Week 3

This whole once-a-week update gets really overwhelming!  I’m sitting here at the Warm Fuzzy table with a giant list of notable things that happened since last week, and knowing that I should be writing work orders instead of this.  I’ll just shoot out some short newspaper-style paragraphs.

So to start, I shall never complain about taking out the trash again.  I did runs with our dump driver in his hydraulic truck last week.  I embraced it and wore my most hickish outfit – including an ugly plaid oversized shirt that I cut the sleeves off.  I was sweaty but it was fun.  Volunteers think it’s funny.  We listened to the Avett Brothers.   Great.

Then, this week Lauren and I had to go do runs together but for some reason we needed over 20 rolls of insulation delivered that day.  I’ve attached a picture for your convenience.  The fun part (other than seeing people stare) was unloading and reloading it three times during the day.

At Culture Night (that’s a recurring theme, I’ve noticed!) this week, one of my buddies from McNeal’s crossing – Chief Earthman – presented me with a rabbit-skin bag!  I was blown away.  I have cool friends!

Also last weekend was the Saturday where all the staffs from across ASPland get together and camp out in the vans at the Breaks Interstate Park.  It was so beautiful, even if we all slept the three hours down and back and I was the groggiest I’ve ever been in my life.  The best part, other than the fire and stargazing, was the sunset.  We climbed a couple of huge rocks for a gorgeous view before monkey-jumping back into trees in order to get back down.  After that I managed to be the driver that guided twenty vans through all the wrong ways to go through the park to get to our site.  Some guys had sympathy on us and ended up leading us there.

Lastly, this past week’s group of volunteers were beyond amazing.  It was such a blessing to have them show up and be so loving, understanding, enthusiastic, and patient with us, especially after being so exhausted from last week.  Plus, half of them were from Wisconsin!  They brought us cheese curds and both groups gave us tshirts!  I loved them and didn’t want them to leave.  Their evaluations and surveys were like countless warm fuzzies.  Lauren and I want to go visit the WI group and Saskia wants to go visit the VA church sometime in the future.  Their share circle was the best ever.  They made me cry hard-core.  Ahhhh such wonderful people!  I want to adopt all of them.

Another reason this week was so meaningful was because I got to do my first Staff Share.  It ended up going really well even though I was nervous!  I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to do it.

It just came to my attention that we only have five more weeks of ASP this summer and I’m torn between being slightly crushed (I don’t even want to think about how hard it’s going to be to start living back at home without doing this everyday) and excited that I’ll get to sleep.