Let's see...what has happened in the last couple weeks of my life? These past couple of weeks has been really strange and epic all in one.
I contracted pink eye like 3 weeks ago. My best guess is it happened at Nativity House when I had to clean poop off of one of the bathroom walls. Not kidding. It happens fairly frequently. Anyways, I figured out an equation of what I believe happened. Poo particles + my wall scrubbing = pink eye for me. Awesome. I went to this semi-shady clinic, but I figured it was just pink eye, so how bad could things get screwed up right? Wrong. I took my drops for the correct amount of time yet things got worse. Turns out, after an appointment with a real eye doctor, I was allergic to the original medicine.
Thankfully, I got new drops, but things can never be that easy with me. I learned that 1-4% of people have strange reactions to these specific drops. Yep, you guessed it, I'm one of those people. After each drop (4x a day) came this awful taste in my mouth that lasted like 45 minutes each time. The closest thing I can compare it to is that taste you get post-vomit and pre-toothbrush. My housemate Mike told me I looked like a cat hacking up a hair ball when this effect set in because I was constantly on the verge of gagging. I'm almost fully recovered now. If my eyes don't fall out when I put in my contacts tomorrow for the first time this month, I am cured. If not, I'm S.O.L...I s'pose.
This last week of work culminated into a 17 year old girl and her "23" year old boyfriend screaming expletives at me when I told them to leave. *No one under 18 without a parent or guardian because of liability with other guests.* Topping that series of events can only be described in two words...Preacher Man.
There are 2 guests that have come from who knows where and have taken the Tacoma homeless system by storm these past few weeks. Let me give you a little description of these characters.
"Preacher" man is a large African American man who likes to sing hymns, read from the Bible (or his own version of the Bible), smoke crack, occasionally get violet, curse people, and just chaos overall. He sounds wonderful right?! Anyways, his wife is fairly sweet and I actually feel really bad for her. Preacher really dominates her as well as spiritually abuses her. I'm pretty sure that June is intellectually disabled in some capacity. For example, she is not allowed to talk to other people that smile at her because "even the Devil smiles at you." However, she stays with husband and refuses to get help to be away from him, so there's only so much we can do.
When I say that they have taken Tacoma by storm, it's true. In less than 2 weeks they have been banned from 95% of all of the homeless resources that the city offers...churches included. Nativity House was their last resort, until Sunday happened.
Preacher was up to his usual causing commotion as soon as he stepped through our door. *Let me also note that all of the guests can't stand these two because of the havoc they wreak at every establishment.* Basically, we knew that Dante (Preacher) was going to get himself kicked out for the day, it's pretty much inevitable...the calm before the storm. Well, to make a long story short(er) Dante got in my face, harassed me, and then started to subtly threaten. Not cool. My boss Dominique told him to leave because he was causing a commotion. His response..."A commotion...I'll give you a commotion!"
Let me paraphrase what came out of his mouth followed by his wife's. "Nativity House is cursed and calamity will fall upon this building." "I curse every single person in this building." "You will all feel the wrath of God and face eternal damnation." "Mt. Rainier is going to blow up (it's a volcano and if it blows, Tacoma is gone) and cover you all in it's fiery lava." Etc. Etc. The list goes on. Case and point...according to this crack-smoking man, I'm cursed. Shoot. Oh well, I'm still gonna pray for them daily.
Needless to say, we banned them too. In fact, I was really sad that I had no video camera handy or video capability on my phone...the whole scenario was hilarious. Lots of booing homeless people with this man yelling curses at everyone.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the start of my longest work week thus far. For those of you that don't know...I work EVERY holiday all day. Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone near and far!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Spawning Salmon, Courage, and Jurassic Park
Things have been crazy these last couple of weeks. I need to try and be better about updating this. I think I have a guilt complex about this blog because I have been reading the book, Julie and Julia. I don't really know why I'm reading this because I have seen the movie a few times. Anyways, if Julie can work full-time, cook French meals and write about it daily then I am super lame for not even being to update weekly. Oh well.
To fill you in on what I have been up to, let me tell you about Myrtle Creek, Oregon. LVC requires us to have retreats 3 times this year, which is basically 5 days at a camp somewhere in Washington or Oregon for times of "relaxation, re-creation, and rejuvenation." And because my work weeks are Thurs till Mon, that meant that I coming off a 9 day vacation (the retreat was Thurs till Mon). I'm excited for work tomorrow because I am starting to get antsy, but I am so happy to have had this vacation...it was much needed.
We stayed at Camp Myrtlewood while we were in Oregon. First of all, let me tell you how I excited I was for this place...mainly because of the name. For anyone that doesn't know, my car is named Myrtle. So, in honor of my little Galant, I slept in Myrtle cabin because Laurel cabin just seemed like it would be a slap in the face. Anywho, it took us about 8 hours to reach Myrtlewood from Seattle/Tacoma. I just have to throw out that driving though Oregon reminded me a lot of driving through the Smokies in Tennessee and North Carolina. Lots of rolling hills/mountains, very green, and fairly long stretches of nothing. Here's a glimpse, but it doesn't do it justice. Please note the loner Charlie Brown tree at the top that sparked my interest for this particular picture.
Pretty much my time in Oregon was spent hiking, reading, hanging out with the LV's from Seattle and Bay Area houses, eating smores, doing absolutely nothing, etc. I will talk about a couple of highlights though. The camp had 4 all white cats and there was one in particular that forced itself on everyone.
Courage is his name and being friendly is his game. He would first lure an unsuspecting LV in with his meows and cute demeanor, and as you bent down for a pet, he would pounce. Landing on your shoulders, lap, chest, or wherever he decided was most fitting, Courage had you in his web. More than once I fell for his antics and found myself trapped with a sleeping cat on my legs or shoulders. You may be asking why I didn't try and move him, well let me tell you. Courage has 3 powerful weapons-nails, teeth, and persistence...all of which he uses continuously. If you tried to move him, he would bite or dig his nails into tender flesh, and if you did manage to get away, he would follow. So for me personally, I'm weak and let him sleep on me because I didn't have much else to do. This picture is specifically for my mom...note how happy I am.
It was really cool being at the camp too because it was super foggy, so the hiking was slightly terrifying. I really felt like I was in Jurassic Park and was waiting for a Velociraptor to come out and take me away...not kidding. I even helped to calm my nerves by making my best raptor impressions and stomping around with my arms up to make me seem big. Thankfully, I made it out alive. Also, see photo above if you have doubts about what I say. Ferns are great hiding places for dinosaurs.
Finally, it's salmon spawning season and Myrtlewood has a creek (or stream or river?) that runs through it, so it was awesome. There were tons of salmon that were swimming up-stream to lay their eggs in the shallow gravel beds. We saw some salmon that were over 3 feet long and it was so cool to see this part of Creation that few people get to witness.
On our drive home we saw 3 rainbows which was pretty awesome. I would say the best part this was the fact that we drove through the end of this particular (photo) rainbow. I've never experienced that before and it was crazy because one second it was in front of us and then next it was behind us. Crazy cool. Sadly, I found no leprechauns or pots of gold at the end of this rainbow. Also, please note how prominent all of the colors are...rainy season has its advantages I guess.
To fill you in on what I have been up to, let me tell you about Myrtle Creek, Oregon. LVC requires us to have retreats 3 times this year, which is basically 5 days at a camp somewhere in Washington or Oregon for times of "relaxation, re-creation, and rejuvenation." And because my work weeks are Thurs till Mon, that meant that I coming off a 9 day vacation (the retreat was Thurs till Mon). I'm excited for work tomorrow because I am starting to get antsy, but I am so happy to have had this vacation...it was much needed.
We stayed at Camp Myrtlewood while we were in Oregon. First of all, let me tell you how I excited I was for this place...mainly because of the name. For anyone that doesn't know, my car is named Myrtle. So, in honor of my little Galant, I slept in Myrtle cabin because Laurel cabin just seemed like it would be a slap in the face. Anywho, it took us about 8 hours to reach Myrtlewood from Seattle/Tacoma. I just have to throw out that driving though Oregon reminded me a lot of driving through the Smokies in Tennessee and North Carolina. Lots of rolling hills/mountains, very green, and fairly long stretches of nothing. Here's a glimpse, but it doesn't do it justice. Please note the loner Charlie Brown tree at the top that sparked my interest for this particular picture.
Pretty much my time in Oregon was spent hiking, reading, hanging out with the LV's from Seattle and Bay Area houses, eating smores, doing absolutely nothing, etc. I will talk about a couple of highlights though. The camp had 4 all white cats and there was one in particular that forced itself on everyone.
Courage is his name and being friendly is his game. He would first lure an unsuspecting LV in with his meows and cute demeanor, and as you bent down for a pet, he would pounce. Landing on your shoulders, lap, chest, or wherever he decided was most fitting, Courage had you in his web. More than once I fell for his antics and found myself trapped with a sleeping cat on my legs or shoulders. You may be asking why I didn't try and move him, well let me tell you. Courage has 3 powerful weapons-nails, teeth, and persistence...all of which he uses continuously. If you tried to move him, he would bite or dig his nails into tender flesh, and if you did manage to get away, he would follow. So for me personally, I'm weak and let him sleep on me because I didn't have much else to do. This picture is specifically for my mom...note how happy I am.
It was really cool being at the camp too because it was super foggy, so the hiking was slightly terrifying. I really felt like I was in Jurassic Park and was waiting for a Velociraptor to come out and take me away...not kidding. I even helped to calm my nerves by making my best raptor impressions and stomping around with my arms up to make me seem big. Thankfully, I made it out alive. Also, see photo above if you have doubts about what I say. Ferns are great hiding places for dinosaurs.
Finally, it's salmon spawning season and Myrtlewood has a creek (or stream or river?) that runs through it, so it was awesome. There were tons of salmon that were swimming up-stream to lay their eggs in the shallow gravel beds. We saw some salmon that were over 3 feet long and it was so cool to see this part of Creation that few people get to witness.
On our drive home we saw 3 rainbows which was pretty awesome. I would say the best part this was the fact that we drove through the end of this particular (photo) rainbow. I've never experienced that before and it was crazy because one second it was in front of us and then next it was behind us. Crazy cool. Sadly, I found no leprechauns or pots of gold at the end of this rainbow. Also, please note how prominent all of the colors are...rainy season has its advantages I guess.
I think that's about all I've got for now. Until next time, that's all folks!
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