February 18-22

Wow this is really long. Most entries won't be this long; I promise! My apologies.

Thursday was my first day back at work, after spending all of Wednesday at ECC studying for and taking my calc test. The morning was boring and dust-filled, so I was coughing a lot. At our 10 o'clock break, Hurkey and Gerry told me that I'd be going back to the bureau with Gerry at lunch time because it wasn't "a good environment" for me. Which they were right, it wasn't, but they didn't let me decide and essentially were forcing a half day on me, and I certainly can't afford that after missing five days of work.. But I went along with it, figuring I could find *something* to do back at the bureau. Well when I got back, there were very few supervisors around and the few that were there (I only saw Miss Michelle, but I know one or two others were there) were busy. So I went back to find Dierdre but she wasn't there. Instead I asked the lady who sits across from her (I don't know her name! =/) and she told me to scrape labels off of some file folder tabs. Not exactly the most fun thing in the world, but it was something to do and that way I wouldn't either be paid for a half day or leave and be paid for a full day even though I only worked for half. It was quite difficult to remove many of the labels but Shanera (who was in my orientation group and is currently on light duty- basically doing odd jobs at the bureau- because she's pregnant) brought over some water and helped =) I gave her a ride home after so I learned more about the streets of Buffalo! She told me that the neighborhood is so bad that AmeriCorps can't get a grant to fix it up, though =(

Friday I decided to go back to Seneca because we were apparently just going to be putting down carpet, but we actually tore up tile (may contain ASBESTOS! ughhh) in the CEO's office and swept. On the way there, though, Hurkey told us we had a half day. So of course we were excited. But then he told us the half day was just a half work day and we had to watch a movie back at the bureau after. But he didn't know what movie because Gerry chose it. The last movie Gerry chose was the segregation one so we were already worried about what it could be. When we got back, we sat in the conference room and played a weird card game called Qwitch that Kelly brought. It involved too much skill for us though so we gave up and just sat around as they tried to work out the technical difficulties so we could watch the movie. We figured out what movie it was (Stand and Deliver, ugh!) with some creative sleuthing and finally started watching. At about 2 minutes in, Shauna was called into the meeting room and no one knew why. Two minutes later one of the supervisors (don't remember his name) came in and made us pause the movie. He read off a list of names of people who were going to a radio station for a tour. Katie, Kelly, and I were on the list. We had to gather our stuff and go right then. What the heck!? So random.. But anyways it was fun. Shauna was in the van when we got out there; apparently they just pulled her in to tell her she was going to the radio station. We toured Entercom's headquarters. They own six radio stations here in Buffalo, including The Lake! That was the best part. On the way back, the supervisor guy was talking to the GED teacher, Erin (who also came with us), about the conference he and some of the other supervisors are going to this week, IN FORT LAUDERDALE, and about how we have Tuesday off. We were excited but skeptical because we hear things all the time that don't end up being true, even from supervisors. I went home for the weekend, spent Friday into Saturday at RIT then hung out with Sushi on Saturday night.

Monday was not how I wanted to start out the week. I woke up on time but fell back asleep and woke up at 6:45 thanks to Demetrius' alarm. I wasn't late to work but didn't have enough time to pack a real breakfast, lunch, or dinner (no time to go home before class), so I brought two breakfast bars, four clementines, an apple, and six pieces of cinnamon swirl bread (SO good). Miss Michelle confirmed that we have Tuesday off (yay!) but she didn't know when we actually start going directly to Seneca St (boo). I slipped on the ice when getting into the van and slammed my shins on the step so they're both nicely bruised, but at least that's all! So the first thing Hurkey told us to do was to take cardboard out of the dumpster and make a path over the new carpet so no one would walk on it with muddy, wet boots. Then he left to go pick up Gerry's team from the bureau. Jermaine and Kiera climbed into the dumpster and pulled out cardboard, we made the path, then went into the basement for Hurkey to come back, as he asked us to. A while later, Gerry came down and said he needed two people to help him with something. However he didn't ask the whole group (we were all together in one room), he came over and specifically talked to the three of us. I didn't want to not work so I went upstairs too. He had Katie and Kelly sweep, mop, and scrub the front entrance way and brought me to re-make the cardboard walkway because it apparently wasn't good enough. UGH! So for the next hour and a half, Jasmine, Mike (for a little while), and I taped together clean cardboard (the pieces from the dumpster just weren't acceptable) to make a new path. What a waste of time, considering NO ONE USED IT. While we were doing that, everyone else was sweeping or sitting or on their phones downstairs. When we finished, Gerry had Andrew and I vacuum the windowsills. He could have asked anyone else, considering most people were doing nothing, but he asked us. Whatever, we did it. But then it was time for lunch. It's hard to find somewhere clean and out of everyone's way but we do have a room we like so we went in there. The new carpet was in there, but none of us had a crumby lunch and we were all very careful. Well, Eric wasn't but we really couldn't prevent that.. Gerry saw us eating through the window that goes out to the hallway and smiled. We finished eating and swept for the afternoon (RAWR) and as we were getting to leave, Gerry told us that Bob Duke (the supervisor in charge of ServiceCorps) wanted to see us in the room where we ate lunch. He wanted to see everyone who ate in there, but most people were nowhere to be found. Rather than wait for everyone, since it was almost time to go, he talked to Andrew, Katie, Kelly, and me. He was angry because the carpet looked disgusting in the room where we ate lunch. There were spots and crumbs everywhere. Luckily Kelly was able to show him that the spots were water and obviously we were able to clean up the crumbs (from Eric's Pop-Tarts...), but still ARGH! Andrew made the conversation focus on Gerry's ridiculous behavior so we taked about that for a while but then we also discussed the difference between new members and old members, respect, and the issues we've been having. It was overall good, but it would have been much better if Gerry hadn't been there. Apparently Hurkey had already brought most everyone back to the bureau and it was 3:05. Shanera had texted me to ask for a ride so I took her to her mom's house, but she asked for a ride to her grandmother's so I gave her a ride there too. I made it to the hospital for my TB test at 4:30, despite planning to be there at 4. It only took a few minutes, but then I hit traffic on the thruway and didn't fet to school until 5. Since it was already five, I didn't go to my interview with the lady from the tutoring center. I hope she'll see me tomorrow! I found out that I got a 94 on my calc test (the only good part of my day), but I fell asleep for most of class. I decided on the way home to try some Mighty Taco (Katie and Kelly have been telling me I had to try it) and the taco was ehh but the burrito was good. I went home and the weather was bad toward the end of my drive but not terrible. Stayed up until 1 since I didn't have to work today, yay!

Today I've only been out of bed a few times because I have a pretty bad headache. I had wanted to volunteer and be productive today, grrr..

An Open Letter

Dear Ciprofloxacin (my new antibiotic- since azithromycin didn't work),

I would appreciate it if you didn't make me suicidal. Especially since I'm running out of antibiotics that I can actually take. I know that's not your fault, but come on, I need your help here and you're really just making things worse.

Thanks,
Allison

Temporarily Out of Commission

So I have pneumonia. It sucks. I most likely got it from the dust and such at our work site. Normally my cough sounds like I'm going to lose a lung or two, but now it sounds like my spleen or something will come up too. I've been horizontal for the better part of four days because my fever has been making me nauseous and dizzy as well, so at times I can't even sit up. As a result, I've missed two days of work (SO CLOSE TO PAID TIME OFF, GR!), one day of class, and the Sweet for Service benefit (for which we spent $45 on tickets and I was really excited). Sigh. And now it looks like I might not even be able to work tomorrow. Arghh this is quite frustrating. Thank goodness I do not have class tomorrow as it is Presidents' Day, but I do have my first test on Wednesday so I need to muster up some energy to study! Unfortunately this is all I have to report at the moment. I will hopefully update with happier news soon!

First Entry!

So, AmeriCorps. Pretty good thus far. Have made friends with Katie (a vegan), Kelly (a vegetarian), Andrew, Drew (except he's on individual placement now- we miss him!), Tommy (who loves to sing), Aaron, Mike, Langston, Jasmine, Minnie, Leah, Kiera, Jermaine, and Shauna. That's Gerry's team and my team (Hurkey's Angels!) combined. We work together a lot at Seneca St. Today and yesterday we tore up the tile floor in the hallway. I love it, for whatever reason. It's hard work, though! We're all really sore. And I'm sick from all the paint and dust. I didn't go to class today because of that. Hopefully I'll be better soon.. Speaking of Gerry, we, uh, strongly dislike him. It's something we all agree about. He thinks that Katie, Kelly, and I are racist because we stick together on breaks. Why do we do so? Because most everyone smokes or doesn't mind being around people who do! We had to watch a video on segregation in Buffalo schools yesterday to "bond" and bring any issues to the table. The only good part about it was that we worked for half a day. I don't know how in the world we're going to finish tearing up the tile tomorrow; all of us are going to be far too sore! Thank goodness we're more than halfway through the week..