The 2nd week of our 4th project is now underway.

We just finished up our first real week yesterday with habitat for humanity. So far the work has been pretty good and really physicaly demanding. Our jobs range from shoveling dirt into..... well.... big holes, drywalling, steel plating, nailing, tool maintenance, inventory work back at the habitat store and sawing wood to make more 2x4 steaks. So we got a lot of variety in the work we're doing. Every day is something different, which is a good change of pace compared to what we've been used to for the past 5 months.

Our work hours differ every day, but on average, we get off work at 3:30. But we start every day at 7:30. So basicly its the same hours we had at Phillips school, except instead of working with kids, we're working with tools! Horray! By the end of everyday we're usualy really tired and not wanting to do anything except sit around at our housing . The girls usualy end up watching various episodes of Sex and the City that Phoebe borrowed from Lori. Mark usualy watches Kris' movies that he has and as for me, I got Ocerena of time to play. When we actually DO feel like going out, I usualy take a trip to one of the two local coffee shops nearby to use their WiFi for internet goodness.

Theres not really that much to do downtown in cleveland to our surprise. In comparison, it's a lot like portland when it comes to nightlife, aka DEAD. The streets are deserted except for occasional cars here and there. We took a trip to the rock and roll hall of fame last wednesday, was a fun trip, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures due to copyright issues, but other then that, we have yet to explore much of downtown, i'm just speaking from experience.

So, uh yeah, I guess thats are there is to say so far. Nothing much going on.

Cleveland Ohio baby!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Our new project kicked itself off today. We're now working for habitat for humanity, working on fixing the foundations up, or just generaly working on the inside doing drywall, fixing up cabinents or doing doors. The first day we worked, we filled up the outer area of the basement with gravel, to cover up some of the pipes for the house so they arent exposed to anything dangerous. It was pretty intense labor today, about 3 hours of straight shoveling, then a break, then onto a different site to load up some 2x4 planks, then onto a different site where we spent about another 2 hours shoveling dirt into a big hole to cover up exposed piping again, and then we were done.

The volunteers that we're working with seem to be very nice people and we get along with them really well. So far we really only worked with 2 other AmeriCorps Habitat volunteers, but tomorrow we should be working with some church groups, or other volunteers from schools around the general Cleveland area. From what I have seen today, I can say that so far this seems to be a really good project from the looks of it. Also our housing is KICK ASS!!!!!!!! We're staying in an old church that has been around for at least 100 years, which has actually really kept up well considering its age. It has a really nice sanctuary, complete with an organ thats a one of a kind. Only 3 of them exist in the entire world so there you go :D. There's also a gym with a basketball court "Which we have yet to go to", and even theater room, but no projectors. Hopefully i'll post some pictures when I get a chance, there's no wireless internet at the church, but a local coffee shop nearby has free wireless, so that's going to be my hookup from now on.

As far as team dynamics go, there's barely any guys anymore on this team. Kris is hanging out with cassie most of the time, so me and mark are left to fend for ourselves while the rest of the team "aka girls" goes and hangs out with eachother. In a way this kinda sucks but for me this is really good because i really value my personal time that i have to myself so I can make calls to people whenever I want and not get bothered by anyone else, but at the same time, there's less stuff for me to do to make myself entertained. Meh....

Anyways, more on the drama at home. My parents are now getting divorced and my mom seems to keep fucking up my dads life more and more every day. My mom has taken our finances into her own hands and has started to make really stupid decisions. One of these decisions made the interest rate on one of my dads credit cards jump from say 5%, to 20%. Hopefully she doesnt fuck our finances up so badly that they have to sell the house to pay the bills. I'm really concerned that my dad is going to go under due to everything my mom is doing, but my dad is constantly consulting his brother, grandpa and his lawyer for tips, I just pray that the world doesn't go to complete shit back in Portland because so far, thats what is happening. My mom is making up lies and slander about my dad to everyone she knows so she can get support for herself, which I believe is total bullshit. She's done this a lot in the past to people she doesn't like and because of that, not a lot of people like her. Little does she know that I actually have a pretty big influence on some of the people she knows, a bigger influence then she herself has, so i'm going to use this to my advantage soon to regain support for my dad. I think that this has to be done because there are a lot of things that need to be clarified so my dad doesn't turn into a hated man for stuff he has never done in the first place.

If it wasn't for the damn drama going on back home, i'd feel like these next 4 weeks are going to be completely awesome. But I just know that things back home in Portland are going to escalate to a point of where I don't know if I'm going to go home to my own house anymore. I definately know now that all the packing I did before I left for AmeriCorps will be in vein because all the rest of my stuff in my room is going to be packed up with out my consent of what goes where, because knowing my mom, she just cleans shit for no reason. So i'm going to have to get my dad to pack up my stuff for me which is really shitty because I don't really want anyone to even touch my stuff, but if my dads moving out, i'm moving out with him or getting my own apartment when I get back to Oregon.

Why does life have to bite me in the ass? I've been a good kid in AmeriCorps :(. I even got an Upliftment award from our unit leader. Come on!!!!!

I could use a nice bottle of Captain Morgan right now, sigh....

As we enter the last week of our 3rd official project, everything seems to come down to a close with a few items added not just our teams own personal drama, but the drama of life back home as well.

First off the bat, we lost one of our team members permanently. Billy took a job working for some senators campaign up in maryland, mainly to boost himself up into the political workforce. I'm actually glad for him because this seems to be a good step for him to take to get into the upper workings of the government. But at the same time, we lost a team member that I sometimes go to for a good laugh or his intelligent wit. But he stops by occasionaly here to chat.

Secondly, Mike on our team is joining a Red Cross Composite team that stays back here for the next 5 weeks. So he'll be stuck back at the campus here for another 5 more weeks while the rest of us are in Cleveland Ohio working with habitat for humanity. So that means the 2 people I usualy hang out with while on spike are now gone, so i'm left to contend with the rest of the team instead, which might be tough, but we'll see how it works out. To solve the boredom issues I had last project in phili, My dad bought me a guitar and i'm in the process of learning how to play it. I try to spend at least a half hour a day practicing chords, so i'm getting some where. So far the only song I can play is Teh n00b song!!!!

w00t!! <3 pure pwnage

So we lost two team members for our next project. But fear not! Max will bring his laptop and hopefuly his guitar up to Ohio so he won't be bored out of his mind during off hours. Maybe me and our new teammate mark will find something to do.

Dunno if i mentioned mark at all either......... but yeah, we gained a new teammate at the beginning of january from the charelston champus. I don't know all the specifics but he was the only one on the team that was below 21. But now that he's on the team, we hang out a shit load, so he's a cool guy.

Other then that, nothing else to report. Except troubles back home with my dad and my mom. They're getting to the point of where I think they'll get divorced within the next few months and my dad will move out of the house. Which means most likely, I'm not flying back home to the house i've lived in for the past 18 years. That would really really suck, but the way things are going, thats whats most likely going to happen. My dad's been filling me in on whats been going on lately, and i've heard nothing from my mom. "Not that I want to hear anything from my mom either". So its tough to realize this fact when july comes rolling in.

How this affects my future is this. Although i'll probably move out either way when I get back to Portland in July. I gotta realize the fact that the way things are going now, I don't want to live in my parents home at all anymore. Which I had hoped on doing if I decided that I want to go onto community college. I could have a free house and not have to pay for rent/food. But since my dad might leave, i'd have to stay with my mom, and with her in charge of the house, she would force me to pay for everything cause she's a bitch like that. So if the whole thing goes through, Max is fucked for a free place to stay at, unless my dad comes up with something.

All teams except for ours, house 4 and 6, and senate 8 are now on their Gulf Coast projects. The majority of teams are down in Mississippi, and 2 teams are down in New Orleans. So now the village is back to its boring dull self with nothing to do. Except play guitar!!! In game news, the only games i've played, and beat for the past few weeks have been Megaman X, Megaman X2 and Megaman X3. I've kicked sigmas fucking ASS 3 times in a row. That mofo cant mess with me.

Yep. Nothing else to report. PDXLAN went on 2 weeks ago, Wish I was there :(.

Life goes on i guess