Meow. (aka: this is Alysa writing)
So, today was a great day—and a rather long one if I may say so myself. Now, it is 12:00am and I am here to inform our super eager, huge fan base about how this Monday went down.
It all started with the most popular drug in the entire world—coffee.
SKURRRRRRTTTT.
I ended up passing out like the rest of the groupies, so this is playing catch up on Wednesday night.
Side note: sorry about the lateness, but we've really been busy working on the principles of unplugging and "this is it" (making the most of our time). J
Alright, where were we? Oh yes, coffee—the start to all things good. Am I right?
Around 8:20am, a group of us (Summer, Mallory, Aaron, Shannon, and me) ventured over to the coffee shop right down the street from where we are staying. During our little trip to a modern café heaven, Joe and Sara ran to the store for more lunch supplies—we finished off most of the first round of groceries the first day. Oops! (Currently rethinking my plan of having 8 kids when I'm older if that's how quickly food always goes..)
After all of us packed up our lunches, we piled into the big ol' van and headed over to our work site for the first time. It was about a 10-minute ride before we eagerly pulled up to the adobe house we were going to start working on. We hadn't been totally sure what we were going to be doing with the house yet so we were very appreciative when Lawrence (our Habitat site coordinator) was right there to greet us and fill us in right as we got out. It was apparent right away that Lawrence was a wonderful human being and we were lucky to have someone as caring, patient, dedicated, and positive as him to guide us through this process. He brought us into the house, a cute, open concept, two-bedroom house that will perfectly suit the gentleman and his daughter who will be living in it. Lawrence also told us what we would be spending a good chunk of our work time on this week. Drywall. This might not sound like much fun to some people, but I, for one, was stoked. We were given some directions and tips, then got started working in a few separate groups. Divide and conquer!
At about noon, I think our stomach growls were louder than the drills and other power tools, so we took a break and headed outside to chow down. To our delight, the house has a breathtaking view of the mountains surrounding Alamosa. We basked in the sun on the driveway and on the front porch while we ate, happy to know that the future owners would have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty everyday.
Despite, the rather extensive amount of time spent measuring and cutting, some iffy power-tools, "clicker" screws, breaking-through-the-paper screws, and cracks in the drywall sheets, I think we did a pretty kick-butt job! I think we got a lot more done than we had expected to, and knew that we would fly through the rest on the following day.
At 4pm, we finished helping our new bud, Lawrence, clean up inside, and got back into the van, with love in our hearts and drywall dust in our eyes…and noses...and ears…and hair…and covering our clothes…and maybe in some other places I wont mention. Everyone came into the church and hit the bunks. Apparently I'm not as buff as I thought, because holding a drill for a while got pretty exhausting #NoFlexZone. With this, I realized that I hadn't worked out in a while..
Some of the group chose to head to a few shops downtown after a bit of rest. During this time, I got Sara, Aaron, and Gerard to agree to go on a short run over to the park with me. I was also given a bit of a slap in the face on the cardio side of my fitness level during that adventure. But I'm blaming the struggle on the altitude (currently singing: "blame it on the a-a-a-altitude"). Back at he church, we chose a room to do some leg and ab work in. One-by-one more group members joined into the fun (Jasmine, Mallory, and Shannon) and all of a sudden I was leading a boot camp. I may have gotten a little carried away...sorry guys.
It was Imani, A-dub (Aaron), and my night to cook dinner. After showers and such, it was edging on 8pm. Considering that we were planning on whipping up a Mexican fiesta, we hurried to the store. Lets just say that enchiladas, fajita veggies, Spanish rice, and guacamole doesn't make for a Rachel Ray 30-minute meal. We started eating around 10pm...sorry again guys. Even so, it was delicioso!
Everyone helped to clean up and was ready for reflection. We had focused on the principle of poco a poco on Monday. This principle applied quite heftily (spell check says that's a word) with our work on the drywall. We did an activity called "web of love" in which we made a web of compliments from group member to member. During this time, I was just reassured that I lucked out with our group. Everyone is so loving and kind, and I can only hope to meet more people who inspire me to better myself as much as our wonderful jumble of an MAB family does.
The night was wrapped up with me leading some bed-time yoges and a relaxing/sleep inducing Savasana/meditation. Another wonderful thing about my group: their willingness to let me share what I love with them.
Side note: sorry about the lateness, but we've really been busy working on the principles of unplugging and "this is it" (making the most of our time).
Aight. I'm out.
Your friendly crazy cat lady,
Alysa
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