen's quote just stuck in my mind....& was the only thing i wrote down, because i feel like that it so true, especially for me. it was only 2 years ago that i was starting my PT school application and then deciding that maybe i would just go to grad school for biomechanics.....& then waitressing at the yacht club because i was qualified to do NOTHING & i really had no clue what i wanted to do. then came the osteoporosis research, which was a great experience...but not something i think i want to go back to after this. so now i am sitting on a couch in a house filled with 13 other people thinking, "how did i get here!?" it was definately not a straight shot out to cape cod and americorps, nor will the rest of my life, as i seem to switch my future goals every week. i am learning so much here and experiencing things that never had crossed my mind before this. i feel like i could take any of these experiences and run with them.....but its hard to pick just one. in the afternoon we did some resume building and i was getting frusterated because i was having difficulting summarizing what i all do with americorps. i wish i could have just a whole page for it because i don't just do a few, definite things. we were given a great binder with some resources for job searches, so hopefully that will shed some light on my "life after americorps".
as for what else i have been up to.....
last monday was our big MLK day service: "a day ON, not a day OFF". thursday COD day members put together an amazing service project at a transitional housing shelter in cataumet, which is located in the upper cape, near the bourne house. we were up early and ready to work @ 7 am. i had the job of supervising a few volunteers in one of the rooms. the shelter use to be a motel, so each room has a door that leads to an outdoor parking lot and their own bathroom. in total there were 17 rooms and then a big kitchen in the middle of the complex. a whole family could be living in the rooms.....that usually just had a bunk bed and a dresser & a small fridge. we painted the rooms and bathrooms, put up new curtains and gave each room a plant and a new lamp. i had some girl scouts as volunteers and they were great! as members, we really didn't get to do much service....mostly i just made sure my volunteers were doing ok & got them more paint and supplies when they needed it. i wish we could have been more involved service wise, but we had a total of over 150 volunteers, so there wasn't much to do after they got to work!
on thursday i got to help with my 3rd necropsy.....it was a common dolphin that had stranded on christmas, but had been frozen at the lab. by now the stranding network has come to realize my love (??) for cutting up dead things, so i got to cut up some muscle for sampling, as well as dig around in the intestines (nothing weird in there) and the stomach (found an ulcer! and some parasites!)...so i enjoyed that. hopefully next time i will be able to try & cut some ribs or blubber...because that would just be awesome! i also just got my evaluation back from my IP and my supervisor gave me all EXCEPTIONALS.....so that made me feel pretty good!
we kicked off the weekend with a friday nite stint at the BOMBSHELTER.....it's beginning to be a place i really enjoy here in wellfleet. on saturday, we ate some thai food and our fave (& ONLY) thai restaurant in eastham and then headed up to Ptown for some drag queen karaoke (it had been awhile!). sunday was the DODGEBALL tournament in hyannis. wellfleet put a team together that consisted of: tim, alex, brian, greg, erin & erin's boyfriend brian. the west barnstable fire department put the tournament on, so we thought that the team would surely get beat easily by the different fire and police teams....but wellfleet was VICTORIOUS! & won the whole thing. the bourne house also put together a team, but they were not as successful, but put in a good effort & had some cool shirts :)

on thursday i turn the big 2-5! crazy....scary.....exciting.....more scary. we are celebrating AMERI-style in rhode island at meredith's aunt's beach house. i realize that it is the middle of winter, but it will be nice to get away for the weekend....and i have never been to rhode island! hopefully it will make turning 25 enjoyable!



my volunteers painting on MLK day.....

the whole corps after our MLK day service....

wellfleet dodgeball team getting ready to play....

polar plunge.

Thought I would share with you all the craziness that is my life.....

On Monday, the whole corps got together in Falmouth (it was an early morning for us, Wellfleetians) to plant beach grass on some dunes. Beach grass forms a crazy root system and helps keep the dunes intact...& dunes are our 1st line of defense against wind & crazy tides! Anyway...it was freezing and snowy in the morning....we broke for lunch & had a meet & greet with "the new girl" -- MELANY....(we got a new member. she's from maine. she did americorps nccc last year. she's cool.) & then the sun came out and we went back to digging our holes & planting our beach grass. and THEN.....we jumped in the ocean. YES! we decided to have our own little polar plunge in nantucket sound. about half of us did it. we all ran in & ran right back out & into our warm cars. it was like someone punched me....i couldn't breathe! but i am feeling a little more rejuvenated. we were also in the falmouth enterprise newspaper, but their link doesn't seem to work....anyhow....check out the video!

back home & back home again.

what a whirlwind the last couple weeks have been!
i spent a long, but wonderful 2 weeks in sheboygan while i was back home for winter break. i flew on the 20th in between 2 different snow storms that were making their way across the country, so i was anxious that i wasn't going to make it back that day -- but i just had a small delay and after a really smooth airplane ride, i was back in chilly wisconsin after leaving 3 and a half months ago.
my first night back in town was literally ROCKIN'. my dear friend, jack's band, shoeless revolution (check them out! www.myspace.com/shoelessrevolution) was playing at a christmas bash my friend jake was throwing in town. it was the best welcome home i could have ever had. their band is so talented & fun and i just danced the night away with all my close friends that i hadn't seen since i left. good times!
for christmas, my extended family rented a house in neenah on lake winnebago. we spent 2 nights there just hanging out, playing games and of course EATING.....a lot. it was nice to have everyone together since i hadn't seen most of them in a long time. it was also nice because my aunt & cousin came up from arkansas......wish i could see them more!
back in sheboygan we had a quick little get together with friends i use to work with at camp y-koda back in the day. we always try to get together with everyone over the holidays when everyone is back in town....but this year it was just 4 of us. we are all growing up & moving all over the place, that its getting harder to stay in touch & see each other, but i am glad the 4 of us did! my parents & friends also collaborated to throw me a REALLY early surprise party after my first week back. i had made plans to go to milwaukee on saturday night, but my friends were being very insistent on me staying in town to have a dinner party together. i didn't understand why we couldn't push it back a day, because people were still going to be around for awhile. i was getting really upset about it, that my parents finally told me what was going on & that i couldn't go to milwaukee. so.....they threw me the "surprise" party and it was great to just hang out & laugh & talk with my close friends. my birthday isn't until the end of this month, so i feel a little rushed on turning 25 (GASP!)....but it meant a lot that my friends wanted to help me celebrate since they won't be out here with me on the big day!
i did make it to milwaukee. it actually worked out that i didn't get to go on saturday, because the yacht club was having their employee xmas party on the 30th.....so i crashed that & got to see a slew of people i use to work with. my close yacht clubber friends & i snuck away and headed to THURMANS.....my favorite bar in all of milwaukee (& maybe EVER anywhere) and enjoyed the rest of the evening playing darts & picking tunes on their awesome jukebox.
NYE was probably the best i ever had. my best friend tess had a house warming party at her place. she is sooo grown up & bought a house in may & had done a TON of work on it & it looks AMAZING. so we ate & drank there with a decent amount of people.....mostly wearing SPARKLES because then we headed to blue lite -- the only gay bar in sheboygan -- and danced our butts off into 2009! it was a most wonderful evening. we thought we would be brave the next morning & do the polar plunge into lake michigan....but quickly changed our minds when we saw the huge waves.
i headed back east early on the 3rd. i hated saying good-bye to my friends because those 2 weeks back just reminded me of summer & all the fun we all had together.....but i was happy to get "back home" on the cape. i had missed it a lot & was ready to be back in my old routine.....but not without some more fun, first!
meg & tim picked me up from the airport in boston and we headed up to new hampshire to go twighlight skiing & snowboarding at gunstock. i hadn't skiied since my freshman year in high school....but i quickly got back into it & we had a great time hitting the slopes! tim is from mass, so his parents nicely let us stay at their house in andover. we picked alex up from the airport on sunday & started our journey back to the cape! i couldn't help but smile the whole time....i was so happy to be back! monday we jumped right back into our service....clearing "fire fuel" with the eastham dnr out the cold. the cape is actually a lot milder than back in the midwest, so it wasn't too bad being outside. i started doing a lot of data entry at the stranding network and we had a WET Fest on friday in harwich with the whole corps -- so we were all finally back together again! it's amazing to me how much this place has become my home & these people my family. i love it. i have started to look for jobs & such for once this is over & i always get sad thinking that this awesome adventure is going to have to end....so i am trying to soak up everything while i can! we went bowling on friday......hiking at the mass audobon yesterday.....& today we are possibly going ice skating! busy busy.
i hope everyone else had a great new years.....if i saw you back in wisco.....it was great to see you & thank you for being so interested and supportive of what i am doing! i think back to what i was doing a year ago.....in madison & it is so crazy what a difference a year makes.

LIFE IS GOOD!

my "surprise" party.......

outside THURMANS in milwaukee.....

camp get together.......

back in wellfleet.....hiking at the mass audobon.....