Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Back for more updating, continuing from where I left off last time:
The next morning, we woke up and took our last hot showers for a while. Anna’s dad called and told us that we’d better be up with our feet on the floor lol. Then we packed up most of our stuff, went downstairs, found Corey, and ate breakfast. I had green tea for the first time...not bad, but there’s like no flavor unless you add a few packs of sugar. Then we went back upstairs, grabbed our stuff, put it in a van (We all got together that time! Yay!) and then met up with the rest of the group. We had a devotion and then communion. I’d never done communion before...and I don’t know that I’d ever seen it done either, so it was interesting. Then back to the vans and then we left!
We got to the Elementary School where we were staying early afternoon. It amused all of us that the town was called Fleming-Neon and a lot of us heard “Flaming-Neon” and it just sounded odd. First announcement made: we had air conditioning! It made me happy, because we weren’t expecting to have air conditioning, so this was like the luxery version of ASP. We moved our stuff in-3 rooms for the girls including the leaders, 2 for the guys, and the guy leaders stayed in the library since there was no space in the other guys’ rooms. It was amazing how small the school was though; just one building, and only 50 kids actually go to the school. We saved space in our room for 4 girls that weren’t supposed to get there until later, but they ended up going in another room anyway, so we had plenty of room in ours; only about 12 people in the classroom. There were showers outside-2 for the guys, 2 for the girls, all made out of wooden posts covered in black plastic. There was only cold water, which we discovered was more like the water left over from a cooler, but at least we had single stalls, instead of community showers where you just use a hose and wear swimsuits like they’ve done in past years.
We met in the cafeteria and the four people that run the center introduced themselves by singing a song to the tune of Avril’s “Skater Boy” which was kinda odd but funny. Then we went up and introduced ourselves by workteams, and we had to say what our names ment. Most were pretty normal, but we had a few funny ones, like this one girl’s whose name means “leader of elves” lol, and Corey’s means “hollow” so he knocked on his head when he said it. We also sang a few songs. It made me crack up when they put the lyrics of “Country Roads” on the overhead, because Anna had been singing it in the van and had gotten it stuck in my head and probably a lot of other people’s heads too. We had to sing “East Kentucky, Lecher County” instead of “West Viginia, mountain mamma” though.
I was really impressed with the food we had...because we’d been told ahead of time that it would be “cafeteria food” which usually makes me think of icky stuff...but it was really good. They even had plenty for us vegitarians. I know at least a few of us gained weight on the trip lol, which is saying something considering we usually just sit around on the computers and such and now actually had to do at least some work, some much more physical than others but still.
That night we also made our “warm fuzzy” bags. We hung them on the wall and used them throughout the week to write notes to eachother and put things like candy in them. I’m going to type out my warm fuzzies sometime on this entry so that I can remember them because some are funny.
One person from each group got to go up to their worksite that night, but since our site was really close (you can see the school from like two houses down from it), my whole group went. However, the family was gone because their daughter’s car overheated and they had to go help her, so we couldn’t go inside...so we went to “support the local economy” by getting icecream instead hehe. Then we went back, and I played cards with people for a while. We had “quiet time” (more like “really loud crazy time where you get ready for bed with one bathroom with two working stalls among 38 girls”) and lights out at 11.
The next day we were woken by the sound of loud music coming from the hallway, so we got up and got ready and went to the morning devotional and gathering and then had breakfast. I swear, I am so spoiled from those breakfasts now...We had grits every day, plus usually toast, french toast one day, and the nonvegitarians had eggs and sausage and bacon and that kind of stuff most of the days. Anyway, after breakfast, it was time for sandwhich making! I had “sandwhich duty” the first two days, along with another person, so we made sandwiches for our group and put them in the cooler while the others got drinks, bags of chips, and gathered supplies for the day.
Since it was “mosey (sp?) Monday,” we were supposed to spend time getting to know the family that lived in the house we were repairing before we really started doing much work. We didn’t spend very much time talking though. The people that lived there were an older-ish couple named Mike and Ruthann. They were pretty nice. Mike was apparently burned really really badly (he said he basically watched his skin melt...ugh) over most of his body a few years back, but you could never tell by looking at him now. Mike’s parents lived next door, and the lady was soooo sweet to us...constantly asking if there was anything she could get us; food, drink, she offered us pickles with lunch and walnuts to take home, all kinds of stuff, and in a poor economic area like that, those little things really mean a lot. She decided my name was “Jenny” lol, and since it was one of the few she could remember, I let her think that. We didn’t see her husband much since he’d fallen and broken a rib a few days before we came. We heard stories about him though, mostly about WWII. Their grandaughter (through a different kid, not Mike), Taylor, lives near them, and she comes up all the time because her best friend lives across the street. She’s a really sweet kid, and it seems like her friend Brittany is too, but we didn’t get much time with Brittany because she was sick. Taylor’s family is going to apply for ASP work too I think, though I’m not sure since they’ve missed the cut off for the summer session, but maybe they can get into one of the year round programs or something. Her dad’s been in jail for a few years, and her mom was in a bad accident where her car was run over with her inside of it, so she’s waiting to have surgery on her knees, so now they’re living mostly off disability coverage. They just moved from another house where they lived without electricity for a few months because they couldn’t pay the electric bill. She and Brittany and I think a few other kids share a box of crayons. Those kinds of things make me really glad I did ASP.
Anyway...we got to work on our project pretty quickly. The bathroom floor apparently had a leak under it for like 20 years almost, so we got to replace it as well as doing some plumbing. I don’t really know what the groups before us did honestly...All I could really tell that had been done was that they pulled up the old flooring, and that doesn’t take two weeks of work to do. They also fixed some of the plumbing, but we had to refix most of it because they didn’t glue it well enough, so there were more leaks and the pipes weren’t secured well or anything. So we started putting reinforcement boards throughout the bathroom floor-which I got to cut a bunch of! With an electric saw! And it was kinda fun! And yes I do still have all 10 fingers because I don’t understand how you can cut your finger off with something like that since it has a guard around all but like two inches of it, which is the part that cuts into the wood, and hopefully you’re smart enough to put your hands on the handles instead of on the wood you’re cutting. Then again, I’ve yet to understand how you can possibly sew through your finger on a sewing machine, but I know people who have done it. Anyway, I cut a bunch of wood while the others screwed it in inside and worked on some plumbing stuff. I don’t really remember what we got done each day, so I’ll just do all the work stuff right in a row and fill in other stuff in a minute. I did some screwing too, but our drills kept running out of power and the batteries take forever to charge, so it was interesting...Mr. White taught us that if you put soap on the screws it makes it a LOT easier, which makes sense but I’d never thought about it before...So Leslie and I could actually get screws in after that; before we’d been putting like all of our weight on top of them and still not having enough pressure lol. We took out some more flooring because for some unknown reason, the past groups had taken one cabinet out to get the rotten wood out from under it, but not the other one, which had very rotten wood under it too, so we took that one out. For some reason, every third 2x4 board was a little lower than the rest, so we had to add a thin piece of board on top of those before we put the OSB (I’m having a mental block on what that stands for and it’s really bothering me, but it’s kinda the same thing as particle board with bigger pieces) down. I didn’t do much cutting on that part because I was afriad I’d mess it up and those were big pieces to mess up. I did cut the vent for the air conditioning though, which I was very proud of, since it was in the middle of the board and they wanted me to use the electric saw for most of it since the jigsaw takes a while to cut, though I had to do the corners with a jigsaw since the electic saw’s blade was too long to cut all the way through the shorter ends. Leslie and I screwed those boards in. We had to use a few separate pieces, so we filled in cracks and indents from the screws with some stuff that I’m not sure what you call it but we reffered to it as “mud.” Then again, we reffered to another thing that was similar to that that we used on the bathtub “mud” also, but they definitly weren’t the same thing. Anyway, we also got to remove the side of the bathtub and replace it, hence it needing the mud for the screws in the sheet rock. I got to paint it! It made me happy hehe; I love painting stuff. And that’s one thing I can actually say I knew how to do before this trip and so when Mrs. Coats asked me if I knew how to use a paint roller I could say yes :-D We put down the new floor too. It was supposed to be linolium, but it ended up being some other type of similar material that I forget what it’s called. In the mountains they call putting down lenolium “putting down a rug” which was interesting and it confused the counselors. I got to help cut that. Apparently it’s easier to cut it while it’s in place rather than measuring, in case you measure wrong and cut the wrong place off or something, but I think it would’ve been easier by measurements. Oh well. I can’t cut in a straight line, I definitly learned that, but it was ok because we put down quarter-rounds along all the edges anyway, so you couldnt see it lol. Mr. White said it was good though, and he said he was glad to have a “tedious female” do it hahaha. Then some people glued it down and we all basically worked on nailing in the quarter rounds, except Kevin got to cut them. I didn’t do much plumbing work, which was fine with me; I’d rather do the carpentry anyway. The only thing I did was on the last day. We had to cut into the wall of the bedroom behind the other bathroom because there was a broken piece of the bathtub. Mr. White couldn’t figure out how to get it out though, because it had a weird hexagon shaped hold in it but it was too big to use a tool on...so he searched for something makeshift with Michael...and I kinda stared at it for a while...and then I proded it...stuck my finger in, and pulled the piece out. Mr. White came back in the room right as I did that, and he just cracked up and said something like “well that works!” Then Michael and I got to put the wall back together and patch it up with more mud stuff...and in the time that we spent together, he gave me a lot of college advice. Go figure, right? His sister goes to Appalachian and she’s on a Teaching Fellows Scholarship...more college talk later, but it just seemed odd to have that conversation...He also told me to not worry about where my friends are going because “friends come and go.” Anyways, by then we were almost done with the week...and I was the only one who had a long sleeve shirt with me that day, so I got to go under the house and help Mr. White with insulation. Unfortunately, it was a really humid day, so my safty goggles fogged up really fast...and so I could kinda see, and I saw a beam of wood ahead of me, but I couldnt see the lip on it, so I ended up hitting my head into it and it made my neck pop a bunch of times. Ouch. It stopped hurting for a while after a few minutes though. Insulation was actually a lot easier than I expected. You just kinda put the sheets of it up there and stick a metal pole thing between two pieces of wood to make it stay. It only took us a few minutes to do all of it. And by then it was almost 6 (dinner time at the center) on the last day and we hadn’t had showers or anything, so we decided it was present time! We’d gone to Walmart the night before to get presents for the family. We got Mike and Ruthann a nice towel set that matched the new flooring and paint we’d put in the bathroom. Ruthann cried when we gave them to her and went around and hugged us all. We gave Mike’s parents a pretty designy watering can (his mom LOVES gardening) and a box of chocolates. She tried to gives us back the candy, saying we should eat it on the way back home tomorrow, but we told her it was for them to enjoy. For Taylor and Brittany, we got them each an art set with markers, crayons, colored pencils, and I think some water colors or something in it, two coloring books each, and some candy. Our church also donated t-shirts to the families so we gave out some of those too.
Ok, non-work ASP stuff...Tuesday we went to “culture night” where we heard folk music about the settling of the area and such that I didn’t pay much attention to lol but the guitarists were really good. One guy had a lefty guitar strung backwards, which greatly amused Rachel and me. There was a group there from Canada that was kind of abnoxious though...I mean, I guess they’d never heard Southern-style music, but they started clapping and slapping their knees...which wouldn’t have been so bad, aside from a little mockery, if they hadn’t been clapping on the wrong beats. They clapped on the on beats instead of the off beats. The guy on stage gave them the most hillarious look and started clapping on the off beats, but instead of taking the hint, they just clapped louder, which I thought was kinda rude. Afterwards, we went out for icecream again, but the line was really long at the place we went before (since like all the ASP people went there) so my group decided to go to Dairy Queen instead, but they were nice and let me go ahead and get out because I saw Anna and Corey and Rachel and I got a ride back with Anna’s group since someone in their group decided to abandon them for another group too haha.
Thursday was our picnic in a state park about an hour away from the center. We climbed on playground equipment lol. I even went up to the top of one of those dome-ish thingies but I held on tight because I don’t like being on tops of things but I didn’t want to be the only one of us just sitting on the ground either. After we ate, we worked on a crossword puzzle lol.
Friday night was really emotional, but not really in a bad way. Well, except at first, during dinner, I started feeling really sick and my neck was throbbing from hitting my head earlier that day, and it was swelling, which I think was the reason it made me feel sick. Mr. White gave me the option of coming back to the worksite for a little while, since he and Mrs. Coats had to go back and the guys wanted to go with him, but he said there wasn’t much to do...and since I didn’t feel good and figured I’d probably just end up in the way, I said I’d stay...I didn’t find out until later that I was the only one of our group to stay, and then I felt bad...but anyway...I took some medicine and didn’t eat much and went to lay down for a while...Then I was smart and got some ice and put it in a bag and iced my neck for a while...and the swelling went down, which made me feel a little better...and then it was time for Evening Gathering, which was really special that night. We sat in a circle with our workgroups-except mine was still gone, so I temporarily joined Corey’s group. We went around and said things about the week that inspired us or talked about any “God moments” we’d had or just anything we felt like saying. I talked about how much people give when they have very little. Then we had communion. After that, my group came back, so I went back to sit with them, and we did a very rushed discussion and then one of the counselors told us that one person from each group could stand up and talk about the week. Some of the stories were amazing...I was trying sooooo hard not to cry, especially when one guy started talking about how, because of the work that was finished by them this week, this lady was allowed to have her kids back in her home. They’d been taken away by social services because of the living conditions, and she was only allowed to see them for two hours a week, and I think now she has them full time again. He started crying as he told us about it...and I think that was when most people started crying too...but I didn’t...I came awfully close but I kept my tounge bit hard because I didn’t want to cry...and I was ok through the other ones for the most part...and then, the last one to go, was my group. Michael was our speaker. He started off by talking about things about each person. He said that he was a very stubborn person and that basically if we don’t do things his way, he doesn’t help. That made me smile a little bit, and then he said something about how I’m the same way, to which I called out “thanks Michael!” and laughed, and then he elaborated about how I’m a perfectionist and therefore we don’t work well together...That’s what I get for going back over some of the stuff he did, like when I resanded something he’d sanded hahaha...so I started laughing and I guess that was my emotional release...because all the sudden I had tears just streaming down my face. Then he went on and talked about everyone else, other little comments that kept me laughing and crying...and he talked about the family...and when he got to Taylor he said “This little girl is 7 going-” and I called out “six” and I’m not even sure why I bothered lol, but he’s like “see! perfectionist! This girl is 7 going-” Leslie and Jessica call out “six!” which he ignores, “-going on 30. I’d try to make little kid jokes with her, and she’d just look at me like I’m stupid.” And the way he said that was absolutely hillarious. Then he started talking about the work that was done, and he said a lot of stuff about getting high off the glue they used for plumbing, which had everyone dying laughing, and he was talking about how it happend to him AND Mr. White, and then he said something like “Well, it wasn’t like we were sitting there just sniffing it...Well, I did once” and the whole cafeteria cracked up yet again. I was laughing and crying soooo hard; it felt really weird.
Later that night, we had a T-shirt auction...the highest selling item was a D.A.R.E shirt that went for $104.50, which Mrs. Coats gave to Michael. The auction raised $920 for ASP, which was reaaaaaally awesome. And I got a neck rub from Corey during it, which made it less stiff so that was nice^^
Saturday morning, we packed up all our stuff and then went to take a picture after doing chores...and I kinda had an argument with Melissa...which I guess we both just decided to ignore later in the day after basically not talking to eachother that morning? Because by the time we were allowed to switch vans after stopping for breakfast (we all got together again, yay!) we acted like nothing had happened. I don’t want to start another year off with things tense between us.
On the ride back, I didn’t pay nearly as much attention to the scenery as I did on the way up...and I got a little car sick for the first time the whole trip, which surprised me because I’ve gotten carsick really easily lately. I think it was kinda in combination of not being sure what was happening with Melissa and dreading the fact that I wouldn’t get to see Corey for at least two weeks.
Then we got a phone call from Matt on Rachel’s cell...Rache looked horrified...and I was like “Oh God there’s been a car accident...” while Anna thought he’d blown up his driveway with fireworks or something since it was the day before the 4th of July. It turns out I was right...but everyone’s fine. His mom’s car, which was to be his within the next few weeks, was totaled though...and if the other driver hadn’t swered, Matt wouldn’t be here anymore...which scared the crap out of me. I swear, people are going to think I’m crazier than before, but even though he’s fine it made me cry. I don’t like car accidents...so I just clung on to Corey (err, as much as you can in a van on a church trip?) and that made me feel better after a while.
When we got back, my parents and I went out for dinner and I talked a LOT hahaha...and then I took a really long hot shower...and then...Corey got to come over afterall! Even though he probably shouldn’t have, but he told me he had all of his stuff for scout camp together, aside from the clothes in the wash that had to go in first, so therefore he couldn’t pack til later anyway...but apparently “togther” is from looking down from the top of his house like an xray, so he had things in a few rooms on top of eachother :-P but you know what, I’m still glad he came over lol. We watched Footloose and hung out and had a great time. Saying goodbye was awful though.
Yesterday, I went to see the fireworks from the golf course with Rachel, and we met up with Zach, his sister Allison, Corey’s sister Hannah, and Megan. Then Rachel and I went back to her house (after a quick Kroger stop for some food and fireworks hehe) and set off the fireworks really quick before it started to rain too hard.
Haven’t done much today...some errands with my parents and such...and some evil planning with Steven! :-D If we can make this work, I’m going to be an ultra-happy Jen hehehehe!
Wow this is 7 1/3 pages...off to send Corey and email and then soon off to bed! Goodnight!
The next morning, we woke up and took our last hot showers for a while. Anna’s dad called and told us that we’d better be up with our feet on the floor lol. Then we packed up most of our stuff, went downstairs, found Corey, and ate breakfast. I had green tea for the first time...not bad, but there’s like no flavor unless you add a few packs of sugar. Then we went back upstairs, grabbed our stuff, put it in a van (We all got together that time! Yay!) and then met up with the rest of the group. We had a devotion and then communion. I’d never done communion before...and I don’t know that I’d ever seen it done either, so it was interesting. Then back to the vans and then we left!
We got to the Elementary School where we were staying early afternoon. It amused all of us that the town was called Fleming-Neon and a lot of us heard “Flaming-Neon” and it just sounded odd. First announcement made: we had air conditioning! It made me happy, because we weren’t expecting to have air conditioning, so this was like the luxery version of ASP. We moved our stuff in-3 rooms for the girls including the leaders, 2 for the guys, and the guy leaders stayed in the library since there was no space in the other guys’ rooms. It was amazing how small the school was though; just one building, and only 50 kids actually go to the school. We saved space in our room for 4 girls that weren’t supposed to get there until later, but they ended up going in another room anyway, so we had plenty of room in ours; only about 12 people in the classroom. There were showers outside-2 for the guys, 2 for the girls, all made out of wooden posts covered in black plastic. There was only cold water, which we discovered was more like the water left over from a cooler, but at least we had single stalls, instead of community showers where you just use a hose and wear swimsuits like they’ve done in past years.
We met in the cafeteria and the four people that run the center introduced themselves by singing a song to the tune of Avril’s “Skater Boy” which was kinda odd but funny. Then we went up and introduced ourselves by workteams, and we had to say what our names ment. Most were pretty normal, but we had a few funny ones, like this one girl’s whose name means “leader of elves” lol, and Corey’s means “hollow” so he knocked on his head when he said it. We also sang a few songs. It made me crack up when they put the lyrics of “Country Roads” on the overhead, because Anna had been singing it in the van and had gotten it stuck in my head and probably a lot of other people’s heads too. We had to sing “East Kentucky, Lecher County” instead of “West Viginia, mountain mamma” though.
I was really impressed with the food we had...because we’d been told ahead of time that it would be “cafeteria food” which usually makes me think of icky stuff...but it was really good. They even had plenty for us vegitarians. I know at least a few of us gained weight on the trip lol, which is saying something considering we usually just sit around on the computers and such and now actually had to do at least some work, some much more physical than others but still.
That night we also made our “warm fuzzy” bags. We hung them on the wall and used them throughout the week to write notes to eachother and put things like candy in them. I’m going to type out my warm fuzzies sometime on this entry so that I can remember them because some are funny.
One person from each group got to go up to their worksite that night, but since our site was really close (you can see the school from like two houses down from it), my whole group went. However, the family was gone because their daughter’s car overheated and they had to go help her, so we couldn’t go inside...so we went to “support the local economy” by getting icecream instead hehe. Then we went back, and I played cards with people for a while. We had “quiet time” (more like “really loud crazy time where you get ready for bed with one bathroom with two working stalls among 38 girls”) and lights out at 11.
The next day we were woken by the sound of loud music coming from the hallway, so we got up and got ready and went to the morning devotional and gathering and then had breakfast. I swear, I am so spoiled from those breakfasts now...We had grits every day, plus usually toast, french toast one day, and the nonvegitarians had eggs and sausage and bacon and that kind of stuff most of the days. Anyway, after breakfast, it was time for sandwhich making! I had “sandwhich duty” the first two days, along with another person, so we made sandwiches for our group and put them in the cooler while the others got drinks, bags of chips, and gathered supplies for the day.
Since it was “mosey (sp?) Monday,” we were supposed to spend time getting to know the family that lived in the house we were repairing before we really started doing much work. We didn’t spend very much time talking though. The people that lived there were an older-ish couple named Mike and Ruthann. They were pretty nice. Mike was apparently burned really really badly (he said he basically watched his skin melt...ugh) over most of his body a few years back, but you could never tell by looking at him now. Mike’s parents lived next door, and the lady was soooo sweet to us...constantly asking if there was anything she could get us; food, drink, she offered us pickles with lunch and walnuts to take home, all kinds of stuff, and in a poor economic area like that, those little things really mean a lot. She decided my name was “Jenny” lol, and since it was one of the few she could remember, I let her think that. We didn’t see her husband much since he’d fallen and broken a rib a few days before we came. We heard stories about him though, mostly about WWII. Their grandaughter (through a different kid, not Mike), Taylor, lives near them, and she comes up all the time because her best friend lives across the street. She’s a really sweet kid, and it seems like her friend Brittany is too, but we didn’t get much time with Brittany because she was sick. Taylor’s family is going to apply for ASP work too I think, though I’m not sure since they’ve missed the cut off for the summer session, but maybe they can get into one of the year round programs or something. Her dad’s been in jail for a few years, and her mom was in a bad accident where her car was run over with her inside of it, so she’s waiting to have surgery on her knees, so now they’re living mostly off disability coverage. They just moved from another house where they lived without electricity for a few months because they couldn’t pay the electric bill. She and Brittany and I think a few other kids share a box of crayons. Those kinds of things make me really glad I did ASP.
Anyway...we got to work on our project pretty quickly. The bathroom floor apparently had a leak under it for like 20 years almost, so we got to replace it as well as doing some plumbing. I don’t really know what the groups before us did honestly...All I could really tell that had been done was that they pulled up the old flooring, and that doesn’t take two weeks of work to do. They also fixed some of the plumbing, but we had to refix most of it because they didn’t glue it well enough, so there were more leaks and the pipes weren’t secured well or anything. So we started putting reinforcement boards throughout the bathroom floor-which I got to cut a bunch of! With an electric saw! And it was kinda fun! And yes I do still have all 10 fingers because I don’t understand how you can cut your finger off with something like that since it has a guard around all but like two inches of it, which is the part that cuts into the wood, and hopefully you’re smart enough to put your hands on the handles instead of on the wood you’re cutting. Then again, I’ve yet to understand how you can possibly sew through your finger on a sewing machine, but I know people who have done it. Anyway, I cut a bunch of wood while the others screwed it in inside and worked on some plumbing stuff. I don’t really remember what we got done each day, so I’ll just do all the work stuff right in a row and fill in other stuff in a minute. I did some screwing too, but our drills kept running out of power and the batteries take forever to charge, so it was interesting...Mr. White taught us that if you put soap on the screws it makes it a LOT easier, which makes sense but I’d never thought about it before...So Leslie and I could actually get screws in after that; before we’d been putting like all of our weight on top of them and still not having enough pressure lol. We took out some more flooring because for some unknown reason, the past groups had taken one cabinet out to get the rotten wood out from under it, but not the other one, which had very rotten wood under it too, so we took that one out. For some reason, every third 2x4 board was a little lower than the rest, so we had to add a thin piece of board on top of those before we put the OSB (I’m having a mental block on what that stands for and it’s really bothering me, but it’s kinda the same thing as particle board with bigger pieces) down. I didn’t do much cutting on that part because I was afriad I’d mess it up and those were big pieces to mess up. I did cut the vent for the air conditioning though, which I was very proud of, since it was in the middle of the board and they wanted me to use the electric saw for most of it since the jigsaw takes a while to cut, though I had to do the corners with a jigsaw since the electic saw’s blade was too long to cut all the way through the shorter ends. Leslie and I screwed those boards in. We had to use a few separate pieces, so we filled in cracks and indents from the screws with some stuff that I’m not sure what you call it but we reffered to it as “mud.” Then again, we reffered to another thing that was similar to that that we used on the bathtub “mud” also, but they definitly weren’t the same thing. Anyway, we also got to remove the side of the bathtub and replace it, hence it needing the mud for the screws in the sheet rock. I got to paint it! It made me happy hehe; I love painting stuff. And that’s one thing I can actually say I knew how to do before this trip and so when Mrs. Coats asked me if I knew how to use a paint roller I could say yes :-D We put down the new floor too. It was supposed to be linolium, but it ended up being some other type of similar material that I forget what it’s called. In the mountains they call putting down lenolium “putting down a rug” which was interesting and it confused the counselors. I got to help cut that. Apparently it’s easier to cut it while it’s in place rather than measuring, in case you measure wrong and cut the wrong place off or something, but I think it would’ve been easier by measurements. Oh well. I can’t cut in a straight line, I definitly learned that, but it was ok because we put down quarter-rounds along all the edges anyway, so you couldnt see it lol. Mr. White said it was good though, and he said he was glad to have a “tedious female” do it hahaha. Then some people glued it down and we all basically worked on nailing in the quarter rounds, except Kevin got to cut them. I didn’t do much plumbing work, which was fine with me; I’d rather do the carpentry anyway. The only thing I did was on the last day. We had to cut into the wall of the bedroom behind the other bathroom because there was a broken piece of the bathtub. Mr. White couldn’t figure out how to get it out though, because it had a weird hexagon shaped hold in it but it was too big to use a tool on...so he searched for something makeshift with Michael...and I kinda stared at it for a while...and then I proded it...stuck my finger in, and pulled the piece out. Mr. White came back in the room right as I did that, and he just cracked up and said something like “well that works!” Then Michael and I got to put the wall back together and patch it up with more mud stuff...and in the time that we spent together, he gave me a lot of college advice. Go figure, right? His sister goes to Appalachian and she’s on a Teaching Fellows Scholarship...more college talk later, but it just seemed odd to have that conversation...He also told me to not worry about where my friends are going because “friends come and go.” Anyways, by then we were almost done with the week...and I was the only one who had a long sleeve shirt with me that day, so I got to go under the house and help Mr. White with insulation. Unfortunately, it was a really humid day, so my safty goggles fogged up really fast...and so I could kinda see, and I saw a beam of wood ahead of me, but I couldnt see the lip on it, so I ended up hitting my head into it and it made my neck pop a bunch of times. Ouch. It stopped hurting for a while after a few minutes though. Insulation was actually a lot easier than I expected. You just kinda put the sheets of it up there and stick a metal pole thing between two pieces of wood to make it stay. It only took us a few minutes to do all of it. And by then it was almost 6 (dinner time at the center) on the last day and we hadn’t had showers or anything, so we decided it was present time! We’d gone to Walmart the night before to get presents for the family. We got Mike and Ruthann a nice towel set that matched the new flooring and paint we’d put in the bathroom. Ruthann cried when we gave them to her and went around and hugged us all. We gave Mike’s parents a pretty designy watering can (his mom LOVES gardening) and a box of chocolates. She tried to gives us back the candy, saying we should eat it on the way back home tomorrow, but we told her it was for them to enjoy. For Taylor and Brittany, we got them each an art set with markers, crayons, colored pencils, and I think some water colors or something in it, two coloring books each, and some candy. Our church also donated t-shirts to the families so we gave out some of those too.
Ok, non-work ASP stuff...Tuesday we went to “culture night” where we heard folk music about the settling of the area and such that I didn’t pay much attention to lol but the guitarists were really good. One guy had a lefty guitar strung backwards, which greatly amused Rachel and me. There was a group there from Canada that was kind of abnoxious though...I mean, I guess they’d never heard Southern-style music, but they started clapping and slapping their knees...which wouldn’t have been so bad, aside from a little mockery, if they hadn’t been clapping on the wrong beats. They clapped on the on beats instead of the off beats. The guy on stage gave them the most hillarious look and started clapping on the off beats, but instead of taking the hint, they just clapped louder, which I thought was kinda rude. Afterwards, we went out for icecream again, but the line was really long at the place we went before (since like all the ASP people went there) so my group decided to go to Dairy Queen instead, but they were nice and let me go ahead and get out because I saw Anna and Corey and Rachel and I got a ride back with Anna’s group since someone in their group decided to abandon them for another group too haha.
Thursday was our picnic in a state park about an hour away from the center. We climbed on playground equipment lol. I even went up to the top of one of those dome-ish thingies but I held on tight because I don’t like being on tops of things but I didn’t want to be the only one of us just sitting on the ground either. After we ate, we worked on a crossword puzzle lol.
Friday night was really emotional, but not really in a bad way. Well, except at first, during dinner, I started feeling really sick and my neck was throbbing from hitting my head earlier that day, and it was swelling, which I think was the reason it made me feel sick. Mr. White gave me the option of coming back to the worksite for a little while, since he and Mrs. Coats had to go back and the guys wanted to go with him, but he said there wasn’t much to do...and since I didn’t feel good and figured I’d probably just end up in the way, I said I’d stay...I didn’t find out until later that I was the only one of our group to stay, and then I felt bad...but anyway...I took some medicine and didn’t eat much and went to lay down for a while...Then I was smart and got some ice and put it in a bag and iced my neck for a while...and the swelling went down, which made me feel a little better...and then it was time for Evening Gathering, which was really special that night. We sat in a circle with our workgroups-except mine was still gone, so I temporarily joined Corey’s group. We went around and said things about the week that inspired us or talked about any “God moments” we’d had or just anything we felt like saying. I talked about how much people give when they have very little. Then we had communion. After that, my group came back, so I went back to sit with them, and we did a very rushed discussion and then one of the counselors told us that one person from each group could stand up and talk about the week. Some of the stories were amazing...I was trying sooooo hard not to cry, especially when one guy started talking about how, because of the work that was finished by them this week, this lady was allowed to have her kids back in her home. They’d been taken away by social services because of the living conditions, and she was only allowed to see them for two hours a week, and I think now she has them full time again. He started crying as he told us about it...and I think that was when most people started crying too...but I didn’t...I came awfully close but I kept my tounge bit hard because I didn’t want to cry...and I was ok through the other ones for the most part...and then, the last one to go, was my group. Michael was our speaker. He started off by talking about things about each person. He said that he was a very stubborn person and that basically if we don’t do things his way, he doesn’t help. That made me smile a little bit, and then he said something about how I’m the same way, to which I called out “thanks Michael!” and laughed, and then he elaborated about how I’m a perfectionist and therefore we don’t work well together...That’s what I get for going back over some of the stuff he did, like when I resanded something he’d sanded hahaha...so I started laughing and I guess that was my emotional release...because all the sudden I had tears just streaming down my face. Then he went on and talked about everyone else, other little comments that kept me laughing and crying...and he talked about the family...and when he got to Taylor he said “This little girl is 7 going-” and I called out “six” and I’m not even sure why I bothered lol, but he’s like “see! perfectionist! This girl is 7 going-” Leslie and Jessica call out “six!” which he ignores, “-going on 30. I’d try to make little kid jokes with her, and she’d just look at me like I’m stupid.” And the way he said that was absolutely hillarious. Then he started talking about the work that was done, and he said a lot of stuff about getting high off the glue they used for plumbing, which had everyone dying laughing, and he was talking about how it happend to him AND Mr. White, and then he said something like “Well, it wasn’t like we were sitting there just sniffing it...Well, I did once” and the whole cafeteria cracked up yet again. I was laughing and crying soooo hard; it felt really weird.
Later that night, we had a T-shirt auction...the highest selling item was a D.A.R.E shirt that went for $104.50, which Mrs. Coats gave to Michael. The auction raised $920 for ASP, which was reaaaaaally awesome. And I got a neck rub from Corey during it, which made it less stiff so that was nice^^
Saturday morning, we packed up all our stuff and then went to take a picture after doing chores...and I kinda had an argument with Melissa...which I guess we both just decided to ignore later in the day after basically not talking to eachother that morning? Because by the time we were allowed to switch vans after stopping for breakfast (we all got together again, yay!) we acted like nothing had happened. I don’t want to start another year off with things tense between us.
On the ride back, I didn’t pay nearly as much attention to the scenery as I did on the way up...and I got a little car sick for the first time the whole trip, which surprised me because I’ve gotten carsick really easily lately. I think it was kinda in combination of not being sure what was happening with Melissa and dreading the fact that I wouldn’t get to see Corey for at least two weeks.
Then we got a phone call from Matt on Rachel’s cell...Rache looked horrified...and I was like “Oh God there’s been a car accident...” while Anna thought he’d blown up his driveway with fireworks or something since it was the day before the 4th of July. It turns out I was right...but everyone’s fine. His mom’s car, which was to be his within the next few weeks, was totaled though...and if the other driver hadn’t swered, Matt wouldn’t be here anymore...which scared the crap out of me. I swear, people are going to think I’m crazier than before, but even though he’s fine it made me cry. I don’t like car accidents...so I just clung on to Corey (err, as much as you can in a van on a church trip?) and that made me feel better after a while.
When we got back, my parents and I went out for dinner and I talked a LOT hahaha...and then I took a really long hot shower...and then...Corey got to come over afterall! Even though he probably shouldn’t have, but he told me he had all of his stuff for scout camp together, aside from the clothes in the wash that had to go in first, so therefore he couldn’t pack til later anyway...but apparently “togther” is from looking down from the top of his house like an xray, so he had things in a few rooms on top of eachother :-P but you know what, I’m still glad he came over lol. We watched Footloose and hung out and had a great time. Saying goodbye was awful though.
Yesterday, I went to see the fireworks from the golf course with Rachel, and we met up with Zach, his sister Allison, Corey’s sister Hannah, and Megan. Then Rachel and I went back to her house (after a quick Kroger stop for some food and fireworks hehe) and set off the fireworks really quick before it started to rain too hard.
Haven’t done much today...some errands with my parents and such...and some evil planning with Steven! :-D If we can make this work, I’m going to be an ultra-happy Jen hehehehe!
Wow this is 7 1/3 pages...off to send Corey and email and then soon off to bed! Goodnight!
