thumbkin.

I have been reading other people's blogs in my time off and realize how much i miss this ... blogging. Life has been interesting of late, but when is it not. i am currently out of work because of my second thumb surgery-
good points: 1. hopefully my thumb will bend 2. time to look at the future 3. time to get in all the doctor's appt i have been delaying.
bad points: 1. missing work 2. got a bunch of stiches and a swollen thumb 3. it is hard to do things with your opposite hand like un-buttoning pants, brushing your teeth, shifting in the car...
hopefully this will be my last surgery until i am 60+ and i need a new knee or whatever.

work has been great lately. i got the oppertunity to visit the Bay-Waveland affiliate in Mississippi (affected by Katrina)... it was neat to be able to work side by side actually building with my co-worker(patrick) and boss(jack). we normally are just teaching people how to do things and do not necessarly get to do them ourselves. it was also interesting to watch how another affiliate does things. They really have the best set-up, being that they have Funding, Volunteers, and A great need for housing. It was great to watch, what i consider, the rather ideal set-up work for a week. We took away a lot of new connections and ideas from the week and work has seemed better ever since. . . even though i have been out Jack has been calling me and keeping me in the loop- which i think is preventing craziness in my brain.

in my spare time i have been going to the doctors (all of them), reading, looking at stuff online, catching up with friends, taking pictures(well trying- wishing they made a left haded camera)

and now to walk rux.

courtney.

i am thinking of a friend. she passed away. her life was that of a tragic heronie, but her spirit was always bright and vibrant. this woman had such passion for life- it was contagious.

so now i go after moving for the past couple of days to remember with others in downtown raleigh. to carry a candle and think of all the wonderful memories courtney gave me and the entire community. she will be missed. it was all too soon.


and i feel inspired. inspired by her strength and beauty. to conquer the world with full force and spread the light that she kindled inside of my soul and the souls of my friend, those i love.


courtney.

a long december and january and feburary.

N.C. just does not get cold weather like this. i mean really snow about 4 weeks in a row is crazy.

it has been a cold couple months of work - with few volunteers and pressing deadlines.

My house in Siler is still not where we want it to be, but i am more hopeful after today. We had a variety and a lot of people come out to volunteer which was exciting and busy. Today we exceeded my expectations of what we could get done- which is a great feeling.. being that it continually rains every time we try to work on this house.

life in chatham has been not happening lately- i have been in cary. Warm warm cary. thanks to my parents having an extra room and heat and no mice i have decided this to be a good retreat, although i must go back to the borro at some point. i wish it would warm up a bit to help this process along.

this past week we hosted our first collegiate challenge group - this is when college kids have spring break and choose a habitat affiliate to volunteer with for a week. Our group was from Siena College. it was a group of about 18 kids that worked really hard all week long even in the rain and muck. they even made pizza and shared it with us- new york mac and cheese pizza. yum. we talked about their religious affiliation of their college and what that meant to each of them... i really enjoyed the week of work, even if that means it is a bit longer.

more excitment to come next week - with lauren starting a new house in siler and patrick starting a new one in pittsboro. i am excited for the spring and warm weather and gardens and flowers.

ruxpin is still in limbo about surgery - or rather i am for him- he needs it - i just have not decided where and when and what to do with my crazy work hours and his surgery. prayers will help us make the necessary decisions.

I am thankful.

today started out with clouds, thunder, showers and cold.
today ended with warmth, sunshine, smiles and happiness.

i awoke this morning to roll over (as much as you can in a twin bed) to see a lil black face staring at me- angel.
i found this dog yesterday and decided to take care of it until a new owner can be found.
this little dog weighs around 8 lbs. and should weigh something between 15-20. Poor thing... just sat in its crate in someone's backyard shivering in the cold, because there was no meat to keep her warm.
This dog seems to be even tempered and loving, i have trouble understanding how people can be so unkind.

it is not just the puppy that makes me question but rather life events that lead me to think on this.... but enough negativity.
I went to alabama- since the last time i posted, which was one of the most inspiring times of my life. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people who all have the same motivations and in a way limitations as you do . It was great to realized the strong points of the Chatham branch for me as well.

I think the winter is crazy this year- it just seems to rain. but with that rain comes a great amount of green grass infront of our houses, for which i am thankful. I am also thankful for new friends, that are so selfless. i am thankful for my family as well.

tonight shall be a short post expect greater length soon.

Welcome to Westmont.

This is where we build in Siler City- a place that reminds me much of mexico- for the food, the people, and the language. Yay spanish time.

So this would be casa numero dos for me- in the framing world. I really like this part because you can see the work that we have done each day when we are done- unlike three coats of paint or trim work of sorts...
This house is to be a two story so stay tuned for more picture updates, now that i am finally remeber my camera.

Last night sleep was not so easy- although i am not exactly sure why, it was raining very hard on my tin roof. Normally this helps me to sleep, but last night was a battle- i shall use this as my excuse for misspellings and incoherence. :)

This past Sunday i ran in my first race ever- if you want to call it that- a 5K in Raleigh called the monster dash - my time 30:03 and my race number 454- palindromes everywhere! 95 out of 209 - I really like the feeling i get after a run - i feel like i could perhaps conquer the world, or normally harder tasks, so i have tried to make it more a part of my habits. And by that i mean i have been running this week 2x's and last week once - so i wasnt too dissapointed in the fact that i had only run 1 time in the past 2 months and got that time. I am hopeing for a marathon with my dad in March- we shall see on both those parts.

My grandmother called me today and shared wonderful news of a donation to my Habitat for Humanity- thanks again. I am also very happy my grandfather is no longer in the hospital. It was nice to hear his voice, as he always inspires hope in me.

This past weekened i also was invited to 2 parties in Chatham County- i know right 2 in one day for this county- basically thought hell would freeze over... but it was soo much fun. Went to my boss's house and we carved pumpkins (we being americoprs and some of his friends) - and after i went to Lauren's boyfriend Hayden's house for his soup party. All in all a great night to live in Pittsboro and a good night to remind myself of my new friends.

Framing will continue tomorrow and after i must find some sort of halloween costume - i thought of being an owl- but i want to be sparkley and maybe wear a tutu so who knows where that will lead.

I shall make this post short in the hopes that i will return to write more sooner, like maybe tomorrow when i am cooking up my costume.

lomo bonita is my new favorite mexican restaurant

Busy. Busy. Busy.

It is October the first and i am sitting outside in a flannel shirt just warm enough- yay fall !

The past week has been a lot of work - late hours and long days- but all entirely worth it.  I think that my brain often feel like it may explode due to the amount of information coming in...

i know spanish and i know english 

- but construction- this is a whole different language, 

which i am slowly learning in english and in spanish.

in framing a house i have learned more vocab for 2X4's then most people ever thought imaginable. i like to learn though and it keeps me interested every day is new and different, even when i have done the task before because there are often new and different volunteers.

i think that more than framing that has been the lesson of the past week- learning how to teach others.  there are many groups who come to chatham county habitat to volunteer- the retired men and sometimes women, the all girls schools, the churches, the homeowners, singles groups, corporate companies,...

each of these groups has their own ideas about how they want the day to go and each of these groups has at ~15 people who all learn their own ways... you can see how i thought i might already know all these things being that i have worked in the service industry for ~ 8 years or something but let me tell you this is a whole new ballgame. 

patience is something that i have grown over the years and found it moreso in spain and in my last year of college than anyother time - now it is time to continue that growth and practice it.  Being a girl i think sometimes is a factor which makes all of this harder but more on women in construction later. 

Yesterday i attempted to go to a urban agriculture meeting with my coworker in siler city after work - before the meeting we drove around exploring the city * town - to see all the parts of it that we cannot see on our daily drive to westmont (where the house is that we are framing).  we then went to our favorite mexican restaurant, coincidentally the only mexican restaurant i have been to in town, for a sopes.  sopes are from heaven.  we were waiting to meet up with  a couple people from pittsboro, including my coworker- lauren's boyfriend.  welp, we ended up getting the meeting time confused and saw the end of it where we sat outside with a few of the people talking about things and stuff- you know how that is... at this point we were invited back to one guys studio space in downtown siler city (don't laugh city friends) and it was AMAZING... i mean really cool.  The tire park in bradford  has a competitor - this guy makes all sortsa art - lamps, tables, chairs ... out of old tires.  It was wonderful.  a night of dancing and singing and piano and drum playing and then of course the old record player.  I thought to myself on my drive home from siler city - this is why i moved here.  

back to life in pittsboro at the old mann house- i like this as well.  my roomates are very interesting people with idiosyncrasies that far exceed what i was expecting and make it about ten times better to live where i do.  i really enjoy when the two of them are at home - and even walked into the normally quiet michael singing along to david bowie yesterday..:)

jonah is always boisterous.  he also likes pizza more than anyother human i have ever met- which works great for me - being that i came in to a large amount of it last weekend upon visiting friends in the raleigh region. oh and to my wife stephanie (we were married as a class project in hs where there were not enough boys)- her visit from philly was wonderful.  so glad to see her so happy.  

My class at the community college is interesting - although i find it rather funny that the men teaching the class do not remember me from the 3 months i worked in the same office as them.  i suppose i could remind them- but i like being under the radar to an extent. 

the class is on building science .

on tuesday nights i go to a new homeowners class - which is going well.  i am learning a lot about owning a home.  this night also gives me a chance to talk with the homeowners in a nonworkish environment, sharing stories that we do not always get the time to talk about.  except last saturday-  these stories and more came out last saturday when i was in charge of the homeowners.  i think they brought out about 30 people plus.  i was stressin' because i had 4 houses going at once- but no matter because the homeowners are the best group to work with- shhhhhh.

i get to use my spanish all the time on these days and this particular saturday i got food for free too! homecooked mexican- yes you should now be jealous. . . and all the meat in the world if i had wanted it.  

this job is wonderful. this life change is much the same.  i feel more observant of everything- which i like- perhaps because it is new, or perhaps because i take the time to notice more.  

... and when i miss the people and do not want to be in the woods i do what i am now- drive to carborro with my dog and sit outside with my computer around others.  

i leave you all tonight with a picture of my house as it stood half-way through yesterday.  yes this was started last week. 

Rainy days.

It has been far too long.

sorry all.

Today - Tuesday 22 of Sept. it rained, off and on , on and off ... off and on. Again.

i suppose if i were not framing a house i would not hate it so much- but when trying to lay joists on a chalk line in the rain- well you see the problem here... good news is that i got to meet the family of this new house tonight at the New Homeowners Meeting ( i am required to go for work but would opt to go if it were up to me).  This is a class for all people who are approved to own a habitat home - and let me just tell you - these houses are nice, probably nicer than anything i have lived in (sorry mom and dad)

My rational:

1.  our houses come with a promise for the first 2yrs that your energy - heating and cooling will be less than 35 dollars. I lived in an apt. that was half the size and got double that in the extreme seasons.  

2.  our houses come with options for the money- tile floors and pergo - i mean i think my rents have a beautiful wood floor and that the wood floor in my old apt was wonderful as well- but they dont do carpet as much as they used to - decreasing health problems.  

3.  our houses are well built - this is where - now that i know- i really question my rents house- i want to make sure that they are getting the most for their money and silly structure things make me question. 

ok so maybe my house is nicer but i must say these houses are pretty great.  As i said before, we began work in Siler City today - something we hadnt done in while - i had not ever done before - building joists and knee walls and all sortsa vocab. i had never heard of (one disadvantage to being the only new americorps habitat member at my location)  

it was a mighty rainy day left work played with rux went back for the class and learned about the habitat homeowning process- really interesting and i am excited to spend time with the homeowners and their kids!   I then bought some groceries at the store, which for once in my life- i could see why people like chains.  I felt almost a sense of comfort in that i am new and know not a sole- yet my harris teeter is set up in the same fashion.  

i know i will regret saying what i just did, good job branding agents at the HT.   

i will write more of my new community college corse on monday nights and this past weekend with 6 cats and 2 dogs later.