December it is...or as some call it...Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  yes...it is that time.  The month-long event we call Christmas.  Or, as some of you will be happy to refer to it... NOT Movember.  I have shaved, and now have regained my youthful, non-creepish-ly '70s, face.  Stay tuned for next year, in the 11th month, when my mustache will return!

no mustache!

One last note about the end of November.  I am grateful for thanksgiving, when we are reminded to be thankful.  This time also coincides with the thing I am most thankful for, so, it should be easy for me to remember.  For about 25 years ago, Hannah Raines was born.  And although I didn't meet her until about 21 years after she was born, it has been pretty awesome having her in my life, both as a friend and as the woman i love.  Its been about 3 or 4 years, and I hope it will be many more. 

Also no mustache! (now with a crown!)




Thanks to the internet, I can figure out where there is a local bakery no matter where she goes.  And everyone loves cupcakes...especially on their birthday.



Cake...AmeriCorps Style (from her TL)

So, now, its December.  This means slow times, cold weather, and eating.  I have been eating so much junk.  This would normally be a problem, but I am not training this month.  Which means... friendship bracelet time.  I wouldn't really be able to wear a bracelet while training since it might get caught on someone's finger or something.  And although I have been itching to get it on (Hannah made it for me...twice!), I am not in a hurry to remove a training partners finger.  Imagine the bleeding!

Two of my most important reminders. 

December also means Men's Shelter.  The first Friday of every month, I end up at the Uptown Men's Shelter.  We cook and feed about 300-400 men.  They know when they see Beth walking in, that the food is going to be good.  All the smiling and warm hearts of Holy Comforter Episcopal come out and cook up a storm.  Occasionally, they even get some bonus items when we are around.

Doritoes and TicTacs.  Score!

Not too much longer for Christmas...for real Christmas.  In an effort to make time go by, "Operation Keep Busy" is in full effect.  Justin and I went off to the woods this weekend.  It was nice to be out in the middle of nowhere.  We encountered some rain, some cold, much wind, and a general bleak calm and quietness that really resets the soul.  Now my room smells a bit like a used REI, but no matter.  Everything dries in time. 

In case I don't see you.  Merry New Year, Happy Christmas, and blessings to you in whatever form they may take. 

Some Miscellany:



Yep...L-shaped carrot.  Tastes the same.



Little did I know how important this would be to my relationship



Hannah claims in her most recent blog post that I am "doting."  could have something to do with this little bit of voodoo she has done on me.
http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/posts-are-here/



I guess i got my own little bit of voodoo too though.  Here is a sewer cleanout cap made in Charlotte...which she came across in San Antonio at her Habitat site.  There's no escaping thought of me.



Movember!

First off...old business.  A few posts back I mentioned I was going to talk more about my driveway project and about my porch project.  Well, i moved on and never mentioned them, and nobody seemed to really notice.  I never did take any pictures of the "new" driveway, but it looks much better.  Well, it looks blacker and newer because it has a new layer of seal on it.  As for the porch...well, no progress has been made on that front.  The threat still remains though.  If I don't build the porch around the holly bush BEFORE Hannah gets back to NC, then she is going to try and force  me to cut it down and build a porch over its dead and burnt remains.  Yes, she hates holly and all things living and plant like and if she had her way she would pave over my yard and cut all my trees down.  So, i must preserve the plants before she can stop at nothing to destroy them!  (anyone believing she is a villain yet?  yeah...prob not.  she is afterall donating a year of her life to serving others...maybe even two.  yeah...she's awesome.)

Onto new business...its Movember.  I watched an awesome TED video about Men's Health and mustaches and the Movember Movement.  It was inspirational enough to get me to grow a mustache.  And along it has come!

http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_garone_healthier_men_one_moustache_at_a_time.html

 

 

And now there are just a few days left.  I will be excited to see it go.  Its getting a little crazy.  Its long...not thick...long.  And it feels weird.  And it captures food!  I don't need anything capture food growing on my face!

And it okay really....because I don't need a mustache to show I am manly.  A little over a week ago I ran a 13.1 miles.  Not only did I run that far...which is silly far...I ran it more than 10 minutes faster than last time.  I was smokin' the last few miles and almost finished sub-2 hours.  Now I have to decide if my new goal is sub-2 hours or to run for another 2 hours...and do the full deal, for real! 



Before



After (yes...those are armsleeves)

After a lazy post-race weekend, I inherited some dogs to watch.  A friend of mine was dealing with the true chaos of thanksgiving and family and dogs and babies.  So, he asked if I could, and I said yes, and he released his hounds into my life.  Its interesting having things that really rely on you for life.  you have to plan your whole life around them.  I presume its like having kids, which means i am certainly not ready to do that just yet.

 

After thanksgiving weekend was over, the dogs went home and peace returned.  Since Thanksgiving was over, that meant time for Christmas preparation!  For me this meant....

1) Decorating-  using the pine tree in my front yard, some sticks from my backyard, some hemp from my drawer, and some zip ties to make it stronger, i built a wreath. 



Combined with the green light bulb out front, I'm done decorating

  2) Fire Wood- thanks to a generous donation, I now have enough firewood to last me through the nuclear winter.  Oh man am I excited to have some fires! 

3) the table...oh my goodness!!   THE TABLE- 

I got a bunch of people (4) coming to Christmas.  This means I have to finish my table project ASAP!  Luckily, it is really really getting close to completion now.  I know I have told many people many times that I am almost done...but for real now, its almost done.  Oh and it looks awesome.  Just like i imagined. 



that's it for now.  As always...read Hannah's blog.  Read my blog.  COMMENTS COMMENTS COMMENTS!

Love you and seasons greetings.

DAlen



Denver to TX...and i didnt even leave home

Quick Note: 

Hannah and I are both writing blog posts...partly to document our own lives (vanity), but also so that other people can know what is going on (communication...sort of).  The thing is, when people don't write comments, we don't know if anyone is reading our gibberish (well, i know people are at least going to my page, because I am constantly refreshing my page view score...that vanity thing).  So, please...if you're reading this or if you're reading Hannah's blog, leave a comment.  It means the world to us and few things are more great than seeing "3 comments" at the bottom of something you have posted to the Internet.  (i mean for real...even if they end up being bad comments, i am still excited that someone took the time to respond.  i just need a 5-10 word reply...please, please pretty please?)


On to the stories....

At the last writing, Hannah had finally finished training and was headed off to San Antonio.  Some of you are probably saying to yourself..."wait a second.  She was in Denver for like a month.  What could possibly take that long to learn?"  Very good question.  As I recall, much of that time is sort of spent acclimating people to what its going to be like living on an episode of the Real World while still be required to serve the needs of the country.  There is some more concrete training though...resulting in Hannah learning to use a Saws-All.  What is a Saws-All you might ask....

As the name suggests, it saws through almost anything.  Some might call it a reciprocating saw.  Its basically a blade that sticks out and moves in an out rapidly, allowing for some flection.  Its great for cutting out mistakes. 

Sometimes they can be used for crafts...

...which works especially well if your boyfriend loves handmade things...especially things made of OSB.

But anyway, once Hannah's skill training was all done, she got in a van and drove to TX.  Some might say its a bit stalkerish, but I prefer to think its Nick Sparkish, but I followed her.  On the internet.  She texted me where she was and told me how pretty it was.  And from my desk I went there.  It almost felt like I was in the van with her.  Except I was at my desk.  And super jealous.  And wished I was travelling across the great plains of Texas to go work with the large Habitat affiliate in the country.   



So, I did what any man wishing to change his situation would do.  I went to my local Habitat and worked.  Take that!  I totally one upped her.  She was actually still travelling and I was framing...the greatest, most fun task that you could do.  I ended up with blisters, tired arms, sore hamstrings, and a few little nicks from run-ins with materials harder than my skin. 

And although she wasn't there with me, that dang Mumford and Sons song was, which basically means that even if I could stop thinking about her, I cant and wont be able to ever stop thinking about us.

Epilogue

Hannah made it to Texas.  Proof can be seen below.

She is doing part of her work in the office...which, like all office employees in this country, means moving paper.  

Dropped ball...and we're off again!

It turns out that I dropped the ball on this one.  Here I was waiting for Hannah to write something for me to respond to, and she had already done it.  The calls-and-responses on her blog will be tagged as "Who's will?"  Didn't even know categorizing things was possible. 

http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/whos-will/

So, in response to this post, I thought I might talk a little more about the whole "Will" issue and about what Hannah is going to be experiencing for the next few days.

1) Will- because I'm tired of repeating myself 14 times every 6 weeks. 
In NCCC, you not only travel around, but you work with a variety of people.  And you work with new people at every project.  And you get new projects every so often (6-8 weeks).  Now, as many of you know, the name I chose to use at the age of 4 or 5 was Dalen.  You see, at that age, I had the feeling that William was just a little too formal.  Oh how wise I was.  So, DAlen was the name I used.  this worked well for the next 20 years of my life.  Then, partway through the year, right around our 3rd project, I reached my limit.  NO MORE!  We were working on a fire crew and meeting new people sometimes on every burn!  Easily 10 new people per week.  OH THE HUMANITY!

You see, nobody gets Dalen right the first time.  I have to repeat it.  And nobody ever spells it right either.  This was fine for people who would become friends or family.  I could take the time and be patient with them.  But for people I knew i might never meet again, I decided to go by "Will."  This is where many of you probably become insulted because I wasn't making long term plans with you the day we first met.  But this is also the moment where you realize you have made it to the next level...the Dalen level.  If you call me Dalen or refer to me as Dalen, you are either 1) a long term friend, or 2) family, or 3) Hannah has told you to call me Dalen, because she doesn't like Will.  If you call me Will, then either 1) you only know me professionally speaking or 2) this time next year you wont know me or 3) you agree, that's its just easier, and hey, it sounds kind of strong, and you prefer it, right?

2) Riding in Vans...FOREEEVVVEERRR
As Hannah mentioned before, it seemed like they were prepping and teaching her how to ride in a van. 

http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/riding-in-vans-with-corps-members/

She couldn't have been more correct.    As I write this, she is on her first of many long-distance trips in a van.  Driving from Denver to San Antonio is going to take about 17 hours, but must be broken up into 3 days (safety is a huge concern for NCCC).  So, the 1000 miles will pass a little slower than it might in a car, but its all part of the process.  I remember our longest trip being from Charleston to Little Rock.  It was only 900 miles, but it still seemed like forever.  And with all of our seats full, I was ready to never be near another person by the time we got there.  But, alas we persevered, and Hannah will too.  If there's one thing NCCC can instill, its resilience and patience.  Send her positive vibes.  She'll need it in the beginning.  Those van rides are like a war of attrition.  They are like marathons of sitting.  And everything out west is further away.  Hold her in your thoughts...you know, unless you already constantly do.  :) 

The photo edition!

Hate reading?  well today is your day.  This posting is almost made entirely of pictures (which i count as worth at least 1000 words each).

I finally finished up the string.  What was once a jumbled knot of roughly 0.75 miles in length is now a series of wrapped bundles.  I gave some away to some adults during trick or treating, but i have plenty left.  if you need some, let me know.

Speaking of trick or treating...i gave out candy....

...dressed as a donkey!  (i didnt drink the beer until after...which for those of you who KNOW me...is a big deal.  i am trying out this whole "beer" thing.  this one was supposed to taste like pumpkin.  tasted like beer to me.  

Wednesday night, with halloween over and the string done, i was able to focus and get a major task done on my house.  check my fireplace!  it works!

Friday was a good day.  Went on a field trip to the country to look at a biosolids application farm.  Got to see some baby cows.  Sure...cats on the internet can be great.  But nothing beats a real life baby cow.  So cute!

Friday night I went to the men's shelter...where i received the glamorous task of prepping salad.  I ended up on dressing duty.  Somehow, the dressing we had gotten a hold of was meant for single serving use.  I was in charge of fixing that...and fix that I did!

I hope you enjoyed this photo edition.  Keep visiting and tell all your friends.

http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/posts-are-here/

Holy cow its cold!

Well, I think it finally got here.  Winter.  Its windy and cold.  Leaves have all pretty much fallen onto my driveway and yard and Hannah's car.  Gumballs haven't fallen yet, but I imagine any day now, my backyard will turn into a giant booby trap for barefooted hippies.  So, what do you do when winter gets here?  You take all those various kinds of squash you got, you heat and blend them, and then you top them with Siracha.  Voila.  Squash bisque with fire.  So good.  So Spicy. 

8) Little Brother

I think I mentioned last time about trying to get my little brother to come visit.  I am trying to teach him to ride the bus and the light rail so he can have some autonomy and mobility.  Its important for youth to have the ability to strike out on their own and be the master of their own destinies in some way.  Additionally, I have been putting him to work...which strangely he enjoys.  He says its a lot like minecraft...a game he plays where you build stuff.  He has been asking me all these questions about how to do things.  These are things you apparently do in the game, and now he is curious about doing them in real life.  It would be strange if this computer game inspired him to actually become a craftsmen in real life.  I'll do my best to encourage this, especially since I strongly believe that a man should be able to create with his hands.  I upped his game and skill level this weekend by teaching him to use a power sander.  He now much prefers it to the hand sander.  We also worked on the string (pictured here).  Its almost fully wound.  I'll have to find some new means of mediation once i don't have that to occupy my hands. 



Also while Jahkeem was around, we went and picked up more clay tiles.  I have enough now to finish filling in the corner patch at my house so we can grow viny gourds and squash etc. there next year.  Its going to be pretty cool.  A clay patio with vines in the cracks.  I'll take a picture if I remember. 

If you had told me a year and a half ago that I would probably be in love with an NCCC member who knew how to use a skill-saw, I would have told you that you were crazy because my best friend Hannah (and potential girlfriend screener) wasnt looking to set me up with anyone in NCCC.  She was going to find me a nice local girl, my age who liked the outdoors, liked volunteering, and was in love with Sandy Kohn at the same magnitude that I admired and respected him (which is manquivalent to "love").  I mean sure, I would love to be with a girl who was in NCCC and knew how to use a skill-saw, but my AmerCorps days are long gone. How would I ever meet such an epic woman?   

http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/posts-are-here/ 

Next time...

9) porch before she gets home!
Now that she is learning to build, I really need to get on this porch idea.  She told me that if I don't build it before she gets back, she is going to help, and the holly bush cant stay where it is!

10) check out my new driveway (project delayed by weather...and well, i kind of wanted my little brother to do it, but he didn't stay over as long as I wanted him too)

11) more pictures from the superphone!

Is it Christmas yet?

Time is flying...until you stop to think about it.  My roommate has been living with me less than a month.  Or at least he has only given me one rent check so far.  Its strange.  The weeks sort of fly by, but they just aren't adding up. 

5) trainin'. bikin', and whatever else there is

Last Friday I mountain biked.  Mondays have become 2 hours of Jiu-Jitsu days.  Tuesday nights are soccer league.  Wednesdays are 1 hour Jiu-Jitsu, 1 hour-ish of running (prepping for a half marathon in a few weeks...ughh).  Thursdays are a day to do some work I have been putting off since Monday.  or work on my house days.  Fridays are "fun days" for cycling, mountain biking, or whatever else doesn't really seem like training...but actually is basically training.  the gaps have been getting filled in with small crafts too (cutting glass bottles, making plant towers, concrete HyperTuffa planters, etc.).  When I want to relax, I attack the string.  Made a lot of progress last week.  Not so much this week.  If you want some string, message me! (it apparently is the string used to pull electrical wire through conduit.  chimney guy told me this). 

Weekends have been busy too.  Lots of workin' on the house.  the occasional standard social diversion.  Went to see the panthers lose last weekend...rapidly becoming a Charlotte tradition. 

At one point during the week, I ate all of this at once. That's a half pound of bacon, a full pound (at least) of sweet potato, and some other peppers and garlic.

 

6) magic eraser

I have rediscovered the beauty of the magic eraser.  It is especially nice since there are quite a few random stains, streaks, scuffs, and other markings throughout my 60 year old house.  So, I have been spot cleaning, 5-10 minutes at a time everyday.  It helps me to feel like I am getting things done, without actually having to devote a lot of time to it.  and of course, everything looks better after you have magically erased it.

7) raise the roof!

Demolition started last weekend.  I am tearing out the wood/ cardboard panelling, ceiling, and nicotine/ fiberglass insulation in my shed.  I am doing one giant garbage can's worth a week.  Once I get it cleared out, I will assess the structure, replace some studs here and there, and begin to figure out how I will chop the roof off, build the walls taller, and reinstall some surface to keep water out but let light in.  Then, I can turn it into a lofted storage and sleeping space.  B&B anyone?   

8) Little Brother

Jahkeem ended up not making it last weekend.  Trying again this weekend.  To Be continued... 



Next time...
  8) Little Brother?
9) porch before she gets home!
10) check out my new driveway
11) more pictures from the superphone!

She is basically almost done

Using my highly experienced skills at rounding (I can round up from both below and above 0.5), I have pretty much rounded up enough to tell myself that Hannah is basically almost done with NCCC. I mean realistically, now that fall is here, its pretty much almost Thanksgiving, which means that its basically already Christmas, which means that the year is over. Once the new year starts, we really are getting close to spring, which means a two month non-stop middle school soccer season from late march to early may. Then once that's over, it will be summer, at the end of which Hannah will be graduating from NCCC and getting her Presidential Service Award (maybe congressional too if they mess up). Like I said...when you really look at it, she basically is almost done.



Which means, if I want to get anything done in my free time, I need to get to it.



3) The String

One of the things I have been focusing some energy on lately is the string. One day, a contractor was driving down my road with a bunch of string in the back of his truck. The part that was tied to a metal weight fell off, and the truck proceeded to drag the line out, all the way to the end of the road. We are talking somewhere between a half mile and mile of string. It was bizarre. It took roughly a day of normalcy before the middle school kids who walk on the road began to mess with it. Eventually it ended up in a concentrated mess near my house. Being the opportunist that I am (HEY! FREE STRING!), I went and got it and dragged it up into my yard. There it has sat for about 3 weeks. I have been sporadically un-knotting and winding it, an hour at a time, here and there. Pretty soon I will have enough usable, wound string to rule the world...or to at least tie up a super sweet stick sculpture in my backyard for the birds to play on.



4) rappellin!

Besides messin' with the string, have been pushing hard (i.e. facebook spamming) to raise enough money $1000) for the special Olympics. I saw on a billboard that if you raised that much, you could rappel off of the VUE. The VUE is a twice-foreclose upon, semi-finished, barely occupied glass high rise in uptown Charlotte. Rappelling is a lot like sliding down a rope using technology that prevents you from burning your hands or falling to certain doom should you choose to let go.

SPOILER:   I made my goal.  I rappelled off the VUE.  We then went back up to the top and looked around in some of the un-sold units.  see pictures below.  see altitude pictures at this link.  thanks everyone for the support.
http://specialolympicsnc.smugmug.com/Fundraisers/2012-Over-The-Edge-Charlotte/25977505_qbn6SH#!i=2155850094&k=3xMsZfW




Enjoy the view...errr, VUE. (I had high aspirations of making any great jokes involving VUE and view...but alas, I came up with nothing). 



4) runnin' in 5 weeks!
Well, that was last week actually.  I think now I have only 4 weeks to prepare and run 13.1 miles.  My original goal was to maybe keep going and do a full 26.2, but being realistic, I doubt I can do that.  While I am good at rounding, when it comes to running, that's not a helpful skill. 


Next time:

5) trainin'. bikin', and whatever else there is
6) magic eraser
7) raise the roof!
8) Little Brother
9) porch before she gets home!

Keepin' Busy

When I was a counselor at summer camp, they always taught us that the best way to cure homesickness is to keep busy.  Being busy provides distraction and helps your brain "let go."  Homesickness, or missing a person for that matter, is really just this psychological dependency your brain has fabricated.  Often its not healthy because it really can incapacitate you.  We all have known a person who wanted to be near another so much, that they couldn't live their own life.  They also were so smothering that they drove the other person away.  Its not healthy.  Or we have known a person who cant leave their hometown.  They just get so attached that the thoughts of leaving make them sweat.  They will never enjoy the rest of the world, which has so much to offer.  The remedy is to help the brain to move on.  You gotta redirect its attention.  I ended up having a lot of seemingly strange conversations with kids that went something like this:

Me:  why you crying?
Kid:  i miss my mommy.
Me:  understood.  whats your name?
Kid: Kid.
Me:  What was your favorite activity today?
Kid: sock war. 
Me:  yeah.  that sock war is awesome.  you brush your teeth yet?
Kid:  No.
Me:  okay.  well, go brush your teeth.  then get read for bed.  then get in bed and close your eyes.
Kid:  Ok.

Worked like a charm every time.  Of course, its much harder to self-inflict this kind of jedi mind-trickery.  So, for curing your own heartache induced ailments, you gotta actually physically remain busy.  Luckily I am able to do this.  An expert is a person who can do one thing a thousand times so that they perfect it.  I prefer to try and do a thousand things.  This means i will likely never be an expert, but i sure as heck am going to get a lot done.  I often remark about my results..."well, it ain't pretty, but it will work."  And that's how it is.  I get stuff done....which actually is sort of the de facto motto of NCCC. 

So, what have I been doing?  read on my inquisitive friend....

1) Tuesday night I played soccer in a league.  Did terrible in goal this week.  I usually play the first half.  I mean really sucked it up.  Had a goal go between my legs.  Had a rebound stop on the line until a girl came and bumped it in.  Really ate it hard.  Came out in the second half though and played well on the field.  Almost scored a few goals.  Kept the pressure on.  But in the end we lost.  Then someone told me we were a player down.  Didn't realize that.  Well crap.  No wonder we struggled on defense.  Still though....sucked in goalie.  really really bad.

2) Wednesday night I went go-karting with my little brother.  Quicken Loans was nice enough to rent out the place, open it to the public, do some PR with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and let us kart for free.  They even brought in some real pro NASCAR drivers (Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart) and let some special people they picked out race against them, while the rest of stood in line for the film production they were putting together to no doubt put on their website to talk about how much they were involved with the community.  Ironically, most of the kids who need a Big didn't have any idea who those guys were.  Ironically, many of the Big Bros and Sisses also didn't know who they were. 

Unironically, my little bro, who is in 9th grade, doesn't know how many months are in a year.  I kind of want to strangle everyone who has ever taught him something, because I feel like we all should have taught him that by now.

Stay tuned for more fun descriptions of antics i have been perpetrating...

DAlen




3) string
4) runnin'  in 5 weeks!
5) magic erraser
6) raise the roof!

Soon she leaves

My girlfriend is leaving me.  She is headed out west to Denver to spend a service year in AmeriCorps NCCC.  Having her move away makes me sad.  Having her move away to 1) see how things are outside her current life and expand her worldview, 2) serve others, and 3) to experience an AmeriCorps program very dear to me makes things simultaneously better and worse.  Better since these are basically the 3 top qualities I look for in a woman but worse since number 4 is proximity. 

So, I have no choice but to let her go and hope she will return to me.  Isn't there some metaphor or anecdote about doves that's applicable to this situation? 

She is going to be writing and posting to the Internet, so follow along. 

http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/

I will be writing and responding, so follow me also. 

be great
DAlen

 

Global Warming

Cant we all agree to just disagree and then move on?

There is so much talk and disagreement about global warming (better labeled global weirding), which in actuality should be called climate change (because people don't do shades of gray in our progressively stupider society). The thing is that the climate models have so many variables and so many assumptions and so little data to calibrate them that in many cases its no more accurate than a dartboard (the Monte Carlo method of modeling, i believe its called). Of course the people (who like I said are dumb) cant understand the models, much less understand what modeling even really is (it TELLS the future, PREDICTS reality, or verifies FACTS, right?), and even much much less understand that models are based on assumptions, guesses, and simplifications of the much more complicated reality.

For every climate model scientist who thinks we are in great danger there is another climate model scientist (paid or unpaid by corporate devils) who will point out any number of assumptions made and claim this invalidates the model. Let's get past this part of the arguing and focus on something more tangible.

When it was shown that acid rain was devastating our forests and killing mountain ecoysystems, we decided to stop releasing sulphur dioxide. Since 1990, a 40% reduction in acid rain has been achieved thanks to legislation. The goals set for 2010 were achieved in 2007 and the cost ended up being half of what was projected. Why cant we just do more of this?

Thus, the challenge:

1) I challenge you to walk 50 ft in an urban stream and not see a large piece of garbage. Why don't we focus energy on preserving our urban waterways? I can quantifiably prove to you that there is garbage in our streams and i can show you the negative effects it has on us. Think about it this way too: would you let your kids play in the stream? What if the water was clear and there were no car tires in the water? Your answer probably changed to yes, even though the visible pollutants are the least of your concerns. Our urban streams are toxic. Wouldn't it be nice to have streams our kids could play, catch fish in, and generally learn from instead of watching TV shows about streams?

2) I challenge you to look at statistics of asthmas and other respiratory illness occurrence in major cities. Compare those to areas where people drive less and tell me there inst some correlation. Wouldn't it be nice if it literally was easier for us to all breath? Wouldn't it also be nice if our commute could also double as fitness (or even, what if we listened to audio instruction on learning a language, making it a 3-way winning situation)? Our kids would be able to breathe, we would be healthier, and we would all be able to communicate better.


3) I challenge you to visit a landfill, a wastewater treatment plant, or a factory animal farm. Then I challenge you to somehow preserve the shock-and-awe of what we are doing to our natural resources (i feel like senseless rape is a pretty good descriptor, since its not consensual and we don't even appreciate it). Use that energy to waste-less. Consciously think about your power usage (do you sleep with lights on? If so, we cant be friends), water usage (but i NEED to shower in the morning to wake up AND at night to go to bed), and garbage creation (1 bag a day). Then, make some minor adjustments (one light at a time, 1000 gallons a month, 1 bag of garbage a week, 1 bag of recyclables a day).

We may never truly know whether or not we are affecting the climate, but we can damn well be sure we are affecting our waterways, our health, and the local environment around us. The thing is that if we focus on improving areas such as these last 3, then the climate problem, if there is one would go away. And if there is no climate problem, well then, we will have still improved our quality of life...which as it stands now, is not something we want to do. How does that make sense?

Day 1- Ok, the real day 1

The race car bed, while it looks cool, actually feels kind of like sleeping on a race car (i.e. not comfortable). At 1:30, when the rooster crowed, I definitely heard it. He must have been on eastern…china’s time zone. It wasn’t even close to being light outside.

Anyway, when it became light outside, we got up and rejoined the group back at Julietta’s house (oh, I how I love that home). She had some breakfast breads, refried beans, fresh cheese, Jugo Naranja and Jugo Pina (OJ and pinapple juice). So so good. (I pretty much spent the week eating my food and anyone else’s who didn’t clean there plate and who was in arm’s reach).

It being Sunday, we went to the local church. Everyone in the community was so welcoming. At one point during the service a song was playing and people spilled out of the pews to hug and greet each other. It was like the exchanging of the peace except it was way more friendly and way more chaotic.

Post-church we went to the lot next door for more eating, some soccer, and just generally hanging out. More awesome food! This is where I learned a particular something called Tomatillo sauce. A Tomatillo is a small, green, unripe tomato. When you mix it with equal parts Jalapeno, it makes the most potent of sauces…and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Once the gathering was over, we headed back to the house where we assembled a tent for the kids to have class in. then, we basically just had free time. We walked up a nearby hill and found a huge pink church. Then, we wandered around until close to dark.

Colby has brought a camera with him on the trip to take video. Have of his video appears to be random clips while the rest is part of a promo video he wants to make. He keeps saying inot the camera urging us to say the tag line… “You should be HERE!”

Mexico 2010!

Day 1- Travel Day

Another trip was about to begin. An early flight of course meant laying in bed not being able to sleep interspersed with nightmares of waking up 5 hours late. Nonethelss, I made it to the UCF house to get a ride to the airport (Hunter rules!). We got to the airport, checked in (they gave me a ticket with Robbie’s name, so that had to get cleared up), and then met with some other group members. Ally, a new friend, wanted us to all check-in together and do everything together, but we had already checked-in, so we went through security and waited at the gate like good little international travelers.

As departure time approached, we were apparently missing one of our group members. There was frantic texting and calling. There was a virtual play-by-play of her location as she got to the airport, waited in line, and then tried to get a ticket. Alas, they had closed the flight though. Stephanie wasn’t getting to Mexico City today. Once we got on the plane, we met Santiago and his mother. They were on standby, and luckily (for them), someone had overslept. Santiago was a surpriseingly calm and quiet baby up to the point that his mother was filling out her customs form. Robbie successfully aquired the proivelidge of holding the baby during this paperwork part of the flight. He was a whole lot less fidgety sitting in Uncle Robbie’s lap.

Once we got to Mexico City, we had to eat. Oh, and also we had to wait 4 hours for everyone to get there too. So, our first meal came from some strange place called McDonalds, where the two quarterpounders seemed expensive. Of course we didn’t quite understand the exchange rate just yet, so had no idea how much money we had spent. There was much eating, some napping, some wandering around the airport. We found a nicer looking resteraunt with nicer looking hosteses. We asked them some importsant questions in our terrible Spanish. “How many pesos for margaritas?” They laughed and finally answered. “How many pesos are beer?” Another answer that meant nothing (exchange rate problem again). “How many pesos for your phone number?” Didn’t ask that, but you can imagine.

Finally, around 5, the entire group was in Mexico (minus Santiago’s original seat owner). We somehow just ran into Alfredo and Daniel. So, we loaded up and off we went. The commute was roughly 2 hours. We arrived in the darkness to see that Alfredo’s green truck (that is older than me) appeared to still be sitting on good tires and operational. That thing is amazing!

We ate a small meal and then pretty much just split up and were assigned to stay with local host families. Me and Robbie were sent to live with Oscar and his dad Oscar, or as they say in Mexico, “Oscar y Oscar.” Robbie got the guest room, which meant that I was to be in Oscar’s room. Upon further inspection, this meant that I was going to be sleeping in a bed shaped like a race car!