Thanksgiving and Community

"You won't understand the unabashed power of a community until you are part of one." -Jon Acuff

A house that has 3 people somehow expanded to accommodate 8 people for 4 days and 3 nights.  It endured a truth or dare jenga, Thanksgiving cooking and dinner, a social affair, and the craziness of packing 8 people into a car for a trip to LA after all of that.  It was a blast and a highlight of being out in California!

We all knew that Thanksgiving was going to be different and a little emotional not being with our families.  For me it was much harder than expected and luckily got busy prepping the turkey.  Each one of us took the opportunity to talk to family at home, but also pushed forward to make a delicious meal and have a lot of fun together.  We were also able to Skype with the other AV communities and were once again "together" (sorry Peru and Deena!). 

The week before I made lists upon lists of what needed to be cleaned, what needed to be bought, what needs to happen on the food front, potential plans for the day, and where oh where are we going to fit 5 extra people.  No matter how many lists I made, I was still lying in bed wondering if the turkey would blow up in the oven.  Simultaneously I was planning the last segment of our Thanksgiving box distribution at Help of Ojai and dealing with a different type of turkey saga.  The Thanksgiving box distribution went well and the local schools and churches gave very generously this year.  When handing out food that is based off donation, it's always a very nice surprise to have extra go to our very low stocked pantry.

Thanksgiving arrives and Patty, Ryan and I decided to run a Turkey Trot 5K.  Why not add any more stress to this day? For cooking we had a system of who would prep and cook when.  It of course is only slightly used and everything worked out.  All that worrying has gone to waste and the turkey did not blow up!  The only glitch was me buying chorizo for the sausage stuffing, which is clearly not Polish but still delicious.  We had a beautiful setting (thanks Nicole!) and flowers (thanks Francis!) for our table and a picture (thanks Brian!) to commemorate this day.  We also were able to taste one of the most best apple pies ever made (thanks Martha!).

While on Skype with our other communities we went around and all said something we were thankful for.  We all have a lot to be thankful for always, but right now I am most thankful for the community that we continue to build across the country.  Not many people understand what this AV Tangerine Dream life is like and I often struggle to find words for what we do. I think that Jon Acuff describes it best, there truly is an abashed power behind our community. 

The Hats of an Intern

Having worked in public health before working at Help of Ojai, I am aware that one person wears many different hats.  Some of these projects are assigned and very strict, while others fall into your lap for reasons that nobody can tell you.  As my 3 months have gone on I have realized that I am wearing many hats that I didn't think I would.

This blog post came to me while simultaneously baking rolls for our work Thanksgiving Feast fundraiser and trying to make sure 25 high school students stayed busy for their service day.  The first hat I didn't expect to wear was a baking hat.  Twice now I have had the opportunity to bake with our executive director, Terri, for work fundraisers.  Both times have been fun and I was able to learn some tricks about baking, including how to make perfectly round rolls and how to efficiently bake mass quantities.  During this time I was also able to enjoy talking to Terri and other kitchen staff that I don't see regularly.

Service coordinator is another hat I did not see myself wearing at Help of Ojai.  The above mentioned service day and a few side projects have fallen into my lap and needed to be organized.  This hat is not my favorite because I always get nervous about which type of high school students you will get.  It's fun when everyone is enjoying themselves, having fun and helping, but can become uncomfortable if I have to become the "adult" and make them work or break up the groups of friends. 

Bill payer is another hat that I did not expect to wear while working at Help of Ojai. Luckily they are not my bills and it's not my money, but our clients come in and ask for help with writing checks.  Some of them feel their handwriting isn't legible enough, while others can't remember so we write a check and have them sign it.  Being a check writer can help us keep a tab on their budget and can alert us to any fishy schemes that might be going on.

This last one isn't a hat, but I would really like to wear the cape of defender against all evil.  This cape often comes with a sticky situation and usually ends up with me getting an answer I don't like.  For example, if you call Adult Protective Services (APS) about an elderly person whose "friend" wipes out their bank account every month, if that elderly person doesn't want to move forward the investigation is dropped.  As a person I can't do anything, but maybe I could change the person's mind for dropping the investigation or having APS realize the dire consequences of no action if I was the defender against all evil.

On a clothing related note, over Thanksgiving the San Diego and Ventura communities learned all about the different pants I wear.  They learned most about my sassy pants and bossy pants over the five-ish days we spent together.  Don't worry, a whole post about Thanksgiving is up next!