We Don't Even Have to Try

It's gonna be alright
We don't even have to try
It's always a good time

Doesn't matter when
It's always a good time then
Doesn't matter where
It's always a good time there

It's been 12 days since I left home. It has also been 12 days since the TLs started spending every hour of every day together. We spend about 15 hours together and do at least 2 ice breakers a day, which means we have got to know each other pretty freakin' well. Literally 24 people together... 24 hours a day. And let me tell you, you really get to know someone by yelling at them to "work through the pain" in 35 degree weather at 6am PT on a Monday.
Basically, I am trying to convey that Taylor Swift's semi-creepy friend, OwlCity, has it right when he says "We don't even have to try, it's always a good time." Allow me to paint you a word picture: 24 very sleep deprived FEMA Corps team leaders sit in an extremely secure government facility breakroom. After attempting to take an online exam and eventually giving up and getting the answers from the facilitator, four of us sat around on the floor of a cubicle and stared at each other before I finally announced "LIFE STORY TIME!" which was soon followed by Andrea saying "THEN WE'LL DO HOT SEAT QUESTIONS!" Keep in mind that we were whisper-yelling because the Unit leaders told us to "act like kids in a library" i.e. keep our voices to a light hush, don't go in restricted areas, and NEVER rough house or run in the corridors... Guys, we are all over 20, relax.
So the game went on. Now, at 11 am on a Saturday morning in a government facility with confidential equipment all around, one would think we quietly kept to ourselves, but we are all hilarious and awesome, so that really didn't happen. Besides, like OwlCity says, "Doesn't matter where, doesn't matter when, it's always a good time." What did transpire was some pretty funny and amazing conversations about life experiences. Allow me to now give you further insight into some of the stories I heard. I learned that Amber grew up in Billerica (Yes, Billerica... SO WEIRD, I KNOW, RIGHT!?!) and she used to play 'librarian' as a child; she would make her friends be quiet and reprimand them if they talked too much. I also learned she was a member of the Walking Club in middle school. Legit a club where they would just walk around with no destination. Side note: Okay, they once walked from Billerica to Concord, which is actually really cool. Next up, I learned that Andrea is originally from Indiana, but moved to Pennsylvania when she was pretty young, but still has a strong connection to Indiana. She also was in charge of THON at Penn State which is an 46 HOUR DANCE PARTY that raises money and awareness for some cause or non-profit that I don't remember (sorry!!) Andrea also was really into imaginary friends for a while. She had 4 at once. Like, super intense imaginary friendships. Her parents went along with it and everything. Finally, I learned that Allison is from Golden, Colorado. "It's like the best place to live. It's close to the mountains AND Boulder AND Denver, AND there's tons of hiking trails AND it's sunny over 300 days a year. Golden, Colorado: Where The West Lives." Apparently it is a great place to live (not 23rd in the nation though... shout out to Chelmsford) but in high school, Allison took a 'senior seminar' class where she got to travel all over the country doing activities like rafting and camping with 25 of her classmates. After a while, more people started sharing stories about their lives and it really helped us all bond. It's so cool to see our similarities, life parallels, and differences, not to mention it helped the 10 hours in that building pass by quicker.
Later that night, we went to an improv show in Sacramento because one of the AmeriCorps staff was a member in the group. It was pretty funny; not the funniest but I would give it a B+ overall. The group asked the audience a bunch of questions and then acted out scenarios about the answers they were given. Sunday we woke up and decided to enjoy the beautiful weather. We loaded into a van and drove to what we expected to be a lovely walk through the woods, lead by walking champion Amber, of course. It was not. We drove for 45 minutes on the highway then another 20 minutes on a gravel road that had a cliff on one side and no guard rail. Kudos to the girl driving because she didn't seem half as terrified as the 4 of us in the very VERY back. Eventually we came to a bridge and decided to just park and walk along the road, which was still nice. We had fun, which is really all that matters and is the whole point of this post!

Left to Right Top Row: Me, Amanda, Dana, Amber, Allison, Liz
Left to Right Bottom: Bethany, Chris, Andrea

Sorry I have been slacking on the pictures...I don't have my own computer and I don't think I am really allowed to hook my phone up to this PC. I'm trying my best though!!

Decide to finally start

Phillip Phillips- "Man on the Moon"

Looking at the stars, looking back to you
Just to see if your world's still alive
Looking at the sun with the fire in your eyes

It's hard to know where I stand
Even the man on the moon couldn't tell me where to land
But, I wanted to fly in the sea with no gravity to pull me down

Hold on it won't take long
You can find yourself when you decide to finally start

So don't let your life start to slowly waste away

 So in the few days that have passed, many things have changed... Okay, no many, mostly just on but it is a big on so whatever. As some of you may know, the name Lisa does not adapt to nicknames I approve of very well. "Lis" "Li" "Li Li" are all names I have been subjected to and tolerated. Furthermore, in high school when there was Lisa B. and Lisa D. I never reaped benefits as I was always stuck with the dreaded last name initial tacked on the end. Therefor, when faced with an opportunity to receive a new nickname (this is due to the fact that there is another Lisa who is a team leader... What's weirder is that she is another Lisa D.) So, my team leaders and I spent ample time going over possibilities, but it turns out I am quite picky when it comes to this because I don't like anything that stems from Burgess either (ex. Burg, Burgers... you get the point.) Finally, one of the ULs (Unit leader- basically the person who will be in charge of myself and probably 5 other team leaders and our teams) said, "What if we just call you by a different name, like Molly?" And, thus it has stuck.. Sorta. Most of the other TLs have taken to calling me Molly and I think that's pretty cool.
On Friday, we got van certified! If I thought it was tough to drive the Big Green Van, I was wrong. Our vans seat 15 passengers, so it's kind of like driving a boat and a school bus all at once. Should be fun if/ when we have to take out teams across country to NY! Friday night some of the STLs (Support team leaders- team leaders who stay on campus and don't get individual teams so they can help with our teams if need be)showed us a typical night at the Lion's Gate, which is the hotel bar on campus. We had fun and we even sang some karaoke! Saturday we woke up, piled in a van and headed into downtown Sacramento.We explored Old Sacramento, K Street, and the capital area. Old Sacramento is basically an area of the city where everything has been kept old fashioned, as if it were still the gold rush era. There are tourist shops, restaurants, scenery, and the Railroad Museum. K Street is a very populated area of the city with an outdoor mall, restaurants, and tons of bars. The capital is really pretty. We walked all through the park behind the actual building and saw many memorials.
We got back to campus around 4pm. Some people took naps, however, me and my new friends Andrea and Allison worked on a 1000 piece puzzle for approximately 4 hours; although at some point I think every TL was involved. It was difficult and took 3 days to complete, but we bonded over it! After staring at orchid puzzle pieces for what felt like an eternity, the three of us along with two of the boys (Andy and Milan) and an STL named Megan decided to check out downtown Sacramento at night. We went to a bar called the Dive Bar where they have real life MERMAIDS. Basically, girls have mermaid tails on and swim around a giant aquarium positioned above the actual bar. It was pretty weird, but something we all felt we needed to see. From there we headed to Kay Bar which was full of hipsters, none of which turned out to be my future husband.......yet. Then, we headed home because....
Sunday we had our TB test checking at 7:30am. [spoiler alert: I do not have TB] We also went to a sports bar to watch some football games WHICH I STILL DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT.
Monday was our first day of service! For MLK day, FEMACorps members volunteered at three different places around Sacramento. My group volunteered with Hands- On Sacramento, a group focused on getting volunteers to maintain the city. We were leaders of their clean-up project at Shasta Park in the city. Our job was to not only facilitate the event, but help with some of the labor, as well. I pulled weeds for three hours and it was actually kind of fun. After getting back to campus, we met with a local AmeriCorps NCCC team to reflect on our service work. It was cool to talk to them because they have been working with AmeriCorps for about three months now and still seem to be loving it. Of course, their work is far different from what I'll be doing, but their belief in service and team-based structure is the same.We talked a lot about service and what it means to us each individually. It was really interesting to see how passionate people can be about helping those in need. Tuesday began our real training with FEMA, as well as more TL bonding and leadership seminars. I'm having so much fun and am really excited about getting my Corps members and assignments, but I know I'll be thankful for all this TLT (team leader training) when I need some support while on projects.

Talk soon! Enjoy some Phillip Phillips!!!!

Goin' To California

So, I wanted to start things out by telling you what is going to be happening with this blog. First of all, if you're unaware, I have been accepted to be a FEMAcorps team leader with AmeriCorps these upcoming 11 months. Basically, I am moving to Sacramento for a while for training and in the near future will be deployed to various sites around the country to assist those in need via FEMA. This blog will help you get an inside look at what I am doing while also giving you the opportunity to listen to some music that I deem amazing. I am hoping that each post I do will have a theme song, which will tie into what I am doing or the feeling that has come from what I am doing, etc, etc. And I will highlight the lyrics I feel go along best. (I'm hoping you get the gist thus far....? It's probably confusing, but by the end of this post will not be) Let us begin:

Goin' to California
Suit case in my hand
Never run away a boy,
When you can walk away a man

Because life is always unexpected, I spent 85% of my first day as a FEMAcorps member stuck in various airports around the country. I flew from Boston to Denver starting an hour later than expected due to the lovely snow New England decided to throw at me on my last day there. From Denver, I waited an hour, made four phone calls to Sacramento, waited more and finally boarded my plane headed for..... Phoenix. Yes, so the third stop on my adventure was still not California, I was certainly getting closer. This was exciting nonetheless considering I had never been to Phoenix in my life, but all I saw was one small airport terminal for approximately 30 minutes. Even through all of these struggles, I still managed to stay positive and just kept thinking about my reason for leaving and embarking on what I am officially calling "Lisa's Excellent Adventure." (patent pending: Glenna Mugavero. She better be happy with that shout out.)

After arriving in Sacramento at 8pm, I met two other girls who had apparently been following me since take off in Boston. We all piled into the truck and drove about 25 minutes to campus. I was so tired I really only remember the intense details such as one girl telling me to: "FILL OUT THESE FORMS. ARE YOU HUNGRY? HERE IS SOME COLD CHICKEN AND POTATOES, SERIOUSLY PLEASE EAT IT. I ALSO HAVE SANDWICHES YOU GUYS MUST BE STARVING!! OH RIGHT A PILLOW OK HERE NOW I'LL SHOW YOU TO YOUR ROOM" Just kidding, she didn't show us to our room just the door that leads to our dorm building where I walked up three flights of stairs carrying my massive green bag and smashed directly into a dozen other team leaders who all said "OMG finallly you're here! ok great put your stuff down we are going exploring. You must have had a long day! I'm [insert long stream of names I still don't know]." So we all walked out of our dorm room walked ten minutes across the street and wouldn't you know it, found a bar. After hanging out there for an hour I finally admitted that I was going to fall asleep at the table if I didn't leave soon, so we all headed back to campus for a good nights sleep.

Day 2 was mostly filled with presentations of policies and things I should remember, but am having trouble with at the moment. We also got our uniforms issued so we are all looking beautiful and handsome in our khaki cargo pants that go higher on our bodies than any pants ever should and dark green t-shirts or hoodies. (As my roommate pointed out, these pants wouldn't be so bad if cargo pants had ever in all the years of mankind been form fitted for a woman's body, but I digress). Today (Day 3, for those of you keeping score at home) started bright- scratch that, very dark- at 6am where we had our first day of PT (physical training) Side note: AmeriCorps has about a billion accronyms so I will most likely be throwing them in every once in a while.... That is if I can remember... Ok, so PT which was made of up 2 minutes of push ups, 2 minutes of sit ups, and a 1.5 mile run which I did in 14:28, not too bad at all! Then we had our first day of van training and now I am in a computer lab waiting to go to lunch and then do some activity called "I am From..." poems. I am very excited about these because they sound like some silly orientation-MORE-getting-to-know-yourself-and-others activity which I am fully confident I WAS BORN TO DO.

Now back to the music for a minute:
If you don't know by now, I have a sick obsession with Needtobreathe. Not quite as much as Taylor, but it is potentially getting there. I genuinely feel like this song describes my trip to California and FEMAcorps pretty well. In the bridge of the song, Bear (the dreamy lead singer) croons about the 'spirit of the chosen' and how they 'stand alone.' I feel like this is how we are in FEMAcorps. We are the chosen, not just because we were selected to be on this team, but because we were chosen by a higher power and called out here to serve the greater good. We are literally standing alone because we are the first FEMAcorps team in Sacramento and only the second FEMAcorps with all of AmeriCorps. But, we are also standing alone in the sense that we are a few of the organizations helping these victims of disaster.

Well, that's going to be it for now. Sorry for the lack of cool multimedia effects and stuff, but I'm just getting used to this government computer WHICH IS A PC!??!???! WHYYYYYY???? Sorry, mild break down because I miss my MacBook! Hopefully once I get my own laptop I will be able to figure this machine out. Hopefully. For now, I am off to answer a personality test, eat lunch, sit through more presentations, and make more friends.