A Taste of Home

An E-mail From Madre:

"I babysat Elliot last night. He is walking all over the place now. He thinks it is funny. If you tap your feet on the floor behind him he thinks you are chasing him. He likes to crawl between your legs when you are standing. If you bend & peek at him he laughs and tries to walk through. Such a blast!"

I can't wait to see him and everyone at Christmas!

Official Teams

Lots of Changes

Coby, Me, Kyle, Tibbs, Kelsey, Katelyn,
Amanda, Tink, Lydia

Last night we found out our official teams...our families for the next 10 months!  I need to preface this by saying the dismemberment of Pod Dysfunction was a sad, sad event.  I think we were all apprehensive about leaving our awesome group.  We had a "puddle", a pod huddle, where a cheesey group hug took place, along with an awesome picture...make sure to find the half-eaten piece of pizza!  In addition to leaving my pod buddies, I am going to greatly miss our breakfast food...I highly doubt that my new team will splurge on the rice cakes and Nutella that I had grown accustomed to enjoying each morning. 

I can't express how greatly I'm going to miss our
dance parties when we change rooms/suites!

In addition to switching teams, we will be switching rooms tomorrow (Friday) night.  There is a two hour time block where all 300 people will be checking out of their current rooms and checking into their new rooms.  This will be chaos.  Thankfully I don't have too much stuff.  It will be tough to get a new roomie and new suite-mates though.  I'm not sure if it's possible to find another roommate who will enthusiastically agree to rap and hip hop at 530am.  Oh, how I appreciate you, Katelyn!




Dance Party!

This morning was our first official pt (physical training) day.  I have to admit that it was more of a gentle wakeup than a full body work out.  I think I'll be supplementing the pt with my own training if I ever find free time in my days.  I definitely appreciated one of the stations in this morning's circuit, however.  This circuit included "dancing" to hip hop music blaring out of one of the vans.  I also appreciate the fact that our pt takes place long before the sun rises, considering it's been in the 90's the last two days.  One of our team members was late to our muster (team meeting before pt), though, so our entire group has to show up extra early tomorrow morning. 

Upcoming Events:
Our first mini work project will start this coming Tuesday for my team.  We will be at Camp Mendocino (about five hours north of Sacramento, located in the Red Wood Forest) until Friday.  I'm not entirely sure what work we'll be doing as of yet, but I was advised by my old pod leader to bring the Baby Taylor.  I was also advised that our living accommodations will consist of open-air cabins, 3 open-air toilets, and 3 open-air showers...That'll be fun with all 70 of us, especially if pt and manual labor is involved.  And supposedly it'll be cold since we'll be in higher altitude and farther north.  I'm not sure what California's "chilly" is though, having come from the state of blizzards and winter wind.  I'm quite excited, despite the living accommodations, to see the big beautiful trees, though, and to not sit in meetings all day.  It will be four days of being disconnected from the world - no electronics are allowed, including cell phones! (I'm not sure if this is due to fire hazards, or just to get us out in nature.)  Hmm...I wonder if alarm clocks are banned as well.

On a smaller note, my girls and I plan on having a Sunday Funday.  This will consist of eating at the famous Californian In-N-Out Burger for lunch, and then either going on a shopping trip in Sacramento, enjoying nature for the day at Lake Tahoe, or finally making the trek to San Fransisco.  (I'm voting for the 3rd option!)  Thankfully my team leader announced that we will fend for ourselves in regards to food on Sundays, which opens up my schedule.  It will be quite nice to not have to report in for dinner!

Lastly, I wanted to announce to all of the drivers of the west coast region that I will be in van training on Saturday morning.  Yes, that is correct.  Little Jenny will be one of four ladies in her team trained to drive a 15 passenger, government issued van.  I was hesitant to agree to it at first, but we had a lack of volunteers for the job within my team.  I love the option of having the freedom to drive, but the responsibility involved makes me a little nervous.

Miscellaneous:
Here are a few left-over pictures from earlier in the week...FYI: I have now completed my first full week in Sacramento!



Making our Friendship Bracelets! 
Yep, apparently we're back in elementary school.  :)

  







Their first exposure to the Taylor!

Open Mic Night

Two minutes of pushups, two minutes of sit ups, a mile and a half run, and a flexibility test.  That's what our 5:30am baseline physical assessment consisted of first thing Monday morning!  They have us do this so we can track our improvement, and so they can place us in appropriately paced running groups.  I was more flexible than I expected to be, and it turns out I tested WAY above anything posted on the chart for female upper body strength...hard to fathom looking at myself in a mirror! 

My body held up quite well...until Tuesday morning when I tried to get out of bed.  The sitting up motion was a little tricky.  Thankfully I had packed my lunch/breakfast the night before, and didn't even have to get out of bed to reach it and start my day off with nutella-covered rice cakes and a banana! 

The rest of the day was painful in a different sense.  Meeting after meeting after meeting.  Not interactive meetings either.  The only thing I felt productive about was exchanging some of my uniform attire for different sizes, and picking up my offical steel-toed boots.  Very hot, and not in a sexy way.  A picture will probably show up eventually of how good I look in those! 

To top it all off, my pod had "duty" that night, which basically means we clean the dorm common areas from 8-10pm.  Finding a box of lice killer was not exciting.  Or hearing about one of the mattresses having bed bugs.  They're literally brand new, lavender sented mattresses...What the heck! 



Top: seranading my girls outside our dorm

Bottom: Open Mic Night



But this blog post is entitled "open mic night"...Turns out, my pod leader agreed to get us in and out of our duty early if I agreed to play for open mic night!  I was not overly convinced I was actually going to follow through with it, but I was going there to support one of my pod buddies, Coby, who would be using my guitar to perform a cover song and a song he had written.  I finally gave in, and was the third to last performer.  The whole show actually lasted for 2 hours, with the acts ranging from rapping, poetry (some heart-felt and moving, some goofy and fun), break dancing, comedy acts, and singing!  A lot more people showed up than I had anticipated, and they were all SUPER supportive and encouraging.  I decided to sing just one song, Cold Cold Heart by Norah Jones.  I performed that song, along with A Fine Frenzy's Almost Lover at an open mic night my junior year of college.  During that performance, I forgot the last verse to the Norah Jone's song, and had to have my roomie, Jaime, shout out the words.  I planned ahead this time, and jotted down the beginning line to each verse on a piece of paper that I brought up with me.  I didn't need it, but it was a nice safety net.  My current roomie, Katelyn, took a few pics and recorded it for me, so I'll try to post those later on. 

Today, I went through CPR/First Aid/AED training which was quite hands on, and was far more entertaining than yesterday's lectures.  Our speaker was the best we've had yet, and role playing with each other and the limb-less mannequines was quite comical at times. 



Our hectic kitchen space

The only downside to today was the lack of food available to make lunch with.  I decided to be creative and have my turkey, ranch, and pepperjack sandwich on a bagel since there was only white bread left.  Right...choosing a cinnamon raisin bagel was not wise.  Infact, it was quite yucky.  Thanfully I had popcorn and Reese's Pieces to fill me up.  A nice well-rounded lunch. 

A Little About the Campus

First Thing's First

As I groggily walk to breakfast, the first sight I see is a man digging through the dumpster outside our dorm with a HUGE pitbull in a shopping cart.  It was sitting all nice and docile, but I literally have NEVER seen such a beast of an animal.  I kept staring, wondering if that's what I was really looking at.  Needless to say, this isn't exactly a secured campus.

Food: So the oranges here are not edible.  They look like oversized limes.  Some strange chemicals from the airforce days seeped into the ground, got sucked up through the roots, and caused the fruit to become radioactive.  Ok, maybe not radioactive, but definitely not edible. 

And edible things are important.  We are given a food allowance of $4.75 per day per person.  Hence, I am extremely pumped about the chocolate covered cranberries that Natalie sent me off with!  They have a special spot in my dresser.

Uniforms:

Pants and shorts that come up to my bellybutton - XS

Polos, long sleeves, sweatshirt - S

Coveralls - L ...yeah, they're sexy

I don't really understand how the different sizes work out...ranging from an XS to a L isn't something that typically happens for me. 

  

On Campus:

We are broken into temporary teams called pods. Ours is a group of 9 diverse individuals which I have openly and endearingly dubbed, "Pod Dysfunction." It took us twice as long as the others to fill out our immunization paperwork, get our uniforms fitted, and pee in a cup...actually it took our entire group two separate days to pee in a cup. Peeing under pressure apparently doesn't work for everyone no matter how many water bottles they down.

Night Life:
After finding the mechanical bull (that we didn't ride because the bar was completely dead, given that it was only 8pm), we wandered downtown. We took about 4 wrong turns within a block of where we wanted to be. We passed by a bunch of live music and social gatherings to go to the infamous Second Saturday Block Party. It was supposed to be a gathering of artists and musicians...It was one tiny street block with one band and some alcohol. We walked straight through it and found an upscale restaurant, Michel (Bistro~Bar~Brasserie), and grabbed a table outside. It's on the corner of 14th and O, and has one of the best servers, Marshall, who we think may have been the owner. Excellent Sangrias! As we were driving away, Kelsey shouts out, "Looks like Lil' Wayne just did a drug deal on a street corner." Followed by "Lil' Wayne" cheering and saying, "Come on over here, ladies!" We should really pay attention to when the car windows are rolled down. We eventually made our way back to Harvey's, a local dive bar filled with fellow members, and ended our night well.

The main intention of this pic was to get a pic
of the guy behind me in the sweet hat.

For today, our first day with any real free time, the four of us amigas wanted to venture to San Fransisco.  It's within the 100 mile radius we're allowed from base, but apparently we need to be back for dinner so it was a no go.  Major bummer.  In a few weeks we're taking a group trip to the Red Woods though, so that will be good.  Hopefully over spring break we'll have the time for the adventures we're trying to squeeze in. 

Day 1

My guitar and I officially made it to Sacramento!  Everything went beautifully and smoothly...except for the scene where ticket lady for the second airplane scolded me and kept looking back and forth between my guitar and the size of the carry-on bin.  Oh, and I guess the whole almost getting bumped off the oversold flight...and also getting scolded for using the first class bathroom... the food tray was in the way though, come on!

Anyway, I was able to sneak my guitar under the seat and put my sweatshirt over my lap so the neck of the guitar, which protruded out quite far, couldn't be seen.  My airplane mate and I were qutie sneaky!  She was a larger woman and didn't fit into the seatbelt all that well...so we decided that she would pretend to wear her seatbelt and I would pretend that my guitar fit. 

The sunrise from the plane was beautiful- about the same as the sunrise from the party bus on the way to the Chicago airport last summer...but that's another story!

The first night of the check-in process was quite long though.  After getting up at 4am, finally getting into bed around 11:30 pm in a timezone two hours behind was a little rough.  I had to stay up and watch The Devil Wears Prada though with my new roomie and friends!  Apparently it's a fairly accurate description of the fashion industry that two of them were immersed in before embarking on this adventure.  Got about half way through and had to pause it though due to sheer exhaustion.  The rest will be finished tonight before a large group game of capture the flag!

Today was easy though...listened to a few presentations, had some time off, played a few games, and passed my pregnancy and drug test, wahoo!  

Tomorrow, after getting my uniform and filling out lots of paperwork, there's a festival called "Second Saturday" that a bunch of us are going to in downtown Sacramento.  After that, Larry (one of the leaders) suggested that we ride a mechanical bull at a bar near there.  :)  Updates will be posted. 



Me~Kelsey~Katelyn~Michelle



The Night Before Day 1

So, I've officially decided that I would not be the traveller that I am (or at least like to imagine myself as) without the modern communication systems.  I can't imagine flying two time zones away for nearly a year (save Christmas) without the conveniences of cell phones, email, and facebook!  I'd imagine that travelling is not what it used to be 50 years ago, but I am completely okay with that.  I love that I live in a day and time where I can have the best of both worlds...travel and adventure while still staying connected to my closest!

Earlier in the night, after my madre dropped me off at my hotel, a wave of emotion came over me.  At first I thought I was sad...nope.  Just the emotion that comes with change.  I'm actually quite excited and know this will be a great adventure!  Natalie, my sister, relayed a y-wam (Youth With A Mission) quote to me earlier that I will keep in mind for sure: Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape.  Yup. 

The drive to Milwuakee was flawless thanks to a Garmin GPS system that my aunt gave me for Christmas.  And Madre made it back quite safe, despite the voicemail she left me about being lost in East Milwaukee.  After she left I considered heading down to the Clairon's bar/lounge to be social but decided against it...This is quite possibly the last night I will have to myself for the next ten months, and I'm gonna take advantage of that!

I'm thinking I should head to bed now, given that I'm getting up at 4am...we'll see how well that works given the fact that I'm such a morning person. ;)  I made some peppermint tea (thanks Nat!) and have a good book to read (thanks Madre!) and maybe a phone call or two to make, and then I will be off!