Sacto

Wow, talk about the worst blog updater this side of the Mississippi. How do I ever expect to get a career in social media when I can barely manage my own blog?! My apologies!

What would you like an update about first? Work or California life? Well, I’ll give you some brief updates about work and then tell you about what else I’ve been up to!

Things here at the CCC are going well. Tony had me create a list of personal goals I would like to achieve by the end of my year- things like better time management, professional presentation skills, or website design and social media expertise. So far, he has been giving me some tips on staying organized and been giving me opportunities to gain the skills I want. For example, last week I had 6 small tasks I needed to complete by Tuesday and I couldn’t figure out how to prioritize them. Tony helped me set up task assignments on my email, schedule calendar reminders, and plan out multiple steps for each task in order to get them accomplished on time. Like a total boss, I completed all my tasks in the time parameters and now am waiting on other partners to get back to me.

I wrote a draft MOU (memorandum of understanding- it’s just a casual agreement between two or more partners) and submitted it to NCCC for review. Once I hear back, I will be finalizing the draft, submitting it to the Corpsmember Development director and then possibly creating a professional presentation to give to executive and legal staff for final approval. While creating the document, I learned new skills, too. I learned different writing styles and how to create a giant DRAFT watermark over a document in Word. Google is a lifesaver, I tell ya. Other tasks I completed included getting statistical data about former corpsmembers who have been accepted to apprenticeship partners, creating flyers for CCC centers about apprenticeship opportunities, and working to create a consistent organizational system in my cubicle and computer. The connections I’ve been making and the work I’ve been doing so far is what I thought it would be, but it is a little slower than I had anticipated. That’s not always a bad thing, though, especially considering: 1. I have several partnerships I’m working on at once so it’s easier to keep them on track and 2. Dana and I are still getting settled in here in Sacto (that’s what the locals call it… sometimes.) and it’s more difficult to focus on my tasks when I have a lot going on at home.

Although I have many ideas work to do by the executives/ anyone I cross paths with in this place, I cannot possibly finish everything I have been given ideas about. There are a few tasks I will be able to complete, however. This potential partnership with NCCC, for one and continuing the partnership with the labor union that was created earlier this year will be my second objective. I will also be creating a few more apprenticeship partnerships that will fulfill the rest of my requirements. I’m not scared- I’m crushing this VISTA year.

As for my achievements outside of work… Dana and I have been getting acquainted with our surroundings at our new apartment. I know I have said it about a billion times by now, but we really do have such a great spot. We practically walk wherever we need to go or to do whatever we want to do- unless we wanted to go for a hike or something. We could even walk to go swimming in the river, if we really wanted it! It’s great to have our own things and be able to cook delicious and healthy meals, take walks around the city after dinner, come back to the apartment and just hang out or watch TV. Soon enough all our belongings will be here from Wisconsin (or New Jersey- because why not send our stuff across the country for no reason…that’s a long story that I will not bore you with.) and we’ll be really settled in. The last two things we need are a coffee table and a dresser, but our next stop to get one is at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Hopefully we will be able to go this weekend and pick out a few things. We are really into getting furniture but sort of making it our own. For example, we got a cart from Scott, who I used to share a cubicle with, and we spray painted it a teal/ bright blue color and then pulled the wheels off the bottom and now we use it to hold our toaster oven and other miscellaneous kitchen items. We also got some polyurethane spray and used it on our new kitchen island cart to make sure the wood doesn’t get damaged by the craziness that happens when I cook.

We have also been hanging out with our friends Allison and Andy a lot because they just moved here, too. For those of you who may not know- Allison and Andy are the second cutest AmeriCouple from last year (i.e. they met in FEMA Corps too) and now Andy will be working with Dana on the IMAT team. We have also been out with the team I work with once, so we are being as social as possible. Other than that, things are pretty boring around here, which isn’t bad. I kept saying I couldn’t wait to have my own place and get into the routine of things, and that has certainly happened and I love every second of it. I’m sorry that I have been slacking on keeping up here- I will try to do better. Things at work have slowed down for the next week or so, but who really knows. Speaking of work… I should get back to that…

P.s. I apologize for the lack of photos on this entire page. Dana is the photographer, not me.