Where TV Meets NCCC

Earlier this round, media reps Gaby and Phil hooked us up with a local news interview. (Hats off to them for setting that up) The reporter went around taking various shots of the school and asking the team some questions. I made a joke to Christina that we should pretend to vacuum, even though she had already vacuumed, because I knew it would make good B-roll (shots related to the interview that fills in a news clip). So we pretended to vacuum, and I'll be damned if it didn't make the cut. Hilarious.

(Side note for you TV peeps out there, this camera guy needs to work on his headroom big time, right?!)

It's Fun to Stay at the YMCA

How would you like to have a slumber party with 5 to 9 of your classmates or co-workers? Your bed: a foot away from your supervisor's, who drools and rambles in her sleep? (that's me) Sharing 1 or 2 bathrooms and walking a mile to shower at the YMCA? Then spending the whole day at work and meals with those same people, who BTW, you just met 7 months ago? Every night for 8 weeks?

Sounds like an NCCC rite of passage to me! During our first 2 rounds, Maple 4 had it pretty easy housing-wise. It's true that in Cincinnati, people shared rooms with up to 3 other people, we had 1 bathroom without a shower, and there were mice–mice with gall. But on the flip side, we lived in a beautiful 176-year-old farm house, and had roosters, cows, horses and other farm buddies to hang out with. In Vinton, we slept on campus. And since our roommates were away on projects with their teams, each person had a bedroom and bathroom to his or herself. SPOILED! 'Tis not the case now, friends.

Currently our humble abode is one room in the YMCA-run Lake Superior Village Youth and Family Center. We snooze on 1-inch thick floor mats with sleeping bags, which we have to move into a separate room in the morning because our home is also one of our work sites. And all of the what-ifs listed above apply as well. But, you know, it's actually not that bad. In fact, I consider it a badge of honor to have this type of AmeriPad. The lack of privacy can be frustrating at times, but it's a character-building experience; and in the end we only have to live like this for a short time. In exchange for the cramped quarters, we travel the country and get paid to help people, so it's a fair deal.

Here's a couple photos of our set-up. This one shows the mattress pads that Gaby, Hillary and I sleep on. Mine is the one next to the foosball table.

This one shows where Drew and I store our our personal belongings in the community center's computer lab. His stuff is on the left under the desk. Mine is on the right. As you can see, I basically live out of the red AmeriCorps bag assigned to me at the beginning of the year. Above the desk are team items such as a huge box of donated noodles and a bag filled with games like Banannagrams and Jenga that we never play, except for one time when we didn't have power.

Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies

Cruising through the vast, quiet grasslands of Wyoming on Sunday afternoon, I was not expecting the rush of emotion I felt approaching Devil's Tower, America's first national monument. It was, well, towering. A sacred place to Native Americans, legends say that a group of children fleeing from a bear ran to the rock and it sprouted up to protect them. The lines on the sides were caused by the bear trying to claw it's way up.



The return leg of my 2,595 mile adventure was grueling, and consisted of more driving than I have ever done in my life. Some areas were gorgeous.




Other stretches of highway (particularly in North Dakota) were desolate and seemed to go on forever.

So when I saw a sign on the highway for the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Mandan, ND, I immediately pulled off the road. It was at this museum that I made the best purchase of my trip, a book-on-tape version of "Undaunted Courage," by Stephen E. Ambrose. I totally nerded-out on this 4.5 hour detailed account of Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition into the American Northwest, listening to it twice during my drive. In the end, this vacation was a milestone in my life. I saw things I'd only ever read about and never thought I'd be able to visit. I proved to myself that I could take on an epic road trip, alone, and come back in one piece. And I gained a knowledge of my country's history, it's people and places, that seems truly invaluable. Thanks, Fioralisos, for letting me crash your family vacation! I owe you one.

Patriotism out the Wazoo

If there is one word that sums up the last 5 days for me it's: Patriotism. On Saturday, I met up with Ted and the Fioraliso clan at Mt. Rushmore. It was everything I'd hoped for and more. Epic views of the beautiful monument, guided walking tour, museum with informational video, and an evening lighting ceremony that featured a talk about Lewis and Clark. In short: my crack.



The fact that I was able to share all of this with friends made it all the more special. Ted upped the anty on the hilarity/patriotism scale by purchasing a CD of American tunes from the Rushmore gift shop and leading us in a sing-a-long on the way to and from Crazy Horse Memorial. "You're a Grand Old Flag" has been stuck in my head for days. haha If you haven't heard of Crazy Horse, it's the work of a guy named Korczak Ziółkowski, who was commissioned to carve this tribute to Native Americans out of a mountain in the Black Hills. It's massive, with Mt Rushmore fitting in the head alone. The only thing is that they've been working on this for over 60 years (since the 40s!) and they only really have the head completed. Korczak has long since died, but his family of 10 kids and grandkids has kept the project going. It will definitely be spectacular when finished, and the museum currently at the site was very interesting. What Crazy Horse looks like now:


What it's supposed to look like when I go back with my grandkids:

The fun continued on Sunday when we headed over to Deadwood, an old west town made famous by Wild Bill Hickok and other colorful gun-slinging characters. We took a bus tour owned by... you'll never guess... Kevin Costner. I kid you not. And it was an excellent tour at that! We even ate at his restaurant afterwards, where they had some of his movie costumes on display. Did not see that one coming. Apparently, Costner's a big fan of the old west. As are Ted and I, seen here in front of Bill's grave site.



It was here that we parted ways, the Fioralisos heading out to Little Big Horn and Yosemite, and I to Devil's Tower, Wyoming. More to come.

South Dakota or Bust

Right now I am sitting in a Super 8 in Rapid City, South Dakota, seeing through on a childhood dream to visit Mount Rushmore. Hooray! In a couple of hours, my best buddy Ted Fioraliso will be flying in with his parents and brother, Nick, to start a cross country trip that will take them all the way to Salt Lake City. I decided to crash their family vacation by driving a rental car down here from Michigan and spending 2 days with them, seeing the sites. The ride was pretty bananas. I left Thursday night at 7pm and arrived Friday at 9pm, gaining 2 hours as I switched time zones. So that means that I drove about a thousand miles over the course of a day. I'm pretty exhausted. During one nap break, I fell asleep in the back seat and woke up to find that I had left the lights on and drained the car battery. Luckily a gentleman at the rest stop called AAA for me. And though it's liberating and relaxing to travel for a long stretch by yourself, it would have been nice to share the experience with friends and family. One neat thing that surprised me was the seemingly endless amount of windfarms in Missouri. They come up every few miles on the highway, and there seem to be hundreds of windmills at each site, stretching out deep into the prairie. It was really inspirational to see.


Over five hundred miles of my drive down here were spent on route 90, and if I wasn't itching to get to Rapid City, I would have visited the ghost town, sculpture park, corn palace, and tons of other roadside attractions that I saw along the way. I did allow myself the pleasure of stopping at a little store where you can feed peanuts to prairie dogs. It was awesome! This dude came right up to my hand and ate out of it. So cute.

And I checked out the famous Wall Drug Store, which advertises for hundreds of miles on the highway that you can get coffee for 5 cents, and free ice water. It wasn't all that exciting, just a bunch of stores where you can buy souvenirs, play video games etc. A tourist trap. And the ice water wasn't even that good! The highlight of my drive, by far, were the badlands. Originally French trappers coined the term "bad lands" because the area lacks water and is difficult to traverse. But this natural rock formation, caused by erosion and the accumulation of volcanic ash, is one of the most stunning things I have ever seen. My photos definitely don't do it justice, and unfortunately my camera died halfway through the national park, so I couldn't even photograph some of the more beautiful scenes.

I Envy Your 5-Year Plan

Remember that time I was about to turn 27 and had no idea what to do with my life? haha (In real life that would be an awkward laugh with a resigned sigh at the end.)

So there I was on the Interwebs, trying to plan out how to spend a 6 day break coming up. Then I start looking at jobs, and am thinking to myself, "D$, if you can't determine a 6-day plan, how are you going to figure out a whole-life plan?" Yes, I am having a melodramatic moment here, people. Recently, I seem to be vacillating between these types of existential meltdowns and a devil-may-care, "let's see what happens!" attitude. Is this healthy? Likely not.

I think the root of my current career crisis is that I have never related to the idea of having a "Dream Job." Over the years I have fancied myself going into a number of professions: paleontologist, astronaut, senator, journalist, television-something-or-other, space tourism flight attendant, ghost hunter and the like. But when I think about it, I've never really had a dream job per se. Even with journalism, a career that I went to a stupidly expensive school hundreds of miles from home with the intention of pursuing, I'm not sure I ever really wanted it the way some of my friends who are now successful in the field and hungry for a good lead, an anchor spot etc. WANT it. I'm decent at writing, love traveling and asking questions, but I don't wake up every morning itching to chase down a story. Switching to TV production was a wise move, but still no direction on that front either.

It could be that my generation is, by nature, just freaking confused about what to do with our lives. This seems to be a theme in NCCC anyway, many of my cohorts not knowing what the next step is. So to an extent, I can point to this generational indecision as a reason for my personal lack of life goals, but that's kind of a cop out. Keep in mind, I'm not apathetic or anything. I'd love to have some goals. ASAP in fact. My current job kicks ass: helping people across the country and having a totally amazing and unique life experience in the process. If anything, NCCC is as close to a dream job as I have ever gotten. But it only lasts 11 months. So then what?

Thanks for humoring me. I will try to make my next post about bunnies and double rainbows.