Slacking

So since it has almost been 2 months since I last posted here I figured I would do that now. I have been telling myself that I need to do this for the last couple of weeks and since I haven't done it I figured 11:45 pm is as good a time as any.

Since I last posted here I decided that I wasn't going to do the Senior Solutions volunteer work for various reasons. I have had a call from the Red Cross once and what I did there was go through pieces of paper for a raffle. Those that had e-mail addresses on them I put in one pile and those that didn't went into another pile. I did that for four hours. Fortunately I don't get bored too easy!

I have been going into the Idaho Commission for Libraries once a week and have been enjoying my time. The only drawback on this venture into volunteer work is I was hoping to do some socializing and possibly make new friends. Well apparently volunteer work was not the way to go about it. The socializing that goes on is in the first 10 minutes I am there then everyone finishes what they are doing in my area and they go off and go about their other responsibilities. There has been I believe 3 or 4 times that there has been someone working with me while I have been there but about the time they get there is about the time I am getting ready to leave. My responsibilities are to take the cassettes out of the box, make sure they are rewound and make sure there is nothing wrong with the tape or the cassette. If they are in working order I take the mailing label out and put the cassette on the shelf and go onto the next one. If there is something wrong I fill out a card and put it with the cassette and put that on a shelf to be looked at by someone else later. I usually try to be there for four hours every week. That doesn't always happen because there is a lady that comes in after I do and I have to leave some for her. This past week there wasn't much to do so I was only there for two hours this time.

Well enough about that. Next month James and I are going to be heading off to Virginia for a while. James will be there for 2 weeks. I will be there for a month. We are going because my little sister, Amanda, is pregnant and her baby is due around the 27th of February. Her husband, Robert, is in the Navy and of course he might be out on his ship that week. We were planning on visiting in April but since Amanda needs our help we figured it wouldn't hurt to go a couple of months early. At first James and I figured we both would only stay 2 weeks, but the more we thought about it we figured it wouldn't hurt if I stayed a couple more weeks. We also figured the only thing we would be doing, besides being there for Amanda when she has the baby, is tourist stuff. But James was listening to a tech podcast and found out that Drupalcon is in D.C. the last weekend he will be there. So of course he got his boss to pay for the admittance since he was already paying for the plane ticket. So James is very excited for that and I get to get a head start on becoming the favorite Aunt and also make sure my position of favorite sister is 100% concrete.

So that is the droll update of the past two months. Hope to do better at posting in the future.

Volunteer Work

I decided a couple of days ago that I need to expand my horizons and do something outside of the home. I did a search for volunteer opportunities online and found a great website for various volunteer opportunities. The website is volunteermatch.org. As usual I over did it and signed up for 8 different opportunities because I didn't figure everyone would get back to me. So far I have had five of those organizations get back to me. I have decided to help with 3 of them.

The first organization to get back to me was Senior Solutions. The elderly who need help sign up for this service. They then send in a volunteer to talk to them, help them go on walks, help them do grocery shopping and/or do small jobs around the home like changing a lightbulb. At first I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do this because I have a hard time coming out of my bubble and talking to people I don't know well, but in the end decided to do it because this would help with that problem.

The next organization to contact me was the Red Cross. What I will be doing for them is clerical work, which includes making thank you calls to first time donors, putting labels on envelopes, sending out flyers, etc. I chose this because I like doing those tedious tasks most people don't enjoy doing just as long as it's not the same thing every day.

After those two got ahold of me then the Idaho Commissions for Libraries sent me their e-mail. I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing for them but when I signed up it sounded interesting. I already have an appointment with these people on Monday to see what exactly I will be doing.

The two other organizations that have contacted me that I won't be helping are Genesis World Mission and the Discovery Center of Idaho. The main reason why I decided not to also help these organizations is because I didn't want to have too much on my plate. The other reason why I didn't accept the Genesis World Mission is because I don't believe I am experienced enough to help with medical data entry. And the other reason why I didn't accept the Dicovery Center of Idaho is because I really don't like speaking in front of groups and some of the responsibilities would be giving tours of their facility. Also I don't think it would keep my interest for too long, for various other reasons.

I am hoping that this step outside of my comfort zone will not only help me be more productive but also help me make many new friends.