Team Ready? DODGEBALL!

WHOOO!!!! Today was a blast- I was a referee for the West Barnstable Fire Department Dodgeball Tournament. The teams that were- Three firefighter teams, two cop teams, a sheriff officer team, a SWAT team and a Wellfleet house team and a Bourne house team. Naturally my job as a ref was to call all the shots and make sure both teams were kept in line. Normally this would have just been fun- but since the cops were playing (who were pretty big jerks the whole time by the way) I REALLY enjoyed being able to inform them when they were out for breaking the rules such as hitting opponents in the head, stepping over the mid court line and lying about being hit. I just hope I never cross them on the road because they may give me a ticket for no good reason :-P Just kidding- it was all in good spirits (but the cops really were a bit too serious) and the firefighters were great fun. Amanda and I know a few of the guys from the department because they host a "Fitness Friday" thing every week where we go and pretty much get our butts kicked into shape along with firefighters...I'm still sore and its Sunday! BUT back to the tourney- so inspite of all the scary team titles (especially the SWAT Team- I mean who messes with the SWAT TEAM?!) the Wellfleet house won!!! So AmeriCorps Cape Cod showed all those men whose boss 'round here.

Just a quick update from last time- the polar plunge did happen after all- which was actually a serious dose of fun. A lot of the locals do it on New Years because it is said to shock or restart your body (in a good way) so even though it wasn't for the New Year it was still really fun...I mean REALLY REALLY COLD...BUT fun. Everyone should do it at one point in their lives. Just do it! That day our service was beach grass planting and after we put up signs that AmeriCorps made up that say "These dunes aren't made for walking"...yeah..we're clever ;-) Another service project I did that week was called "Call of the Artic Gods" because we were outside in 7 degree weather..not including the windchill. It was myself, Phil, Amanda, Melany and Maria (or otherwise known as 'The Brave', 'The Strong', 'The Fair', 'The Valiant' and 'The Worthy') and we basically loppered invasive species and hauled large logs from old trees out of the woods. We kinda lost a pair of loppers (whoops) in the snow because there was so much but we just plan on going back after the first big melt to find it!
The last big service project we did was for MLK Day (or Martin Luther King day). AmeriCorps basically restored a shelter project in Cataumet by recruiting over 200 volunteers to paint rooms, sew curtains, make bookshelves and benches and supply lamps and compact fluorescent light bulbs to the whole shelter. The program supervisor said that this was the best MLK day this program has seen with respects to the number of volunteers recruited and amount of work completed which is pretty neat. We were all given bracelets for volunteering and I was at the gym a few days after and a lady was staring at me really strangely and she finally goes "You're bracelet- You're in AmeriCorps!" She was a volunteer that day with her family and she said she had a blast doing it and even gave me a few secret beach/kayak spots to use in the spring.

Tonight we had an encounter with a flying squirrel in our basement! He must have gotten in through the chimney and we can't catch him because he is so freaking fast (and kinda scary when he flies at you!) So we decided to devise a trap with peanut butter involved (hopefully not the salmonella kind!) to catch him and release him. Also we named him Clark- and I think I am in love :-P Big beaty eyes! Fluffy little tail! How can you possibly not love it. Diseases you may say? PSSHhhh- we have enough of that going around in the house without a flying squirrel- 4 people have gotten the stomach flu to date!! I have not yet (knock on wood- real or fake) but even if I did get it it seems to only affect people for two days at most so nothing too serious to worry about.

Tomorrow we have our first Life After AmeriCorps day- all about resume writing and job hunting- AHH!!!! DO I have to think about this stuff already?! Craziness- Just put me on a boat somewhere....

Live life.

There's snow way I'm going out there!!

I said BURR- it's cold out there! We have about six inches of freshly fallen snow from last night and tomorrow we are beach grass planting on the sand dunes all day- lets just say I will be using my hand/feet warmers! We are supposed to do the Polar Plunge after service tomorrow but I am hearing from the Wellfleet house that people are backing down because they are afraid- BABIES I TELL YA!!!

My Christmas/New Year break was very good. I was presently surprised with presents and I honestly didn't really need them to be happy this year- I got the Holiday cheer bug real bad. I was getting all giddy at the sight of christmas lights and trees and at the sounds of christmas songs on the radio (it did get A LITTLE old because they started it right after Halloween on Cape Cod- EVERY STATION!) And for whatever reason everyone was being just a little bit nicer, using the reason "Hey..its Christmas!" I wish certain people didn't use that as an excuse to be nice but its better than nothing.

So here I am- back on the Cape- and with a new member! Before the Holidays a member from our house left - Nichole Long (we called her Frannie). She is a great girl, but said that the program was just not her cup of tea (she likes hot tea-- so cold service doesn't really work :-P). So anyway she left and we got a new girl- her name is Melany and she is from Maine. She moved in on Friday and she's great- We have the same sense of humor which is hard to find.

Service is going well- just chug-a-chuging away. We will be doing a big MLK Day projects since we don't have Martin Luther King Jr day off and it will include building bookshelves and benches, painting walls and sewing curtains for a housing shelter in Cataumet. ALSO- we got a grant to build a GREENHOUSE AT THE BOURNE HOUSE!! Meredith, Nicole, Korinda and I are heading this project which is so exciting. So we are in the research stage as of right now to try and figure out where it should go- foundation practices, pricing, etc. Will update as that project comes along.

MKKK...that's enough for now- Happy 2009 to you all