A Procrastinator's Guide to Deep-Frying a Turkey

Quite possibly one of the most memorable Thanksgivings I have ever had. Of course, it was the first one that I have spent away from my family, so that was tough. But at the same time it was a ton of fun. Let us start from the beginning...

Zach came in on Tuesday night. After talking for a bit with my community members, the two of us stayed up for a while just talking about a bunch of different things, but eventually the conversation steered towards next year and possibly ending up in St. Louis and where we wanted to start to move towards in our lives. It was surprising how much we were on the same page, not only in what we wanted to do but why. But still have quite a few options, and this didn't necessarily make anything that much clearer. But anyway, at 3 I said time for bed, because of work. He laughed and said alright, I guess I am coming with you.

Wednesday was pretty low key. Work was pretty boring. He came to school and to Hanson House with me and met my kids (Two comments: "He looks like Jesus" and "His hair is beautiful, I want it"). It was really low-key at work, except for one conversation I had with one of my kids who had had a rough time. It was the first time I straight up have had nothing to say to one of these kids. I did not have any advice to give; I had no clue what I should say next. That hurt, that I could not say what this kid needed to hear. Blah...

But then we went out. At ten we headed out to the bar, with me saying, "I have to be at work at 7, one beer and I am coming home." Yeah, notsomuch. Met a sweet bartender, had some drinks, got ripped on the entire night by aforementioned bartender. The night ended with a free shot from the bartender called a chocolate covered cherry. Awesome. But it was about 12:30 at this point. We then got home and stayed up for another hour. I mean, it was fun, but waking up the next morning kind of sucked...

I woke up at 6:30, hopped on my Huffy, and made the two mile ride in about 15 minutes. Usually the first few hours of the morning shift are easy because the kids sleep. Well, one woke up around 7:30 and we talked for the next three hours about a bunch of stuff. It was a great conversation, but not one to have when you are exhausted. Then another one of my kids woke up and that was another hour conversation or so. Thanksgiving was my toughest day at Hanson House, by far. It was really hard being there with the kids because they were apart from their families. The mood of the house was just...low. And for good reason. But once again I found myself with nothing to say because really, what could I say? I at least had some choice in being here. I can't imagine what it would be like for them. Nothing really happened all day, but it was really draining to be there. Then I went home and no one was there; we had been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner and they went but I obviously couldn't. I just kind of putzed around for a while then went to the house where we had our Thanksgiving. I was house sitting at this pretty sweet house, so we had it there. It was quite a bit of fun.

I need to back track once more. My community members told me I could deep fry our turkey if I found a deep fryer, thinking that there was no way I was going to follow through on it. Well, I win. Kind of. See, there were some issues. First, we had nothing to set the turkey on. Using hangers and a collander (sp?) we tried to jerry rig something. Fail. We then realized the crab pot we were using was too small for our turkey. Solution? Chop up the turkey and put in in a fish fryer that we then put into the crab pot. Winner! Next, we had no injector to use for the marinade. Solution? Turkey baster with a shish kabob stick inserted in it. Yeah...It worked a little bit. Then, we had no way to put the thermometer into the oil. Solution? buy a candy thermometer and wrap a hanger around it. Yup. We then went outside to deep fry our turkey. With the girls commenting that they had the hospital on speed dial. Well, we deep fried it, and it was fantastic. Next time (and there will be a next time) I will plan it out a little better and a little further in advance. But it was awesome. We had a really great meal and conversation and I was just happy to be there. We then watched a movie and passed out. Good day.

The plan for Friday was to go on a hike. But. We didn't. Watched football and laid around all day. Went out again that night. Tequila and diets...awful. But we had a really fun time. I ended up doing my happy dance(s) for everyone. Z had an interesting end to his night. We closed down the bar in style. Then I chased Z through the streets...well, street of Sitka, with him lying down in a vestibule at one point. Then we woke up on Saturday and actually went on a hike. The highlight? Seeing two pods of whales. It was incredible. They make one of the coolest noises I have ever heard. There were also a ton of eagles out, which was really neat. Then we played Scategories and watched 'Up.' All in all a solid night.

Sunday came and we drove Zach to the airport and went to Mass. Then I got a text from Z telling me that he couldn't take off. He ended up getting a ride to the place where mass was being held (not the church; the bishop always comes to Sitka and says the first Mass of Advent, and they have it at Centennial Hall. It was pretty cool). Why was his flight canceled? Boulders on the runway. But and we got to play some Ultimate together again. We ended up on the same team. It was a good time. Then he actually took off. Sad times. But it was good to see him. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Tough being away from family, but it was a great group of people to spend Thanksgiving with. Hope all you guys had a good holiday!

"The day is coming where He will deck the devil!"

We recently started a quote board, and this is one of the few quotes on it that is appropriate to put in the public arena. My room mates might get angry with me if I put any more up. Yeah...we heard it while playing cards in the kitchen and listening to the radio...

So. Worst two week period yet. I have found that my kids really don't like to be held accountable. Like, really don't like to be held accountable. Frustration setting in...There have been a significant amount of conflicts that have arisen, over some pretty minor things. Up until this point I have found myself questioning the population that I was serving. I mean, I have friends serving very clearly marginalized populations but me...these kids are smart, many of them are not poor in a material sense, and generally extremely likable. But then some things happened and I started to realize that these examples, while the typical 'marginal' populations, is a very narrow scope of what marginal really means. Many of these kids have never been held accountable for anything, they have been allowed to get away with pretty much everything. A lot of parents equate 'love' with 'stuff' (and this is not isolated to just these kids; I can think of plenty of examples in my life). They haven't had too much exposure to a strong, supportive presence in their lives, and I hope that I am providing that, at least on some level. Unfortunately that sometime manifests itself in a authoritative presence. Not fun to do. But within all the conflict something pretty great happened - conversations happened, anger bore fruit and breakthroughs were made. Through those conversation, understanding emerged. Understanding about communication with each other, about roles, mine and theirs, and just the power of empathy has changed my relationship with some of these kids, but not in a bad way. All the anger and frustration I felt this week was somehow justified by two conversations I had at the end of the week. And that is a pretty cool feeling.

It has started to snow! For the past few weeks snow has begun to make its way down the surrounding mountains and that has been beautiful. But this week it started to snow in town and it brings a whole new element of beauty to Sitka. I love snow, always have. No different here. However, the weather has not been too fun over the past few days. A few examples. On Saturday I woke up and rode my bike to work. The wind was gusting at a pretty high rate. I got to work just as it started to hail. The hail then changed into rain which then changed into snow. It stopped snowing, the sun came out, and it was great...for about 15 minutes when it got dark and started to hail again. And this was 10 AM about then. Fun. Where I work is at the top of a pretty steep hill. As I left work the wind was pushing me uphill. I had to pedal down a hill, a pretty new experience for me. It was fun. Then this morning I went to the library and it was clear. About a half hour later it was snowing with about 100 foot visibility. Crazy...

A few things. First off, my job will be changing a bit. It is pretty much universally agreed on that my role at the high school is not strong enough; being there two days a week just doesn't give me the opportunity to support my clients as well as I could. So I will be going to the school Tues-Fri from 8-1, and then HH from 3-6 or so. I will eat dinner there sometimes. But yeah, hopefully this way I can provide a greater level of support to my clients by this. I am meeting with a few people at the school this week to discuss how that expansion might look. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed at these tasks. Don't they realize that I am a 22-year-old recent college grad with a finance degree!?

Community is going really well. Some members are going a little stir crazy, but for the most part we are doing really well with each other. Of course, with the snow fall that is perfect packing snow, multiple impromptu snowball fights have broken out. Somehow it ends up being boys v girls, for some reason. Bad idea girls...Natalie is in Fairbanks this week, so we are a little shorthanded, but otherwise going strong.

GMAT prep is going. It is tough to get motivated sometime. It is a struggle preparing for this while staying present to my role here. It is tough, because as of right now this is not a permanent situation for me; my long term plans don't really include me staying in Sitka after this year (granted this could change, but just saying...). But I am doing my best to stay present in my community and at work. This has recently become my biggest struggle, especially as holidays start to come up.

Finally, my energy level is dropping a little. It tough, when it gets dark at 4 in the afternoon...Sorry again for the delay and the length; I just recently got a new computer (old one died) so hopefully I will get my act together and post more. Until next time...

Num num num num

So there has been a fair amount that has happened in the last few weeks. I went to Anchorage for a few days, then followed that up by meeting up with the three other Alaskan JV communities for our first retreat. Upon getting back I had a very good week at work, and then Halloween wrapped everything up nicely.

Although we did not have to be in Anchorage until Friday, John, a JV from Bethel, invited me to meet up with him and two of his community members to hang around Anchorage. So I flew in on Wednesday and was picked up by our area director Jamie. After a crash course on the layout of Anchorage I set out with a map in my pocket. It was...overwhelming. To be in a city again was kind of a weird experience. I remember thinking, "Oh hey, a building with more than two stories." Things that are integrated into daily life in Sitka were magnified there. I was asked for money, actually had to pay attention to cars and traffic lights, was not ready for the sensory overload that all the chains forced on me. It was a new experience, one that I wasn't entirely ready for. And I have only been here for 3 months! Then I got to Bean's Cafe, a soup kitchen and drop in center where two Anchorage JVs work. As I walked up wearing my clean, North Face pullover, my North Face backpack, some hiking shoes that I had been able to buy a week or so before that, and having just flown in from Sitka, I found myself extremely self-conscious. I wondered what everyone was thinking when they saw me walking into this soup kitchen. Homelessness is an issue in Sitka, but not to the extent that it is in a bigger city, and the homeless and the affluent are often in the same spot in Sitka; there really is no other choice. I found myself once again overwhelmed confronted with another extreme than I have experienced for the past three months. I went in and said hi to Trevor, who I only really recognized because of his name tag and he had no real idea who I was. I sat with him and Katie during their lunch hour and we shared experiences and job duties and how our years were going. It was great to get another perspective on a JV year in Alaska. Following that, I went to a coffee shop to write some letters and to wait for John. He got in around 3:30 and we set off to explore a bit of the city. We didn't get too far and went back to the JV house to introduce ourselves to the rest of the Anchorage JVs. We sat around and did the same thing; talked about our years and our jobs and experiences. John and I went out to dinner at Moose Tooth, a microbrewery and pizzeria that was very good. Following a conversation with a local geologist we set off to pick up PJ and Joe. Joe actually graduated from SLU...5 years ago :). Again, talking about the year and our experiences (sensing a theme?) over a few beers, we went back and went to sleep.

Thursday we woke up with a bit of a plan. Joe works with Native elders in Bethel and the Native gathering called the AFN was happening in Anchorage. We weren't sure what to expect so we wandered around until we found the keynote speaker. I don't know her name but she was probably one of the best speakers I have ever seen. She spoke about the struggles of the Native culture in Alaska, about how the current generations had to step up and preserve the memories and lessons of the elders, to take the elders struggles and work towards solidarity and more rights (Native rights in Alaska are still a huge issue). I found myself moved by her passion and knowledge, of her love for her people. And she couldn't have been older than 22, 23 years old. To have a leader like that is huge, and I still find myself thinking back to that time and how impressed I was. We then drove out to a trail and hiked up it. It was different than hiking in Sitka. We were on a mountain, but there were no trees, no switchbacks, not as wet. But it was still beautiful. On our way back down we saw 16 moose, with about 10 bulls or so. It was incredible. We made our way back to Anchorage, got ready to go out, had some dinner, then went out with the Anchorage house to a local bar. Complete with a metal detector at the door, two or three separate dance floors, and PBR and Busch on tap. Oh, and a kick ass cover band that played a diverse playlist that covered The Killers, U2, and Papa Roach. We had a great time dancing and hanging out with each other. Good times.

Then the retreat. This retreat was focused on community, and it was led by Charles, a deacon and iconagrapher from Juneau, and his wife Paula, an FJV who spent two years in Juneau. We were asked to focus on different things regarding communities, and they focused primarily on three different authors' ideas on community: Jean Vanier, who started the L'Arche movement, Dorothy Day, who was instrumental in the formation in the Catholic Worker Movement, and St. Benedict, who's rules for monastic living have formed the backbone of monastic communities for the last 600 years or so. We were forced to look at how our communities were living out the values and how we could improve, our relationships with ourselves, and our communities that we live and serve in. We came back with a few questions and a few things to explore, especially regarding social justice. The weekend solidified my answer of "Yes" to come to Alaska. While the lead up to coming to Sitka was a time of confusion, fear, and excitement, since I have been here I have not looked back at all. This weekend just solidified that.

So we had a great weekend, made some great connections with other communities, and said our good byes for the next 4 months or so. When we got back to Sitka we jumped right back into work. I had a very good week at work. The kids seemed to be in good moods, and there were some great conversations. In fact, my biggest complaint this week had to do with one of my co-workers. Which I hope will be my biggest complaint moving forward as well. I don't know, this was just a good week.

Punctuated by Halloween. We went as Ms. Pacman, with Evie playing that part, and the rest of us went as the ghosts. There is a dance that the public radio station puts on each year called the Stardust Ball, and the band this year was The Gourds. Remember that conversation that we all had during college, who sang that cover of 'Gin and Juice'? Yeah, it was the Gourds. We danced the night away and had a pretty great time. As the night progressed I accumulated many other people's costume components, some of which are in our living room. It was a pretty great two week period.