Sunday, December 12, 2010

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…

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Life in Party Central

Between November 15th and December 15th, 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. 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

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!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

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!

Friday, October 29, 2010

A day in the life...

Yesterday I went with a client to apply for guardianship of adults who happen to be twins. This involved going to the Daley Center (where a large number of Cook County's civil courthouses are housed) and riding 19 elevators.
the breakdown:
arrive, ride from floor 1 to floor 12 to Adult Guardianship Pro Se Help Desk. wait 45 minutes for law student to arrive
go to 18 to courtroom 1803 for fee waiver. wait 45-60 minutes while court is in session
return to 12 and finish paperwork, attempt to file but wait! you only have one fee waiver for the two people! it does not matter that hey are twins...
go back to floor 18 and ask the clerk in 1803 if the judge can sign a new order--now don't be silly, you must fill out two new applications for fee waivers, and they don't have them on this floor
return to floor 12
return to 1803 to submit forms. clerk is upset that they didn't take the forms downstairs and doesn't know if the judge will sign the form again
return to 12th floor with proper forms. file the forms. They send you to 1812 to get a court date
return to 1812. the clerk is frazzled but manages to give you the same date/time for both twins. she sends you to get a seal for the sheriff's summons
return to 12th floor. the cute, friendly male law student has been replaced by a middle aged lawyer who is switching from another type of law so she has less experience in this matter than the law student. You need to make copies but the copy machine behind her costs $0.25 per page while in the law library it costs $0.10 per page. Client says no thank you, I will pay. Go to the lady at the far end of the room for a seal of the court. she sends you to see the sheriff so you can give them the summons to serve.
go to the seventh floor. the cashier at the sheriff office is confused and you don't have enough copies, but it gets taken care of and you are free to go.
return to lobby and leave.

Now wait, you may be wondering how my math adds up to 19 elevator rides. Well, you see, the Daley Center has 30 floors and they are all very busy, so not every elevator goes to every floor. You can take an elevator from the 12th floor to the 17th floor, but to get from the 12th floor to the 18th floor, you must first go to the 7th floor (or the lobby but it is usually faster to switch on the 7th floor) and switch elevators. So each of the four times my client and I were sent to the 18th floor from the 12th, that took four elevator rides round trip.

I googled elevator fatalities, and there are one in 12 million. think how close I came in one day...

Monday, October 25, 2010

Oh, I’m just saving the world


The week started with me going to Immigration Court early Monday morning to translate for a U-Visa interview. U-Visas are a way to a green card for people who have been victims of crimes, especially domestic violence. I was not involved with her application at all but it would have involved submitting evidence of her abuse – including an order of protection, a police report, and proof that she was working with the courts to prosecute her abuser. It turned out that her interviewer spoke Spanish (there is never a guarantee of this and Immigration Court tells you to bring someone to interpret for you) so I did not have to sit in on her interview. But, she came out in ten minutes and told me she was approved! I had no idea that a) the interview could be over that fast or b) that they could tell you in the interview that you were approved. But, it was a great way to start the week.

On Thursday, my coworker Kerry and I each presented grant proposals to separate committees (based on where our clients live) for clients to get money from the Department of Children and Family Services. DCFS sets aside a certain amount of money for children at risk for truancy or suspension or falling behind academically. My client had just moved with her four daughters from Cicero to Chicago and needed all new sets of uniforms and school supplies. I tried to get a computer but was unsuccessful. I am still getting them a bunch of money and it will even cover new winter coats. Kerry also got a grant for a client and they even offered her more money than she asked for, because she had not asked for a winter coat for her client and now they are giving her the money for one. Kerry’s client lives in our area so the meeting was actually in our building Thursday morning so I got to see her present her proposal before I went North to present mine. I told the person in charge of the money in our area where I was going and she  said “Oh, they’re really intimidating up there, their area is so much bigger…oh but you’ll do great!” And I did pretty well.

We had a couple of dinner guests this week. Beth, an Amate alum who lived with Jessie in South House last year came over on Monday and Becky, the Amate development coordinator and her fiancé came over on Tuesday. It was great to meet them and offer hospitality, although our house was a mess because we had just collected a bunch of things we want to donate and they were in bags and boxes in our living room. I’m actually taking them tomorrow to a second-hand clothing store where we send people with vouchers from Taller for free clothes. So, they’ve been there for a while but we’ve just been so busy! On Saturday I went with Michelle to the local branch of the library for five hours while we worked on grad school stuff. I mostly worked on personal statements and made a lot of progress. Now I need to work on the Illinois Basic Skills Test so I can concentrate in School Social Work. You have to pass the test before you can become certified to work in schools in Illinois, and the certification I would get works in a few more states. Oh, but I became an Illinois resident on Tuesday, so I guess I’ll stay here for a while.

LOVE
1 tupperware leftover white rice (let’s say six cups cooked)
3 bags mixed vegetables (Kroger brand fiesta mix, California mixed and vegetable gumbo—10 for $10!)
Half jar sweet and sour sauce
Sprinkle of hot chili sauce

Pour water on rice and microwave. Place vegetables on heat with some water. Set aside a few vegetables for Michelle who does not like sweet and sour sauce (or soy, or teriyaki…). Add sauce for everyone else. Cook until the water boils off. Serve with lemon juice and sweet and sour sauce for people to season at will.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Grocery List, Week of October 17

3 bags tortilla chips
1 bag raisins
2 boxes granola bars
12-pack toilet paper
32 oz container plain yogurt
28 oz can diced tomatoes
4 family size cans tomato soup
1 pack American cheese
2 boxes Corn Bitz cereal (like Chex)
1 honey bear
1 gallon orange juice
3 cans tuna
1 can corn
2  32-oz bags of Honey Toasted Os (like Honey Nut Cheerios)
4 boxes pasta ( a few varieties)
Package chicken tenderloins
Dozen eggs
2 cans enchilada sauce
Parmesan cheese
Package mini marshmallows
3 bags Nacho and Taco blend cheese
Cooking spray
Gallon of salsa
4 lbs dried black beans
3 packages flour tortillas
5 lbs white rice
2.64 lbs green beans
2 bunches cilantro
8 pounds bananas
3 pounds red delicious apples
5 pounds gala apples
4 pounds Valencia oranges
1.5 pounds tangerines
5 loaves wheat bread (on special)
5 pounds carrots
1.5 pounds roma tomatoes
Ranch dressing
2 loaves French bread
2 frozen pizzas
4 green bell peppers
1 mixed box oatmeal

And the grand total came to….take a guess!

Is this real life?

This week I worked for 3 ½ days. On Monday, in honor of Columbus Day (but perhaps more because most Catholic Schools aren’t open on Columbus Day) Amate had its Fall In-Service. I talked about that in my last entry, though. On Tuesday, I had a really long day, though. I got to work at 8:00 to meet a client and go to the Daley Center to meet with her lawyer, whom I have nicknamed demon lawyer because she’s so terribly rude. She refused to even talk to me because I do not have a law degree. She even complained that I was in court to the judge, because she thought I was a school social worker. Maybe if she had given me the chance to even introduce myself and explain why I was in court that day, she would have been more understanding, nicer to the client and nicer to me. But then again, perhaps not. The client did really well and stood up for herself when her lawyer was walking all over her. The lawyer of course thought this meant I was giving the client legal advice but she and I both tried to make it clear that was not happening. When I got back I saw a few walk-ins, on Tuesdays we are in the office until 7:00.

On Wednesday I was planning on going to Zemsky’s, a local clothing store that specializes in uniforms, to price some uniforms for a grant I’m writing for a client. It was raining pretty hard and it was likely that I would have to walk to the store, so I put that off until Thursday, when we wouldn’t have clients anyway. I did and they were super nice there, they let me put the clothes on hold indefinitely until I get the grant, which I should hopefully be presenting on Thursday, if one of the school counselors ever gives me the information I need. But other than that, things are calmer at work this week because I didn’t have to worry about the furniture drive anymore. Next week, Sr Kathy and I are going to lunch with the woman that organized the drive on the other end to talk about what we should do differently. On Friday I was only supposed to work until noon. I spent the morning at St Agnes with the Fussy Baby group because Kerry had an accompaniment. Then I went back to the office (arriving around noon) and actually saw a couple of clients (people that are usually quick) and left around 1:15. We did some quick errands and then loaded up the cars and hit the road.

Our retreat was in Watervliet, MI, which is not far from I-94 and Paw Paw Lake, if that means anything to people. It was very pretty there and nice and sunny so we could be outside. We took a skills assessment test from Gallup before we went and so the retreat was about developing our skills and using them in our community. My five skills are Empathy, Input, Connectedness, Harmony and Responsibility. I’m the only one in the house with responsibility in their top five so it’s probably a good thing I handle the cash. We had a lot of free time on the retreat and ate a lot of junk food, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to eat again. Probably at dinner time, we’re having grilled cheese and tomato soup. I’m cooking tomorrow, making pesto out of cilantro (a recipe from  Ann K’s family, it’s so good) so I’ll probably post about it later in the week. Pay attention, Steph, you can use it in your entertaining.

As we were entering Chicago (Chicago is a very long city so it takes a while to do this) Ann K gave us some riddles. One was “A man pulls his car up to a hotel and realizes he’s bankrupt. How?” Want a hint? It’s not real life.  

Monday, October 11, 2010

Pasta Surprise

Tonight I cooked with Elissa. We only had to buy one can of vegetables!
1 large box twisty pasta noodles (provided by Little Brothers)
1 can stir-fry vegetables (provided by Little Brothers)
1 can pasta sauce (leftover)
1 can mixed vegetables
1 bag questionable mexican orange round noodles
2 small yellow onions
spices

We carmelized the onions with spices and added in the vegetables. once they were mixed and heated, we put them in a pot with the sauce. In a separate pot, we boiled the noodles. We were worried that it would not be enough food (even though it is simplicity week) so we added in noodles that came with our house. they were strange (orange wheels) and fell apart but they served our purposes well.

Wild and Crazy

Things are getting hectic here in Lil Vil. I have been having a hard time remembering to journal and then when I try to catch up, I can’t remember what has been going on all week. And my journal is the only thing that helps me remember what has happened in the past week so I can write blog entries. I have been seeing tons of walk-ins—I can barely keep track of them all. It is the time of year that everyone needs financial assistance—there was a cold snap at the end of last week and the beginning of this week and people got worried about their gas. Also, a lot of people are starting to worry about rent and such. The beginning of the school year offered them a distraction because things were so busy then but now things are becoming more urgent. One of our struggles is that we tend to see clients who are in too deep. It makes sense, no one wants to ask for help and coming to a church (or old convent building next to a church) is seen as a last resort. This sometimes means we can do little for people.  Fortunately, we have a great resource in Catholic Charities. Because we are next to a church, we have access to the Parish Line so we can call and refer clients for financial assistance. If you are ever asked to donate to Catholic Charities, definitely do because they are truly helping people in need.

Some highlights of the work week include glaring at the middle-aged man who took out his gum and put it on my desk (he promptly removed it) and going to a meeting where I was one of two people not born in Mexico, the other being a priest. Granted, that meeting was at the Mexican Consulate and conducted entirely in Spanish. I knew what they were saying while I was there, but since I did not properly ask what the meeting was about before going, I did not understand why we were meeting. I do know that everyone else there thought it was really important. But the biggest thing this week at work was the furniture drive, of which I was the coordinator. On Saturday morning I set off for a client’s house near Marquette Park (for those of you familiar with Chicago). The people delivering the furniture from a suburban parish were supposed to arrive between 11:00 and 12:00, but closer to 11 so I arrived 10-15 minutes before 11:00 and the client informed me that the people had delivered the furniture and left five minutes earlier, meaning they arrived around 10:30. Oh well, we discussed a lot of different times so it’s likely that there was some confusion there. They were caravanning to three other houses, so I was able to go to two of those so that was great. We and our clients are so appreciative of their help. Some of the clients lost their furniture due to the floods over the summer, or a fire, or because they were fleeing a domestic violence situation and had to leave everything behind. So thank you, St Barbara’s of Brookfield!

What have I been doing besides working? Well, on Friday a couple of LV alums were having a party so a bunch of us went to that—it was cool because it was a multi-generational LV fest. There were other people there, but mostly we took over the back porch and talked about LV and life. I got some good advice about what to do with the rest of my life—it involved leaving the country. Oh, Friday nights. Saturday, my friends Steph and Gail came into town because Steph was running the marathon. I declined coming to see them at the Expo in McCormick Place, figuring it would be a madhouse. We met up in Little Italy for some carbs and found Tuscany’s on Taylor St, where I had the Tuscany Pizza and it was delicious. We walked around a little bit and then went our separate ways because everyone was tired. I watched the second half of Moulin Rouge with Ann K. I can’t quite remember when we watched the first half, but it was within this past week. On Sunday, I woke up early and left the house at 6:15 with Carlos, Michelle and the Anns to go to the marathon. We set up a tent in Charity Village, just past mile 14 for Girls in the Game, Ann K’s site placement. We made signs (I made one that said You’ve Got Game in honor of the organization we represented) and we cheered for people. We weren’t really allowed to hand out things to people. It was so awesome to watch the marathon, there were SO MANY PEOPLE running. We saw Ryan, who works for Amate House, but I missed Steph. It was really warm, we were over heated and we were just standing there, so I felt really bad for the runners.
Today is Columbus Day so Amate had its Fall In-Service. Taller was closed for the day anyway, so I didn’t miss work. We went back to Irons Oaks in Olympia Fields, IL and did the high ropes course we skipped during Orientation. We did it with partners and I was with Danielle from North House. That was great because we had similar ideas about what we wanted to do. Other pairs would get to a challenge and try to see how hard they could make it while we would start out and then as we got comfortable we would make it harder. All in all, it was really fun and we were lucky the weather was so beautiful today.

We leave for Fall Retreat on Friday! We’re all really excited.

Lil Vil before the high ropes course today

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

the LV usual

This recipe is similar to a recipe that was called "The Usual" by South House last year. All that is missing is a can of corn and cilantro.

Last night Elissa and I made rice and beans.
a few cups rice (we cover the bottom of the pot about an inch, maybe 3-4 cups, there are nine of us)
a few cups black beans, soaked overnight (dried black beans are better for you/the environment than canned, for a variety of reasons)

boil each seperately until cooked

in a frying pan, mix:
1 green pepper
2 small-medium onions
1 medium tomato
some vegetable oil/seasoning
stir occasionally over medium heat

When everything is cooked, mix it all together. serve with tortilla chips and cheese. Let your roommates season with hot sauce, salsa and lime juice.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Free Food!


We decided long ago that whenever we are offered free food, we will excitedly proclaim “Free Food!”, provided the social situation allows for it. I have been saying that a lot this week—I brought in lunch to work of Tuesday and did not eat it until Thursday because Sr Kathy and Lisa had a couple of meetings with food and had leftovers to give us. On Tuesday, however, a client came just as I was walking back to my office to eat so I had to leave the food in reception while we met for an hour and a half. But it was still delicious. On Wednesday it was brunch food, which was perfect because we had a business meeting that morning. It was also great because it was Ray’s birthday so we had cake. Also, on Friday I went to a grad school open house at Loyola and there were snacks there. And, last night I went to a happy hour with some Amate people where we had free beer. I guess this living simply thing isn’t so bad, after all!
                At work, things have been pretty busy. Seasonal work is drying up so people have been coming in asking about getting financial assistance. There are some resources available (like the amazing Catholic Charities) but they are limited and funding can only last so long. I have been taking a lot of walk-ins this week, many related to financial assistance. We do still get the people with legal issues (most of my long-term clients have legal issues, people can only receive financial assistance once so we just see them the one time). I have also been working to coordinate our semi-annual furniture drive with St. Barbara’s Parish in Brookfield. They help their confirmation students get there service hours by having them deliver furniture with their families, and we provide the families. Mostly I have been working with the families to figure out what they need and compare their lists with the lists of furniture that is actually available. This finally started to come together on Friday. The drive was originally scheduled on this coming Tuesday but we pushed it back to Saturday because it will be easier for the parish.
                This weekend has been somewhat busy, compared to how I usually spend my weekends. On Friday evening I went to the grad school open house I mentioned and then came back to hang out with the roomies and watch a movie. Saturday I got a library card (Chicago Library cards do not look very legit). In the early evening we made the trek up to the bar on the north side in our minivan. People laughed at us for this, but there were seven of us, so it made perfect sense. It was the birthday of a girl from North House so we went over there after happy hour to hang out. Then this morning I went with Michelle and Ann K to Mass at Old St. Mary’s with the plan of going to see the end of the boat race in China Town. We had the Mass times confused so Ann and I went to China Town while Michelle stayed behind for Mass. We saw the end of the Chicago River Downwater classic, PWC was the winning corporate team. When we came back, a couple of LV alums were in our house because they wanted to get tamales. I went with them but they only had pork tamales so we went to another taqueria and I got an avocado burrito, which was delicious. It wasn’t free though. Oh well.

Monday, September 27, 2010

"Skyline"Chili

In honor of our dear Ann P returning from Cinncinati, Michelle and I made our version of Skyline Chili. All I knew about it was that it is good and includes chocolate. I thought all chili did, but I guess that is not so.
Over night we soaked a few cups of beans of various varities. Note: soaking white and black beans together turns the white beans purple. We had no problem with this.

We boiled the beans for a little bit and then added:
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 29 or so oz. can of crushed tomatoes
a generous sprinkling of: Penzey's Arizona Dreaming and Chili con Carne blends and cocoa (we can't seem to keep chocolate laying around in our house with 7 girls...)

We let it simmer until we decided it was done. Serve with saltines and shredded cheddar. Preferably in bowls with handles.

Skyline Dip
For an appetizer, we layered in a square glass pan
1 pkg cream cheese
1.5 ladles chili (what we just made)
sprinkles of cheddar cheese
and baked it at 350 until the cheese was melted and pretty-looking. Serve with tortilla chips.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Beware the Plague….

Hope you like the new layout, I’ve been messing around with it.

A terrible enemy has reached Lil Vil…in the form of the common cold. Having so many people in the house that interact with so many people on a daily basis, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I have mostly just had some sniffles and a cough and had to take a few days off of running. A couple people had to stay home from work, I just left a little early on Thursday, but there was not much going on so I got away with it.  I have almost finished my project of updating the resource book at Taller de José but have been seeing more clients this week. We’ve been seeing lots of legal issues this week (as we usually do) and I have even started calling my dad with legal questions…on my work phone, which is kind of cool.

I got to do some outreach this week, visiting a few different agencies to tell them about Taller. On Monday I went to Marillac House, they have child care and a few other programs. They are in East Garfield, which is a mostly African-American neighborhood and they were really excited to be working with us because they want to reach out to the Hispanic community. On Wednesday, Lisa and I met with someone from the Resurrection Project in Pilsen (I got to go into the two greenest buildings in Pilsen) because they are a huge organization and we wanted to get into a staff meeting so we can meet more of the people in charge of other departments. On Friday, a few of us went to an Access Community Health clinic in Pilsen—one of a network of clinics all over the city.

The plague also spread to work (I think something must be going around Chicago, other agencies I have been talking to have been having absences too. On Friday, Lisa stayed home and it was like the entire neighborhood knew it…because they all came in. That might be a slight exaggeration, but Sr Betty did comment that it seemed like it was the full moon or something (I just checked…it was). Friday morning was crazy and we were a little late getting to the Access clinic but it was okay because they were understaffed because of the cold going around.

Since I was sick during the week, all I felt like doing was sitting around watching movies. So it was fortunate that Ann K’s mom had a conference in town this week and brought a case with 32 dvds. 

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Getting Busy...

Things have been getting busy at work. I have been building up my case load and have started the project of updating the resource book and that has been keeping me busy. We only have on receptionist who works Tuesdays and Fridays at the moment so on Monday and Wednesday I spent at the reception desk. Some interesting people came through, but since someone needed to stay at the desk I didn’t see those clients. I did on Tuesday, though. I had an accompaniment to court. Friday, I helped run the Tepeyac parish food pantry because Donna, the parish nurse who usually runs the food pantry, was at a conference. It was interesting—most of the people that come are families in the area who have hit hard times or people that are going through treatment at the local methadone clinic. So, it was a fun blend of people.
                We have been having some LV alum loving this week. On Thursday, seven people that lived in our house last year came over and cooked dinner for us. Two of them are vegans, so they made Moroccan stew and couscous and a vegan cake (chocolate with peanut butter for frosting) for dessert. Delicious. I actually took the leftovers for lunch the next day, when Ray, are new case worker started and brought leftover Moroccan stew from his dinner. He had a lot (a non-vegan variety, it had chicken in it) and I had some—so I had two different versions of Moroccan stew for lunch on Friday! Also, on Saturday we went over to the apartment of three people who lived in our house three years ago, one who currently works with Carlos and another who currently works with Elissa. They made us lasagna, which was also delicious. They live in Logan Square (where a bunch of alums from last year live) and that was my first time in that neighborhood so it was cool to see it. It is a Puerto Rican neighborhood, traditionally (although now it is getting a little gentrified and yuppie) so I bet there is some good food there I would like to check out.
                Also, Friday was Carlos’ birthday so we had a dinner (which included appetizers—tomato breads as Steph calls them) and played catchphrase after. But in the middle---we hit a piñata! I used petty cash after work to go to Dulcelandia- a piñata and imported Mexican candy shop (one stop shopping!) and found a bunch of animal piñatas within our price range. I picked the most obnoxious one—a purple elephant with polka dots that we decided was a heffalump. I went to Walgreens for the candy so it would be within our price range. They are already stocking Halloween mixes so that made it easier. We saved the head from the piñata at kept it on a stick. We think we will get piñatas for everyone and keep the heads until eventually we have a totem pole. We want to bring it to every community night event with the other houses.
On Monday, Jessie and I wanted to do something special for dinner. We wanted to have three people unable to speak, three people unable to use their hands and three people blindfolded but some people came back from work late and we gave that up. We did, however, have everyone wear matching outfits and took family photos after dinner. After that I led prayer night, which I made Yom Kippur themed so we wrote letters to people asking for forgiveness. But anyway, for dinner Jessie and I made fajitas. We had some leftover chicken from the enchilada lasagna the week before. We got 6 bell peppers and a couple of big onions and chopped them up and cooked them with a Kroger-brand fajita seasoning mix. We served them with some rice, beans, tortillas, tortilla chips and salsa. It was an easy dinner! Tomorrow, Elissa and I are making gnocchi. From scratch. 
The rapper pose

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Back in the Bend!

Before I forget, the Running (/Walking) for… campaign at Taller is starting this week. I am pledging to run 75 miles over the course of the month, so if anyone feels compelled to donate per mile or a flat rate, let me know and I can give you more details. The point of the fundraiser is that I will wear a shirt that says “I’m running for [someone’s name]” and on the back it will say to find out who that person is, check out the website. Our website is not up yet, but it will be soon. The campaign goes from September 15 to October 15. If you are in the Chicago area and want to participate, shoot me an email and I’ll hook you up.

So I have been at my job for four weeks now and have been getting in the swing of things. I’m building up my case load so I have been busier. I went to court a couple of times with the same woman (her son’s court date was moved really fast). I also went to immigration with a woman for a check on the status of her application because she needed someone to translate. They only have interpreters for official court sessions. Speaking of interpreters in official court sessions, I was in foreclosure court on Friday and forgot to tell the clerk that my client needed an interpreter. When I apologized for the mistake, the judge said “Well you speak Spanish, don’t you?” I know it was a simple case, but it still did not seem legal to me but I did it anyway. I need to look up how to say things like “foreclosure” and “loan modification” in Spanish, though. Those things never came up in my Golden Age Spanish literature classes at Notre Dame. The client was familiar enough with the process that I was able to get the message across, though.

I mostly worked on the same cases all week and cannot really go into detail about the specifics of them, but suffice it to say that I am really enjoying my job and getting pretty used to what I have to do. The big news this week is that I was able to go to Notre Dame for the Michigan game this weekend! Kerry, my co-worker (who was the Amate volunteer at Taller last year and has been hired on full-time) drove me and my roommate Chris along with one of her college roommates who flew into Chicago. We went down Friday after work. With the time difference, we got there a little after nine. They took me straight to Meg’s house on ND Ave (she is a Campus Ministry Intern) and we caught up and then our friends Rachael and Andrea, who were also staying with Meg, came back and we got ready to go to the Backer. For those of you who are not familiar with the Backer, it is my favorite bar in South Bend. They play the same songs every night (sometimes multiple times) but they are all songs that I love, so it is great. The only problem with the Backer, though, is that when you go you have to stay until 3:00 am. This is not a rule of the Backer per se, but I have never left before 3:00 am before and I was not about to start now. Personally, I think that since I am an alumna now, I am old enough to leave when I want to, but I do not think any of my friends feel that way.

Saturday was rainy, so we were glad that we had planned to start the day with omelets at Meg’s house. The guy interns came over with their guests for the weekend (including Kyle, with whom I led Sophomore Road Trip junior year, who showed us an interesting new way to drink beer that involved a Ziploc bag). Meg is very good at making omelets so I learned from her. When the rain died down a bit, we made our way to campus for tailgates. I got to meet up with my 4A McGlinn girls, who are having a great start to their senior year. My ticket was by myself so I joined Rachael and Andrea in their great seats in what was part of the student section my Freshman year. Eventually we moved down to Meg’s seats which were about twenty rows ahead of us, almost in the end zone itself. We were in the student athlete section then, so we were watching the game with the Basketball team, which was fun.

After the game I went with Andrea to the Mass in the Stepan Center, which Meg and the other interns were coordinating. Then we went to Chipotle in Eddy Street Commons to meet up with our friend Steph and her brother Kyle. Then, I went with Rachael and Andrea to the Backer again, and met up with Tricia there as well. This morning, I met up with Meg after her meeting on campus, which gave me a chance to be in COMO again, my old studying haunt. Then we met up with Colleen who was going to Folk choir Mass and I joined for a little bit before I had to leave to meet up with my ride. When we got back to Little Village, it took us forever to get to our house because there was the Mexican Independence Day parade. The neighbors are currently honking their horns loudly and screaming. We are really enjoying this. 

Monday, September 6, 2010

What do you do when there's nothing to do?

I have been getting more involved with clients and starting to build up my caseload (still working on building it up to the point where I’m always busy. I’m told I should be grateful for these days when I’m not so busy all the time but sometimes the days drag a bit). Some of my clients have difficult cases, though. I have not yet faced the situation, which I’m told is inevitable, where there is absolutely nothing to do for the client. I have faced a few situations where there is something I can do, but it is a long shot that anything will come of it, and that can be frustrating. Times like these, it is pretty easy to get angry at how the system works and how unfair it can be. For example, but sparing the details, we have had a couple people that are not in immigration court proceedings yet but we think are good candidates for them and we have been wondering how we will face that. There is so little hope in that situation, what can we do?
 I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer (in our house we just call them “Deborahs” but I couldn’t remember if there are any Deborahs that might read this) and other than these tough cases, things have been going pretty well. I feel much more comfortable with my job and I think for the most part I know what to do when people come in. I still ask the other compañeras for tips, but I think every day I am getting a better grasp of things. Also, on Thursday Taller celebrated its second birthday! We celebrated by having everyone go on different accompaniments, which prevented us from having a more traditional celebration. Although someone pointed out that it is much more fitting for us to be doing what Taller was founded to do instead of having some superfluous party. Most exciting event of the week? When I got a police escort home from an accompaniment on Saturday! My client had to look at a photo line-up and the police station was far enough away that we had to take two buses there, and the detective felt bad and took us home in an unmarked police car. In front of my house, he went the wrong way down our one-way street and called it “official police business”. This totally made up for having to go into work on a Saturday morning.
On Friday night, in anticipation of the first Notre Dame game of the season, Chris (my fellow Domer) and I finally set up one of our TVs to receive channels. Now we have one TV that does nothing, and one that can show DVDs and channels, instead of just one TV that shows just DVDs. Then, Ann K and I watched Rudy, according to tradition. Saturday we also watched a movie, Footloose, and this time we even dragged Chris in to watch it with us while some of our roommates were at the Polish festival.
I haven’t cooked since the last time I posted, but last night the Anns made enchilada lasagna. They used flour tortillas, enchilada sauce, a can of black beans, some chicken for one of the lasagnas, olives and some Mexican cheese blend. It was so delicious! And, they said it was pretty simple to make. This morning as a special Labor Day treat, Ann K made us pancakes. She made chocolate chip, banana and blueberry pancakes and some combination ones. My favorite was the chocolate chip banana ones. 

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Vegetable Soup

So, many of you have been asking how we stay within our food budget (which is miniscule) so I thought I would share recipes. Last night, Ann K and I kind of cheated because our roommate Chris had brought home several "expired" cans of vegetables--aka non-perishables-- from work. So, we already had cans of vegetable broth, peas, and corn. We bought potatoes, carrots and canned diced tomatoes. We found some whole wheat pasta in our pantry. So....
Vegetable soup for 10:
1 can vegetable broth
1 can corn
1 can peas
1 can green beans
1 can diced tomatoes
3 potatoes, diced (not peeled)
3 carrots, diced (peeled)
some pasta (as much as we felt like)
some spices (basil, thyme, bay leaf, and my Sunny Spain blend from Penzey's)
some water, because there was not enough liquid.

Directions: Put everything in a pot. Cook on medium low for 45 minutes. Serve with a loaf of bread and some butter.
* We do not salt things (and usually do not eat canned food) because some people do not want too much sodium, so everyone salts their own meal.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I have been cheating on this blog...

It's true. Here is the link to my entry about Little Village in the Amate House blog:
http://amatehouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/lil-vil.html

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Becoming a Case Worker

Many things happened this week at work. I made it to another court with Kerry on Monday and Tuesday I went to two courts (sort of). On Monday Ann K’s dad came over for dinner, and it happened to be his birthday so Ann made delicious cupcakes. Tuesday morning I went to the building where there is immigration court but we ended up in an office that was not technically court. But now I know where to get there, which is great because I’ll probably have to go there again later in the month. Tuesday afternoon we went to the Daley Center (which is where a. they had the German Christmas festival we went to in December and b. I went on the solo accompaniment to traffic court last Friday). This time we were on the 28th floor (much better view) for a foreclosure case. My roommates picked me up from work on Tuesday and we went straight to Mercy House, where there is another volunteer program structured like ours but they only have one house and all work for the same agency that has something to do with youth group homes. There are fourteen of them in our house and they were very eager to meet new volunteers and expand their social circle. We had a blast (they made us meatballs…so great) and got to know them and they showed us how to properly restrain youth when they fight. It takes two people for every youth involved in the fight. They had just learned this that day as a part of their job orientations. We stayed until 10:00, which is pretty late for us on a week night (how quickly I have become my mother…) but even the people that wake up at 5:00 agreed it was worth it.
                Wednesday was a big day because I started taking my own appointments by myself. I saw two whole clients. One I referred to the Mexican consulate and another I scheduled for a follow-up appointment. Neither were in my office very long and the rest of the day was pretty slow, but that won’t last too long. Since school is just starting, people are busy with that and will start coming back into the office soon. And, some of the other case workers are starting to transfer some of their caseload to me since they have lots of people. Thursday we had an all-staff meeting (we don’t have a huge staff, we all fit around a table). I know certain members of my family have had bad experiences working with nuns in the past, but I work with three and they are fabulous. Before we start meetings, we go around and share one or two words that reflect the state of our hearts and then, without judgment, share why we chose the words we did. How many bosses care about that? The rest of the day I went around with Jeanine, our MSW intern who actually was with us last semester as well, to a few different agencies and shelters where we tend to refer clients so we would know where we were sending them. The most interesting was the Pacific Garden Mission, an evangelical Baptist mission where people living in the shelter can enroll in a year-long bible study program. Our tour guide was enrolled in the program and told us how in living there, he discovered his gift for preaching. He demonstrated this throughout the tour and it ended up being much longer than I thought it would be. But, although I would never want to go through that program, it seems to work especially well for people who are homeless due to addictions because their new-found religion can keep them sober. I cringed every time he mentioned the architect of the building was Jewish (at one point he said “our Hebrew brothers” and I thought for a second he said “our heathen brothers” and almost threw a fit) but then he mentioned that his father was Jewish, so we had something in common.
Friday we didn’t have any receptionists so Sr Kathy put me in charge. Sr Theresa had a few appointments and I did get to take a walk-in (Sr Theresa took a turn at the reception desk) and was able to schedule a couple of appointments for myself on Monday and an accompaniment for Thursday. I’m excited about that one because we do not schedule appointments for Thursdays or take walk-ins, and since I don’t have much paperwork to catch up on or clients to follow-up with, that accompaniment will make the day go by much faster.
Saturday I finally took advantage of my membership at the Art Institute (thanks Uncle Mike and Aunt Carla) and took my roommate Michelle. We even got some free coffee at the member lounge and sat in the member-exclusive part of the garden on the lower level. After that we met up with a bunch of other Amate people and most of the Mercy Works volunteers in McKinley Park and played flag football. We actually had so many people that we had two games. After that I went with some roommates to the Taste of Greece Festival in Greektown, where we learned a few different types of Greek dancing and had some delicious Greek food. It was a great day, but I was glad to come home to my bed. I was even more glad to find that the mariachi band outside my window (the second in two weeks) had stopped playing for the night so I could actually go to sleep. Today (Sunday) is pretty chill so far, my roommates all went to a Jesuit Mass at St. Procopius in Pilsen but I’m waiting to go to Spanish Mass at 6:00 by our house. I think a lot of our clients go to that church, so it would be nice to make my face familiar to them.

Taller de Jose (my service site) is doing a fundraising campaign, I’ll probably be posting the details this week. If you are in Chicago, you can register for $5 and get a t-shirt to wear while you are running/walking around the city. If you aren’t in the area, you can donate money to someone (like me) who is collecting pledges. This will not be the only time this year I will be asking you for money donations, so don’t feel like you have to give me too much right now. 

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Work Week 1


So, our jobs started on Monday. Crazy, huh? I am working as a case worker and this week was mostly devoted to training me. On Monday we had an orientation at work (because I haven’t had enough orientation lately. Just Kidding!). It was mostly explaining exactly what I would be doing and going over office procedures and such. The last hour and a half I got my office organized, including carrying a desk down for my computer (I now have two desks. My roommates, Ann P and Chris, have to share a desk with each other where they work. I’m spoiled, but most of you already knew that).
On Tuesdays we are open for clients from 1-7, so if we don’t have an accompaniment in the morning we don’t have to come in until noon. This felt really weird, I kept thinking I was a delinquent, especially because all of my roommates were away at work. I went for a run and as I crossed the street, the car that waited for me to pass before it turned was my boss. I really freaked out then but then I reminded myself that it was already after nine so I was okay. I got to sit in on a few appointments (it was slow at first because a bunch of people did not show up their appointments). All of the appointments covered something different, so it was nice to see the different cases we will have.
On Wednesday, I met Sr. Betty in front of the office (a new sister, I work with three) and we went to criminal court with one of her clients. Criminal court is conveniently  located within walking distance of my house. I told my roommates that if they commit any crimes, I could totally help them out. After court Sr. Betty and I drove around a little bit to see a couple of organizations we work with in Pilsen. In the afternoon I went to our new office in St. Agnes (the parish in the nicer part of Little Village) but since most people do not know we are there yet, we only had one walk-in. We organized a bit though, and talked a lot about the neighborhood and community living. Kerry lived in my house last year. I left a little early because we have community night on Wednesdays. This week it was just with our house and we talked about goal setting. We didn’t quite finish settling on how we want to word our goals but will hopefully do that this week.
Thursday we don’t take clients, but I went back to criminal court with Kerry (we walked straight from my house because she wanted to drop off her lunch in the fridge since you can’t take food into criminal court). Later in the day we went to the unemployment office in Pilsen. On Friday I had my first accompaniment by myself! I went to traffic court with a couple of clients downtown. We rode the eL together and I translated for their lawyer. Typical of court, it was a lot of sitting around and waiting and all we got was a new court date. But, I was really proud of myself. My Spanish isn’t perfect yet, but it keeps getting better and we could always understand each other. I do need to look up some words though, pretty sure I wasn’t using the right one for “trial” but the client still understood me. After that I went to a fair sponsored by “Mujeres Latinas en Acción” to hand out information about our office. It wasn’t terribly exciting, but it was outside so I got some sun. Then I had my co-worker drop me off at St. Agnes because it was registration day and we wanted to get the word out about our office. Since it is the nicer side of Little Village, I sort of had the feeling that the parents there did not need much of our help, but some had questions and most were parish members so they could get the word out.
Friday night was movie night (“Fly Away Home”, Jessie really likes geese) and Saturday we went to the beach. The beach we picked was 31st street, closest to our house, which naturally makes it a really interesting crowd. There were families with cute kids, but also guys covered in tattoos complaining about how they forgot their weed but also talking about the merits of Montessori schools (“like, totally radical but not cultish like Steiner”). Saturday was also movie night (some people wandered around downtown but I felt no need). At the rate we’re going, we should run out of movies in a month, we might need to ask our parents to send more, or use petty cash to get a Netflix subscription (I am in charge of petty cash, and I have no problem with that).
Today we went to Mass a Tepeyac, which was nice but they had too many instruments and I couldn’t hear the singers. I want to try Spanish Mass there because I think they will be better at that, but I might have to do that by myself. I think I will start having appointments with clients by myself this week!
It is August 22nd (My Grandma Sullivan's birthday) so I think I will go to an ice cream truck to spoil my dinner, since there aren't any ice cream parlors with Sander's hot fudge in Little Village. 

Sunday, August 15, 2010

pics of my room

     my bed and window, you can kind of see the ceiling.

This is mostly so  you can see my ceiling.


Orientation Week 2

Of course we could not finish orientation with just one week, but the second week has been considerably shorter. Some of the teachers have already had to go in and they wanted everyone to have a chance to find their workplaces. Mine is only two blocks away from my house, so it was pretty easy. I have run/walked past it a number of times. On Monday we talked about Social Justice at Roosevelt University. We had two speakers, one who talked more generally and one who talked about public housing. Then he took us to the potential future site of the National Public Housing museum (they are still looking for funding). It is in Little Italy and in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams housing project. We got to walk around inside and look out on the roof. It is pretty rundown right now but that is because no one has lived in it for several years. That night some people that lived in our house last year came over for dinner, which was awesome. We got to ask them lots of questions about the house and the neighborhood (any tips about the coffeepot? Cars? Gang colors we shouldn’t wear?). They went around our rooms to see who was in their old rooms and such. A former inhabitant of my room explained the ceiling damage (apparently it used to also rain inside, the problem seems fixed right now and I want to paint soon).
Tuesday we went to the Cardinal Meyer Center (offices and conference rooms for the Archdiocese) and talked about the faith tenet of Amate House. We got really deep and I think it was really good for our community to bond. After that, Jessie and I made black-bean burgers, which were delicious. Wednesday we had most of the day off so some of us went with Elissa to help her set up her classroom. We had community night at South House and talked about communication and conflict, which was good. We’ve kind of made fun of the approach a little bit (we keep asking people what their needs are and telling them to make requests) but I think it will be really helpful to help us resolve any conflicts that will inevitably happen when nine strangers live together. Thursday we did not have to start until noon. We went over to South House to have our pictures taken for the website. Then we had lunch (tuna sandwiches, it’s been a while since I have had anything meat-like). Afterwards we had our covenant signing ceremony. It was really nice but super hot, so after a quick picture with all of the Amate volunteers we headed home with a quick stop at Walgreens so Elissa could print up copies of our first family photos, from Millennium Park last weekend. Ann K has Part 1 of Season 1 of Glee on dvd, so we watched a few of those in the Oasis (what we have named the hammock room with air conditioning). Elissa and I slept there that night because it was so hot in the house.
On Friday a few people had errands to run or had to go to work so I figured that it was my best chance to paint my ceiling. There was a lot of water damage to the ceiling because the roof used to leak. They have fixed the problem as far as I can tell (we have had a couple of hard rains already and I have not seen any damage) but the ceiling was still unattractive. Now it is very attractive, because I painted it sky blue, which makes the room more bright and cheery. I only needed one coat (plus a few touchups) and the damaged part is mostly camouflaged. While I was waiting for the paint to dry before I did the touch-ups, I watched a few more episodes of Glee in the Oasis. I mean, how else would I wait for paint to dry? I was in my paint clothes so it is not like I was going anywhere. After I cleaned up my room and finally took a shower (I believe there was another episode of Glee involved, I had to finish the disc) I had some leftovers for dinner. A Time Out Chicago had been delivered earlier and Carlos and Ann P saw that there were some art galleries in Pilsen with free wine and cheese receptions. We went and it was so much fun. Some of the ‘galleries’ were just the artist’s loft studios or even apartments…Jessie and I really wanted apartments in that building, they had great views and the building had lots of character. We got caught in the rain but rather than reacting like normal people, we put our stuff in our car and then played in it. Carlos got really excited and yelled in a crosswalk “This is Chicago!” He got people across the street to join in too and then they tried to get us to say “Stop raining Chicago!” After we were through puddle jumping, we piled into the car and Carlos had a brainwave: going to Huck Finns (near South House) for Donut Delights. These are donuts with a scoop of ice cream on them and are delicious yet ridiculous. I shared one with Michelle (plain donut with spumoni ice cream) and we had a lot of fun, even though it was cold in the air conditioning.
Saturday was pretty chill, I went for a walk, did some yoga with Jillian Michaels (and a couple of my roommates) and rearranged some furniture (moving a couch to the Oasis upstairs). The rest of the day I basically just lounged around because the heat made me so tired. Two-thirds of my house went to this happy hour in Lincoln Park for some free beer but I was feeling pretty tired when they went so I just hung out with Michelle and Elissa at our house. We watched more episodes of glee and listened to the mariachi band playing outside our window. I’m really not kidding about that, school starts this week in Catholic schools so there were block parties all over Little Village celebrating the end of summer. People blocked off the roads with their cars so kids could ride bikes all over the street and they could have bands playing. We were not invited, though. I do have to say that the combination of the mariachi band, the ice cream truck jingles, the popsicle cart bells, the music from other food carts, and the soundtrack of glee made a very strange listening combination. And our windows were closed, too, because we had the A/C on in the Oasis. Such is life in Lil Vil (as we like to call it).
Work starts tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The New Adventure Begins!

Welcome everyone to my new blog as I begin my year of service! For those of you who followed my previous blog when I studied abroad, I can pretty much promise to not write as much or as often as I did before. Partially because I will eventually settle into a routine and not as many new things will happen. And, partially because I will be staying in the same place and my job deals with sensitive information that I should not post on the internet. So, this blog, if it works the way I am envisioning, will be mostly reflections on the experience and is more likely to talk about things I do away from work that are less sensitive.
As many of you know, I am in the Amate House program in Chicago and will be living with eight other people in an intentional community while we all go out to different service related jobs in the city. I have been here for a week and so I am halfway done with orientation. It has been an intense, long week. We still don’t know each other and are trying to feel around each other and see how our community will work. In the mean time, we have been thrown into an intense together-ness with these almost perfect strangers and are expected to be a community. It is a bit much and some of us are struggling with it but we know that there is of course a reason for what we are doing and that eventually we will be grateful. On the one hand, we are looking forward to starting work but at the same time we know that work will be even more intense. We have been going around between the different houses and other locations (Greater Chicago Food Depository for a morning of re-packaging cereal and DePaul University for a talk) to talk about the various tenents of our program. So far we have talked about Community, Stewardship and Service. We also spent Friday afternoon on the beach (a much needed break).
Do we have the weekend off? Sort of. There are not necessarily scheduled activities but we do have to spend Saturday as a community exploring the city and Sunday we have to be introduced at a Mass and then have a grocery store shopping challenge- we get $15 per person per week to spend on food. Saturday morning we explored our neighborhood and then came back to our house for grilled cheese and tomato soup. We took a digestion break and then used our Amate-provided-1-day-CTA passes and went downtown. We went to Millennium Park (where we saw a few wedding parties taking pictures, much to the delight of the girls) and took pictures at the bean, of course. Things were crowded with Lollapalooza. We then walked up Michigan Ave. to the Ghirardelli shop for free samples. We then headed in the direction of Navy Pier and stopped at the beach there for a little relaxation and then headed home to regroup. After re-packing some snacks (why have dinner when you can have two rounds of snacks?) we met up with South House at a park in Pilsen to watch “Where the Wild Things Are” outdoors.
Sunday, we were introduced at St. Agnes of Bohemia, a parish whose school has been served by Amate volunteers every year and I think the vast majority of its staff is former volunteers. The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping. How long would you think it would take nine people to grocery shop for a week? Try five hours. We planned out our whole menu for the week and talked about thinks like buying canned or dried beans, and also our feelings before we were even able to shop. We get $135 per week (that’s $15 per person) for groceries, which goes surprisingly far. We shopped at Food 4 Less, which appeared to be somehow connected to Kroger since it mostly had Kroger generic brands. We got everything on our need list for $122 and then were able to get a few wants, and this even included stocking up on a few bulk items. The boys cooked breakfast for dinner and after that we finished off the gallon of ice cream we bought on Friday and watched “Saved”. The second week of Orientation is halfway over, but I will write about everything some other time.