blog? where?

as my year with VISTA starts to wind down, I'm thinking more and more about what I've learned from this year. I view every experience as a learning lesson, and this was certainly no exception.

here's what I have so far:
1. I take things way too personally. This has become an issue, especially when it's work-related.
2. people still see me as being "just a kid." this really bothers me, especially when I'm less than two months away from turning 24.
3. All future homes must have a full-sized kitchen, or at least more than one countertop.
4. small children are vessels for diseases, especially the flu
5. Having a roommate is preferable to living solo.

Don't get me wrong, though...I had some great experiences, too! such as:
1. everyone should live alone at some point in their life. it's a great way to build character.
2. exercise is a fantastic form of stress relief.
3. if it's not worth fighting for, it's not worth having. That was my mantra when applying for grad school.
4. houseplants are a wonderful substitute for pets.
5. basil plants are especially handy, especially when you cook often.
6. lentils are a staple in any poor person's kitchen.

School's Out for Summer

This is my first day of working out of parents plus for the summer. Maple Tree is only open half-day for summer school, so I will only be there on a need-be basis.

My summer plans with the school are relatively light. I'll be writing several grants, working on my sustainability binder, and spending quality time with growing power.

For those of you who don't already know, I have my post-VISTA plans set. I'll be going to grad school at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where I'll be studying with the Masters in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and students with disabilities program. I'm very excited about this.

What a Feeling

You know how in most towns/cities the tell-tale sign of warm weather is the appearance of ice cream trucks? Well, that's a little too conventional for those who live in Milwaukee. It's been beautiful weather these past few days, and we've had sunny days on and off for the past few weeks. I've observed the following to be signs of a day of beautiful weather:
1. The appearance of the satellite crepe stand on Brady Street
2. Bars and restaurants set up outdoor seating
3. An abundance of people running and riding their bikes around the east side/the lakefront
4. The appearance of summer season beers in liquor stores/grocery stores (my personal favorite is leinenkugel's summer shandy)

Apparently I'm not the only one enjoying this beautiful weather, as was made apparent by yesterday's events at Bradford Beach. For those of you unfamiliar with what happened, read it and weep:
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/94714434.html

Spring Fever

It's officially spring in Wisconsin. It's been raining nonstop, my allergies are going crazy, and the kids at my site has lost their minds. I blame all the pollen in the air.

Spring also means that it's time for the garden kickoff party at Maple Tree. Growing Power has been here for the past few weeks getting the plots ready, and they've been happy to report that they've had a good amount of neighborhood kids volunteer to help out. We've set the date for the party for next saturday, and I've already made flyers to be sent out. We're having a meeting this afternoon to finalize our plans and plan future events at the garden for the summer, including a back-to-school bbq in August.

Planning events here has become difficult at this point in the school year. The HIP coordinator has been taking even more sick days than usual since she announced that she's pregnant. It's been at least two weeks since the last time I saw her. I'm unsure of whether or not this will affect the health fair she planned with school nurse for this month, but I'm not involved with the event so it is not an immediate concern of mine (remember how we're supposed to plan everything collaboratively? apparently this isnt a huge priority for her, since she planned the whole event without talking to anyone on the action team).

In trying to pick a date for the BBQ in August, several staff members realized that I'm not returning to Maple Tree next year (NOTE: this is something I never planned on doing. I always saw my time with VISTA as a one-year thing and never attempted to renew my contract). Some of the staff got it in their head somehow that I was going to renew my contract with VISTA, so they were surprised when I told them I was done after August 21st. The thing is, even if I were to renew my contract with VISTA, I could not work with Maple Tree. They had two previous VISTAs who left the school before the year was over for various reasons, but still finished their years of service with Americorps. Plus, I dont think Maple Tree has as great a need for a VISTA as other schools in Milwaukee for various reasons.

So now that I've got a happy stomach full of leftover indian food, it's time to get some work done! I'm also expecting a call from a prospective VISTA for next year.

happy earth day!

today is going to be a full-out earth day celebration for me!

at 1:30 this afternoon, I'm going to growing power for their open house with one of my supervisors from the corporation for national and community service/serve wisconsin in order to take a full look at their facility and hopefully talk to someone about hosting a potluck there for Americorps week. this will mean i have to miss my school's tornado drill, but i think i endured enough actual tornadoes while at earlham to get by without being here for the drill.

this evening is also maple tree's science fair/spring open house, which we're running in conjunction with a family gathering night. the HIP coordinator has planned arts and crafts activities, so the kids will paint flower pots. we've worked it out through the action team that parents will be given a form to fill out when they arrive that allows them to rate the displays by most creative, most informative, etc. when they go to the cafeteria to attend the family gathering night, i will be there to collect the forms as their ticket into the gathering night.

i am a little anxious about this, but for a good reason: the school principal will not be present at this event. this means that even though she supports the idea of collecting these forms before parents attend the gathering night, that doesnt mean things won't go according to plan.

stay tuned for more information on Americorps week, maybe some pictures at growing power (I'm not going on the tour, since I didnt bring sneakers and refuse to destroy my new loafers), and the results from the science fair!

looking ahead

it feels like spring has barely started, and already i need to start thinking about the summer.

tomorrow is the deadline to submit my summer plans for my year of service. i sent it to my site supervisor this morning, and pending her approval, it will be sent on to my DPI supervisors. no far-fetched, elaborate plans involved. the main points of my summer plans involve working with growing power through their community garden at maple tree, writing a grant to get a bookshelf for the school as a parent resource center, and working on my sustainability binder.

the main question is where will i be working?

maple tree is open for summer school, but it is a half-day program. it's my understanding that most of the action team will not be around for the summer, as well. given this information, i think it makes sense for me to operate out of the parents plus office. this doesn't mean i wont make regular appearances at the school...i just think i can get more work done at parents plus. furthermore, it's a much easier commute for me and i won't have to deal with mps internet blocking certain websites.

of course, i have other plans for the summer beyond work. i still have 9 sick days and will have 4 vacation days left as of May 17th, and i plan on using them all before my year of service ends. if i go to grad school in the fall, i may need a few of those days towards the end of the summer to return to new jersey to gather up some things to bring back to milwaukee with me (that is, if I end up at UWM. if I end up at Montclair State, I'll need a few days to pack up everything to move out). I'm also planning on finally going to chicago, so i'd like to make a trip out of that.

Spring has Sprung!

It's officially spring in wisconsin! The wind is going at full-force (making driving on the highway not a fun experience for me), there's thunderstorms being predicted every other day, and the temperature is jumping all over the place. needless to say, my allergies are going nuts.

It's also spring break at Maple Tree this week! it started last friday and will go through the rest of this week, which means I'll be at parents plus instead of school. This does have it's benefits, such as not having to wake up at 6 AM and drive 30+ minutes, being around adults all day, and being able to work off my laptop. oh, and i can listen to pandora radio and access facebook here. I do have to go in on wednesday to help the learning team update the site's school improvement plan, as well as pick up some things I left in my office.

My mom came to visit me this past weekend, which was a lot of fun!

Friday was spent getting facials, shopping on Brady Street (We bought gardening stuff for my herb garden, a super-cute jumper at yellow jacket, and baby gifts for two of my cousins) and eating dinner at Cempazuchi (SUCH GOOD FOOD!!!!! If you like spicy food, go there and get the chile relleno). After dinner we went to potawotami casino to see Louie Anderson perform and gamble a little bit. We only played slots, but my mom broke even and I lost $8, at which point I called it quits. We ran into Lizzy and her family at the lobby of the parking garage when we got back to the hotel.

We drove to Appleton on Saturday to meet with some family who live in the UP. I did the first leg of the drive, during which we had nothing but downpour. Naturally, the sky cleared up when my mom drove. Ate really good italian food for lunch, then did some shopping. I could sense my mom's aggravation after I tried on at least twenty bras at VS, so I made up for it by giving in to her pleas to let her clean my apartment. We went to target and bought a vacuum, floor lamp, and full-length mirror, then went back to my place and got to work cleaning. We didn't eat dinner until 9:00 at night. The food totally made up for it, though, since we went to Maharaja.

Sunday morning, we woke up to a broken toilet in our hotel room. When we told the front desk about it, they apologized and offered us a $40 gift certificate to buy breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which we gladly accepted. Went to the public museum and saw an IMAX movie called Under the Sea and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The movie was great...then again, I'm a fan of any movie where the last five minutes are just sea lions swimming around with Octopus' Garden playing in the background. The exhibit was amazing, too. They had a lot of information on the history of bible translation, which reminded me of my group project I did for translation class at earlham. It was already 1:45 when we left the exhibit, so I dropped off my mom at the airport right after.

tonight is kickball practice, which I'm super-pumped for! Let's go team awesome!

Growing Power

Yesterday afternoon I had a meeting at Growing Power. Maple Tree is home to one of their community gardens, so a meeting between stakeholders of the community around the school and employees of growing power was held at their farm yesterday afternoon. I meant to take pictures, but decided against it since we didn't have time to take the tour they had told us about in the email.

The best part of this meeting was, without a doubt, the part where I got to meet Will Allen. Will is the founder of Growing Power and has been featured on Oprah's talk show, as well as a guest of honor by Michelle Obama as part of her Let's Move campaign. One can only imagine the look on my face when I was sitting at a table in a greenhouse rocking my mom jeans talking to a pastor, a president of a neighborhood association, and a growing power employee and Will Allen just strides in and starts shaking hands with everyone. It was pretty surreal. I wanted to be a nerd and ask to have my picture taken with him, but decided against it for two reasons: 1) I looked like crap (I learned during my first visit to growing power that wearing nice clothes there is a bad idea, since you will leave smelling like fertilizer), and 2) my hair had become a giant poofball, compliments of the greenhouse we were meeting in.

I mentioned to the employee holding the meeting the theme of Americorps week for this year and asked if Will or somebody could do a guest speaking event at Maple Tree and she totally went for it! I asked how likely it is that Will could do it and it sounded like if there's no scheduling conflict that he's in. I'm SO excited about this!

I'm so excited!

BECAUSE I FINALLY HAVE A PARENT DOING SNACK!!!!!!!!!



::does happy dance::



i'm also enjoying having my entire office space to myself right now, since the speech pathologist is not in for some reason, and the social worker and diagnostics professional that I also share my office with do not come in on thursdays.



if only our VISTA webinars were scheduled on days like today instead of the days when students are in here misbehaving during their speech sessions...



today is our monthly action team meeting. this one will be interesting, because in addition to the regular attendees of these meetings, we will also have our cluster's sos social worker and the HIP coordinator's supervisor. I have been harassing the people at Growing Power in hopes of getting a representative here for today's meeting, though i feel like it won't happen. I'm planning on calling them again a little later today. I really want them to be here for the meeting, since the topic du jour is the science fair scheduled for april. we need to plan this now because spring break takes place from april 2nd through the 11th, and the science fair is scheduled for april 22nd. it's my hope that they will donate a door prize of materials for a family to grow their own plant.



also, I'd like to announce the start of my second blog! http://www.povertygourmet.blogspot.com this blog will explore how i maintain a healthy diet while purchasing food solely on foodstamps.

new blog?

recently I've found myself spending a lot of my down time reading various blogs with a similar theme: nutrition. more specifically, childhood nutrition. even more recently, a coworker sent a mass email with a link to an article about hipsters on foodstamps. all of this information has got me thinking about my own situation...

i feel no shame in telling people that i am currently receiving foodstamps. in fact, i consider it a benefit of serving Americorps, along with kickass health insurance and an education award to help pay for grad school next year. without foodstamps, it is likely that either a) my parents would have to help me with money, or b) i would starve. however, i would like to point out that i have made some major sacrifices since the days of my meal plan exemption at earlham, including putting an end to my all-organic diet and giving up juice, soda, and other overly-processed drinks in exchange for tap water (note: i do drink coffee and tea, but i only drink one cup of coffee and brew my own tea).

to this date, i only have one issue with foodstamps. i currently receive $200 a month in foodstamps, which is put directly on my QUEST card. this is the maximum amount that an applicant can receive. this means that the unemployed single mom with three kids is receiving the same amount as the college educated Americorps volunteer who receives a living allowance. granted, i do not receive other forms of government assistance, such as unemployment, subsidized housing, or energy assistance, but i doubt that it could total to my monthly living allowance, which is enough to cover the rent for my studio apartment, utilities, parking, cable, and internet. for a person living at the poverty level, i definitely get by.

ok, enough with my off-topic rant. back to the point of this post...

i am considering starting another blog that would focus less on my day-to-day VISTA life and more on how i maintain my vegetarian lifestyle and cook healthy meals for myself on the budget allotted by my foodstamps. i want to prove that there doesn't have to be a correlation between a tight budget and lack of nutrition. the blog will include photos, recipes, and my weekly shopping list (complete with how much my trips to the grocery store total out to).

so here is my question to you, blog followers (if there are any of you left): would you consider reading/following this blog? this would be a time-consuming project, so i want to make sure this effort doesn't go wasted! leave a comment with some feedback, please!

for the first time, things are still the same

(except I wish this wasn't true)

I've only had a handful of interactions between myself and the HIP coordinator since my last post. I've tried to be nice to her, but my actions have not been reciprocated on her end. I say good morning to her while passing her in the hallway, and she responds by shrugging her shoulders and sighing. no longer does she stop by my office to check in with me when she arrives at maple tree in the morning. the more I think about her actions, the harder it is for me not to feel like I'm back in high school.

yesterday was saint patrick's day. I opted not to wear green for two reasons: a) i thought it would be too cliche, and b) i don't own a lot of green clothes (not a good color for me). after a two hour staff meeting at maple tree, i went home and had two hours to get my eyebrows done, get dressed, and eat dinner before heading over to paddy's to celebrate with some friends. naturally, there was a 45 minute wait at supercuts to get my eyebrows done, which meant rushing through everything else. Got to paddy's 10 minutes late, but it wasn't the end of the world. that is, until lizzy arrived and was told that she wasn't allowed upstairs where the rest of the group was because they were at capacity. this was such b.s. regardless, i said goodbye to the group and went to a different bar with lizzy to hang out with steve, nicole, and some of their friends. we drank some beer and discussed our halloween costume plans (it's gonna be AWESOME) and our super-cool kickball team. went to bed a little on the late side, and was woken up at 12:30 in the morning by syd calling to tell me about the failure that is blue fish fencing. i'm amazed i'm awake right now.

today has been productive so far. I've written up some reminders for the parent who is volunteering for snack sales, which i'm going to stick in the cash box. I've also been fielding phone calls and emails for an event i'm going to tomorrow and trying to schedule a meeting with growing power about their community garden at our school. This has become a huge priority for me, because i just found out that the reason why growing power hasn't been in contact with me is because the representative i was working with no longer works there. this means i need to seriously make up for lost time with them.

This weekend is the camping trip planned by the HIP coordinator. I was planning on going to help supervise, but I'm no longer going. There's a summit for the Milwaukee Graduation Project tomorrow that VISTAs are required to attend. I've agreed to help out as a facilitator for a group discussion -I'm hoping it works out. I signed up a while ago to do a canvassing project on saturday, but I'm thinking I might bail out if the weather is anything like they've been predicting...

March Has Arrived as a Lion and Will Probably Leave the Same Way

Conflict has arisen between myself and Maple Tree's HIP coordinator. True, she has picked on me from early on, but I always considered it to be friendly, since she only did it occasionally and in a joking manner.

And then things started to escalate. The friendly jokes about my hair flipping turned into harsh criticism about how I carry myself and my lack of energy when I was sick. She started telling me and our coworkers that she has taken it upon myself to play the role of my mom since my parents live so far away from me. That bothered me. I have two parents, and they are more than enough. I have lived without them since my freshman year of college, and I can continue to do so without her help.

The breaking point occurred roughly two weeks ago. In anticipation of a Parents Plus workshop hosted by Maple Tree's Action Team, I contacted Trader Joe's for a donation. They donated $25 worth of snack food -popcorn, cookies, chips, and salsa. When I told her about the donation, I referred to the activity we were using it for as "the thing on March 9th," by which I meant the Parents Plus workshop. However, the HIP coordinator thought I was referring to the magic show that she had planned for later that night. When I told her that wasn't true, she picked a fight with me, accused me of refusing to work with her, then dismissed the argument when I proved that she had no reason to be upset with me. I sent an email to Yvette and told her to call a meeting for next week.

The meeting consisted of myself, Yvette, my site supervisor, the HIP coordinator, and her supervisor. The HIP coordinator decided that instead of using this meeting as a chance to resolve our conflicts so we can work together in an efficient manner, she would take this opportunity to act like she's hot shit and tell me how to do my job. In the process of doing so, she accused me of not attending/helping out during her events, that I don't know how to relate to the parents, and that I never asked for donations before she suggested it. When I called her out on all of these accusations and proved her wrong, she simply dismissed me and said that there was no reason get into details. Whenever someone criticized her activities, she got defensive and claimed that parents aren't coming just for the raffles and free food. She also wasted no time in bashing everything that was said by myself and my supervisors when they left.

I met with my with site supervisor yesterday afternoon to make sure we were on the same page about the meeting, and I'm happy to say that we are. She also mentioned that before she was offered position of HIP coordinator, this parent was only seen in the school for conferences. I reported all of this to my Parents Plus supervisor today, and I'm glad that we're on the same page, too. Furthermore, the three of us all agree that the best thing to do is just finish up the school year at Maple Tree, make sure the Action Team will continue next year, and have minimal contact with the HIP coordinator.

Between this meeting and two 12 hour days, I'm pretty exhausted. I foresee a weekend of sleep.

Remember that time I actually updated my blog?

Naturally, a lot has happened since my last post. there isn't enough time to go into detail, so i'm just going to do a fresh start.

today is our Read Across America celebration in conjunction with Dr. Seuss' birthday. Students and staff were invited to wear their pajamas to school, and parents were asked to join us for breakfast/lunch and to read to their child's class. I managed to get donations from panera for breakfast and lunch, as well as from bruegger's for breakfast.

I came in at 9:00 this morning because the sandwiches had to be made fresh this morning. Also factor in the fact that panera thought the event wasn't until April 2nd (that was a fun conversation). Have I heard any positive remarks in the hour I have been here? no. here is what I've heard so far:
"When are the students getting their posters back from the black history poster contest?"
"What do you want to do with all of this breakfast food from the breakfast that no parents came to?"
"There's no reason to serve a snack at your event if the HIP coordinator is serving dinner later that day."
"Is there snack today?"
"What's on these sandwiches?"

oh, did i mention the roach i found in my office?

I also got another chocolate stain on my americorps hoodie while drowning my sorrows in a chocolate croissant that I shouldn't have eaten, since I'm still recovering from yesterday's chocolate overload (dark chocolate from trader joe's followed by a boston cream donut during the Action Team meeting).

so I guess the point to all this rambling is that I'm not really feeling appreciated. maybe I'm feeling the six-month blues, but no matter what the reason is, I feel like I need nothing more than someone at this school to tell me that I'm doing a good job.

time to go return snack money to all the teachers!