So, I Did Something Dumb

…and I got pulled over for it. 
I know what you’re thinking. Actually, I don’t, but go with me here! How the Hell did I get pulled over? Easy – I made an improper turn onto a very busy, and poorly constructed, street. Did I get a ticket? You bet your sweet ass I did. The real question is, what did I get a ticket for? The answer is the biggest bonehead move you’ve ever seen.

1. I had the wrong insurance in my car. I didn’t check the dates, so I mixed up my out-of-date and current insurance papers up. Oops.

2. I failed to renew my car’s registration…for three months. I forgot I had to do that. Now I have to pay the penalty.

Are these offenses a big deal? Depends on the situation. If I had gotten into a wreck, yes. But I didn’t. I am insured. I’ll (hopefully) get that part written off. The registration, I’ve been assured, is a common thing, so I’m not too concerned.

Why am I posting this, then? For self shaming? No. I’m posting this because, inevitably, some poor VISTA is going to get a ticket and owe money they might not have. So here I am, after my first ticket, trying to give advice. So, here I go!

1. If you think you might get a ticket…

Remember your manners. Being polite costs you nothing. These officers have a hard enough job already, so don’t make it worse. Who knows, if you’re polite, you might get a verbal instead of a ticket that you, I, and the federal government knows you can’t afford.

2. Say thank you. 

Even if it’s just to see their shocked faces. I told the officer who pulled me over that I was grateful that he did it, because I sincerely am. He’s doing the job I paid him for, and he’s watching out for my well-being by reminding me that these things need to be taken care of. Of course I appreciate that! He probably hasn’t heard that enough, sadly.

3. Show up.

If you have a court date (like I do) SHOW THE FUCK UP. Don’t forget. Don’t. I’ve seen what happens to people when they don’t take care of a ticket. 

4. If you have to pay fines…

Be resourceful. We’re VISTAs, we are resourceful by nature and necessity. Ask for a payment plan, some places will accommodate you. Ask around for odd jobs to make your payments. We both know that touching your saving account, which is now (thanks to our stipend) an emergency account (for now – not so come January!) isn’t an option. So, figure it out. You can do it. Skim off the fat in your lean budget. That coffee I get on Sundays? Gone. If you break the rules, you make the necessary sacrifices. Think of it like being grounded. Sucks, but you need to do it. 

 
Remember, prevention (as with most things) is key. Drive the speed limit, no one will fault you for being a few minutes late because of traffic. They may not be so forgiving if you’re 30 minutes late because you got pulled over for speeding.  In fact, while we’re on the subject, why don’t you just leave 10 minutes early to avoid rushing to begin with! My favorite band instructor always told us that in life if you’re 5 minutes early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. If you’re late, you’re fired! Live that motto. Respect time. Remember to check your dates! They’re important! It’s easier to pay $25 for a registration renewal than it will be to pay for it alongside a ticket. And the math on insurance? I couldn’t exactly get the numbers, but I know that it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to renew a policy than to go uninsured, especially if you, I don’t know, get into an accident! Be smart. Embrace your inner safe driver. It’s cheaper in the short and long run.

Updates Now Every Sunday and Wednesday

Hey y’all!
So, in an effort to be more regularly scheduled, I am going to try and post every Sunday and Wednesday. It may be a long post, it may just be a short one. I’m going to try my best.
I don’t have much time to finish up my other post (about the history of VISTA and why I no longer try to explain it in the context of Peace Corps) so I’ll leave you with this quote that Has struck a chord with me lately. 

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill.
Well, I hope that we all go into this week with some courage! Have a good night. 

VISTA, PSO and My First Week

Hello all!  I know I’ve been a little absent lately.  I’m going to make up for it with a super long post, so don’t worry!

When I left off, I told you that I would be meeting my site-mate.  Unfortunately, things tend to happen, and we never met.  She decided to go to Phoenix, rather than Fayetteville, and I can’t really blame her.  It has made things a little difficult here, since I’m now in charge of two different clinics, but what can you do?  I’ll have help soon enough, since they’re looking to get someone else before November.  C’est la vie, as they say.

To spare you my hard feelings, because I was really looking forward to having a partner, I’ll talk to you about PSO!  Pre Service Orientation is like if you took a bunch of young, college aged kids and threw them in a hotel surrounded by bars.  That’s, actually, exactly what it is.  I had the luck of being in the Purple group with a facilitator named Michael as a facilitator (I haven’t cleared using his full name on here yet, so I wont.  However, this guy has been a very valuable resource to me already, and I’m only a week in!) and I learned a lot from him!  Everyone was like minded, which was strange to me.  We all were here for our own reasons.  For some of us, it was our first job.  For some others, it was a way to spend time before grad school.  For me?  This is the kind of stuff I have always wanted to do.  At the beginning of the orientation, we were all split into groups (based on colors, like I said, we were purple).  Luckily for me, I was in a group with my new friends Zoe, Craig, and Mario.  We started our day at 7:00 with a large breakfast.  Our classes began at 8:30, sort of, and we stayed in class until 5:00, when we had dinner.  We were given breaks at 10 and 3, and our lunch was 12-1, so it was properly spaced out.  There was always some sort of interesting conversations no matter what we were talking about.  After dinner, everyone (and I do mean everyone) would go to the surrounding area and grab drinks with their new friends.  I think that’s how my group sort of solidified.  Zoe, Craig, and I were literally ALWAYS with each other.  It was awesome.  This isn’t to say that I didn’t make other friends.  I totally did.  I swear.  But I was really sad to leave.  It’s these people that I met at PSO that have kept me sane over the last week.

Now, on to the nitty gritty.  The actual work.  This past week has been HELL.  I mean H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, hell.  I have already had a nervous breakdown.  I went from a nice, relaxing, PSO where everyone was organized and knew what we were doing at every second of the day to a situation where my supervisor wasn’t available to answer questions (not her fault – she has an ongoing family emergency) and NOBODY knows what I’m doing.  It got so bad toward the end of the week that I came to work equipped with my VAD so I could show people that I. Wasn’t. Just. There. For. The. Patient. Portal.  Is that syntax annoying?  Just imagine how annoying it is to say that day, after day, after day, after day.  I have never been so infuriated.  Someone, and I’m not saying who, has spread around the idea that all I am there for is to increase patient portal enrollment to meet some sort of quota for the clinic.  That is NOT what I’m there for.  That is one bullet point on my VAD of 12.  I have become rebellious.  I am following my VAD.  Neaner neaner, and all that.  I’m a federal “employee” now, so I’ll do what keeps my butt out of trouble. This being said, I am so excited to work with UAMS in order to better the community.  So, I have been in training all week for this stupid portal that took me all of one day to figure out.  I was sent to Fort Smith to watch someone doing less than I do, Springdale in order to get to know the clinic, and Little Rock for a meet and greet (which was more important than I anticipated).  All in all, I felt that I wasted more time than congress.  It was so unproductive.  I just want all this information, and no one is giving it to me.  What is a PAC?  Where can I find the information on the Patient Portal and the rules that Little Rock set up?  Where is the grant that resulted in the VISTA position here?  When do I get to go out into the community to gain social capital? These are important questions!  And no one is taking the time to answer them!  It’s so frustrating!  The only things saving me from a very public temper tantrum is my near constant chitter chatter with Zoe and Alex (a friend from the yellow group), and my Skype sessions with Craig.  I’m hoping these next weeks are better.  I’ll keep you informed.

Prepping for PSO: The Big Bad TRP

Hello darlings!  You may have noticed that I’ve finally changed my URL to reflect the new focus of this blog.  Yes, I am no longer at journeyintothepeacecorps2015, but I am now lifeofanamericorpsvista.wordpress.com!  How exciting!!!  This isn’t to say that I’ve stopped preparing for the Peace Corps application.  Quite the contrary!  I’ve applied to AmeriCorps partially because doing so makes my application more competitive! So…for those of you who haven’t been reading my blog in a while or are possibly new to the site… I just got accepted into a VISTA program!  VISTA, if you don’t already know, stands for Volunteers In Service To America!  This blog will now detail all of my experiences before, during, and probably after my year of service!  Yes, that includes my Peace Corps Application towards the end.  So lets dive on in!!!

First off, when you accept an assignment in AmeriCorps VISTA, you better be prepared to do some research.  The moment I hit “accept” I was sent an email informing me that I had been enrolled in a PSO (Pre-Service Orientation).  Now, I was expecting this, truly, but when I looked at where my PSO was… I was a bit shocked.  I was fully expecting to go to Dallas.  That’s where my two supervisors told me I was going, and that’s somewhere I’ve been before.  It was a comfortable idea.  I really, really like comfortable experiences.  Yeah, don’t judge me.  I’ll say it.  We’re human beings.  Human beings like to be comfortable.  Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found out I was going to COLORADO.  I couldn’t imagine a better place to visit!  To those of you who don’t know me personally (it’s funny because of the five followers I have, at least one of you do), you know I absolutely adore moose.  It’s a weird animal to like, especially if you’re a young lady in Arkansas.  While Arkansas has numerous species of deer, we don’t have a cold enough climate for moose. Talk about a sad place to be.  Anyway, in Colorado, there are a lot of moose.  No doubt I’ll come home with several souvenirs!  Mom will be lucky if I don’t just come home with a new pet, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, this blog post is about the TRP, or the Travel Request Profile.  The TRP is just a quick, maybe five question form you can do online.  It sounds simple.  You just write which bus stations (that are used by Greyhound), rail stations (must be Amtrack!), and MAJOR airports are near you.  Do you see my problem already?  Well, if you don’t, then let me help you out.  I live in a small town in Arkansas.  Yeah, it’s bigger than most, but it is NOTHING like Little Rock.  It’s a sleepy, kinda hippy, beautiful town with the state’s best University. It’s mostly untouched by Walmart, unlike our friends 20 minutes to the north (Bentonville – Yuck!).  Now, we do have a Greyhound bus station, known simply as the Fayetteville Bus Station.  There’s no Amtrack, only Ozark Rail, and the closest “major” airport in Fayetteville is four hours to the south.  That’s right.  Little Rock.  Gross.

Yeah, most towns/cities in Arkansas are gross in comparison to Fayetteville.  It’s not my fault I was born and raised in a paradise neatly seated in the Ozark Mountains.  Everyone else is just unfortunate not to have lived here.  If you’re looking for a cheap, amazing get away – come visit Northwest Arkansas… Namely Fayetteville and Eureka Springs.  Those “Freakin’ Eureakans” are fantastic people!  And it’s a great place to visit, too!

So, this form gave me a little trouble.  They don’t tell you what to put on your application.  It just says “closest major airport” and such.  I tend to over analyze everything, so I called the hotline to ask if I needed to put the address or the name or if there was a special code I had to write in.  Why can’t people be specific in what they want?  It makes the whole process so much easier! After two days (the only two days you have to actually fill out the form, that is) I finally got an answer!  Don’t get me wrong, the hotline people were very, very helpful, but they didn’t know the answers off-hand, and I had to call again the next day to reach the VISTA people who were doing something else the first day I called.  I did leave a voicemail and was assured they would call back, but around 3:00pm, I got worried…  The point is, you need to write the name of the airports/stations.  No addresses needed.  I also found out that XNA (the airport in Bentonville) works just as well as the airport in Little Rock.  Better Wally-Ville than Little Rock.  No one wants to drive 4 hours anywhere, am I right?

What’s that?  You want to know a little more about the TRP?  Well, let me tell you!  What happens after you fill it out, I’ve gathered, is that the VISTA travel workers look up where you are and then they compare the rates of air travel vs. bus travel vs. rail travel.  They’ll take the cheapest option.  It gets tricky when you live a little far from your PSO location.  See, if I were going to Dallas, I would leave day of as per the rules.  You always depart from your home on the day of your orientation.  As long as you can get there before 3:00pm, you’re golden.  Of course, it’s different since I’m going to Westminster, CO.  See, now they have to get me all the way to site from Arkansas.  Either they’re going to pony up the money to fly me, or they’re going to send me on bus the day before and pay for an extra night at the hotel.  Honestly, I could care either way.  I just want to be there!  But do you see how complicated things can get?  I HAVE to leave on the day of, unless it is less expensive to bus me over the day before and pay for the hotel.  I think that’s a little silly, don’t you?  Of course, that’s only my humble opinion.

Are there other options than air, bus, or rail travel?  Of course!  You could drive yourself and get $0.49/mile you drive.   I really don’t want to drive, though.  If I do, I’ll leave a few days in advance so I can do some sight-seeing, though.  I hope we get extra time to explore a bit during orientation!  Probably not, but there’s no harm in hoping!

 

THE RULES FOR THE TRP (just to review)

1. No addresses, just name the places. I.e. XNA Airport, Fayetteville Bus Station, etc.

2.  Remember, choose the cheapest option.  They’ll force it on you anyway.

3. You only have TWO BUSINESS DAYS to fill this out!

4. Answer all the questions – Tee shirt sizes and everything.  It’s important.

5. Call the hotline if you have any questions!  They’ll work with you!  Remember, that’s how I found out XNA works.  Now I don’t have to potentially drive to gross Little Rock.  My potential gross travel is now limited to Bentonville.

 

Well, I’m signing off for now!  I hope that helped some of you in the present (unlikely) and in the future (more likely).  Feel free to comment!

General Update: Internships and Applications

Hello y’all!  It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated, so I thought I’d bring you up to speed through this post!  After this post, well, things are going to get interesting around here!  But!  First things first, the update…

Internship Front

When I started my internship, I was a wreck.  I tried to get up to pace with everyone, but the training just wasn’t there.  To be honest, I never wanted to go into catering, but you people already know that!  So, I’ve worked up to the point where my internship supervisors are going out of town starting tomorrow, and I’ll be in charge of their whole business for the next week.  If I don’t sound excited, it’s because I’m not.  I think this will be a great experience for me.  There won’t be a lot of time to waste, especially since I’ll be working from 5:30 (most days, 5:00 on others) until whenever I can get everything ready to close up!  Hopefully, this doesn’t take too long.  I don’t want to screw over their labor costs, you know…  But at least I know I’ll reach my required 250 hours…

AmeriCorps Front

I am now officially selected for the position of Community Health Worker at the UAMS Fayetteville Clinic!  On August 11th, I will be going to Dallas for training!  I’m so excited!  That being said, I realize this is just a stepping stone to what I really want to do, but it’s great to finally see some progress!  I know I haven’t said much about the assignment, so let me fill you in.  For this assignment, I will be promoting something called the Patient Portal.  Now, you may not think very much of that sort of assignment, but give me a chance to change your mind.  The Patient Portal is a web based program that allows patients to connect with their doctors and nursing staff on an intimate level.  No, we’re not talking home visits, but we are talking about something very similar!  Say, for instance, you are a Type II Diabetic patient at the clinic, and your doctor is Dr. Bob.  You need to make an appointment to see Dr. Bob as soon as possible,  because there is something concerning you about a pain you’ve been having in your feet, but you’re too busy at work to spend 10-15 minutes on the phone to make an appointment.  How do you resolve this? Patient Portal!  Patient Portal allows the patient to make appointments to see their providers in no time flat!  Now, Dr. Bob has you do some blood work, because apparently you owe the blood gods a sacrifice or something, and you’re really nervous about your test result.  It’s supposed to come in tomorrow, but your follow up appointment was scheduled for the following week…  Guess what?  You can view it as soon as possible on Patient Portal!  So, lets say you view it on PP, and you’re confused about why your Vitamin D is so low, and hey – isn’t that the Sun Vitamin?  Who in the world needs sun!?  You do, apparently.  And you’ll know that once you email Dr. Bob through the Patient Portal.

See?  Isn’t it useful!  So, while most of my work will be promoting that, I will also be expected to find various opportunities to find ways of reaching out to the community to promote the clinic!  I’m so excited to be able to do this!  And, get this, I’ll have a partner in crime in Springdale! That’s only 10 minutes or so away!  Maybe we could move in together to share the cost of living expenses…Since our less that $1000 a month stipend isn’t considered income, we’ll be able to apply (and receive) food stamps, so living together would mean more money to use towards my gym membership.  Yeah, of all the things I’m worried about, the gym is a big one.  We wouldn’t even have to have internet at home!  We could go to local coffee shops for that… Or maybe the public library.  They have free wifi, books to check out, and a coffee shop in house!  Oh!  I’m so excited!  I can’t wait!

Well, that’s all I can think to update you on.  I’ll have a few book reviews out in a little while.  I know I’ve been saying that a lot, but I’ve finally finished a big one!  Robert D. Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts.  It’s fantastic.  That’s it for me.  Have a happy 4th!

Wooooo! Game 7!!!

Griffin, The Ungrateful Bird: Part 1

During the weekends, especially on Sundays, I prefer to wake up around 8, relax with a cup of coffee, and read the news.  Sometimes I wake up to my dog, who wants to be let out a little early, or maybe it got cold during the night and he just wants to cuddle.  That’s also an ideal wake-up experience.  That’s just how I am.  Coffee, puppy, peace and tranquility.

This morning had none of those things.  I woke up to (of all things) a violent squawking.  I rushed towards my sister’s room to free whatever prey Boots the gray tabby had caught this time (she’s a prolific hunter, always presenting me -because my sister doesn’t appreciate her abilities- with her gifts which have included baby rabbits, mice, voles, skinks, and her favorites… little songbirds)  Today’s vic?  A songbird resembling a white breasted nuthatch.  I did the right thing and ran to save the poor bird, since it was still relatively healthy, and Boots had only began her torture.  I tried to take the bird outside to fly off, but she (he) wouldn’t leave my finger.  So, naturally, I placed it on my shoulder and began looking for a box.  After I had the bird all settled, I asked a close friend who had just finished a pre-vet degree what I should do.  Apparently, there was nothing to do but wait for the shelter to open on Tuesday and keep it fed/watered.  So I tried to feed it.  Apparently, that was a no go, because the ungrateful beast tried escaping the warm, cozy nest I made for it.  So, after saving it from being captured by Boots again, I placed the box inside the dog kennel.  I had noticed it trying to fly into the kennel, and thought that since it couldn’t fly in, it wouldn’t be able to fly out.  At first, this accommodation seemed to work for the little jerk.  Of course, give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile, right?  Wouldn’t you figure that the idiot would just waltz out of the kennel?  I should have known better, really.  After I couldn’t find the bird for 30 minutes (it was under my bed!), I decided that a girl has to do what a girl has to do.

I called in Boots.

It took my little friend exactly 7 minutes to do what I couldn’t in 30, and after catching the bird, I took it from her and placed it on a branch outside.  I know I should have placed it back in the box, but c’mon.  She obviously didn’t want to be here.  It was only after I noticed 45 minutes later that she had fallen out of the tree and was just hopping everywhere when I took pitty on the dumb animal, and caught her, and placed her back in the box.  I ended up tying the box shut to make sure the damn thing didn’t escape again, but so far it’s worked.

I’ve named the bird Griffin, after the ungrateful griffin in the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce, a noted animal lover.  I hope through this experience that I can learn something about taking care of ungrateful things.  So far, all I’ve learned is that I would rather have made friends with a crow.

Seriously, though.  Crows are cool!

Images:

Skinks –

Voles –

FOR SOME REASON, I can’t paste a photo of Griffin the bird on this blog post.  I’ll post a pic in a separate post.

Evidence why crows are cool as beans – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noXANTIeuWY

So, This is Harder Than I Anticipated

I’m still not done with Crime and Punishment. I don’t think I will be for the next week. I’ve got two tests coming up, and a round of projects. I promise, though, that I will have both Crime and Punishment and The Idiot read by March! 🙂

Finally Found Support!

Hey, y’all!

So, I think I mentioned in a previous post that I didn’t have a lot of support for my decision to apply for the Peace Corps.  Out of everyone I know, the only people who seem to be excited for me are a cantankerous old doctor (who I ardently admire), and another young doctor in her residency who almost went (she was assigned a country, but was unable to leave and had to decline)!  Well, that changed today, because I (uncharacteristically) reached out to someone I had attended high school with for a short amount of time, and asked her to join me for coffee a few days ago.  Well, we met up today and I’m happy to report that I had a FANTASTIC time!  I usually don’t like to approach someone first, it really makes me nervous, but how could I resist when we have so much in common?  I’m so glad I now have someone my own age to go through this process with.  It was awesome being able to answer some of her questions, because as I’ve stated before, I am a research machine.  A tried and true nerd on crazy weird levels.  Yup – That’s me!  And in return, she shared some of her hysterical stories from the times when she was an Au Pair in Germany!

Anyway, that’s about it.  I did end up sending an email to the Lodging and Hospitality Association of Montana in order to find some internships out of state.  I want to travel if I can, so why not get paid for it, am I right? 🙂  I’m planning on sending more emails about where to find internships in Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia later.  But for now, I’m going to see how this email turns out.  Hopefully it isn’t tacky to ask for information on where to find internships… I’ll keep y’all updated.

Well, it’s 11:05 right now, and I’m an old lady!  Have a good night everyone! 🙂

New Coffee Shop, Old Friend

Drinking: Coffee, black

Reading: Crime and Punishment – Dostoevsky

A Small Key Opens Big Doors – Chen, Jay (editor – there’s a lot of authors!)

A GRE book given to me by my best bud, Lysa!

Feeling: Pretty good – Grades remain intact, for the moment.

Hey y’all!

So, I’m writing to you from a new coffee shop in town, Mama Carmen’s!  Well, it isn’t new to town, honestly.  It’s just the first time I’ve been here because I’ve been wary of the place.  A little back story – this shop is owned by people who I used to go to church with, and when I stopped going to church, I didn’t want to come here and see them.  I really didn’t want to be bothered about why I was choosing to sleep in rather than go to church.  It’s awkward. But anyway, it’s a beautiful day, and I’m relaxing with one of my bestest best friends, Lysa, and I’m wearing a cool Deadpool shirt that my other bestest best friend Maria bought me!  (Here’s a stockpic of the shirt:  – Isn’t it cute?  She got me a large, so I’m wearing it with leggings.  I feel so nerdy, it’s the absolute best!)  I am so happy to be here relaxing and studying (sort of – I’m taking a break to talk to you lovely people!).  It’s so busy in here that I’m having a hard time concentrating on my work, and I’ve elected to people watch for a bit.  Everyone here is so similar, it seems as if the culture of the shop is very “fashionable college hipster” complete with long haired, bearded men.  Not that I mind, that’s the majority of Fayetteville.  I do kind of wish that there was a bit more diversity here.  But c’est la vie!

Anyway!  So, on to my update!  I am still trying to find an internship – it’s hard.  I need one in order to graduate, but it’s so hard to find one.  Hopefully, I can talk to a hotel and ask for a position and have them call it an internship!  That’s what most people do.  I just want to graduate soon.  If you guys have any ideas, please let me know!

I haven’t started on any projects with my Venture Crew, yet but we’ve got our first camp-out coming in February!  I’m so excited!  We’ll be going to the Old Spanish Treasure Cave in Sulfur Springs!  This is one of the first outings I went on as a Venture Scout when I was younger, and it has always been one of my favorites!  We’ll get to take the traditional tour of the cave first, then we’ll break for dinner.  After dinner, we’ll take the less traditional tour (we’ll get to visit the “Peanut Butter Room,” where I was sent to my first visit after I complained that I wasn’t getting as dirty as the rest of the boys – I still wasn’t dirty after that, to everyone’s amazement!) and then we’ll sleep in the cave!  It’s going to be so much fun, I can hardly wait!  My role in the crew is really just to give my counterpart, Susan, a bit of a break.  We’re the only two lady-leaders in the troop (both in Venture and BSA) and so if a girl wants to tag along to an event, either of us have to be in attendance.  Hopefully, I can give Susan a bit of a break.  I know she loves being outdoors, but it has to be exhausting to go to every single event so that other girls can go.  Anyway, I’m trying to convince Lysa to go, but she’ll have to see whether or not ROTC will allow her time to do that.  I know it’s so hard for her to balance studies with extracurriculars.  I sometimes forget that she has two majors, including a language minor, that requires a lot of her time.  That, coupled with the fact that she does ROTC competitions, makes  her a very busy (very awesome) girl!

So, that’s where I am right now!  I’m going to nail an internship soon, so I can feel okay about starting my application to Peace Corps soon!  I’ll write about all of that later!

Here I am, signing off! Adios!