Anika's Adventures

Email Updates

2010-03-14T12:04:00.002-04:00

Hi all. I've decided to send out mass emails instead of blogging for now. Since I'll probably be talking about my new employers and housemates, I'd just rather it not be out there for the whole world to see. If you'd like to be on the list, just send me an email: anika.roth@gmail.com. Cheers!

I'm a god! (according to Biscuit)

2010-02-02T16:31:00.002-05:00

Let me start at the beginning. PetPeeps interviewed a new client near where I live. At first, Gus said that the dog was too aggressive for us to take on, but then he changed his mind and asked if I'd like to walk it. Now, we walk dogs with some pretty big issues, so if Gus was going to decline a customer, it had to be a big deal. When he went to meet the dog, the dog freaked out. When she finally calmed down, she put her head in Gus's lap. But then she wouldn't move it. And when Gus tried to move her head, she started growling.

One of the conditions to walking this dog was that I had to meet with her trainer first. So I met with Brandon the trainer who introduced me to Biscuit and showed me how to walk her. Her problem is that when she's walking, she will see other dogs or people and have fits. But Brandon said that this is mostly a "mommy issue" because 1) the mom secretly kind of wants Biscuit to defend her and 2) the mom freaks out when she sees another human or dog. When the mom is walking Biscuit and sees a distraction she starts freaking out thinking that Biscuit will freak out. And Biscuit picks up on that anxiety and fear and she acts out. So obviously when I walk Biscuit, I'm not supposed to freak out if I see a distraction. And number one is that Biscuit needs to know that I'm the boss and she doesn't need to defend me. So when we walk, if she pulls in the slightest, I will jerk back her leash. And when we walk by distractions, I can calm her in a low voice. If I use a high voice, it will sound like I'm praising her, and her anxiety will be reinforced.

So I met Biscuit with Brandon and then came back the next day by myself to walk Biscuit. And this is how she greeted me that day and every day thereafter: laying on the floor with stuffed cat toy in mouth, tail wagging, ears down, rolls over so I can pet her belly. She is like a stick of butter. This dog never pulls on her leash. She's the best behaved dog I've ever walked. Yesterday we were walking and my shoe laces kept coming untied. So I had her sit while I tied them. When I knelt down, we were face to face, so she laid down to be lower than me! Wow! This dog definitely got the message! I love walking her and I'm so proud of her and me for how well she's doing. Although, I gotta say, my joy is a bit dampened because today...

... I witnessed her first fit. She lashed out at another dog. But I don't blame myself because here's what happened: we saw this dog approaching on one of those retractable leashes. He was getting a bit close, so I gave him a wide berth, which in dog-walker language means "my dog is not friendly," but the owner kept letting the leash out. So I said "my dog is not friendly" but the guy kept letting the leash out! And the dog runs up to Biscuit, and the guy says something like "are you going to eat her alive?" Like he's egging on Biscuit to attack his dog! Then when Biscuit had a fit, the guy apologized and I gave him a dirty look. I should have said "what part of 'she's not friendly' did you not understand?!" Granted, I think Biscuit should be able to let a dog come up to her without biting the other dog's head off, but I don't think she's ready for that yet. And since Biscuit is not the only non-dog friendly dog that I walk, I've started to get really irritated at people who let their dog off the leash or let their dog run up to the one I'm walking. They'll say "it's ok, my dog's friendly." Well my dog isn't!

Anyway, the moral of the story is: listen to your dog trainer. Then your dog will be like a stick of butter and think that you're a god.

I Got Doored

2010-01-13T10:52:00.004-05:00

Apparently that's what it's called when you're riding your bike in the right-most lane, next to the parked cars, and someone sitting in a parked car opens their door, and you run into it. I was biking to a dog-walking job on Tuesday when it happened. A woman opened her car door wide, a second before I hit it. I think I had time to realize that the door opened, but not enough time to break. My neck hit the top of the door, and then I fell over on my side. I'm not sure if I hit my head, but I had my helmet on. My neck was what hurt the most. It is a little scraped and bruised. The woman kept asking if I needed an ambulance. I didn't think I needed an ambulance, but I didn't know what to do. Luckily, a guy pulled up who was a police officer or detective or something. He called some cops on his walkie-talkie. (Turns out we were right in front of a police station.) They came and got our ids and the woman's insurance info. They called an ambulance even though I didn't think I needed one. When the ambulance came, like 9 EMTs stood around staring at me. One guy said "I get worse cuts than that shaving." I think he was trying to make me feel better, but it didn't work. They told me I could "refuse care" and that I could always go to the hospital later if I wanted to. So I did that. My bike was still ridable, although I have to straighten the handlebars.

I came home and slept for about four hours. I had a pretty bad headache, but I'd had a headache before the crash. It was hard to know how badly I was hurt and whether or not to go to a hospital to get checked out. When I first ran into the door, it definitely hurt and I was freaked out. But because of the adrenaline and shock, it took awhile for some of the pain and rational thoughts to register. Plus with some injuries, like concussions, the symptoms might not show up for days. And whiplash and sore muscles usually get worse for the first few days. So I took it easy. I was supposed to dog-sit Oliver that night, but Patrick convinced me not to. That was easier than me convincing my boss that I couldn't do it. Rather than just give me the contact information for some other walkers, he first felt it necessary to confirm that I actually needed to stay home. "You didn't go to the hospital. And you're not going now. So... why can't you do the dog sit?" Well, Gus, maybe in the next few hours I'll decide I need to go to the hospital, and what will I do with Oliver then?? Sheesh. All that said, I probably could have done the dog-sit. Instead of feeling worse the next few days, I only felt better. One night before bed I took some arnica pills and put some arnica gel on my neck. The next day I almost felt completely better! For those of you who aren't familiar, arnica is a homeopathic remedy for sore muscles, joints, bruises, etc. Arnica is also how a pirate would say my name: ARR-nika! Thanks to Aunt Pat for introducing it to me.

You know what I was thinking moments after running into the door? Besides "ow my neck hurts," I thought "I don't have insurance, I don't have insurance, crap crap crap crap crap!" Believe me, it was high on my priority list to buy insurance after my volunteer insurance ran out. But when all I found was a part time dog walking job, I knew I couldn't afford it until I got a farm job. So I'm doing the mid-20s "nothing will ever happen to me" thing, I guess. And getting doored got me thinking. If I'd had to go to the hospital, or the doctor, I would have had to pay out of pocket. Or I could have tried to get the lady who doored me (or her insurance) to pay. But that would probably mean suing her. Which would mean court costs. And stress. And time. And any time I have to go to the doctor or hospital, not only am I hurting, I'm stressing out about how I will pay. Which is not good for anyone's health. Pretty soon it will be illegal to be uninsured. And I wonder, will I have options I can afford? Will I have to go through all kinds of red tape to get the government to help me pay for it? Why can't we all just be like Germany??? A social health care system means you don't have to worry about what it costs to be in the hospital. Heck, the other day I said something about how expensive it is to give birth in the hospital and Patrick was like, "what do you mean cost? It doesn't cost anything to have a baby." Yeah, not in Germany. You know, I would willingly give 40% of my income to taxes if I didn't have to worry about health care, schooling... Well, that's one big thing Germany's got going for it.

Speaking of schooling costs, I got a nice big"thank you" from AmeriCorps when I finished. They give those who complete one year $4700 in education money to be applied to loans or future schooling. I applied it to my loans, and it finally went through. That means I have ... drum roll please... $2200 in loans left to pay!!! I am ecstatic! I could pay it off right now if I wanted to. But I want to wait until I get a real job, which will probably be within the next 2 months. Unless something drastic happens, I will be paying off my loans in under 3 years. Hooray!

Pet Sitting

2009-12-30T09:56:00.015-05:00

Hooray for having a job! Over the winter holiday season, Pet Peeps gets a rush of work. I learned pretty quickly that it's not just about dog walking. Most of my jobs were cat sits. I would go visit the cats for half an hour, play with them, brush them, refill their water and food, scoop the litter, and give them their medications if necessary. I found myself on my toes with about 7 visits a day, but some people were doing 20+ visits a day. I met some of the other pet sitters at our weekly Monday meeting. The best part of these meetings is the awe that I get from seeing the mass of keys each person has. When they pull the key chains out of their backpacks, it's like clowns pulling never ending scarfs from their bags. These things could be used as weapons. Or for weight lifting. And now I've got my own massive wad of keys. I feel pretty bad-ass.

I mentioned that 7 visits a day was enough for me. That doesn't sound too bad, 7 half hour visits = 3 and 1/2 hours of work. But you have to factor in travel time. And when it snowed 18 inches... well, that was awesome. I get most places on my bike, and luckily the snow melted fast enough to get the roads clear quickly. But it's still cold. In the morning I wear a tee-shirt, sweatshirt, puffy vest, coat, long underwear, jeans, hat, scarf, gloves, and now that I've worked my way through all my long socks, leg warmers to cover the gap between ankle sock and pant. I don't need all these layers for regular dog walking, but I need them for standing at the bus stop for long periods of time before the sun has come up. I rather unthinkingly took a job out in "Fairfax Village" which is impossible to get to easily. I found a bus that will take me there, and another that will take me back (because the first one doesn't go back the same way, apparently). Except for the walking required from bus stop to destination, this system would have worked well if the buses ever came on time. I decided to go 15 minutes before the bus was due (because sometimes they come early) and expect them to be 15 minutes late (because often they're late). But how is it that I sometimes end up waiting 45 minutes for a bus that comes every half hour?! When I agreed to the job in Fairfax Village, I'm not sure I knew it would be in the time slot 7-9 a.m., or that I would have another pair of cats to visit in the same time slot. But it all works out as long as I get up early enough to allow for buses to be ridiculously late.

I was surprised that most of my first jobs were cat visits, and even more surprised when I was assigned... a bird. The bird uses its beak like another limb. He will use it to climb by lightly holding the bar (couch, pants, curtains) in his beak as he grabs higher with his feet. I also think of him as a bit like a baby, in that he puts everything in his mouth to explore (and destroy) it. I met Sidney (that's the bird's name) on a Monday, and my first visit was the next day. On Monday, Sidney's owner introduced me. I held Sidney, he climbed on my arm. The owner told me how to maintain a position of dominance and how to calm Sidney down when he got overworked. On Tuesday, I opened the cage and held out my hand for Sidney to climb on. He bit me. So I tried to calm him by holding him on his back like a baby with my hand over his head, like the owner showed me. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. The bird bit me about six times in rapid succession. He was freaked out, and now I was too. I called the owner, who gave me some advice. Sidney and I made out alright for the rest of the visit, until I had to put him back in the cage. I decided to use the towel technique to cover him and put him in the cage. This is not as easy as it sounds. Getting the towel back out of the cage was the tricky part, especially since Sidney was clinging on with his feet. Just as I got the towel out and was closing the door, Sidney bit me, hard. From then on, I wore thick leather gloves to visit Sidney. Do you have a bump on your middle finger, on the side of your top knuckle? I have one on my right hand from writing. And now I have one of those on my left pointer finger, but it's not from writing.

As people come home from vacation, I have fewer cats to visit and more dogs. People take their dogs with them on vacation, and when they come back, our regular dog walks resume. My regular dog walks will be twice a day: Bella, a ridgeback mix, Honey, a toy poodle; and Muffin, a Yorkie (Honey & Muffin are siblings). For the next few weeks I also have 3 of Jessica's dogs (a Pet Peeps coworker who is on vacation). They are a Westie, a Schnauzer, and a German Shepherd. Already I have learned not to leave items (bike helmet, scarf) in people's homes, because I will undoubtedly forget about them and have to go back 3 times. So I stuff unwanted items into my backpack, which also holds my bike tire repair kit, emergency information for the pets, water, visor, etc. The pockets of my coat and jeans are all designated for specific items: cell phone, hanky, keys, gloves. I'm learning to simultaneously keep a tight reign on a German Shepherd while removing a glove and putting it in a pocket in order to dig in another pocket to get my hanky and blow my nose, then put the hanky back and the glove back on. This is necessary about every block if it's windy or if you have a cold, which it is, and I do. (If it's both windy and you have a cold, you have to do it every half block.) I also manage to keep an eye on the clock and try to time it so that we get back in exactly a half hour, which is tricky when you have sniffy dogs. When the dogs like to sniff, it's impossible to predict how long they'll take to walk down a block. They may sniff for 5 minutes in one spot, and then trot along for the next 5. Imagine the people who walk like 5 dogs at once. I see these people, and I cannot imagine how they do it.

Lest you think I don't like my job, be reassured. I am making money. I am getting exercise. I am forced to go outside every day at certain times, and to maintain a schedule (woo hoo!). And the animals are adorable. I have gotten to look after so many sweet, soft, playful cats and dogs. Even the bird is cute when he's not attacking me. Witness:

Oliver's a roller. He especially
likes to roll in dirt. I finally got a picture of his face. He's a sniffer too.

This is Sheriff. He's one of my faves.

Bella is sooo sweet. She's my official favorite. She found a toy outside.

I Got A Job!

2009-12-20T13:59:00.002-05:00

I haven't updated until now because it was too depressing... but now I have a job! I'm working for a dog walking/ pet sitting company called Pet Peeps. There will be a lot of work for me over the holidays. On Christmas Day, for instance, I'm visiting about 6 different houses so far (I still might get more). Most are cat visits. I come, change the water, play with the cats, etc. Now, normally I would be sad that I don't have more dog walks, but since it just snowed 2 feet, I'm kind of glad. I can't believe we'll have a white Christmas. It doesn't snow like this in DC! I'm going to go to my friend's house and play with their 5 year old in the show, because my housemates are all boring. Now I'm glad that I got those snowpants at GoodWill (I got them for cold farming days)! Happy holidays, all!

Halloween, Generous Donor

2009-11-22T17:28:00.020-05:00

For Halloween this year, our house maintained its tradition of dressing up and giving out candy together. Here are our costumes.

Pippi Longstocking (Anika) and a pirate (Alicia)!

Scream Mask Person (Marcel) and Greatly Mustaccioed Soccer Player (Carlos)

Juno (Julia)

Everybody. Of those not previously seen: A flapper, a vampire, a hippy, a doll, and a door.

The whole outfit. Unfortunately a little blurry.

Our doorstep Jack O Lantern curtosy of Alicia.

Even scarier in the day light - look at that mold!

Recently the church that owns the Brethren House has started to pay a little bit more attention to us. One kind woman suggested that we needed a new fridge... and proceeded to buy us one within days! Here it is.

Old fridge with crap all over it VS New and shiny fridge!

Inside of old fridge.

Inside of new fridge.

New fridge door.

The freezer's on the bottom! And the basket pulls out. Ah, convenience!

But enough about that. Lest you think I'm pampered, it's time to show you some hard work.

See tree in ground. What to do?

Let's try pulling.

Victory!

And that's how easy getting trees out of your yard is. :)

New Job or No Job?

2009-11-02T10:54:00.003-05:00

Well, I was expecting to hear about about that job in Virginia last Tuesday, but no go. I'm surprised because they've kept in touch really well in the past, so I don't know what to think. I'm assuming that no news is bad news, but I called today to hear for sure. The answer is... probably there will be a job position opening up, but all the details need to get worked out (and since I want to live on site, that's another obstacle), and it could take who knows how long. I already asked the housemates if I can stay on for a few more months. I hope to find a temp agency/job, and then find a real farm job in March if not sooner. I don't want to wait until then - 4 months! - but it must be done.

I haven't kept this blog up with the saga that is the Brethren House, probably because it was too depressing. We are currently house-manager-less. In August, our house manager finished up her year after moving out early. She was in law school and too busy for all the drama. Plus, she was freaked out when one of the housemates punched a dent in the wall after a particularly upsetting house meeting. I don't blame her. We got a new house manager in August. His behavior worried me from the start, but not enough to say anything. Until... he got VERY drunk one night and threw a whiskey bottle into the TV to break it so that the house board would have to buy a new (and better?) one. The next day, Mike the house manager went around asking everyone if they knew what happened to the TV, because he supposedly didn't remember breaking it. This led to hours upon hours of house meetings and actual mediation in which we eventuallly asked Mike to leave. He agreed at the mediation session, but then later said he thought the process was unfair. He fought tooth and nail to stay in the house, but finally the house board did something right and told him that he'd have to resign or they would fire him. We still gave him a month to get out of the house, which was excruciating. He is finally, finally gone. I feel so much better, and now can focus on the million other problems with the house (maintenence, bad blood between folks, negligent house board, nonexistent presence of the church that owns the house).

I volunteered to be interim house manager for a month or so until we can find a new house manager. A lot of the responsibility for finding and communicating with potential house managers is falling upon the current residents. We're also trying to create a better, more thorough contract for folks that live in the house, a better interview process for potential housemates and house managers, landscape the front yard, and get the board to keep up with maintenence. Recently the church that owns the house got a new pastor and she came to a house/board meeting. She was a very helpful presence and I'm hoping to meet with her sometime this week to go over some of my concerns.

So. There's the depressing update. I will post pictures hopefully soon of Halloween. Let the job search begin!

Life After BVS

2009-10-22T18:13:00.002-04:00

Ah, I'm a terrible blog-updater!! If anyone still checks this blog anymore, this is for you. My year in BVS finished on October 9th. I am sad not to see my co-workers every day, but totally pumped about having my days free. The first week was spent in recovery. The next week I was kind of in limbo, waiting.

See, there's a job I really want in Warrenton, VA. It involves gardening and coordinating. It seems like it'd be a great combination of office and farm, plus I would live on the campus of this gorgeous conference center... but I'll tell you more about that if and when I get the job there. The guy who's trying to hire me, Pablo, has to get the permission of the head of the conference center. She was out of town for a week or so, visiting a sick friend, and no one knew when she was coming back. She's back now, and Pablo asked her, and she said no. So I was really upset, but then Pablo said that he'll be making a "final plea" next Tuesday. So, again, I'm waiting.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, and I'm trying to look for other jobs, but I'm just not motivated because I really want this one. Still, there seems to to be plenty to do each day. Looking for jobs could be a full time job. I'm trying to go through piles of things in my room (if it's in a pile, it means I didn't want to do it, so going through piles is like pulling teeth). I went thrift-store shopping for winter farm clothes. There's laundry to do and cooking...

One thing I guess I'll need when I get a farm job is a car. I will want to be traveling back to DC on the weekends. Please keep your eyes out for a good deal. I am willing to buy a car under $5000. I would like it to be cheap, but able for me to put some miles on it. Something with good gas milage would be good too! I want to ask family and friends first, because I'd also be happy to borrow a car for a year and give it back. Sometimes circumstances work out for that to happen. Let me know if you have a lead! (I'm willing to travel to get the car.)

Metro Tragedy

2009-06-23T09:46:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I got a ride home. At about 8 PM my housemates mentioned in passing that there was a crash on the Metro (subway). Lu (housemate) got a call from California asking her if she was okay. She didn't know what the call was in reference to. That's how she heard about the crash. We didn't know many details. They said it was on the Red Line in Northeast, coming into the city. That's the line I ride, and the direction I go. My housemate said "well, I heard it was above ground so I stopped paying attention because whereever I ride the Metro, it's underground." But when I ride the Metro home, the first 3 stops are above ground.

I didn't find out any more details until today, on my way to work. When I got to the Metro, there were delays. First I had to wait maybe 10 minutes to get on, then the train stopped before my station. I got off and had to take a bus the rest of the way. I was really worried that I would come to work and find out that someone had gotten hurt on their way home. Turns out, the crash was one stop before mine. Here's the diagram. From North to South on the Red Line, the stations are Takoma, Fort Totten, Brookland. Brookland is where I get on to go home (South). The train was going North to South, so it's actually pretty unlikely that anyone I know from work was in the crash. Still, it was pretty close to home.

Here are some reactions of local communters. (I'm famous!)

Olivia & David visit - with camera!

2009-05-17T19:06:00.029-04:00

Olivia and David came out for a weekend. It was so fun! On Saturday we did the monuments and some Smithsonians. It was a beautiful day for all that walking. In the evening we ate at a restaurant on 8th Street (very close to my house). We came back home and played Settlers of Catan, and they taught me the Cities & Knights version - SO fun! On Sunday morning we went to a neighborhood I like - Dupont Circle. We all bought our weekly fresh foods (for O & D it was what could survive on the trip back), then went to a restaurant for lunch. After lunch I took them to Mr. Yogatto's - a quirky frozen yogurt place. Olivia ordered in a Kermit T. Frog voice and got a Mr. Yogatto stamp on her forehead, and got 15% off! We came back home and played more Settlers, this time out on the patio at the picnic table. Then they took off! It was a busy weekend, but you must remember that just about every activity we did was followed by a short nap. :) One time we all piled onto my twin bed, hee hee. Here are awaited pictures of my house and garden!!!

My hand cupping the house number. We like to think that the unattractive facade of the house means it'll be the last one on the street to get robbed.

My room as viewed from the doorway.

The reading corner.

The closet & dresser across from the bed.

The seedlings on my desk (right by bed): tomato plants, basil, Baby's Tears plant

Heirloom tomatoes close up.

The upstairs kitchen, right by my bedroom.

The upstairs hallway. The open door at the end of the hallway is my room. To the left are the kitchen and bathroom. Does Olivia know I'm taking the picture?

Other end of upstairs hallway. Carly (housemate) at the community computer.

Top floor looking down.

Main floor: mailboxes.

Main floor hallway. Chore chart, communication white board, open door= kitchen.

Carly cooking in the main floor kitchen.

Carly cooks with eggs!

A normal picture of Carly.

Basement bike room + laundry.

Basement - community room.

Out the basement back door. Our picnic table on the patio.

The garden - the full view.

Foreground: peppers. Background: rosebush.

Lots of turnips. This is the best grower in my garden. When I direct seeded them, I went a little overboard. :) I need to thin them out.

The garlic patch. This was started in November. It's super easy to maintain, because you don't have to do anything! Behind it you can see my homemade compost pile and a branch I need to saw up.

Anika in the garden! Taa daa!

FLOTUS at the CAFB

2009-05-02T19:33:00.013-04:00

That's the super undercover spy way of saying... First Lady of the United States at the Capital Area Food Bank (I actually got an email titled "FLOTUS at the CAFB). And it's true! She came in April, and I had to hold my tongue for about a month, knowing that she would be coming. I knew this wasn't out of the realm of possibility when I came to the Food Bank and saw pictures of the last 4? presidents visiting, plus Morgan Freeman and some other celebrities. I guess this is because we are the main food bank in the district and we serve so many large and small agencies. I could only hope that the president would visit in his first year in office (while I'm here!). On his hundredth day in office, Mrs. Obama invited over 100 congressional spouses to participate in a service event at the CAFB.

We prepared for weeks. It was my job to create a display about our department that will be used for years to come, but that can also be changed easily. I laminated and velcroed on the pictures and captions so that they can be changed in the future. I also arranged flowers in 2 watering cans. (tangent: I'm starting to wonder if these people think I'm too eager to please because every time we do a project and they ask "who knows how to paint?" I'll say, "I do! I worked as a painter for a few years." When we needed to arrange flowers, I said, "I'll do it! I worked at a flower shop for a few years." My coworker asked me to babysit, and I said, "Don't worry, I know how to do the Heimlich, first aide, and CPR for babies. I was a lifeguard for a few years." Do they think I'm lying? I mean, I'm only 24. Of course, I was a lifeguard and painter in the summers, and the flower shop was my after school job in high school, but they don't know that. Oh right, I can also say I'm a certified English teacher. It's a whole thing with our generation and how we get to do so many different things...)

Here's the display:
You can sorta see the thing I made (on the easel). I wish I had a better picture of it. There's also a grow box on the floor with various herbs and lettuces (to make it pretty and farm-y).

The ladies you see there are my coworkers. Here up close are Jody, Susan, and I.
By some lucky, amazing feat, all current and past AmeriCorps volunteers got to help bag the groceries that the congressional spouses and the first lady were putting together for kids. First she gave a speech about service.

(Here she is with the lady from Feeding America, Dr. Jill Biden, and our CEO, Lynn Brantley.) Then she went through the line with a bag, collecting goodies. I was handing out bags. The media were on a platform right behind me, so this next picture is basically where I was standing, only I was closer to the ground.
When she leaned in to get a bag, she touched my finger!

Here's another nice picture of her going through the line:

At one point she doled out the goodies to people going through the line:
At the end we got about two seconds to stand in a huge group with her for a picture. We were sad that she didn't address us as a group, but I guess we had to work pretty hard even to get a picture.
We gave her a few presents - CAFB t-shirts for her and the girls, books for the girls, etc. My department also gave her a grow box (like the one at our table) from the kids at our garden in Southeast. The kids decorated tags that said "oregano," "basil," etc, which I laminated and taped to little metal stakes. I also painted the sides of the box with vines. She liked the gift a lot and spoke to Miss Hannah Hawkins who runs the Children of Mine Center where we have our garden. It sounds like she wants to visit! Maybe this time I'll actually get to say something to her. :)

This experience was so interesting for many reasons. For one, we learned that the secret service is really hard to work with. For a long time we knew what day she was coming, but up until the day itself, we didn't know what time exactly. They changed the plan every few hours and made random requests at the last minute. I wonder if they're really that disorganized, or if they intentionally try to keep people confused so that they can't plan anything disruptive. It was also SO much work to get ready for this event. We had to give the secret service all of our names & social security numbers so that they could do background checks, we re-arranged the whole warehouse, set up all these displays, had special t-shirts made... It was ridiculous. On the day of, we all had to leave the building for an undisclosed amount of time so that security could make a sweep. When we came back in, we walked through a metal detector. Once we were downstairs, we weren't allowed to go back upstairs. There was so much planning and craziness that it's hard for me to imagine that the White House staff plans outings like this every day, sometimes even multiple times a day! I mean, we were in contact with them for weeks working out the details.

Another interesting insight I got from this experience was into the Capital Area Food Bank and how we work. It happened like this: all of the gifts for the Obamas had to be in Lynn's (CEO) office a few days ahead of time so that secret service could look them over (or something). We put the grow box in there, but we still had to add the tags and paint the sides. So the day before, I go into the office, lay down newspapers and kind of lay down on the floor to paint the sides of the box. Lynn's in her office and so is a guy named Grant. Grant is either a volunteer or an employee, and he's been with the CAFB since the beginning when it started with Lynn, him, Father Brake, and a couple of other old-timers. He's wrapping the other presents. We haven't spoken before, and he starts asking me questions about myself. We start chatting, and he's really easy to talk to, and really interested in my life. Every once in awhile, Father Brake comes in, and I hear them chat about details about The Visit. They're super casual, and it's funny to hear them talk so candidly. But this is how our office is! I mean, I - a volunteer - can just waltz into the CEO's office and say "what's up, Lynn?" I can also lay on the floor, painting something, chatting it up with the founders of the Food Bank. The world of the non-profit is so interesting!

Sakura

2009-04-09T20:38:00.010-04:00

Tis the season for Cherry Blossoms or "sakura" in Japanese (I think). Most of the petals have blown away by now, but last weekend the trees were in high form. I was lucky enough to go at non-peak times, so I avoided a lot of tourists. But that means I had to go at less than ideal times, being Wednesday and Friday after work. One day was rainy, and one day was windy. The second time around, I brought a friend with a camera! It's good to have friends with cameras. Her name is Jenny, and she's a coworker of mine.

Hi Jenny!

Twisty branches.

The picture every tourist takes...

The blossoms look like snow. (But I'd much rather have Cherry Blossoms than snow.)

The dramatic sky...

The Cherry Blossoms line the tidal basin. I don't know how we managed to miss a picture of it, but lots of the trees were bending over towards the water. When you stood under them, it was a beautiful canopy.

The rain was worth it for this puddle.

A New Room & Plants

2009-03-31T20:59:00.003-04:00

My blog is behind the times because I am slow to post, but I am going to tell you about my "new" room anyway. A few weeks ago, I finally got my own room! I have had two roommates in the other room. The first was Dani, and we got along really, really well. She left at the end of December (her internship was only for 3 months). Then I roomed with Amy (from Middlebury!). We got along well too, but it was hard to transition. It was starting to feel like the dorms in college - I couldn't escape for "me" time because there was nowhere to go.

I probably could have changed rooms much earlier, but the room that was available was in the basement, so I let Stephan have it without putting up a fight. Even though it will be cooler in the summer, I don't think I can handle not having much light. So I waited for this room. It's on the third floor (like my last room), so I can still use the upstairs kitchen and bathroom which are the nicest ones. It's light green and has bamboo-like window shades. The two windows face south and west. Even though I had more windows before, there was a tree in front of them and they faced north. My plants are happier in the new room, and it stays pretty light in the evening because of the west facing one.

I have my own closet with a shelf above, two dressers, a desk, a short bookcase, and a little table thingee. Right now the desk and the bookcase are next to the windows so that they can support my seedlings. Oh, I also have a big comfy chair with a tall lamp by it for a reading/knitting corner. I put up my paintings from the DR and a rainbow flag by my bed. It's a great room!

Now about these plants that I've been mentioning... I am using the house backyard as my playground (garden). In years past, people who lived here have dug up the whole yard (maybe 8' x 25'??), but people haven't always gardened, so it was pretty overgrown when I got here. So far I've dug up about 2/3 of it, and yesterday and today I planted my seedlings! Now because my garden at the food bank got cancelled (did I mention that?), I really am going at this blind. I was hoping to get taught everything at the food bank garden and then get a second try at my house garden. Now I'm looking things up in books and learning from my mistakes. That's good, I guess, but I'd rather learn from a person who's already learned from her mistakes if that makes any sense...

So my garden attempt is kind of comical. I started what I thought was a lot of seedlings, but because some died and because a lot got tangled and broke, and mainly because I underestimated, it's going to be pretty sparse. But our garden's pretty small, so I'm finding that this may work out. I'm putting 3 transplants where I hope 1 will survive, and I'm not even sure I should bank on that happening. If it does, I'll have like 4 cauliflowers, 4 cabbages, 12 beets, 8 broccoli, and 6 collards. Funny, right? I have higher hopes for the things that produce for the whole season, like tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, and basil. Oh, and I think there will be a lot of garlic, but I only get to harvest that once at the end of the season.

The main impact of this gardening experience is an increase in my urge to intern with someone who knows what they're doing. (And that I will HAVE to get a camera if any of these plants turn out.)

Health Update

2009-03-04T22:13:00.002-05:00

As promised, I wanted to let everyone know what happened after I went to the doctor. This time the doctor knew why I was there, and she had pre-ordered the h-pylori test, so they did it right away and... I don't have h-pylori. In a way that's good - I don't have to take two kinds of antibiotics - and in a way that's bad - I don't know what caused my acid reflux. At the time that I saw her, I had been feeling pretty good, but she still referred me to a gastroenterologist to follow up. I'm glad because as soon as I left, the acid reflux came back en force. This time I tried unfiltered apple cider vinegar in water (not too pleasant). It didn't seem to work right away, but since then I haven't had any problems!

Strangely, my triglycerides are down (actually below average now), and I'm thinking there was something else that came out better too. The doctor is calling it a fluke. They can't tell about the iron right away because red blood cells have a life of 29 days, so they're going to check again in 3 months. In the meanwhile, I'm really trying to eat an iron-rich diet. In the morning I swallow a spoonful of molasses every day (ick!).

I don't feel back to normal, but I can function with relative normality. It's really nice! Thanks so much for all the support - I thought I'd better get an update posted soon before everyone thought I was dying. :) If anything else interesting happens with my health, I'm sure I'll let you know.

Anika's Allergic to DC

2009-02-20T17:18:00.003-05:00

I've been having health problems. First I had acid reflux for about 3 weeks. I went to the doctor who prescribed Nexium. She also said she'd test me for a bacteria called H-Pylori. If I tested positive, that would explain the acid reflux, and I could take antibiotics and get over it. When I came back 2 weeks later for my test results, the doctor told me I was anemic. I asked her about H-Pylori. She was like "huh? Oh, I guess we ordered a test for that didn't we? Well I don't have the results here. Maybe they got lost. I'll look into it and give you a call." Of course she didn't. When I called her back, she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Finally I talked to her today and she said that the test never happened, and that I'll have to come back in to get tested again (but not til Mar 10).

Meanwhile, I'm trying to up my iron by planning out my meals and eating very iron-y snacks. Oh and avoiding certain things because I have high triglycerides. But I got really sick last weekend. I left work on Friday morning with a plastic bag on the Metro in case of upheaval. I came home, threw up, and proceeded to not eat for 3 days. My crowning glory was Saturday when I woke up for an hour and then went back to bed until 5 PM. When I woke up, I watched TV for 7 hours. My stomach hurt when I sat up or stood. I was able to keep food down (crackers, Sprite), but I didn't feel like eating much. On Monday, I finally felt better. Then last night (Thursday), I started feeling terrible again. I stayed up late, running to the bathroom a few times, but I never threw up. WHAT IS UP WITH MY DIGESTIVE SYSTEM?!? I hate this.

Nemesis

2009-01-27T12:03:00.004-05:00

On my first day of work, someone (or something)
tried to scare me away from the food bank. I stepped out of the bathroom stall, approached the sink, and something sprayed in my eyes. "AHH!" I jumped back in pain. There, mounted on the wall to my left, was the evil spraybot that would never give me a moment's rest.

The next time I entered the bathroom, it sprayed before the door had even swung shut behind me. Just to prove its superiority.

We stare each other down every time I enter. It's eye. My eye. It's eye. One day I will best you, Spray Bot. One day, you will spray your last.

Ha ha ha Eastern Market Man - You came crawling back!

2009-01-25T19:23:00.002-05:00

In November, a guy sold me a hat at Eastern Market. Two weeks later, the chin strings broke, and I brought it back. I said "can you fix this?" and he said "umm... yeah, do you live around here? I'll bring it back tomorrow." I came back tomorrow, and he wasn't there. I thought "his English wasn't so great, maybe he meant next week. I'm pretty sure he only comes on Saturdays not Sundays." So I came back the next week, Saturday and Sunday. I came back the next week, and the next. No hat man. I left for holiday in cold, cold Pennsylvania, and I had no hat. I came back to DC, and it got cold, and I had no hat. Then, one fateful day (today), I went to Eastern Market to look for squash. I thought I'd take a breeze around the stalls, to look for my hat man. It had kind of become a habit, although now I wasn't even sure if I knew what he looked like.

There, on the other side of the market, was a guy who I thought might be my guy. Boy, did he look surprised to see me. When I asked him about my hat, he didn't even try to play dumb. He offered me another hat (they couldn't find the right material to match the old one and fix it) - it was a more expensive hat, but he guessed I could have it. You're dang right I can have it! You avoided me for 2 months, but my persistence won the day. You can't stay away from the Eastern Market and all its capitalistic promise... Victory is mine!!!

This is Why I Moved to DC!

2009-01-23T11:10:00.002-05:00

Well, not really, but it's a big, big bonus. I live within walking distance from the capitol and the National Mall where many events took place this last weekend.

On Sunday my guests arrived - Paul & Erin Boers (from Goshen), and Ben Friesen (from NYC) and we immediately headed off to the free concert at the Lincoln memorial. We were told that we could bring no bags or chairs or really anything, so Ben wore his entire weekend wardrobe so that he could go straight to the concert without a bag. When we got to security, everyone had bags and chairs, and they were let in. Doh! We met up with three of my coworkers and two of my housemates, and then promptly got separated. It's kind of amazing that we found everyone in the first place. It helps to have a 6'4" man with you. We put Erin's rainbow hat on him (Ben), and just to make sure, had him jump up and down. Sure enough, my housemates found us in the crowd! We were a few hours early, and there were already a lot of people there, but it was surprisingly easy to work our way up to the front. I was in front of the first big screen, and I could see the figures of the famous people as they sang or spoke on stage. They also showed the Obamas on the jumbotron every once in a while. It was cute to see Malia and Sasha take pictures of the stars, or complain to Michelle. There was another girl behind the Obamas who was asleep. I didn't have too high of hopes for the concert, and sure enough, it wasn't that great. I saw a LOT of famous people, but it was kind of like watching them on TV, since I could only see their figures on stage. There were a lot of dry speeches made by comic actors. (Who wrote those terrible speeches and why did they get comic actors to deliver them?) My favorite song was "Higher Ground" performed by Stevie Wonder, Usher, and Shakira (although I didn't realize it was Shakira at the time). Most of the performers did duets or trios, but U2 and Garth Brooks each sang like 3 songs by themselves. With such a stellar lineup, why feature these two? I think Stevie Wonder should get more credit than that.

The concert took up most of our day on Sunday. We were worn out after standing in the cold. On Monday, we walked down to the National Mall again to check out the preparations. We weren't the only ones with that idea. People milled and took pictures as the sound check blasted. We went to a Smithsonian (Natural History?), which was clogged with people too. After about four hours we were spent. It was another "short" day in the sense that we weren't out for long but we were bushed.

Tuesday was the big day. We were planning to leave around 8:30 when we got a frantic phone call from housemate Carly at 7:45 (I'm surprised her call got through, because the networks were busy most of the day). She said "come to the Mall right now!! They're closing off entrances because it's so packed!" So we threw on the layers (I knew there was a reason I packed my snow pants!), stuffed egg bake and bread in our pockets, and took off. We were going to try the subway, but fortunately decided not to. People who got on the subway ended up spending two hours to get three stops down. Some people took the subway all the way in the opposite direction to board the one they wanted. All weekend we were expecting the metro to be overloaded and craziness everywhere, but it really didn't hit until Tuesday. When we started walking, there was a steady stream of people that only got bigger the closer we got. Some streets were so clogged that we had to keep taking detours. Eventually we ran into the highway, which was also clogged up. Not with cars, mind you, with people. I have never seen such a thing. We pushed our way past on the on-ramp and started walking in the direction people were coming from. We went up a hill and climbed a fence to get to an overpass, which got us past the "traffic" jam. Here was our one casualty - Erin ripped her pants on the fence - an inauguration day memento.

Finally we got to the spot we had staked out the day before - the Washington monument. We were so far away from the capitol that we didn't even have to go through security checkpoints. The great thing about our spot was that we were on a slight hill, so we could see the screens and the capitol building in the background. The bad thing was that the speakers at that spot were pretty quiet. We could hear the one behind us (and off by 3 seconds) better. I was so hot from the frantic walking. That lasted about 2 seconds and then I was cold. The concert from Sunday was rebroadcast on the jumbotrons, and people danced along to keep warm. When the ceremony finally started, it was kind of hard to take it seriously. I kept expecting to get hit with emotion, but that didn't really happen. While there were many, many people there (2 million?), from the Lincoln memorial behind us to the capitol in front of us, we weren't that packed. It didn't sound like a huge crowd cheering, so we usually didn't cheer very long. I couldn't believe when Obama took his oath that a new presidency was underway. It happened so fast! The majority of the ceremony was people walking onto the stage. I'm glad I was there, though. I witnessed history, and every day it's sinking in a little more that we have a new president.

After the ceremony, we climbed up on a short fence and looked out over all the people. The biggest spectacle might have been the sheer amount of people. Either that or all the Obama paraphernalia. There doesn't seem to be an item that you can't find an Obama version of. Action figures, light switches, buttons - I wish I had made a list of all the amazing gear. Once again we were worn out from our few hours outdoors as we let the crowd sweep us home.

Busy Weekend

2008-12-16T15:03:00.003-05:00

I had a wonderful weekend! Every day something good happened. On Friday, we had a short work day. All staff participated in a fundraiser called "Stuff a Truck," where we stood outside in cold grocery store parking lots, filling trucks with donations. Actually, "we" didn't all do that. I got a cushy job. I signed up for working at the phone bank, so I was warm and indoors the whole time. We were at Fox 5, collecting donations over the phone. They showed us on air like 5 times! Whenever they showed us, we pretended to be talking on the phone. As soon as they showed us, we'd get real calls. I was there from 6 AM - 10:30 AM. I wanted to start early so that I could get done early. As my roommate pointed out though, I came home and slept til 3 PM, so it was really only like getting out of work a few hours early.

That evening, I went over to a co-worker's house to dress up for her friend's party. They were hosting "Festivus," which is something from Seinfeld. There were no airing of grievances or feats of strength like the in the episode, but dressing up beforehand was really fun. I love wearing other people's clothes!

On Saturday, I finally got to a project that I'd been meaning to do. I decked out my bike. When we were in Goshen for Thanksgiving, Mom & Dad bought me a helmet, two bike lights, and a side mirror. On Saturday, I attached everything, putting a mount for the light on my helmet and on the handlebars. Plus I repositioned the back wheel and raised the handlebars. That evening I made a bike pouch for holding everything I need to patch a tube. I bought the one last thing I needed for the kit - tire levers (or wheel spoons, as I called them) - and attached the kit to the crossbar. Woo safety consciousness! I'm always proud when I can fix things or attach things myself. Tomorrow night I'm going over to a coworker's house to spackle a small spot on her wall... Anyway, I sewed the little tire kit in the evening while I sat in the kitchen with housemates. It was just what I needed - a nice night in, bonding time with the housemates, and baked goods (they were making soft pretzels).

On Sunday, I got up at 9:30 and worked nonstop on a super-long to-do list until 4:30. It was maniacal but satisfying. I had to stop because... Hugo arrived!!! Yes, he was visiting Randy Keener in PA, and they drove down for the night. We went out to eat with some housemates, and then met up with Hilary for salsa dancing. The place we went was aMAZing. There was a huge ballroom floor, room for dancing, really good dancers, and not-creepy people. Seriously, these dancers were so good. We stood on the side a lot and watched. But we danced too of course. It was a great night. We got back at midnight, and then I stayed up making a breakfast casserole for my guests, and my roommate and I stayed up talking after that. I'm paying for it today!

On Monday I worked at the farm, and the weather was unseasonably warm. It was in the 60's, and I ended up working in a tee-shirt. For lunch, I sat on a sunny knoll with the farm dog.

How wonderful was that clump of days!

By the way, here is a sweet article about our food culture, and our culture in general: www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/vandana_shiva.html

Everyone agrees....

2008-12-09T08:27:00.004-05:00

...that Thanksgiving is the best. Think about it - no stress over presents, cards, or family newsletters; not too much overblown media hoopla; just family time, good food, and being grateful! I realize I'm glazing over "Black Friday," but my family usually stays out of stores on the worst shopping day of the year. In fact, that was the day we had our feast. I hitched a convenient ride with Olivia & David from Lancaster to arrive in Goshen on Thursday night. Mom & Dad came in from Des Moines at the same time. On Friday morning (until 2 PM), Mom, Olivia, David & I worked on the meal. That was more stressful than I anticipated, but I learned my lesson: prepare as much food the day before as possible. We had a wonderful meal of turkey, gravy, pumpkin soup with curried pecans, roasted rosemary vegetables, sweet potato fries, fresh bread, cranberry & orange & apple puree, green salad with lots of goodies in it, and an amazing fruit salad. (Did I miss anything?) For supper we had dessert: apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan pie, ice cream. Pat and Hermann came over in the afternoon with the salads, we ate the meal, and then I don't know what happened because I took a long nap. I've decided these are the necessaries for Thanksgiving: 1. food 2. nap 3. walk. Some people cleaned up, some napped, some walked. Then we all gathered and played Apples to Apples. It was so nice to be sitting around the table with everyone, playing a game. Then we ate pie/supper, then we watched Wall-E. It was a wonderful day.

On Saturday, we went over to the Kauffmanns for another great meal and game playing. I feel so rich, seeing two sides of the family, and spending such quality time. This is just what I was hoping for at Thanksgiving. Sunday morning was a little stressful because I was trying to go through all of my storage to choose things to bring back. I had a list, but some things you just have to paw through. Jenna & Bethany calmed me down with chai, a warm fire, & a good chat. Seriously, this weekend was amazing. David, Olivia & I took off Sunday afternoon to Lancaster. I felt really ill in the car, which didn't catch up with me again until Thursday later that week. We listened to a great book on tape, though, called Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. As David said, it's like listening to Monty Python. David drove most of the way back! On Monday I slept in, then we drove to Philly. At 5 PM, I caught a bus to DC, and was home by 9. Note to travelers: don't pack a wheel-less suitcase that's too heavy for you to carry. Inevitably, you're going to have to carry it for at least a little ways. That's probably common-sense to most people, but apparently not in Anika-land. I went to work the next day, and except for taking a sick day on Thursday, and feeling ill on Friday night, all seems to be back to normal.

On Sunday I helped my housemate bake her first yeast bread, and helped a co-worker move (she rewarded me with food). Do you sense a theme here? Maybe I should rename my blog to something dealing with food. My housemate, Carly, who I helped with bread, is the one who makes wonderous creations out of fresh pumpkin puree. She and I have decided that we would make the perfect couple. We will get married, and I will garden, and she will create delicious makings out of the fresh produce, and in the winter I will make bread and she will make jam, which we will sell at the market. She calls me "wifey." Now all we need is to fall in love. (Claire, if you're reading this, please forgive me. I have another wife.)

I Got a Bike!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-16T18:35:00.002-05:00

I found a bike on Craigslist that wasn't ridiculously expensive, and I met the woman, and I got the bike! It's a little too small for me. I'm hoping that raising the seat will help. I might also bring my bike seat from Goshen, because this one hurts. The bike's a road bike, and it shifts really well, which my other bike doesn't. I took it upon myself to ride the bike home after getting it. It took an hour and a half, and there were hills. Why do I always do that? It's like how my first project after knitting scarves was to knit a sweater. After that I didn't know if I wanted to knit ever again.

I've noticed from the other BVS-er blogs that I follow that we all kind of stopped blogging at the same time. I'm getting more involved in life here, so I'm not as fiercely attached to communication from home, and the complexity of life makes it overwhelming to blog about. By the time I write a new entry, there's way too much to say in order to give people a complete picture. It seems like there are a few subjects that I keep updated, but plenty more I could be talking about. So those are my frustrations with blogging.

And now for a work update, because I realized that the last post about work is really outdated. I. Love. My. Job. And my boss is amazing. She would have made the perfect cooperating teacher for student teaching. I'm appreciating more and more the orientation she's given me. In the first week, she made it clear that she wants me to see as many aspects of the Food Bank as possible. So I've participated in a food distribution with Agency Relations, I've assisted with a class for the Nutrition Education program, I helped run a station at a food fair, I sat in on a class in Spanish about how to connect with supports in your community (for food pantries), I've toured our warehouse, and even driven the huge Capital Area Food Bank van. I really don't need to know all this to work in my department. And knowing that I'm only here for a year, my boss could easily just want me to get to work for her and our department. But it's become more and more clear how valuable all of this is. I can be such a better employee by being well-versed in what we do. Plus my boss puts so much trust in me and has made me a part of the department. It's pretty necessary I guess, because I'll be doing a lot of her job when she goes on maternity leave soon. Oh, here's an example of how awesome she is. We got to a site visit early last week, so she took me to Ben's Chili Bowl to get vegetarian chili cheese fries, just because it's a "DC must," even though it's so artery clogging. She's also tells me about what night life places she recommends and tries to orient me to the city.

It's hard to say what I do at work exactly, but I'll try. No day is the same. Every week, I'm out of the office for part of a few days. I really like breaking the week up like that. Tomorrow, I'm meeting my boss at a distant Metro stop. She'll pick me up to go to the farm, and we'll go over our notes for our "end of season" meeting with farm staff, then do some garden work. I think we have to pull up this really big ground cover thing and weed and plant cover crop. We won't get it all done, but we're going out to the farm again on Friday. Susan (my boss) and I will both run the meeting with farm staff (we planned it on Friday). When we get back to the office, I'll continue to call agencies to follow up with an email I sent out about our end of season meeting for agencies. Then I might type up notes from the meeting with farm staff. Or I'll call this one agency to see if they decided whether or not they're bringing a school group to the farm for gleaning day. And I'll send out an email to Food Bank staff saying that they can come to the farm with us on Friday if they want, because there'll be a lot to do. I'll follow up with revisions to an article I wrote about one of our member agencies. I'll start hand writing some thank-you notes to agencies that advertised one of our brochures. And I'll do anything else that comes up. That's a really jumbled idea of what one day might be like at work. It actually doesn't sound that great, but it's amazing. It helps that I really like the people I work with. The only thing I don't like is an entire day at the office, with mostly computer work. That makes my eyes hurt. I also don't like when I finish everything and there's nothing much for me to do. I always have a list of eco-websites to check out and a stack of books on my desk, but doing that kind of background, general knowledge fortifying makes me fall asleep. I'm also adjusting to the 9-5 work week. I don't always work 9-5. I often come in early and stay late, but I get comp time for that, so I leave early too. It's kind of hard to just go to work week after week. My weekends have been entirely dedicated to relaxing, gardening, reading, going out. But it's a little depressing to go back to work again on Monday. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, and actually I have a ton of holidays that a normal first-year wouldn't have. That's good because I'm just so unused to working full-time for an entire year, not to mention year after year.

Consider Yourself Invited

2008-11-05T09:27:00.003-05:00

... to Inaguration on Jan. 20! Come to DC, stay at my house, walk to the ceremony, and witness a brilliant moment in history. I'm serious - I have the day off of work, and the day before - so I have a 5 day weekend, and I want to celebrate with you!

Last night I was with a considerable Goshen contingent. We were watching John Stuart and Steven Colbert inbetween (actual) election coverage. When the show ended, we switched back, and there it was on the screen, "NBC predicts Barak Obama winner." I couldn't believe it, because it was only minutes after the West coast voting ended. I know they were assuming the outcome, but I still thought we'd have to wait longer for more official numbers. We were crying and laughing and calling family... then someone suggested we run around the block and I remembered that I said I would run into the streets celebrating when Obama won. So 15 of us let out our excitement, yelling in celebration as we jogged around the block. People came to their doorsteps to cheer. We hugged strangers on the street corners. Cars honked and people hung out the windows, high-fiving us. Earlier that day I had sat glassy-eyed on the Metro, blankly staring past the people around me. The change was drastic. Now every person I saw was united.

After we watched the acceptance speech (so beautiful), we walked to U Street & 14th where the streets were blocked off, there was drumming, and people were out in mass. This is the exact same place where there were riots and looting 40 years ago after the assassination of MLK. What an amazing thing I witnessed! I saw fireworks, people on top of the bus shelter waving a Kenyan flag, cardboard cut-outs of Barak Obama. When I started to make my way back to SE (I was in NW), I walked down the middle of the road, hi-fiving people in cars. For blocks, traffic was stopped. I got to a bus stop and REALLY lucked out. A bus came (all the schedules were messed up), the driver staying past her shift to drive people home. We sang "we shall overcome" on the bus, and one man kept saying "I can die happy now!" You know, I imagined that I would celebrate in the streets, but it didn't occur to me that everyone else would too. But that's what you get when NINETY-FIVE percent of the district votes for one person. My vote went to Iowa, and I'm still waiting to see if Indiana turned blue for the first time (ever?). Thank you for all your hard work, friends who helped out in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Your work paid off!! It was so fun to be with people from Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, and Virginia last night. We were so proud of our states. At work this morning, there is a lot of screaming. I am so proud of my country at this moment.

I'm a Domestic Goddess

2008-10-28T21:25:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure if that's something I should brag about or not... Even so, I am proud that in the last 72 hours I have: cleared 1/3 of our overgrown garden, planted garlic, washed 3 loads of laundry, vacuumed and mopped 3 floors and two staircases, baked bread twice, made granola, made dinner for the house (shells stuffed with eggplant & ricotta, with tomato cream sauce, fresh/warm bread, fresh hummus with baked garlic, pesto [that I made last week]), prepared signs and displays for today's groundbreaking ceremony at work, stood outside in the cold and wind for 3 hours greeting guests (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR2008102801974.html), and... I think that's it. Now, some of this is explainable, but some of it's just outright madness. The vacuuming and mopping were my chore for this week. And it was my turn to make dinner for the house tonight. I didn't need to bake bread and make hummus for them, but I was inspired. Or at least I was until I had to clean it all up. It took prep work last night, waking up early to make dough this morning, getting off early, cooking for 3.5 hours, and cleaning up for 2 hours. That all said, it was really good, and I made some friends with my housemates. But I'm never doing that again. I'd better slow down before I hurt myself. I'm going to bed - right now.

Overdue Update

2008-10-25T18:19:00.003-04:00

I've been in DC for two weeks, and I haven't posted! Sorry! It's hard for me to bring myself to the computer after an 8 hour day at my work computer. This week at work was a lot of reading. My boss was gone for a conference, and I had a few assignments. One was to contact all our FGU Grant (From the Ground Up) participants to see when they could meet for an end of season meeting. But I didn't have voicemail set up til Thursday, so they could only call me back during certain times. That was frustrating. I'm also supposed to meet with the head of every department, for them to tell me what they do. (All new hires go through this process.) But most of them were busy, so I only met with two. Basically, I didn't do much this week.

In between my projects, I was supposed to educate myself with a stack of books and some computer files. The days dragggged. I felt like I was sitting down to 8 hours of homework. On the upside, my boss wants me to see as much of the foodbank as I can, so I get to go on lots of little adventures. I went with Kenneth to the food drop at the Ambassador Baptist Church. That was a great morning. I sat at a table collecting personal info from the participants, then gave them a food ticket with a certain number depending on their circumstances. They were so grateful. When things slowed down, I got to sit around with Kenneth, who is an amazing & interesting guy. We talked about politics and the ways of the world... He went to college with Oprah Winfrey, he's from Clarksville (there actually was a "last train to Clarksville" and he was there to witness it!), and a tree fell on his car once, smashing everything but him. That afternoon/evening, I assisted teaching a nutrition class. I do that class for two more Thursdays. I got home at 8 that night, which made for a very long day. On Friday, my boss was back and we went out to the farm. That perked me up after a long week.

I'm still adjusting to life here, outside of work. When I get home, I have energy from sitting around all day. It's too dark or cold to go running, and the pool is closed. I don't want to get on the computer (that'd be just like work), and I don't really have anywhere to go. So I kind of wander around the house, looking for housemates to amuse me, which is tricky because I don't want to do anything sedentary. What I really need is a bike to get some of my energy out. I think it would take about as long to bike to and from work as it would to take the Metro. I was waiting for Thanksgiving in Goshen to get my bike, but someone told me that if I really like my bike, I'd better not bring it to DC. So I looked on Craigslist, and there's nothing under $40. I don't want to pay that much for a bike I won't be keeping. I don't know what to do.

Today I had big plans, but I ended up napping all afternoon. It was rainy and perfect for hibernating. I did make it to the market where I bought lots of fresh produce. I'm cooking on Tuesday for the house, and I'm going to make eggplant and basil stuffed shells with tomato cream sauce. I got a bunch of fresh basil from work, and I looked up recipes to use it in. I also made pesto, which I will serve with homemade bread. Oh, I love food. Tomorrow I still might accomplish some of my other plans: laundry, planting garlic, swimming, grocery shopping, making granola.

I got paid on Friday, which meant I could pay myself back for one week of food. I don't get paid for another two weeks, which will be a stretch. When divvied out, my $60 a month stipend is only $15 a week, and I'm dipping into some of that for food. That means I can buy maybe one croissant a week (I really love/miss pastries). If I can bike to work sometimes, I could use some of my transportation money for other things. It'd be really nice if we had clothespins, more dishrags, and a drying rack. Where are you Goodwill???

Welcome to DC

2008-10-11T14:47:00.003-04:00

I'm here - finally! I arrived yesterday with Jonathan and Stephan. We were the first to get to our site, except for Don of course, who stayed in New Windsor and walked 7 minutes to get to his project. It took about an hour to get from Baltimore to DC, and then we waited for an hour for our host to pick us up. Jonathan and Stephan are amAZed by the kindness here. Here's what happened on our first day:

- On the train, a guy heard where we were going and helped us make our stop. Then he helped us buy transfer tickets, got us through the turnstyle when Stephan's ticket didn't work, carried one of Stephan's bags, and dropped us off at our next train.

- While Stephan was waiting with our bags at Eastern Market station (Jonathan and I were finding food), a guy started talking to him about the city and gave him his number.

- When we went grocery shopping, the people in front of us in line and behind us in line started talking to us about DC, the best food markets, etc.

- When I got off the train in the evening, my ticket was for the wrong price, and I didn't have 65 cents, and the station manager just let me through.

After the first event, J & S both said about 5 times, "that would never, ever, ever happen in Germany." Apparently people from the South think that DC is cold and harsh, and people from the North think it's super friendly. I think it's super friendly!

Our house manager, Danielle, picked us up at the station and gave us a very brief tour of the house. Then I took a nap and the three of us ventured out to buy some groceries for our evening meal. Danielle had warned us about "sticker shock" in DC, and she was right - I bought a loaf of bread for $4! Between the three of us, we probably got 4 bags of groceries for $50. I went from eating for about $2 a day, to at least $15 dollars a day. BVS is going to exhaust their budget on us...

The house is old and a little run down, in Capital Hill, a nice area. Danielle said I could walk from the Metro station to my house at night by myself. Nice! The house is three stories, with a kitchen and bathroom on each floor. I would much rather have another living room than 2 extra kitchens... The basement has windows above ground and a living room. I live on the top floor with a roommate, Daniela (Dani) from Germany. There are now 4 Germans living here (11 people altogether). Dani got here 2 weeks ago from Germany, so we will be newbies together. She will only be here for 3 months. She works as an intern at the UN in some Latin American office - she speaks Spanish all day at work. I really like her!

The whole house is kind of like The Barn, only more transitional since people arrive and leave at all times of the year. The cupboards for instance, have a random assortment of pots and spoons all kind of shoved together. I couldn't find any lids! Nobody was home in the evening to welcome us except Dani, but my Goshen connections pulled through as I thought they might. I can't believe how many Goshen-ites are here... Dani and I met up with Hilary, Maryan, Landon, Dominique, Benj Yoder, Anna Mast, Micah Jost, Glenn. The last three were visiting, but still! We hung out at Dominique's apartment (they all live like 3 blocks away from each other, but across town from me), and then went to a really great club. There was no cover charge, everybody was dancing, people weren't too dressed up, and there were some great oldies mixed in with new music. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Stephan were at the house when some people came home, and they all went out together. I'm glad that worked out.

So! What else? We have a flat roof that is accessible, a little garden & picnic table out back, and a house bike. There's a house computer too, but most people seem to have laptops, which is great for me. I hate typing on laptops because my hand always brushes the cursor area, and the cursor jumps all over while I'm typing. Plus it's nice to have an English keyboard with the "y" and "z" in the "right" places. (I've been borrowing German laptops.) The ceilings in the house are tall, my room has three windows and a sink, the roads and sidewalks are wide, and the city is short. That is, there aren't many skyscrapers or anything, and the city is broader than it is tall. In that way it reminds me of Minneapolis more than say, Philly. It's really pretty (from what I've seen). We live about 5 blocks from the Capital Building, but I haven't seen it yet. There will be soooo much to see in this city - parks, museums, universities, rivers, governmental stuff. Maybe I'm in the honeymoon stage after all!

My address here is:
643 G. St. SE
Washington DC
20003

I don't know the house phone # yet. Ok, time to do some exploring. I have Monday off of work, so more time to settle in. It's been great to hear from you guys. I got one snail mail at orientation and it was so exciting and unexpected!

A Placement

2008-10-01T17:28:00.004-04:00

Well folks, I know where I'm going. I'm going to Washington DC to work with the Capital Area Food Bank - my first choice! Yay! I'll be working with a branch that focuses on pairing organic food with people of low income. Before I thought that was the mission of the whole food bank, but it's just the branch I'll be in. It's a really small department. I'll be working with Susan Topping, her boss is Jodi, and there's one more woman in the department. I interviewed with Susan, and she told me that they can take someone, but it has to be through August because Spring and Summer are the fruits of the Winter work. And I agreed, because I really like the job. This is what I know of it:

In the Fall/Winter, I will be going to Food Kitchens that participate in our From the Ground Up (FGU) project to see how they're doing. When the season ends, we'll be interviewing them to see if there's anything we can do better next year, and maybe I'll be compiling the data. Then I will interview/assess who will be in the program next year. I will also be developing curriculum for a class (not exactly sure what yet). In the Spring, I will be getting the garden started and maintaining it, in addition to office work. In the summer when kids' groups come to the farm, I will possibly be assisting the teacher of those classes.

I will be mainly working with Susan, who is 7 months pregnant. When she goes on maternity leave, I'll be working with Jodi. They seem to be a tight knit group, so I think it will be okay. The commute is about 45 min from the BVS house to work, using public transportation. I might be able to get a bike though... :) The BVS house is big and located in a neat area, near Capital Hill (I think). Because of the type of work I'm doing, I am eligible to join AmeriCorps this year. BVS has a certain number of slots for this, and I get one! This means I will be logging my hours very carefully, and after about a year, I should get an education scholarship for my loans ($4725). I didn't imagine this possibility at all, and it's pretty exciting!

Two from my orientation unit will also be living at the BVS house. They are high school grads from Germany named Stephan (SHTEH-fhan) and Jonathan. There are other BVS-ers at the house already, and also people working for peace and justice with low income. I think about 14 can live there. One person is like the "house manager," so there will be some constancy in how things are run. Susan used to be the house manager there, so she's excited to be in that loop again. She already told me where there's a co-op nearby, and she's going to help me find a bike.

I have to go make supper - pizza! I feel like there's so much to say. I will certainly blog again when I can. I go to DC on Friday!

Orientation - First Days

2008-09-24T11:44:00.003-04:00

Here I am in New Windsor, Maryland! It is Day 3, but it feels like it's been weeks. My adventure started right away with delayed flights. There was fog in Chicago, so planes were stopping in South Bend to refuel, which blocked our take-off. By the time I got to Chicago, I'd missed my flight to Baltimore. The lady at the counter told me I'd be flying standby for the rest of the day. (I've never flown standby before.) The first flight let on 4 standbys out of 20. It was hectic and confusing. Some confirmed ticket holders lost their seats to standby-ers who were at the gate first. Then the lot of us moved to another waiting area for another standby, and I made it on that flight! I couldn't believe it. I got here late, with another BVSer, Mollie, who had also flown to Chicago. We recognized each other, but we hadn't made the connection before we arrived in Baltimore. It was a long day of traveling, but I wasn't actually in the air most of the time. Oh, in South Bend, I lost some papers with BVS cell phone numbers on them, so I don't know how they figured out what flight I was on.

Here, I was assigned a roommate. I had thought we would pick them, but I'm glad they were assigned to avoid a popularity contest and force people to mix. Also, I love my roommate!!! It's a great match, but I never would have made the connection on my own. Her name is Ine (EE-nuh), she's the oldest member of our group (62), and she's from Holland. She's Mennonite; her partner is a Mennonite pastor. On the first night we sat on our beds and talked and talked. Last night we shared photos. In our group we have 5 from Germany, 1 from Holland, 1 who is blind, 2 who are older, not all white... it's a nice mix.

On the second day, we got our food groups (also assigned) and made a food run. There's a schedule of meals, rotating groups to cook. We get 50 cents per person for breakfast, 75 cents for lunch, $1 for dinner. It's been a stretch, I'll admit, and I've been hungry a few times. There's definitely not enough to buy meat (which works well for us vegetarians). The idea is that we live simply and responsibly, and work together. Many people in the world live for under $1 a day.

Our goal this week has been to pick our top 3 choices for placement. There are files on every project, which give pictures, BVS-er feedback & description of the place. This makes a big difference in how I view projects that I previously had 1 paragraph about. I no longer want any of the 4 projects I was initially after! I was quite disappointed and down, but now I think I've found a few I'd be interested in. The process is supposed to be self-led, which is frustrating. When I talk to Dan McFadden (the director), he always mentions things I didn't know about the project, or factors that he hadn't told me before. I wish he would have more time with each of us, before we're supposed to decide. I am currently looking at interim projects in the States, since Latin America is so up in the air. At some point, I'm supposed to have a phone interview with the new LA coordinator. It's nervewracking because I don't know what sites will accept an interim volunteer. If it's a project I really want, I may be willing to commit to a full year, with the idea that I'll go to Latin America next year. My top choice at this point is a food bank in DC that pairs farms with places that give food to people of low-income. I could be working on a farm, visiting food banks, teaching classes on how to do fresh, local foods with a limited budget, developing curriculum for classes - or any combination thereof. I'm not sure what they'd need at the moment, but I like any of those possibilities (except maybe developing curriculum). If I teach classes, I will learn how to speak intelligently and informedly about something I care about. Living is in a BVS house in DC (not common for most positions). Not sure how I feel about that, but so far this is my best option I think.

It's a whirlwind. I've been really tired, but I woke up yesterday with finally enough energy for the day. Email me! I'm not sure how I'm feeling about this blog thing, it feels a lot less personal. It's hard to not get much feedback.

Packing

2008-09-17T16:06:00.004-04:00

This week has been a buckle-down-and-finish-everything week. My major project has been to pack and reorganize everything in storage. When I moved into Grandpa's basement, I was in the middle of teaching, I had just gotten back from a funeral (and an all-night bus ride), and I had one day to pack. So everything was just kind of thrown in the storage room. For the last few days I've been hammering away at my giant to-do list. Everytime I get burnt out on one project, I move to a different project, rotating all day. Today, I finished the storage room and packing! It feels a lot like helping my parents move, except that instead of having a nice, clean house to look at, I have a mound of stuff in the middle of the storage room that looks not unlike the mound of stuff that was there when I started. At least I know that all of the desk things are in one spot, all of the books in one spot, and all of the clothes grouped and labeled (hot weather dressy, hot weather casual, cold weather dressy, medium weather casual, etc) for the lucky fellow who gets to send me more stuff when I am assigned to a project. I also have a giant trash bag filled with clothes and goodies for Goodwill. It feels so good to have this done!

I finally had my phone interview with BVS, which didn't ease my nervousness. The Latin American projects are still at a standstill, or moving very slowly. Five BVSers want to go to Latin America this year... I am, positively, going to do domestic service first. For how long, I don't know. Dan McFadden kept saying 5-6 months, but I'm guessing it could be longer. I'm not nervous about anything in particular, just kind of strung up. It'll be a relief to finally start orientation.

My contact info at orientation is:
c/o Brethren Service Center
BVS Orientation
PO Box 188
New Windsor, MD, 21776

For emergencies, you can call #410.635.8834 and leave a message. This info is only valid til October 10.
We all share one phone and one computer - ak! I'm banking on getting cell phone service there.

Detour

2008-09-14T07:45:00.002-04:00

So last week I decided to travel to Carlisle, Kentucky to visit a friend, Tim, on the organic farm on which he's interning. I left on Sunday and came back on Saturday, so I got a full 5 days of farming in. We lived in a trailer and walked to the farm in the mornings. First we did barn chores - milking the goats, feeding the chickens, collecting eggs. I learned that chickens are dirty, dirty animals!

On Monday, we spent all day weeding the strawberry patch. I think that was the hardest day. It was the hottest, and we weren't protected from the sun. Plus, I was getting used to the schedule and the working. We worked from 8-12 and 2-6 on most days. (I usually took a nap during lunch time.) One weed we saw a lot of was purslain, which is considered a delicacy at restaurants!

On Tuesday, we weeded the currant and gooseberry patches. This was pricklier than the strawberries, and we had to cut out big weeds including blackberry brambles (very prickly!). In the afternoon, I assisted with the "pear crisis." The farmers, David and Arwen, had gathered pears this year for the first time. They were hoping the pears would keep in their root cellar, but when they checked on the pears, they realized that they were mistaken. So Arwen and I made pear butter, pear & ginger jam, and pear chutney. She is a very good cook, and it smelled soooo good!

We went to bed early on Tuesday (8:30) in anticipation of Wednesday, harvest day. David and Arwen run a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - which means that people commit to buying a full season of fresh produce, and the farmers commit to supplying it. So on Wednesday, we got up at 5 AM to begin harvesting at 6:30. This is the one day we used any kind of gas operated vehicular assistance - we drove the truck out into the veggie patches. We harvested swiss chard, red peppers, apple peppers, eggplant, spagetti squash, summer squash, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, italian heirloom tomatoes, parsley, fennel. It was beautiful to see it all together. We ate a quick lunch, then prepared the goods by washing and divvying out. By 2:30 it was time to drive to Lexington. We set up in a parking lot and greeted the shareholders as they picked up goods from 4:30-6:30. Afterwards, Tim and I went to the co-op where we got supper and supplies for the week. We finally got home at 8:30. That was a long day!

Thursday morning was our morning off for all the hard work of the day before. In the afternoon, we cultivated cole crops (mustards, kale, etc) until it started raining. We kept working until the soil was too clay-like. If you mess with the soil when it's raining, you end up packing it down and blocking air to the plants. I forget what we did the rest of the afternoon, but I made home-made pizza that night with chard and italian heirlooms and summer squash and goat cheese. Mmm.

Thursday night it rained, so there wasn't much to do in the fields on Friday. We spent the morning stringing onions. After onions have dried, you can wrap their tails around a piece of string, so that they're all hanging in a clump. We sat or stood in the shed, sorting and stringing onions, looking out the open door at the rain falling gently on the herb patch. In the afternoon we trekked up a hill to dig fence post holes. For this you use clam-shells, a long handled tool for picking up dirt, and an iron digger, a big iron stick with a sharp end for jamming in the dirt to loosen it. This was hard work. We dug 3 holes (2 feet deep), and we got started on 2 more. We were at about 18" on each of the last 2 when we hit rock that we couldn't break through. We'd already broken through much rock, but we were too tired at this point, so we called it a day. From up on the hill, we could see a lot of David and Arwen's land. They have either 100 or 1000 acres and they farm 1 acre. The rest is for the goats to graze or for returning to woodland. All of the land is hilly, with streams in the gullies. It reminded me of my service location in the DR, without the dust and dogs. It was gorgeous.

All in all, I learned a lot and I enjoyed some beautiful weather and AMAZING food. We ate fresh veggies, goat cheese, and eggs every day. I'm so glad I went!

Let's see if this works!

2008-09-03T18:37:00.008-04:00

This is my first blogging enterprise, so it might not be pretty. I set up this blog in order to update everyone of my BVS adventures (and beyond?). If you prefer an email update, let me know, and I can have blogger send you updates every time I post.

Here's what I know so far about my adventures: I'm in the Fall unit of Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS). Orientation starts Sept 21 in New Windsor, Maryland, and runs for 3 weeks. During that time, we will make food together, play together, listen to speakers and contribute ideas, do service projects, and discern with BVS staff our volunteer placement. I have requested to go to Latin America, but expect to have a domestic placement for up to 1 year first. BVS is in transition to a new Latin America director, and the process means a delay in placements. Once (fingers crossed) I go to Latin America, I will be there for two years. So I'm planning for up to 3 years.

After orientation, I will go to my volunteer site, which could be anywhere and anything in the USA. That means I have to pack for cold, hot, business, casual, manual labor. I'm interested in lots of projects - working with an organic pesticide agency in San Francisco; lobbying for a peace tax in DC; reconciliation in Rochester, NY; working with people who are terminally ill in Texas. The volunteer site is responsible for finding me housing (I think). I could be living with roommates, a host family, on my own, etc. There are many unknowns right now! I'll post as soon as I know more and have access to the internet.

(Here's a favorite picture of my family that I'm bringing along on service. I thought I'd post it for practice.)