A Day in the Life

4/24/13—

My favorite time of the day since I’ve been in New York is the mornings.  It’s the excitement of the unexpected.  Some of you might think I’m a bit crazy since most aspects of my life are pretty boring.  Each morning I pretty much follow the same ritual—shower, get dressed in my FEMA Corps uniform, eat some peanut butter and toast, and sit in silence.  Lucky for me, my team has a later start time than the others, so I have the gift of 15 minutes of solitude.  For an introvert like me it is a beautiful thing and I savor every minute I have.  The team gathers in the hotel lobby each morning before we pile into the van.  I’m always curious to see what mood everyone is in.  I have become a morning person and most of my team are far from it.  They are mostly quiet as they walk out to the van.  But there are always exceptions.  Taylor is always ready to reveal a big grin before she climbs in the van and falls asleep during the commute.  And the others engage with me for a bit before they climb into their i-pod cocoon and drown out the world for the hour long commute.  Again, I get a brief respite of solitude…at least until we take the Queens Blvd exit.  Pete typically sits in the passenger seat every weekday.  In Americorps, this person is the designated safety and plays the role of DJ, GPS reader, and climate control.  It is his job to crank up the music as I shout out what a beautiful day it is and and tell them we are on our way to Candy Mountain (check out Charlie the Unicorn on Youtube if you have no idea what I’m talking about).  I am usually greeted with moans and groans from the half awake Corps Members.  The good news is that they have yet to kill me.  I think they understand how much satisfaction I get out of being so silly in the morning and they have come to realize that a happy Team Leader is much better than a cranky one.

We park the van at a parking structure across the street from our office building.  We work in a part of Queens called Forest Hills.  It’s mostly a residential area with small locally owned shops.  As for office space, it’s pretty much our building, a jail, and a court house down the street.  We drive by a hot dog vendor every morning that has a sign advertising legal advice and walk by a sign in the parking garage that asks folks to not urinate in public.  Truly signs that we are living and working in NYC.  Another sign that it’s NYC is all of the garbage.  Something I’m not all that accustomed to after living in Colorado and Wisconsin.  But nature still seeps in to the urban jungle.  The cherry blossoms and magnolia trees are in the bloom and there’s an occasional bird squawking at us.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

4/13/13

It’s been about 2 ½ months since I last blogged.  It’s pretty much been non-stop since the craziness began.  It all started with way, way back in mid-February when we started a 3-week training program referred to as the Corps Training Instiute or CTI.  Over 170 corps members arrived on campus for leadership training and ever since then I’ve been on the go.  After CTI, our next adventure was driving a fleet of 15-passenger vans from the warm, sunny climate of Sacramento to the harsh dry desert of Artesia, New Mexico for FEMA specific training at the Federal Law Enforcement Facility.  Two weeks later we packed up the vans and headed across the country to help with the recovery efforts for Hurricane Sandy in New York.  My temporary home is in an Extended Stay Hotel in Melville, NY on “Lon Gisland.”  How long we stay and where we go next is unknown.  Best way to describe my life is “FEMA Flexible.”

Below are highlights from my adventure so far:

Highlight #1:  My team—Gold #2.  Our birthdate is February 19^th.  We started out 10 people strong; 8 women and 2 men.  The team is best described as professional, smart, and efficient.  Just like their team leader, they need a little help in the touch, feely department but I’m just the person to make it happen.

• Pete (a.k.a, Beard), age 22, who is from Pennsylvania and went to college for creative writing and he’s a musician. 
• Chris, age 24, is from Michigan, went to college in Florida, and wants to work with animals. 
• Courtney, age 22, is from Kentucky and studied creative writing and chemistry and loves, loves, loves the Beatles. 
• Taylor (a.k.a, Jordan), age 19, is from the Houston area and is the youngest and funniest on our crew.
• Sarah, age 22, is from Minnesota.  She’s an artist and wants to be a police officer.
• Kaitlin, age 22, is from Sacramento, talks like a valley girl, and went to school in Santa Cruz for psychology.
• Katie, age 22, is from Chicago and loves talking about everything Chicago in her cool Chicago accent and studied social work in college.
• Mckena (a.k.a., Dr. Woo), age 22, is from Beaverton, has a sharp wit, and wants to be a professor someday.
• Jaimee (a.k.a., James), age 22, is from Syracuse and is looking for life after retail work.
• Heather, age 21, is from the coast of Delaware and resigned from the program 24-hours before we departed for New York City.  

Highlight #2:  My short-term relationship and marriage to a beef burrito near Phoenix, Arizona.  The marriage was officiated by Dr. Woo and attended by my team members. 

Highlight #3:  Spending 2 weeks in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center a.k.a. FLETC in Artesia, NM.  Traditionally a training facility for police officers, border patrol and ATF agents.  It will never be the same after the arrival of FEMA Corps!  Not much more than a cafeteria, dorms, classrooms, and dudes in fatigues marching in formation in the middle of nowhere.  Highlight was walking in formation with my team ever day without laughing.