Vacation Relaxation

6: The number of personal days I used over the past couple of weeks.

I'm back from my extended mostly-at-home vacation. And while I'm feeling nice and relaxed, it was definitely not easy waking up at 6:30 this morning when I had just gotten used to waking up at 9:00. Good news, though--no sprained ankles.

There's a lot to catch up on at work (not just my blog, you sillies), but fortunately I've been checking my work e-mail periodically to make sure I didn't miss anything too significant. I have a training in Franklin tomorrow and a resource fair in Dayton on Friday (for which we must leave at about 6:30---hoo boy), and aside from returning a few phone calls, I don't feel too far behind at this point.

Is anyone as surprised as I am to find out that in just over four weeks my year as an AmeriCorps VISTA will come to an end? How did that happen?

P.S. Just helped a client fill out her 2009 taxes (a bit late, but meh). She had SIX W2s! Hopefully I am completely done with taxes now.

Knock-knock!

8: The number of times I had to restart my computer today until it stopped freezing.

Last week, Krupa and I sent out letters to various organizations around Greene County letting them know that we were going to be in their area to talk to them about the OBB. So after our conference call Tuesday, we grabbed some marketing materials, our directions courtesy of google maps, and my trusty GPS Rita and headed north.

Site recruitment is exhausting no matter how you go about doing it. Being in a car for that long really takes a toll after a few hours of driving, especially if you don't have some breaks to stretch your legs. And unfortunately, we didn't spend much time out of the car.

We couldn't find a lot of the sites from our spreadsheets. My GPS led us to dead-end drives, abandoned buildings and residential homes. We left information at a few places, but were not able to actually speak with anyone about the program. It was a long, somewhat frustrating day. But it was fun to spend some time on the open road with Krupa!

We didn't want to have to go through a day like that again, though, without having recruited any OBB sites, so we spent most of Wednesday updating the contact information on our spreadsheets. Tedious, yes, but it must be done.

P.S. The title of my blog post today reminds me of a joke my brother, Zach, told me:

Knock-knock!
Who's there?
To!
To who?
To WHOM.

Hehehe!

Time, Time, Time

5.5: The hours of sleep I got last night (on account of the fireworks). (Happy 4th, by the way).

I only have seven more weeks as an Americorps VISTA, as well as three days of sick time, eight days of personal time and a little more than six days of comp time. I'm taking seven glorious days of vacation next week (woohoo!) and I have trips coming up for the next several weekends to visit various friends around Ohio.

I'm glad Krupa is here so my last couple of months at Shared Harvest aren't lonely. I think she'll make a great VISTA! Last Thursday we went to an OBB event in Troy and collected several cards from interested people wanting to become sites. Which means we'll be making a lot of phone calls in the next couple of days. We're also planning to go out to Greene County later this week to do site recruitment, and I'm sure that will spark some interesting blog posts!

Speaking of blog posts, Krupa started her very own blog already! Check it out here!

Also speaking of blogs, I briefly considered changing the background of my site, but seeing as I am only going to be posting (to this one) for another seven weeks, it seemed kind of silly.

Krupa has her first training this week, and she's pretty nervous about it (even though I know she is going to rock). We spent most of this morning going over the benefits guide. It's a funny feeling to watch someone go through the same anxieties and experiences I went through about a year ago. It's an odd way to wrap up my own VISTA year.

I'm been doing a lot of reflecting lately. It's making me all sentimental.

Welcome, Krupa!

50: The number of hours of comp time I have built up.

Our new VISTA has arrived! Her name is Krupa. She's really nice and she seems to like it here so far.

I remember my first day at Shared Harvest. I was pretty nervous about starting my AmeriCorps year and had no idea what to expect. I remember hearing everyone in the office casually throwing out acronyms to programs I didn't even know existed. I'm glad Kaitlyn was there to show me the ropes and help me out with everything. Hopefully I can do the same for Krupa. The first few days at any job can be incredibly overwhelming.

I think next week we're going to start on site recruitment in Greene and rural Montgomery. I wanted to give her a few days to settle in before we get started on a big project!

In other news, I still have 17 days of comp, personal and sick time to take before my term ends August 20. I am therefore taking a much-needed week-long vacay in July.

Kaitlyn's Last Day

1: The number of VISTAs at the Shared Harvest Foodbank.

Friday was Kaitlyn's last day as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, which makes today my first day going solo at Shared Harvest. Tina treated everyone to a great lunch at A Taste of Julia's, and Martha brought in a cake from Jungle Jim's. It was a really nice day. Kaitlyn got to talk about all of the high and low points of our many many projects, which I think was a great way to wrap up her year.



I'm going to miss having Kaitlyn around! I might be a little lonely until our new VISTA comes in.

On the plus side, I may be switching over to this side of the table. I don't think it squeaks as much, and it has a window! Hello, outside world!

Wild About Americorps

More than 500: The number of animals at the Cincinnati Zoo.

This post is going to consist of several photos of our trip to the zoo! Please enjoy.

By the way, I tend to speak several octaves higher than my regular voice when I see cute animals. Let's just say be thankful that this is not a video blog.

Sand cat! So preshy-presh. The cat house is one of my favorite things at the zoo.

There happened to be a bunny in this exhibit, and my friend Amanda was pretty excited about it. I was like, "You do realize we're standing mere feet away from a giraffe, right?"

This is Amanda, one of my closest friends from high school! She is being a wilderness explorer.

White tiger. I've always found them really pretty.

Tigers! Kyle and I went to the zoo last summer to see the baby tigers. These are the very same kittens; they already look fully grown.

Amanda, with Jomo the Gorilla in the background. The gorilla exhibit is another one of my favorite things at the zoo. If you go during their feeding time, they come out and you can get some great shots.

See? This is Jomo, the silverback gorilla. I've taken a ton of pictures of him this summer. I feel like we've become good buddies.

Bonobo! Seen in the Jungle Trails. He's chillaxin'.

A crazy bird whose name I do not remember. But he's taking a sip of water.

White lion waking up from a nice long nap. He's all tuckered out.

We all had a fantastic time at the zoo, as you can probably tell. I hope everyone enjoyed my pictures. Comments are much appreciated!

By the way, my car wouldn't start when we were trying to leave. I'd like to take this moment to send a shout out to my dad, who came to our rescue and jump started my car for me. Thank you, Dad!

Ups and Downs

85: The temperature outside right now (+humidity).

Tomorrow is the day we have all been waiting for. It may very well be the most important day that I will have experienced in my year as an Americorps VISTA member. It is a day that forces us out of our cozy offices and into a whole new wide world of adventure.

Yes... We are so going to the Cincinnati Zoo.

I am going to take an insane number of pictures while I'm there in order to create a fun, glorious, colorful blog post later. Our VISTA leader, Martha, said we were welcome to invite friends and family to come along, so one of my very closest friends, Amanda, will be joining me.

I'm really excited to just take a relaxing day with my fellow VISTAs and reflect on everything we've accomplished so far (while looking at gorillas and elephants). Thank you again, Martha!

On the other side of the spectrum, I'm feeling really bummed about Kaitlyn's term ending on Friday. It's just not going to be the same. But our new VISTA is going to be taking her place next week, and I'm excited to meet her and show her the ropes at Shared Harvest. Kaitlyn and I have pretty much finished our binder. We started from scratch when we began our VISTA terms. I definitely didn't have a clue what the Ohio Benefit Bank was until I was a week or two into my year of service. Oh, the things you can learn in a single year.