more updates from the beautiful windy city...

I wrote this on Thursday, it is now Saturday...sorry!!

Well, life has been pretty crazy (as usual it seems for my life in Chicago) and I haven’t had time to update this, so I apologize. Last weekend we were able to stretch my birthday celebrations from Thursday to Sunday and did lots of random, fun things and hardly sleep at all. Thursday we went to a local bar and played pool and darts and then the neighborhood boys took me to a burrito place also in the area. Friday we went to a happy hour up north at a bar called Uncle Fatty’s. There were only a few Amate people brave enough to give it a try but our stories of the sand, palm trees, and live music got everyone excited for another adventure there this weekend!
During the day Saturday we bummed around, Kate and I went for a run, and then Kate, Jessie, and I tried a coffee shop in the next neighborhood over (Bridgeport). It was really cute and it was nice chatting in a smaller group and getting a chance to just chill. Saturday night was a Mexican Independence Day party at the Little Village house and we got to meet some other volunteers from MercyHome (the other place I applied to this year) so that was fun making new friends. Of course after the party the neighborhood guys were ready to hang out so they came over to my place and we chatted until way too late, especially for waking up for 9:30 mass the next morning. We also had Sunday brunch at our house which was fantastic to come home from Church to the smell of pancakes, French toast, and hash browns. Sunday afternoon Kate, Michael, Meghan (his girlfriend who was up visiting for the weekend…I am not starting to talk in 3rd person, no worries) and I explored the Celtic Fest downtown and got to watch Irish dancers, hear some Irish music and look at all the art and projects that were going on. Then Kate and I traveled farther up north to a Catholic Open House at a cute coffee shop to learn about different parishes, services, youth groups, and education opportunities available to us in the Chicago area. Of course there was free food involved and it was delicious. Sunday night I got to experience the Bears and Packers play on the big screen in the teen center, I have to say that I was only attentive to half time and then my ADD-type personality took over. It was fun eating pizza, drinking beer, and hanging out with lots of Bears fans (and one Packer fan) and seeing how into the game they got. After 4 interceptions and in the last 2 minutes the Packers secured the win and the guys’ moods became a little sour. There was talk of duct taping the nearest Packer fan (Linda) to a pole somewhere…she escaped unscathed, fear not.
This week was fun and crazy as well and all the excitement contributed to me getting sick this week. My running hasn’t been up to par but hopefully next week I’ll get back into the training. We got to go to the Cubs/Brewers game in Wrigley field on Monday. As a south-sider I wasn’t allowed to cheer for the Cubs, as a Minnesotan I wasn’t allowed to cheer for Wisconsin so I just enjoyed Wrigley field and watching baseball.
Tuesday night John Lucas, the Amate House executive director, made our house a delicious dinner. He is a really awesome guy and shared with us all about his life and all that he has done. It was really cool to hear about such a great and inspirational guy in such a down-to-earth way and feeling really comfortable around him. Linda and I get to know the staff better than our housemates because we are around in the morning because we go to work later so I have been able to talk to him but it was nice that my roommates got to interact with him as well and that he was so willing to serve us. This year has really shown me all the love that people have for others and how a year of service is not only learning to serve but also learning to accept the generosity that people want to share. I don’t always have to be the one helping people, I can accept things from people as well and that is okay.
Wednesday night we had community night at MercyHome (the friends we made on Saturday night) and got VIRTUS training, learning about protecting children from child molesters, a less than cheerful topic that left us all a little depressed and me worrying about my kids.
Tonight we had a former volunteer over for dinner and she brought us brownies! (we love having guests…but a batch of brownies is gone in under 5 minutes with the 13 of us digging in) Then we had a house event of watching “The Office” season premiere and now are just bumming around the house and one by one my roomies are heading to bed. Tomorrow is Friday (TGIF!!! It’s been a long week…) and after the radio show in the morning I’ll be on my own at the Teen Center because Linda is leaving for the weekend for a wedding. It should be interesting going at it alone but I think the guys will come and keep me company for most of the day.
The job is going well, still getting used to the kids and having fun stuff for them to do for 4 hours with all their pent up energy from sitting in school all day. They are interesting to figure out and I am trying to get inside their heads and see where the heck they get some of their ideas on school, life, and relationships. Already I have gotten really close to one of our most quiet girls. It has been intense having her share her life story with me and hearing all she has gone through after knowing her for only a couple weeks. I can’t go into details but just know that her life has been much, much different than mine. It was really nice because at their school’s open house last night she introduced me to all her teachers because her dad wasn’t there with her. She was so proud having me there and getting to show me her school and meet her teachers. It was great sharing that part of her life with her.
We got to experience a planning meeting at the middle school today and I felt more informed about what was going on and what they are doing to help the kids (rather than just hearing from the kids everything they hate about school). Linda and I decided we are going to practice our Spanish since most of the parents only speak Spanish…hopefully that will go well and it will come back to me. I’m still working on synching the databases and getting everything organized. It is going to be a long project but I have faith that next years’ volunteers will come into the job with a much better sense of what is going on. We are also starting to research grants and figure out different ways we can get money into the center. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, we need, need, need money so we can give the kids more, have a larger staff, and provide more opportunities to make the center great. I’m still working on my volleyball and pool skills but doing some homework help and I enjoy working with the kids and seeing them get stuff done and maybe learn a little (even though they will never admit it).
Linda, E-O, and I get to go to National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City in November! Jim is bringing some kids and was able to get enough funds for all 3 of us to go as well! I am super excited but I will talk more about that in a later post, this one has gotten much too long already and it is bedtime. Hope all is going well wherever you are reading this from and you are able to have adventures of your own. Love and miss you all, you are in my thoughts and prayers as always.
-Meg