A Trip to the ER

This will be the last post for this year. I will be flying home for Christmas, so starting today, I am going to be taking a short hiatus so I can spend more time with my family and friends. I will still be writing, but pen and paper style, a little bit over Christmas so if I have the time, I will write a brief overview of my break for you guys when I return.

With that, stay safe and warm over the holidays, and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years from the Ruder Family!!




Day 154 - Monday (14), Today was a stressful day at work. I have a huge report due tomorrow and I'm quite behind right now. I have 8 pages and each page takes approx. one hour to complete. So it's really slow and tedious work.


After work, I drove around Columbia for two hours dropping people off because we have two hours to kill before we can return back to housing.


When we returned to housing, I took a short break and headed back to finish my report for tomorrow. It took about 5 hours until I was somewhat satisfied with the report. After that, I went straight to bed.




Day 155 - Tuesday (15), I finished my report today and presented to the branch director for PA. He wasn't happy about how many financial discrepancies there were between the two set of data I was given and told to compare. So he had me go back and make updates to the data and make them match.


After work, we drove around Five Points, which is a neat little outside outlet full of stores near our housing. It's already decked out in lights and ribbons for Christmas, which I really like.


When we got home, we had dinner. After that, I took advantage of church's gym and played basketball for about an hour and a half.




Day 156- Wednesday (16), Today I spent majority of the day working on updating data to make sure finances match. Like before, it's slow and tedious. It requires much patience and not much room to screw up because we're playing around with large sums of money.


For PT today, we played soccer with our sister team - Gulf 3. When I first got to this program, I was really bad at soccer because it was a sport I never played growing up. I still am really bad at soccer and I mean really bad, but not as bad as when I first got here. So a slight improvement.


After PT, I took a shower and tried to watch the US Women's Soccer game, but it wasn't on any of our channels so I gave up trying to watch it and instead I did online Christmas shopping. Or more like Christmas researching. If you don't remember from one of my previous blogs, my family and I are doing a non-stuff Christmas this year.


Day 157 - Thursday (17), Today at work was mainly the same. I spent majority of the day updating finances so they match our online database.


After work, we did an ISP at the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army does an event where families can apply on their website to receive Christmas gifts for their kids due to them being in a financial crisis or at or below the poverty line. So we helped with retrieving gifts from the back of their warehouse and bringing them up to the front.


Half of the team went to see the opening premiere of the new Star Wars today. I originally was going to go with them, but I decided to hold it off until I got home to see it with my Dad. We've been seeing quite few movies together over these past couple of years and since I've been gone, I've haven't been able to see any with him. So I wanted to do that with him.


I did more Christmas researching today. I've probably changed everyone's gifts at least a few times, except for my Mom's. Her's was the easiest, but it did take me a few days to think of it. I think she's going to like it. It's been fun trying to brainstorm for gifts. It really tested my knowledge of how well I know my family and their interests in addition to what they like to do instead of setting a physical object in front of them and saying "Merry Christmas!" I'm trying to do stuff meaningful for them and actually put thought, time, and effort into these gifts. I really hope they all like it.




Day 158 - Friday (18), Today I finished fixing/updating my financial data and it's looking pretty good so far. But since one data is an electronic database, it needs to checked on a constant basis since numbers can change at anytime.


After work, we dropped off a couple members around town and then a few of us went to a mall. I spent majority of my time in Barnes and Nobles rifling through books.


We got home around 6 pm and I made dinner tonight, which was my Mom's chili. I really enjoyed it and it was warming since the last few days have been muggy and rainy. It's definitely starting to get a little colder here.


I spent part of the night talking to the other AmeriCorps teams stationed in Sacramento. I also just sat in the stairwell listening to Christmas music and making plans with friends for when I got home. One of my all time favorite Christmas songs of all time is Grown-Up Christmas List. I could just listen to it over and over again.




Day 159 - Saturday (19), Well, I had quite the day today! We had a Stafford ISP with the St. Bernard Project in which we cleaned out insulation from the ceiling. The house was flooded by the flood so there was mold damage on the ceiling. And since the ceiling was scheduled to be replaced, we had to take out the insulation before they could tear the ceiling down.


A few of us got to climb in the attic while half of us stayed below. We cut a square hole in the ceiling, taped a trash bag under the hole and swept all the insulation into the bag.


We were in the final stages of cleaning out the last of the insulation, when there was an emergency. We found out that Kristina didn't tell us she was allergic to mold so she had an allergic reaction to it. She was breaking out into hives and couldn't talk or swallow very well due to her throat, so Kodiak and I took her to the ER. As we were driving to the ER, there was a funeral procession going on and I felt kind of bad cutting through it, but I needed the exit that was coming up. The one time that a government licensed vehicle actually came in handy!


We arrived to the ER, got her checked in and they took her to the back and gave her an IV line and some shots. We made it to the ER just in the nick of time. The doctor said that within another five minute, it would have gotten way worse with way more severe consequences. Within an hour after the shots and IV line, she started to look much better and was returning slowly back to her normal self. We got her discharged, picked up the rest of the crew, headed back to housing and told everyone to take showers. We dumped all our clothes that were exposed to mold downstairs so she didn't have any contact with them and then put her to bed.


After putting her to bed, I myself fell asleep for a hour tired from this morning's activities. When I finally came back to life, Kodiak and I watched a movithat was playing on TV and we also watched some Food Network's Chopped.




Day 160 - Sunday (20), Today was a lazy Sunday. I slept in until about 11 am and took a drive through Five Points dropping people off.


After we got back, I made myself lunch and watched football for a few hours. We were supposed to go grocery shopping and do laundry today, but we left our government credit card card at work so we were unable to do either of those. But we will be grocery shopping and doing laundry tomorrow when we get off of work.




Day 161 - Monday (21), Today was a rather slow day at work. It really dragged on for me because I know that I'm going home this week so it seems like someone bewitched the clock to move extra slow.


Today, Kodiak is leaving for Christmas so we dropped him off at the airport. After that we spent about 2 hours at the laundromat washing and drying our clothes. This laundromat is cheaper that any other ones we have been to.


After laundry, we dropped the boys back at housing and then Kristina, Madeleine and I went grocery shopping. Since people are leaving this week including me, our budget is smaller than usual due to absences. Kristina and I picked up a bunch of frozen food and quick meals for the boys because once Kristina and I leave for break, the boys won't really cook so we just bought them frozen pizzas and frozen meals.


I made dinner for Kristina and I when we returned back from shopping. I made vegetarian fajitas. I used corn tortillas opposed to whole wheat or flour tortillas because it's healthier. I sautéed corn, bell peppers, and onions and mixed that into a refried/black bean mixture. I also added a little dash of spices here and there.


We also rented a redbox movie and had a movie night. After that, I took a shower, downloaded some songs and put them in my phone and went to bed.




Day 162 - Tuesday (22), Today, all the clouds from the sky, just decided that they would spread their joy all over Columbia today. It rained extremely hard that it woke me up from my sleep.


Walking out the door this morning was a lovely surprise. It rained so hard that it made difficult to drive. I was driving so slow because visibility was not optimal. Probably like 35-40 mph on a 70 mph highway if that gives you a better perspective. The windshield wipers were all the way on high and they almost rendered useless in this situation.


Nonetheless, we made it to work. Or I thought we did. One of my team member informed me that he forgot his badge back at lodging so I had to drive all the way back. By the time we made it back to lodging, weather was improving. I made some tea inside before we left to drive to work...again.


Today was the same at work. It went by a little faster than yesterday, but that's probably due to the fact that I missed the first 1.5 hours.

We were going to do PT after work today, but the grass fields were too wet and muddy so we did individual PT today. So for the two hours we had to kill, we drove to downtown Columbia. It was the first real time I had actually been able to explore downtown. I would always drive through it, but it was really nice to walk through it.

At 6, we dropped everyone back at housing, and Alex and I went to go grab dinner at Ramen House, a ramen place I spotted a couple weeks ago and scouted out the menu today when we walking around downtown killing time. The ramen was very delicious and I ate very last bit with no struggle. It reminded me of the ramen house that my family would always go to in downtown Sacramento. As matter of fact, this is the first bowl of ramen I have eaten in this program, and that includes the microwave ramen also!

For my individual PT today, I played basketball in the gym. For the first half and hour, I shot by myself. Then for the last half, I played a game with Drew and Nic, which was extremely fun. But I could not wait to take a shower. I was disgustingly gross and covered in sweat so it felt very satisfying to wash it all off and be clean.


Day 163 - Wednesday (23), My day technically started with me finishing yesterday's blog and me waking up at 2:30 am to drop Kristina off at the bus station so she could catch her ride home back to Virginia.

Today was another one of those rainy days. Only four of us went to work today, two stayed behind sick, and two had already left for break. Today went by extremely slow because we had no work due to our POC being out of office and majority of other FEMA employees were also out.

The only action we got today was a tornado warning. We got the emergency alert on our phones and then we had to go down all the way to the basement and hangout there until the tornado warnings were lifted.

We finally left work at 4. I dropped Sean off at a barbershop and I went with a few others to the mall to hangout there until 6. We dropped a couple people back at home and a few of us went to Starbucks to use their free Wi-Fi.

I spent the evening watching a movie that was running on TV. I also watched the boys sword fight with foam pool noodles - they just saw Star Wars, and then I packed.

Kristina, Kodiak and I in the ER

Working in the damaged house clearing out insulation

 

Christmas Tree at the Capitol

Ramen at the ramen house

Tornado warning at work

Round 2: Columbia, SC

Day 147 - Monday (7), Today, we started our two day road trip to South Carolina! Before we left, we had to finish cleaning our dorms and get them inspected. Then we had to make sure our van passed the inspection checklist before we hit the road. We passed the inspection, and after we started moving, I fell asleep and the rest is unknown.

We traveled for about 8 hours today and took a lunch stop at Chipotle. I started reading a new book called Unbroken. There's also a movie made after the book, which I have already seen so I know what the books is about. It's based off of a real life story and it took place around WWII. It's about a man named Zamperini who was an Olympic athlete and he joined the Air Corps for the US military. He got lost at sea and got captured by the Japanese. I'll just leave it at there if any of you want to read it.

We finally arrived in Atlanta about 7:30 pm and unloaded our personal bags into our hotel rooms for the night. We ordered a few pizzas for dinner and Kristina and I went grocery shopping with our leftover budget money. We grabbed some snacks and sandwich stuff for tomorrow's lunch.

We also drove through downtown Atlanta for a bit and got to see a small part of the city. It was really cool to see the city all lit up in lights and it was exactly what I imagined a huge city to look like with all the tall buildings covered in lights.

After we got back from our grocery and downtown Atlanta run, I took a shower and watched Quantico with Kristina before we all went to bed.


Day 148 - Tuesday (8), We started our last leg to Columbia, SC about 9:15 am. We wanted a late start today because we didn't want to sit through traffic hour.

We drove for about 2.5 hours before we took a lunch stop at the Savanna Rapids Pavilion which is located in Augusta, GA. We got to see the August Canal which was beautiful! (See pics below). We stayed their for about an hour exploring the place before we headed back onto the road.

We finally made it to Columbia, SC after about a hour and half of driving! We are staying at another church. The church is very nice and they're letting us use their in their kids activity center as our housing. It has a fooseball table, ping-pong table, two kitchen, couches, and a cozy feeling to it. Our showers are located in the gym which is just across the street from where we are staying. The whole place is great, but the only problem is that the church runs day care in the activity center where we're staying at so we have to be super clean and can't leave anything out, lock out computers and other valuables, and can't be at our lodging from 9 am - 6 pm Mon-Fri. But otherwise than that, I really like where we're staying at. It's super close to downtown, only a 10 minute walk, and it's way better than Houston. There are a bunch of local stores to shop in and a Starbucks! I really enjoy being close to downtown because there's going to be something to do.

We had dinner at a pizza place called the Village Idiot. Despite the name, the pizza was pretty good. After dinner, we came back to the church and I started to unpack my bags. I couldn't really spread out due to the fact that that it has to be clean everyday. But I did reorganize my bag/clothes.

After unpacking, Kristina and I did a late night run to the store to pick up some groceries since we had none. After that, I went to bed and we have our first day of work tomorrow.


Day 149 - Wednesday (9), Today was our first day at work. The commute is about 30 minutes. Majority of it is freeway and we are lucky because there is no traffic whatsoever.

The building in which we work in is pretty large. It's exactly the office that I imagined we would be working at when I first started this program. It's the typical office full of cubicles.

I got my own cubicle, which is pretty cool. I have plenty of space to spread out and get organized. I am one of the few that has a cubicle. Everywhere else is full, but the rest of my team will get one once other FEMA Corps teams leave, which will be at the end of next week. I also got connected with internet so I could start working. I really like my POC. She is extremely nice, understanding, and always willing to help and answer questions.

After work, we did PT out in a field. We played ultimate frisbee with another team from our campus, Gulf 3. It was really fun and I enjoyed being able to run and be active again.

We did another grocery run because we needed a little more food to get though this week. We bought some frozen meals for the boys and Kristina and I got some frozen vegetables and black bean burgers.

I finally took advantage of our fooseball table and played a few games with Sean. The table was in really bad shape, but as competitive as I am, I was able to pull off a win in our intense tie breaker match!


Day 150 - Thursday (10), We were late to work by 5 minutes today because there was some miscommunication between us. We thought we had to be at work at 8 am but it was suppose to be 7:30 am. So we had a mad dash to get out the door and to work. The beauty of working for FEMA here in SC is that they don't really seem to care that your a little late.

At work I am working on a rather time-sensitive project. I have a huge report that I need to get done by Tuesday. And it's suppose to be really important so I need to start cranking it out!

After work and since we had two hours to kill, we went out to another field to do another round of PT. We kick a soccer ball and threw a frisbee around. As simple as that sound, I actually got a bit of running in from errand throws and passes.

After PT, we dropped half of our team back at the church and the other half, which included me; we went to play soccer with Gulf 1. We played two games. The first one, we won easily, and the second one was a little harder. We were down majority of the game, but pulled out the win before the game ended. I enjoyed it a lot because I got some cardio in and I always have extra energy from sitting in an office chair for too long.

After the game, we dashed home because there was a soccer game on at 9:30 and we wanted to take a shower before watching the game. Kristina and I got to watch the US Women's Soccer team play Trinidad & Tobago. They won easily: 6-0.


Day 151 - Friday (11), I worked my report for majority of today at work. I finally finished gathering all info and started to compile my data into an excel sheet. The excel sheet is coming along nicely but there is just so much information and not enough time. Organization, color coding, neatness, patience, and sanity is definitely required. With luck, I should get it done by the end of Tuesday.

We went downtown for a little bit to kill time before we could head back to lodging. For dinner, went to have a pasta night with Gulf 3 and Gulf 1 at their housing. They have really nice housing - they're living in some student apartments next to a Lutheran Seminary College.


Day 152 - Saturday (12), Today, I lost track of time and slept in really late, but I woke up just in time to get dressed before Kristina's parents stopped by to visit. They are a really nice couple and really interesting to talk to! They also brought us a bunch of food!

After Kristina left with her parent, I took a little trip to Irmo, which is a town north of Columbia. In Irmo, there are quite a lot of stores. Almost everything you could think of or needed. We roamed around in the city for a little bit before heading back to Columbia to have dinner with Kristina and her parents. We went to a restaurant called Yesterday's and it was pretty good. Even after we were done eating, we spent a couple hour just chatting with her parents. There was definitely lots of laughter and smiles, funny and embarrassing stories of Kristina.

After dinner, a few of us took a drive around downtown Columbia. It was really nice to see downtown decorated in lights and ready to celebrate the holidays. 

Day 153 - Sunday (13), This morning was a slow start. A few of us chilled around in the lounge area watching football until Kristina got back home. After she got home, it was go, go, go! We went grocery shopping first. I decided I wanted to cook this week, so I bought stuff to make chili. We bought so much of food, that we almost ran out of room to put it. Our refrigerator went from empty to full. 

After unpacking groceries, I helped Kristina make dinner. She had fried chicken and fries for the boys, but for us, she wanted to make a rice/quiona dish with vegetables so I helped her with that. We both managed to not blow or burn anything and I would like to say that it was a very successful meal. 

After dinner, we did a late night run to a laundromat to wash laundry. It took a couple hours and Kristina and I missed majority of the USWNT's soccer game vs. China, but we managed to watch the last 20 minutes of the game in which US pulled out a victory.

Atlanta, GA

The beautiful Augusta Canal

Locks on the railings of the Augusta Canal

Round 2: We're Going to Columbia, SC!!

Day 141 - Tuesday (December 1), Today we found out where we're going for Round 2! We're going to Columbia, South Carolina! That should be pretty exciting! Summit 2 is going to Sacramento, CA! I told them they would have quite a bit of fun there.

We had a few classes to attend to today. There was a resume building workshop, another wellness class, and a Myers-Briggs class. Easily the most interesting class was the Myers-Briggs because it tests your personality, which I though was pretty cool. There was 4 different categories - Introvert vs Extrovert, Intuition vs Sensing, Thinking vs Feeling, and Judging vs Perceiving. So I took a 60+ question test answering questions and my results are in the picture below! Results are not always 100% accurate because each answer was a forced question.

We wrapped up with our day around 5 pm and had a team meeting going over our briefing presentation for SC that we are presenting this Friday. I talked to TL Alex for a bit today and helped her plan for their Sacramento trip. In addition, I also gave her a few cool places to visit and eat.

We have our baseline tomorrow that consists of running, push-ups, and sit-ups. I know I'll do fine with the push-ups and sit-ups, but I'm not looking forward at all to the running. I just want to get it done with. I have never really enjoyed running. I am more of a sprinter or interval runner which suited my need because basketball requires much interval running and my body is just used to that type of running after doing it for 7 years, so I'm just not used to and don't enjoy longer distance running. We have to get up bright and early, 5:15 am, to do this so I am going to get a good 7 hour shut-eye before I have to do this running tomorrow. Wish me luck!


Day 142 - Wednesday (2), I woke up at 5:15 am today to get ready for today's baseline at the military park. It was chilly and dark when we arrived. We were supposed to do push-ups and sit-ups, but since the ground was wet, we moved it to Friday in the gym. Since we skipped those, we headed straight into running after we stretched for a bit. It was a little hard for me to get started since it was chilly, but after a bit, I got warmed up a bit and started moving a little faster. I improved from my first baseline test, which is something I'm satisfied with.

After baseline, I took a shower, ate breakfast and got ready for the day. We had a community meeting with the entire corps in the morning and in the afternoon we had a diversity class in which I found really interesting. It was lecture by a professor from Ole Miss. She was very engaging about the topic we were covering, which was racism. She brought up many points/angles that most people don't look at or think in that way and made us really think and use our brain.

After that class, we had a driving refresher for colder weather. It wasn't that interesting, just drive slower, and be on the lookout for other stuff.

For dinner, I made pasta for Kristina and I. We also had a short meeting tonight at 8 pm to touch quickly upon our briefing for Friday. After that, I did laundry, hung out with TL Alex and Kristina for a bit until I went to bed.


Day 143 - Thursday (3), Today, we went to Jackson to get an education history tour about Mississippi. We did a self-guided tour through the old capitol museum, which contained information about slaves, black rights, voting and things along those lines.

We then listened to a lecture about the history of Mississippi and we also got to experience some live music. Mississippi is known for being the roots of the blues so there was a special guest performance in which we got to hear some wonderful music.

After that, we took a brief walk to the new/current capitol. The dome part of the capitol was under construction so it was cool to see some of the work that was being done. We were given a tour in which we visited the senate and the house of rep assembly rooms.

After the tour, we went to a farmers market to have lunch. We then traveled to the governor's mansion. At this location, there were 3 stations. One station was called the Lowry House. Inside this house had much info tacked to the walls telling us about historical sites in Mississippi that were saved from demolition, sites that have been demolished, and sites that haven't made progress yet. The second station was cookies and coffee. Lastly, the third one was crafts. I tried to make a Christmas decoration with just a piece of paper and scissors. It didn't turn out too well, but that's ok!

After that, we were technically done for the day, but we heard that there was a music festival in downtown Jackson so we decided to stick around for that. We grabbed dinner at a Thai place called Surin of Thailand and the food was very good! I enjoyed every morsel. We then wandered throughout the music festival going from booth to booth looking at what was being sold. We even saw a camel and I was even able to pet it! Apparently camels are a lot bigger than I had thought and they are really soft! We also got to take a picture was Santa!


Day 144 - Friday (4), Got approx. 5 hours of sleep before waking up for PT at 6:30 this morning. But the cold outside combine with PT was a good wake-up call and got me moving.

Today, Kristina and I were almost late for stand-up because I was helping her with some paperwork. We had to sprint to stand-up and made it with one minute to spare! After stand-up, we had our briefing for SC this morning and it went decently well. After our briefing, we didn't really have anything scheduled for the rest of the day, but I helped with taking the van to get it washed and vacuumed the insides.

I ate lunch after van cleaning and spent majority of the afternoon in Green helping Kristina with some more paperwork and to use the Internet for some of my own personal work and interests.

We also went to Newk's tonight for dinner. I got this delicious salad and a brownie. It was all very satisfying.


Day 145 - Saturday (5), Today was a very long day for me. I woke up semi-early today and did an ISP. We drove to downtown Vicksburg and helped decorated the inside of building in Christmas decorations. We stayed there for 6 hours decorating the entire place. We set up tables, decorated the stairway with ribbons, lights, and bows. We also set out merchandise, and put ornaments in trees. We were given an empty place and in 6 hours we turned in into a little boutique store called the Elf Shop. It was for little kids to come with their parents and purchase Christmas gifts and give it to others. It was really cute once we finished. 

We got finished with the ISP at 4 pm and I crashed after that. I was so tired.


Day 146 - Sunday (6), Slow start to today, especially in the morning. Today I have to pack all my stuff and load up the van. So I did laundry and after that dried, I started packing. I manage to fit all of my stuff in the red bag and was able to cut out my Nike duffel bag that I also used for the first spike in addition to the red bag. So that was nice. My Nike backpack is also ready to go. That has a change of clothes, soap and toiletries for when we arrive in Atlanta, GA for the night. I also put everything I didn't want to bring with me in my black bin so that's ready to go.

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning out our dorm and as of now, the only things I have out are my phones, its chargers, and some toiletries. But otherwise than that, I am all done, ready to leave tomorrow morning! Quite excited to be leaving for another adventure!

My personality test. I thought it was really cool and I liked how I was almost straight down the middle. For me, it all depends on the situation and circumstances present.

The new capitol building

A ceiling decoration inside the Lowry House. Something I though my Mom would like.

Frank the Camel

Our picture with Santa!

ISP on Saturday - all finished! :)