Its FRIDAY!!!!

YAY!!! This is the first full weekend we will have off since we started. It seems like its been so long, but really its only been 10 days. Good news...I am going to be one of 3 people on my team to do chainsaw work. Next week I will receive a 2 day training all about chainsaws. I think this also means that next time most of you see me my shoulders will be huge! Today we had our first official debrief with the director and other higher ups about our 3-day project we just finished. We worked at a horse farm doing trail work to clear the way for trail riders. It reminded me of my childhood...all the fun times and all the really hard labor days.

Tonight I will most likely end up at the beach. I don't really want to spend any money seeing as I am not making much, so the beach is probably the best option. I keep making the joke that I am making 13 dollars and hour, and the only reason I joined AmeriCorps was for the money. That's funny because really I only make 12.97 PER DAY! oh, but I do get to eat as much food as I want at every meal and live in a free dorm and go to the beach whenever I can convince people that its the coolest place to be. Going to play some frisbee golf tomorrow morning to.

I hope everyone out there in the real world is doing well. Love you, --DAlen (be great)

Tommorrow could be rough

Tommorrow's Schedule

5:15 wakeup and eat a little food...probably pecans and beef jerky, perfect meal for...
5:30 PT (long cardio)- run for 40 minutes
6:30 Breakfast
7:30 Go to work- our current project is helping out with a local park here in charleston, SC. we are clearing trails for horse back riders, 20 miles of trail are available to be done, we are completing what we can in 3 days.
12:30 Lunch of some sort, cant remember what i picked, i hope its good
4:00 Pack up after debrief and head back to the navy base
5:00 Dinner. Food here is good, there is just too much time between meals...luckily there is always pecans and beef jerky.
6:00 Nap....maybe go to charleston afterwards...otherwise chasing women through the hallways of my dorm...which isnt hard because they are everywhere...unfortunately they are all attractive, selflessly serving America, and rarely wear makeup. It makes it hard to concentrate. Maybe i'll just read a book and leave my door open to see who comes by.
9:00 Bedtime...unless I end up going out to downtown...Purple Tree Lounge is hosting a DJ contest, which means probably live DJs spinning records...but my legs will most likely not work...so sleep.
11:00 Maybe if I concentrate i can dream about Jamie and Amberle....and Chris, Jerrod, and Bryan

Its the weekend!

Its the weekend, but of course i am still in training. PT yesterday morning has taken its toll. I have a little soreness in my legs from doing an excercise called Frankensteins. The set of activites as a whole was called Norwegans, because apparently thats how they train, doing these weird exercises. then we did abs as well. the girl leading abs why hardcore about and she has a midsection of steal.

yesterday we did "exploring the community," which was us wandering around Charleston. We got library cards and i got a aiki-jujitsu book and Frank Shamrocks story. He says he does a couple hundred crunches a day. his midsection is scary strong. hopefully mine will be soon.

then we went to the beach...again. it was windy, but worth it. love swimming in the ocean, whether there are good waves or not. i bodysurfed into shore and literally was draggin my body in the sand, so thats not so good.

last night we went out to a piano bar, which was pretty friggin cool. got back late though, so it was hard to get up this morning. I think i still had a little bit of vodka in me this morning as well, but i am all better now. nothing a hardy americorps breakfast couldnt fix. i have been eating a lot of food and gaining weight. soon i will be a ripped beast of a man ready to fight in the UFC. until though, i am working here to help people. later, --DAlen

posting again

well i just wrote something that was good...but thanks to pop-up blocker and spell check i lost it...i hate paranoid computers...

so, here is the abreviated version:
1. Pt this morning at 5:30...leaders were pansys....upper body workout had some pushups, dips, and a lot of crunch variations...which i am pretty sure should be done on abdominals day?
2. Yesterday was our first service project...we did tin roofing for a church building...mainly i hit my finger a lot until it blead and hurt too much to use...so i did other stuff after that.
3. wearing my boots, black BDUs, and white polo today...trimmed my mohawk last night...lookin' pretty sweet.

be great..... --DAlen

AmeriCorps good so far...

Hey mom, your last two emails got deleted (9/9, 9/11). can u resend them?

Well, I have only been here a few days and it seems like so long. I have been to the beach 3 days, including the day i got here and the last two. The waves were big from the hurricane and it provided for some really big surf. I need fins though to catch deeper waves. The next big piece of news is that there are women everywhere! I am on team Blue 6 with 11 people, one of those being our team leader Ryan. Other than Ryan, the only other guy is Tristan...meaning I will be spending a lot of time with 8 girls over the next 9 months. They are all super cool chicks too, who want to be involved with the firefighting crew...which is good because our team got selected! We had to wake up this morning for a 5:30 am hike, which we thought was going to be a prelim test to see which teams were good enough to be fireteams. turns out that all the team that were there had been selected, so I am super stoked about that. There are 4 units and about 7 teams in each unit. we are the only one from our unit to get this opportunity. We will be spending a week in GA next month training for that. As a prize we all got lighters and atomic fireballs. did I mention that the ratio in AmeriCorps is like 1:4 in favor of the guys!? Its exactly the opposite for the coast guard, who is also stationed on this base. Federal Law Enforment Training Centers runs the base, and they dont like me riding my bike around in certain places (they stopped me once already). Otherwise this is a mountain bike trials begginner paradise. I have been riding a few times already and there is another guy who rides with me. This has been my primary excitment as so far all we have gone over is procedural stuff and policies (we cant have alchohol, knives, or sex on property, but loud music is allowed). Meals have been really good and I am gaining weight...especially when weighed with our new boots that we got. We also got all our clothes and BDU's. Whenever I wear my boots with my black pants and white polo everyone tells me I look like someone who is in charge. The mohawk has also helped me to stand out and I have met many people who remember me, even if I cant remember the 50 or so people I have formally met. Havent played any ultimate yet as its been two windy...which is good because the mosquitoes here are like tigers and they acutally remove flesh when they bite. The fire ants get you to. Man I hate fire ants. Enough of my free flowing thought for now. No time to put this into actual order and make it good writing. hope you enjoyed the reading...send candy and cookies! missin' y'all, --DAlen