Virus

Something has been attacking my body this week.  One of those small, unseen critters that worms its way into your blood and wreaks havoc on you.  Coughing, sneezing, feeling tired, looking like the Before person in a DayQuil commercial, etc.  It’s made getting through the week tough, and keeping up with this blog tougher.  In spite of my cold, however, the week has been very good (especially when I don’t look at it through the lens of a sick person with an incessant cough).

Halloween was an interesting night to be hanging around the base.  A number of people dressed up, even though none of us have that much money to go through and resources are limited.  Among the highlights were the team that went as all four Ninja Turtles, Tori (my teammate) who made a kickin’ dress out of garbage bags and duct tape, and the guys who took whatever they had lying around in their rooms (rucksacks, flashlights, belts, and whatnot) and basically turned themselves into abstract monster artwork, a la the Garbage Monster from Fraggle Rock.  For my part, while on the phone with my sister explaining to her that I really had no plans for the evening, my friend (and former pod-mate) Nicole, asked if I “wanted to dress up like a burrito…?”  She is a huge fan of a restaurant chain called Chipotle, which specializes in burritos, and on Halloween if you come into the place dressed like their specialty, they give you one for free.  Who can turn down a free burrito?  So a group of about 10 of us drove their, wrapped ourselves in tin-foil, and – laughing all the way - got ourselves some delicious Mexican-American fare for nothing.  The employees thought we were hilarious.  Well worth it.

Last night was even more worthwhile.  At 5 o’clock my team finally found out where they will be sending us for our first project: Biloxi, Mississippi.  We’ll be working with an organization called Urban Development Ministries (I think) in three capacities.  First, half of our team will be working construction, finishing houses for people on the coast who are still living in FEMA trailers from Katrina and Rita.  Second, a quarter of our team will be coordinating the volunteers who arrive to work (which could be upwards of 200 people, we’ve been told).  Lastly, a quarter of our team will be working on coordinating the food for all the volunteers.  So, there are some significant leadership positions that we’ll have the opportunity to fill.  I’ll post more details as I learn them.

If that wasn’t great enough for a night, it was my teammate Becky’s birthday today, so we celebrated it last night after dinner (hot dogs and Kraft Mac & Cheese…mmm…).  Then, I went out with three van-loads of people into midtown Sacramento to go Swing dancing.  I haven’t had the chance to really get someplace and dance like that (aside from the weddings I’ve attending, and then the dancing styles are varied) for about 8 years.  It was fun to see what I still remembered, and nice to get off base for the night.

But today, my cold kicked into third gear and I’ve pretty much slept off most of the day.  I’m feeling pretty good at the moment, but that could just be the medicine talking.  So, I’m going to go and see if I can make myself look more like the After person and have it last.