SNOWPOCALYPSE!!!!!!!

So today is my first snow day in years (Notre Dame doesn't believe in them, at least while I'm a student). We're all home for the day and some roommates are working from home, some still have snow days tomorrow. I can't do a whole lot of work from home so I've been chilling around the house. "Trying to keep up with my correspondence" as I call it, though I'm not really doing a whole lot of that. I'm going to go outside and play now. Keep warm everybody!

Crazy Week

This was a really intense, crazy week. We had a group of students from University of Dayton, which more than doubled the inhabitants of our house. On top of that, their leader lived in our house two years ago and knew a lot of people in Chicago and they all came over for dinner throughout the week and one night we had twenty-nine people in our house for dinner! But for the most part, they were a really great group. Half the time, we didn’t know if they were in the house because they were so quiet. We kept worrying that there wouldn’t be enough food but there always was and a couple of nights there were even leftovers.

I’ve been pretty busy at work. We’re working on a new partnership with Catholic Charities Immigration Services and they are sending us a lot of clients who need to go all around town and pick up lots of forms. We like that we’re getting these clients but their accompaniments are very time-consuming. And, we’re still trying to figure out our boundaries with them so it is a bit of a transition right now. I have also been busy because we’re working with a man from the suburbs who is trying to get us furniture for our clients. He heard about out furniture drive in October because he is a member of that parish and he was really impressed with our mission and has been collecting furniture all over town. We have been collecting client names of people who need furniture for a while but there has been some difficulty in getting them delivered. He did set a date though and will deliver furniture next week. I have been coordinating this—between communicating with the other compañeras and with our generous helper.

Saturday I went to a conference called “Deportation 101”.  It was mostly for community organizers so parts of it were irrelevant (there was a half day on Sunday that I didn’t go to) but the information on how deportation works was very interesting and could be useful to us at Taller.

Today, Martin Luther King Jr day we all had the day off work and Amate signed us up for a service project planned by City Year. We met at a Salvation Army building (with a gym, we think they run after-school programs there) in Englewood and then walked to a school where we painted some murals to beautify the school. I worked on a mural of a bulldog which was the mascot of the school. It turned out pretty well. There were a few other bulldogs but my group’s was the best one!

Catch Up

It’s been a while, so here are some highlights:

My Birthday week: Since we had the Advent Prayer Service on my actual birthday, my roommates decided to spread out my birthday celebration by having small celebrations all week. On Sunday we ate dinner in the Oasis and watched a Christmas movie while having ‘holly bites’ (bruschetta). On Monday they took me to jolly Olde England by giving me Earl Grey and cheese and crackers before dinner (thai pasta). Tuesday we went to Mexico and had enchiladas. Wednesday, my actual birthday, we had a quick dinner but still had brownies and took our Christmas picture after the prayer service. Thursday I cooked dinner but they wanted to make it classy so they bought wine for me (I shared with everyone, obvi) and we dressed up for dinner. Carlos even slicked back his hair! On Friday the plan was to go to caroling at Millennium Park but I was on my feet from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm so I didn’t really feel like that and just skipped a step and put in Sound of Music, because I wanted a movie that would last until people came back from caroling. Saturday was a lazy day, watching movies and such, but that is my favorite type of Saturday.

We had our Christmas Celebration on the 22^nd for the house, so we went to Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo and then over to Annie’s house for dinner and we had a lot of fun. The night before, Taller had our Christmas party at a restaurant pretty nearby—technically in Pilsen—but it was a nice Italian restaurant called Ignot’s that is a favorite of local Catholic schools for Christmas parties. I went home from the 24^th until January 2^nd and had a great time with the family.

Everyone was back by late on the 2^nd and we went to work the next day. We’ve all had a busy week and were really ready for the weekend. I had a couple of accompaniments to court and one to the immigration office. The couple I was interpreting for are going to get their green cards in a week! I’ve heard that sometimes people are told at their interview what the decision will be but it hasn’t happened in any of the times I’ve been there. After that accompaniment I went up to Streeterville to have lunch with my mom and Aunt Peggy. My mom was in town because Uncle Herb fell last Sunday and has been in the ICU ever since because he bruised his brain. He’s made a lot of progress but will still take a while until he is back to normal. Prayers please!

On Friday Ann’s brother Dallas stopped by on his way back to school in New York. He had dinner with us and then somehow we got on the subject of crush soda and Swedish Fish and decided we wanted them badly and to watch Finding Nemo. Saturday morning I had a date with Jessie and we went to the Art Institute. We had a great time looking at art, hanging out in the member’s lounge and talking. After we left the museum, I popped up to see Aunt Peggy, Abby and Mikey in the hospital. Uncle Herb was sleeping so they came out to the waiting room and we visited. Saturday night, my friend Katie who just moved to Chicago came over and we hung out, helped put away a massive load of groceries and then went out to dinner at Green House Steaks with Ann and Chris. Today (Sunday) I went to Mass, ran, and got ready for the group of students from the University of Dayton to come. They are here for the week (hence the massive load of groceries) and will be visiting various places/doing service throughout the city this week.

Many more things have happened, but I want to get back to being a hostess…

Ain’t No Party Like a Little Village Party ‘Cause a Little Village Party Don’t Stop

I Know that I was talking about our partying ways last week, but we’re still at it! Last night our house had a Christmas Party. It was a classy Christmas Sweater party, which meant that I wore a dress with a Christmas cardigan. We had cookies for decorating and ornaments for painting and Michelle made wassail (both spiked and non-spiked). We invited all the Amate volunteers and a bunch of alumni. The weather kept some people away, but we still had a great crowd, and the party was a lot of fun. Today it’s still snowing out so I’m sticking around. It is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the local church is dedicated to her so I’m going to check out one of their special Masses…and then come back home for our weekly Christmas movie.

This week was busy with accompaniments to the Daley Center. On Monday I had two clients with cases and went to court with one of them but we were early so I was able to stop by the other client’s court room. The client I went to court with was there to get guardianship of her adult twin daughters who have autism. They are very shy and do not like direct questioning but the judge had to ask them if they objected to having their mom named as their guardian. One of them nodded but then burst into tears so the judge quickly decided to grant guardianship and let them get out of there. But let me back up—in the courtroom of the client I visited there was a lawyer with the build and beard of Santa Claus. He had a cast on his foot and instead of crutches, he had a large wooden walking stick and was holding it up while he sat. Then, I went back to the courtroom with the client with whom I came to the Daley Center and noticed the clerk—who looked like a leprechaun. At first I was thinking he was an elf because I had just seen Santa Claus but then I heard his Irish accent and noticed his leprechaun dolls. He was very helpful, if a bit irritated that we were missing a couple of papers. After we walked out of the court room, I went back to get a copy of the order the judge signed, the clerk told me that, because of the crying, despite his many years of working as a clerk in the Daley Center this was the first case that truly touched him. I touched a leprechaun’s heart!

I had a couple more cases in the Daley Center this week, but they were quicker and less eventful. I also went to St Juliana’s School with Sr Kathy to give them Advent mission banks. The school is over twice as big as the school where Kerry and I went last week, so we split up. I mostly got the younger kids and they were very attentive and cute. A kindergartener even thought I was pretty. Up next…more parties! I have two work-related parties on Friday, back-to-back. But, I’m coordinating the second one so I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to go to the first…

Life in Party Central

Between November 15^th and December 15^th, our house celebrates five birthdays. This is particularly significant because there are only nine people in my house. Birthdays three and four were this week, Elissa on Tuesday and Jessie on Saturday. For Elissa’s birthday, I fortunately had time to decorate the house because I didn’t have to work in the morning (Tuesdays I work from 12-7, unless I have an accompaniment in the morning). Elissa likes penguins so each of us colored a penguin coloring page and put them up around the dining room. I made her a card out of poster board and trimmed a little off of the bottom and used that to make a crown. I drew kissing penguins and cut around them and it made a crown! I did the same things for Chris’ birthday, but with dinosaurs. I also tried to make “sushi” but I have never made it before and was using corn husks instead of seaweed because I live in Little Village, not some place where they have seaweed. It didn’t turn out at all like sushi, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

For Jessie’s birthday we had brunch. We surprised her by inviting some people that lived in her house last year. The brunch was delicious and a lot of fun. After brunch we went to McKinley Park (by South House) for ice skating. Since I cannot put on ice skates without embarrassing myself, I joined Carlos, Ann P and Jen from South House outside the rink. Carlos, Ann and I made a snowman. We named him Al Capone Daley Jr. He was super fun and super big. We were getting cold so we went back to the ice rink and eventually our friends decided to leave. About ten minutes had passed since we left Al behind but he was already destroyed. And by destroyed, I mean that parts of Al we strewn across the field. After ice skating some of us went to North House and then Elissa’s friends’ house to celebrate Elissa’s birthday with them Ann K and I joined them in going out to bars in Wrigleyville, which was a lot of fun.

For work this week? Some highlights include: going with Kerry to a school on the southwest side to talk about Taller because they are doing an Advent spare change campaign for us and going to Sr Kathy’s house for a staff meeting to talk about the strategic plan. I spent all day Friday at St Agnes which made for a boring afternoon because no clients came in. The beginning of the week was crazy busy but things have calmed down a bit.  I do have a lot of accompaniments scheduled between now and Christmas, though. 

So It's Been Awhile...

Things have been pretty busy around here, even the weekends and I admit I have been a bit delinquent at updating this blog over the past few weeks. I have even been having a hard time keeping up with my journal, because since we are so busy and I am so tired, I usually just go right to sleep. But I have been getting used to it and things have shaped up a bit this week.

So here are some of the highlights of the last few weeks:

Work

• Doing a serious overhaul of our resource books, since some were woefully out-of-date. I am now an expert at the excel sheets we use to make our resource book. I have also developed a close bond with our fickle color printer, which I have named “George”.
• Sr Betty picking up some blankets from St Pius for some clients…and me recognizing the blankets I had dropped off two days earlier.
• Me going to St Pius with some clients and seeing some of the shirts I had dropped off earlier.
• Sr Betty finding me a potential husband in criminal court (don’t worry, she’s pretty sure he’s a law student, he was working there) but so far, she has not given him my card as she hasn’t seen him since.
• Explaining how a fee waiver works to several people at the Daley Center who were surprised when I told them I don’t actually work there.
• Lurking in a corner at the LaSalle/Van Buren “L” stop waiting for a client to call me back and let me know if he actually had a court date that day, since there had not been anyone in the courtroom when I got there, so I left. Turns out he did.
• Getting in a fight with a client at a public library in Pilsen.
• I’m going to be spending more time at our St Agnes location, so I helped out at Fussy Babies again this week and Kerry showed me around the office again. I also saw a client during Fussy Babies and then Kerry took me out to lunch at the Green House Steaks—which is not actually a steakhouse and as far as I know does not have steak on its menu, but it was delicious.

Amate/Other (aka not work)

• My roommates patiently listening to me freaking out on election night…were they actually paying attention to the elections? Not so much.
• Amate Mass planned by North House, in the North House chapel, which I estimated is half the size of our entire house.
• Taking the Illinois Basic Skills Test (terribly named because if you fail it, it means you fail at basic skills, how mean is that?) so I can eventually become a school social worker. Whether or not I actually want to be a school social worker remains to be seen.
• Going to a party thrown by a couple of people that lived in my house last year, and seeing two of my co-workers there. And having them play the Glee version of “Teenage Dream” twice, awesome because that is my new favorite song.
• Amate Thanksgiving! We started with the “Turkey Bowl” which was a flag football game traditionally played Volunteers vs. Alumni but there were not enough alumni at the beginning to field a team so we mixed them up. I was forced to play but kept my sunglasses on (relinquishing my snuggie to a roommate who remained on the sidelines). I was sore for a few days afterward because I did so many squats trying to intimidate my opponents. I also body-checked several large men, which was a bad idea in retrospect. After the game I scooted home to change and came back for Mass (I was a gift bearer). After Mass we went to the church basement and had a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious. And then, the volunteers had to clean up.
• Celebrating Michelle’s birthday on Monday with a ‘hike’ through the house taking her to ‘Barnes and Noble’, the ‘Chicago Ballet’ (aka Jessie) and a showing of her favorite youtube clips, all followed by a dance party. She says it was her best birthday yet.
• Arriving at 9:15 am for our 9:45 am showing of Harry Potter 7 Part 1 (Fandango said to arrive 30 minutes early for the best seats…we were merely following instructions) and finding the theatre closed.
• Watching  Harry Potter 7 Part 1…so good!

Halloween Week

My week did not get much more exciting than my epic elevator day. I did get to go out to lunch with my boss and the coordinator at the other end of the furniture drive. We are doing another one in March and we wanted to know what we could do better next time. Even though Mi Tierra is super close to my house, I haven’t been there yet due to my decreased budget, so it was really fun to go there for lunch. On Wednesday we had a training at our staff meeting with an immigration lawyer. It was really interesting and she make us detailed packets with lots of information to use with our clients. One of the best parts of our meeting? The snack (as usual) Janiene brought us a treat of ice cream and waffles. Ice cream because it is awesome, waffles because it was 8:00 am and they go well with ice cream. Sr Betty, who always has two yogurts and an apple (that she insists on sharing with me because it’s “good for my ears or something”) for lunch almost didn’t eat it but we talked her into it.

One Friday I went to the Fussy Baby group at St Agnes again, I was invited to their Halloween party. And by invited to their party, I mean that I was asked to help out. There were lots of cute costumes—a lion, a giraffe (who was afraid of the lion), a kangaroo (complete with a joey), a care bear, a hamburger and an assortment of princesses. It was really fun to get them together for a picture…a bunch of crying babies that couldn’t quite sit together long enough for a good picture. At the end, we had tamales and flautas and some sort of warm, delicious beverage. Friday night was movie night (except for the part where Michelle and I visited Elissa who was stuck at work for parent teacher conferences). Carlos invited us to go over to his co-worker’s house to watch scary movies but we respectfully declined the invitation because we are not the scary movie types.

Saturday I worked again—I went back to St Agnes for a Domestic Violence workshop at their parent meetings. We brought in a speaker from the Legal Aid Bureau who is a divorce lawyer who specializes in cases with domestic violence. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month so we wanted to get information out to the community.  A huge percentage of our clients are victims of domestic violence, whether or not that is why they come to us. I also stopped by a Health Fair for seniors and picked up information, which is good because we are seeing more and more seniors that need services.

Saturday night was the big Amate House Halloween Party. I wore a plaid suit and said I was a lawyer. My roommates went as Christmas, a sumo wrestler, a Mexican Harry Potter, a smartypants, a paintbrush and a black cat. We were going to do a group thing but then we just let our individual creativities run wild. My favorite costume of the night was a girl from North House who dressed as a lightning bug—she really lit up!