Just the Way You Are. . .

A four day work week might seem pretty easy, and it was.  Nothing much of significance happened at the park.  

At the end of the day, the green hats gather to go over 86es, highlights and other news. I thought this week I’d share a few.

86es:

-Only one fight on Tuesday. (I was not involved!)

-Other than that, no one was kicked out of the park this week!

Highlights:

-Michael, one of our more particularly colorful and sassy guests, gave a green hat an Easter bonnet.  He’s only shown another green hat affection once (in the form of a hug) in the 10+ years he has been coming here.

-Our men’s washhouse has been out of commission for over a week.  (We went to retile the shower’s over labor day weekend and found mold. A complete restoration has been happening.)  Showers plan to resume on Monday!!

-There has only been an average of 650 guests per day!

Other news:

-It has been hot this week (almost 100 degrees) and we are out of water bottles. One man passed out from the heat and dehydration. (I bring a water bottle to work and refill it at least 3 times.)

-Another of the guests did not wake up or move on Friday when we closed the park.  He was breathing; the paramedics were called. We have yet to hear anything.

-One of the guests said I was the whitest out of all the volunteers and yet I have a visible farmer’s tan.

-I was also told I have very nice skin, and I’ve had a huge pimple on my chin this week.  He was looking right at it when he told me of my “nice skin.”

-2 meth addicts told me a long, twisted story of a girl being kidnapped, raped, and murdered.  To follow up on their claims I googled “Oregon wood chipper death” for an additional 30 minutes.  I will not believe meth addicts.

At the casa:

This week has flown by.  (As you might have guessed from the fact that I did not post on Friday.)  On Monday was the BBQ at the Jesuit center were we talked with the other JV house and the brothers and Brothers.  (Little b for those who are not priests yet.)  They sent us home with tons of food!!  On Tuesday, our two support people came over and we set up personal talks with them.  On Wednesday, I felt woozy after talking with Becca and hearing of the kids having strep, so I took my temperature and had a 102 fever.  I think it was a sympathy fever. I took some ibuprofen and took a 2 hour nap, and it went down to 100. I then took a freezing shower and it returned to normal.  Like any other hard working Chicagoan, I went to work the next day. (My casa-mates were shocked at my “work ethic.” I looked at them like they were crazy.)

That's been pretty much it.  I plan on hanging out with new friends (casa-mates, Newman peeps, the other volunteer kids) for the rest of this weekend, and then work starts on Monday again!  It's almost routine by this point.