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