Some Things of Note

This past week, the team moved on from the pool to working at the the Hummel Shelter, an outdoor building with about a dozen picnic tables in it that the VPRD rents out for events like family reunions or birthday parties. Our task is to scrape, power wash, and paint the structure. Here's Greg using the power washer to pretend he is in a scene from the movie Scarface.

Sam playing with a baby bird that fell out of it's nest.


Me rockin' some new $5 aviators while weed-eating.


Gaby and Phil digging holes for a new gate. As it happens, Phil's leg fit in the hole.


Hillary and Christina weeding/modeling the Hannah Montana backpacks they recently purchased at Walmart.


After a long day of work Friday a few of us decided to check out the bowling alley on campus. For some reason the TL's hadn't been "trained" on this piece of machinery until now, but I was able to get the how-to this week so we could use it. Turns out it's just operated by one button! Gaby and Drew gave it a shot. Drew's technique? For starters you wear socks with slippers for good traction. Be sure to have your ipod headphones in. Also before bowling, consume a hearty meal of pork and beans with homemade mac and cheese. (I helped with the latter) He said something about the pork being so good, it would be considered "3rd level ham." I'm not sure what this means, but it sounds genius.


I'd also like to give a quick shout-out to my teammate Diana who is sick with mono this week. Bummer. Drew's thoughts on this, you ask? Well, he doesn't know how mono gets transmitted, but if it's anything like pink eye, it's bad. In fact, "If you make eye contact with somebody that's got pink eye, you're ruined, you got it. If somebody got pink eye, you're not supposed to look at them. If you do, your life is ruined. That's the truth." Did I mention that Drew is hilarious? Feel better soon, Diana!

Shout-outs to C.Dogg & My Boo

Dearest brother, Christopher. You turn 20 today. Not 21 like I originally thought because I am a terrible sibling. However, I guess that would have worked in your favor if I was home in NJ. You definitely could have convinced me to buy you booze. lol In honor of your bday here are a few photos of you that I particularly enjoy. Miss you, C. Dogg.

This one is great because it shows the go-to Forlenza facial expression for excitement:

Also this weekend, I'm missing the birfday festivities for my boo Lisa, back in Boston living it up for her 27th. Former roomie in real life, but always a roomie in my heart, this lady can break it down like none other. Here is a good shot of us cutting a rug at one of our Dunboy St Christmas throwdowns.


On stage at a booty shake-off competition graduation weekend:


And of course, keepin' it real on the dance floor at Lara's wedding:


Wish I was there to party with you in Boss-Town but I know your epic dance moves go on without me. Use them for good (not evil) friend. haha!

Maple 4 Goes to the Playground

This is what happens when I can't sleep and start fooling around with Windows Live Movie Maker.

Too Cool For Pool

Last year I was sitting in an office at my desk burning DVD's. Thousands of DVD's. I loved NOVA and I miss my co-workers, but c'mon now, how often in life do you get to paint a swimming pool? And with this totally baller crew?

Additional photo of Hillary added because she didn't feel she looked happy enough in the first photo, and quite frankly that is unacceptable.

Is There Life After AmeriCorps?

This week has been uneventful—in a good way. Our team has mostly just been finishing up work on the community pool so that it can open this coming weekend for Memorial Day. Other than that, things have been pretty chill. In fact, I had nothing on my entire agenda for all of Saturday, so I slept for 15 hours. It was fantastic. Then I found one of the only working bicycles on campus and took that puppy for a spin around Vinton. When I say "working" bicycle I mean that it was not completely falling apart, but the breaks were shoddy and the seat was not very secure. However, it was in tact enough to get me to the new bakery that just opened for a pecan bun, and then over to Leon's Malt Shop, an old school ice cream parlor/hamburger joint. My bike jaunt reminded me of my middle school days taking the Schwinn out with Brian Mazzarella and riding down to the comic book store in New Egypt, NJ. Ah, the innocence of youth. lol

And luckily, Saturday wasn't the end of the world after all, which is good since I spent the whole afternoon Googling different options for what I could do after NCCC. Seems like if the apocalypse had occurred, that would have made my efforts a real waste of time. Here are some front runner ideas for my "Life After Americorps" as they call it here, in no particular order:

1. Drive across the U.S. visiting national landmarks like the Grand Canyon, Carslbad Caverns, and Roswell
2. Spend 1 month working with Global Volunteer Network in Peru or India
3. Embark on an overseas backpacking trip to Italy, Egypt and India
4. Get a 1-year AmeriCorps VISTA gig somewhere (warm) in the U.S.
5. Spend another year as an NCCC team leader, but on a different campus
6. Move back to Boston and get a real job like an adult

It's funny, I am usually always thinking one step ahead to whatever the next thing is, but for the past 5 months I've just been enjoying life and trying not to obsess over the future. Then when I got back to campus, we were asked to fill out resume worksheets and forms about our career goals. I felt like this guy:


So I guess I have to start thinking about these things or end up panicking when the next 5 months is up. What do you think of the options above or combining a couple of them?

Fish Fry Round 2

What: All you can eat fried fish, beans, baked potatoes, cole slaw, potato salad and cake for $5
Where: Vinton, Iowa American Legion
When: Second Friday of every month
Don't act like you're not jealous.


P.S. The white streaks in my hair are not dandruff, or a result of stress, and I am not turning into a Marvel super hero. It's just good old-fashioned pool paint.

Gettin' Our Skate On

A perk of working for the Parks and Rec. Department are the free tickets to the Skate and Activity Center. Of course we had to pay our dues by cleaning off some roller skates and buffing the rink first.




Later that night it was on like Donkey Kong. I have to give it up to Maple 4 for going out of their comfort zone. Most of the team hadn't been skating in years... or ever. So it was a big deal for the team to get out there and give it their all. Here is Phil giving Gaby and Drew a quick how-to.


Then of course there is the M4 Dance Crew breaking it down—even during the threat of an imminent fall. That's dedication, people.

Team bonding just warms my heart.

Rihanna Ain't Got Nothin' On Us

My team recently started working in Vinton with the Parks and Rec. Department. Our first task is to scrape, power wash, and paint their community swimming pool. This morning we had a few minutes of down time as we waited for the site supervisor to mix the pool paint. Some humming of Rhianna's recent hit song "S&M" resulted in this awesome remix starring Lil' Greg, Drew "Shine" Edwards & D$, video provided by Gaby "Off the Chain" Nieves.

"When You're Here, You're Family."

Title of this post sound familiar? It should, if you're a chain-restaurant loving red-blooded American like myself. Friday night I was whisked away to the Cedar Rapids Olive Garden by Lisa's (and now my) good friend Julie Johnston. Julie grew up in Iowa, and met Lisa through an internship they both did at Notre Dame. A small business owner, marathoner, and generally entertaining person, I was so excited that Julie wanted to meet up and go on a lady-date off campus. Thanks go out to her for showing an out-of-towner some love. I found our 45 minutes lost in the backwoods of Iowa to be a highlight of the evening, and at the O.G. I truly did feel like family getting to bond with her over shrimp scampi. Here we are with our server Jared.


Saturday morning Maple 4 headed out to the Cedar Valley Humane Society where we spent an hour playing with doggies. My team laughed while I made funny noises and said weird things to the animals like, "You're so great! You have fur! You are a dog and I am a human!" I know this is the third time I have mentioned dogs in a blog post, but I am really starting to think that after NCCC I need to acquire one. This gal's name is Spaggie May.

I got pretty depressed when I had to leave her behind in a cage. It was weird, but I felt like I actually knew this dog in a past life. The good news is that the Humane Society adoption turnaround times are pretty speedy apparently.


To wrap up, I would like to give a shout-out to some bro-hams out there with recent birthdays. I apologize for the lateness of my b-day cards. Maybe this post will make up for my failure as a friend. lol A big foot five from Iowa to Nick, who is like a big brother to me and has demanded for years that he one day walk me down the isle when I marry Mr. Right. From trips to the gun range, to skydiving, to our bowling league and more, I have so many badass memories with you!


Then of course there is Tyler, who I've known since my librarian assistant days at BU's Mugar Library. I have seen you blossom into a mature adult, my friend... and you have witnessed my slow downturn into degeneracy. HA! I miss you, Georgie the cat, and your mad cooking skillz.


Yasir. Dude. What can I even say? Life without you would be an epic fail. That is just a fact. What other friendships do I have that are based in motorcycle rides, cheeseburgers, off-color jokes, and Brittney Spears? You are a true gem, sir.


And last but not least, Ted! (Otherwise known as his AIM screen name, Teddy2NY, from the good old days when we met as freshmen in college.) Ted is the bees knees. From the oldies radio show we DJ'ed to watching Alfred Hitchcock in the dorm, to sporadic dance parties, you are a blast. I'm glad that even though we've lived apart for the last 5 years, our friendship is still going strong. You're a #1 reporter, and a #1 friend. One day I'll visit you on-set at The Today Show.

I Skype now... on the Interwebs.

For a person who studied television production and worked on a web team for 3 years, you would think I'd be more technology-savvy. Instead, I am like an 80-year-old man when it comes to things like Skype. Until tonight, friends. After years of my cohorts who already video chat (that would be you Kate, Nick and Yasir) prodding me to figure out how to use this program to communicate with them via the Information Super Highway, I finally reached a breaking point. While talking to Lara on the phone this evening, we kept losing the connection, and I was really wishing I could meet her new cat, view her ridiculous facial expressions, and have an online dance party. So I forced her to help me set up Skype, and then took some screen shots of the awesomeness that ensued. First we have Lara introducing me to Gatto while David eats a salad:


Then we have a classy cat butt shot.


Followed by a delivery of my favorite greeting, "foot in face," all the way from NYC.


Moral of the story? The internet is amazing and I miss my friends back home, big time.

Top 10 Must-Sees in Cincy

On Maple 4, each teammate has at least one chance per project to write a post for our national blog. My recent contribution highlights fun things to do if you're ever in Cincinnati:

http://ncccblog.americorps.gov/2011/05/top-10-must-sees-in-cincy.html

Fare Thee Well, Ohio

Cincinnati… what can I say? You were a lot of fun. There was much to see and do. Your chili was a taste sensation. Your locals were kind and generous folks. Your museums—pretty fab. The trail blazing we did in the Queen’s City was probably the most manual labor I have ever done. We pulled out innumerable amounts of honeysuckle. And the difficult nature of our project brought out the best and the worst in the team. This project showed us that we are capable of great things, completing in 6 weeks what Gorman Heritage Farm anticipated it would take 8 weeks to finish. We refurbished 2300 ft of old trail, installed approximately 1500 ft of new trail, and helped with numerous tasks around the farm from shoveling out weed barriers in a garden, to assisting in the office, working with high school groups, and more. On days where we couldn’t be on the trail due to thunderstorms, we assisted an organization called Crayons to Computers that provides supplies to teachers in low-income schools. We were able to set up over a hundred shelves in their warehouse, sorting through 22 large pallets of donated items, and organizing about 1400 boxes of calendars.


There were some rainy, muddy days that we stuck it out on the trail despite the weather, and it eventually turned out to be the rainiest month in Cincinnati’s entire recorded history. No lie. On the trail it was sometimes so cold that we were actually at risk of frostbite. A couple of days it was so hot that a teammate actually got heat sickness. And I thought Boston weather was crazy! Add to that the interpersonal difficulties we had while learning how to communicate with each other and live together as a team/dysfunctional family, and we certainly had an interesting first round spike project.


What next? Since finishing up at Gorman Heritage Farm, Maple 4 has returned to our campus in Iowa. Our next project will be working with the Vinton Parks and Recreation Department doing various tasks for them such as painting a community swimming pool, fixing up some parks that were built on land that flooded in 2008, and assisting with an annual Party in the Park community celebration. It will be nice to be on campus where we can all unwind, meet up with fellow NCCC‘ers, bask in some personal space, and utilize the resources available on campus. It will also be cool to give back to the Vinton community that supports NCCC. Since we are a local project and therefore easier to mobilize, we might even get sent out to a disaster relief project if there is a great enough need. Unfortunately, since arriving on campus we lost one member who decided that the program was not the right fit for him. But the team will remain strong and continue to do the best we can to make a positive impact on our country and grow as individuals and a group. I’m proud of the work we’ve done and the efforts we’ve made toward being the best Maple 4 we can be.

On to a more hilarious update: During training I had reoccurring dreams that my team was coming into my room in the middle of the night to try and have meetings with me… in the dark… while my roommate was sleeping. This is obviously ridiculous, but I woke up a ton of times rambling about various meeting topics and suggesting that our group speak quietly as to not wake up Brittney while she slept on the other side of the room. haha Then last night, I had an updated, post-trail building version of this nightmare where my corps members were coming in to clean tools. Definitely woke myself up at 2am last night yelling incoherently and managing to knock a lamp over. More shenanigans to come. Stay tuned.