Volunteer @ MindSay

I'm spending the later part of this evening on the phones for the New Hampshire Public Television auction. Eric's mother volunteers every year and invited me along this time around. Since I'm pretty new to the area, I figured it could be a fun foray into the local(ish) community.

This is my second shift -- I did the early shift last Friday (theme: flashback to 1974) and decided to go back for more (tonight's theme: Mardi Gras). Last week was a lot of fun -- though I'm not a big phone/dealing with the public kind of person, there was enough chocolate (Lindt is an auction sponsor) and goofing around with the other volunteers to make it worthwhile. The whole production is also delightfully low-budget -- I say that not out of snobbery, but with a genuine appreciation for all things discount (Eric cringes at my passion for the Christmas Tree Shop). From cheesy graphics -- e.g., the curtain image that looks like a plywood cutout someone's holding in front of the camera --  to people randomly walking in front of the camera to guest appearances by "local celebrities" (e.g. politicians who haven't held office since the mid-seventies), the flavor of the production is definitely a testament to the fact that public television needs your money.

On the other side of things, I've also been watching the auction off and on in the evenings. It runs for six and a half hours every night for 11 days, and the sheer volume of merchandise, from gift baskets to vacations, is amazing. After seeing the deals that winning bidders come away with (Eric's mom, for instance, got a hotel stay worth $150 for $90), I can definitely see myself becoming a TV auction nut.

Let the bidding begin!

this is my third try at entering something about volunteering at the Classical Chinese Garden. After this I give up.

So today, rather than just sit at home (which, honestly, was my preference), I rattled up four more volunteers and we worked for about six hours in Fall River at a church that serves the homeless meals every Monday. Granted, I'm Jewish, but I really got into the Priest's talk before the guests came in, when he said that every person who came in was Christ in our eyes... kind of brought a new perspective to how most people view the homeless.

Also, it affected me a lot as I was homeless myself for a few months (well, couch-surfing between three friends' trailers) and it's taken me this long... damn near 18 years... to help out those who are now in the plight I used to be in. It takes a lot to walk in someone else's shoes, but sometimes I think it's harder to remember what it was like to wear shoes that you yourself have kicked away. I'll be going back there, I'm sure.

Oh, and on a brighter note, the former band geek and current computer geek in me loved this:

 

Yesterday was my JCC day and a little guy who doesn’t speak English yet but understands it pretty well ( he is from Russia) was playing soccer with me in the “bubble”. The bubble is a large air dome covering an indoor soccer field and gymnastics area. Within it is a place called the pit filled with three feet deep foam squares into which the kiddos can jump and sink and roll and be saved- essentially it is a total hoot. SO I was warned by a 4 year old that I should go init with a skirt on and a teacher told me it tends to remove your socks. But I took the leap and man was it great fun. I also spent some time running along a 30 feet long trampoline leading to the pit.

 

Afterwards I managed to get a free pass to use the J that afternoon for lap swimming.  There was only one other person in the pool…. Duh. And I got in about 8 laps before thinking I had better cool it or I wouldn’t be moving the next day. And then I tried the smaller therapy pool- 90 degrees for exercise mostly and I did some stretches before I visited the whirlpool/. Their whirlpool wasn’t as hot as mine  so that was good to know. But I think they will give me a free pass every Thursday so I can make laps part of the weekly routine.

 

In the afternoon my treo came. Jim managed to get it to successfully synch w outlook but half the keyboard doesn’t function and I really miss graffiti as an input device—and the writing screen. So maybe a one device plan isn’t right for me but I thought it would simplify everything, maybe if I get one where the keyboard works??????????

 

Jim went to a play last night while I stayed home and watched a really bad mystery movie--- but abs purred and hummed all evening through the quiet and even let me get some knitting done while she slept on my lap.  And I applied to volunteer at the Chinese garden as the craft museum hardly ever calls. Whoever gets to me first gets me one morning a week. Oh and yesterday it snowed most of the afternoon. No complaints here.