Warning: lengthy post with only a few pictures ahead. The easily bored and/or the ADD may wish to click away.
And yet another week passes!
And yet another week passes!
It's hard to believe I've been in NYC for a week and a half now. I feel both like I just got here and like I've been here forever. Your mind plays strange tricks on you when you're on trips, I've come to learn, and the longest I've ever been away is ten days. To say I'm apprehensive about my mental state at the end of the summer is perhaps an understatement, haha.
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| Summer goal: get a shot of these three houses without cars in front of it. Because they are adorable. |
Anywhos, without further adieu, have a run-down of last week!
Monday (the 3rd) was our first "official" day, and O.E.'s big annual awards banquet. We had a brief orientation meeting with the boss, and then we spent most of our day preparing for the banquet by running errands, packing things up and making decorations, before actually heading off to the banquet space and helping decorate it, serve food and clean.The craziness of the day was totally worth it! They have the banquet every year to honor the students who did exceptionally, to enforce the idea that they should be proud of themselves, because they've achieved something.They had a red carpet at the entrance to the banquet space as you came off the elevator, and then they got a bunch of the O.E. high schoolers to be "paparazzi." You should've seen some of the kids faces as they entered and all of a sudden there were people clamoring for attention and asking for autographs! It was priceless.
After the banquet we returned to the office to drop off all the things we brought with us, and then Emma and I went with Allison and Alexa, our roommates, over to their friends house to catch the last part of the Heat-Pacers game. I was so tired by the end of the day, but I loved it!
Tuesday was marking by three projects.
One, we put away the boxes and boxes of stuffs we left on the conference table in our post-banquet exhaustion.
Two, we went with Boss-man to Riverside park to pick up a permit for the then impending picnic on the 8th, and to inquire about using the pool for the summer program.
And three, we went over to Inwood, the second site location for O.E. and did their after school program with them. I got to hang out with some pretty cool first graders for three hours! Not a bad way to spend your day in the slightest.
One, we put away the boxes and boxes of stuffs we left on the conference table in our post-banquet exhaustion.
Two, we went with Boss-man to Riverside park to pick up a permit for the then impending picnic on the 8th, and to inquire about using the pool for the summer program.
And three, we went over to Inwood, the second site location for O.E. and did their after school program with them. I got to hang out with some pretty cool first graders for three hours! Not a bad way to spend your day in the slightest.
Wednesday Emma and I took the subway downtown to attempt to pick up some subway waivers from the DYCD, which, as it turned out, were mailed out two days before. You could either look at it as two and half hours wasted, or a chance to see more the of the city. I take it as the later, myself.
Once we got back, we did the daily afterschool program with the the Washington Heights Exodus location. I got to hang out once again with some fantastic first graders and try to explain synonyms, which of course, is always a good time!
At night I went with my roommates to a bible study a few streets over that's put on by a local church. The content and the people were both great! In fact, Bible Study ended at 9:30 or so, but it was almost 11:00 by the time we cleared out of the apartment because we were visiting, something that continued at the local favorite Mexican joint, which, as an aside, inexplicably has clocks hung on the ceiling. Next time I'm there I have to find a way to capture it for you, because it's just weird.
Thursday...thursday was fairly uneventful. I stapled together surveys, did a little office work, and then went to a very, very long three hour city meeting on oil-to-gas conversions. Not exactly exciting blog material, thursday, but as a day, it was solid and I can't complain. I even took the subway by myself and didn't get lost, so there was that small victory, anyways!
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| A blurry photo indicating what friday was like all day, weather-wise. |
Friday we enter into the not-so-great tale that is the post title: the great water balloon fiasco of 2013.
To preface, you have to let me backtrack a little. We'd been building all week to this year-end picnic at Riverside park on saturday, and friday I was given a list of tasks pertaining to the picnic to accomplish.
No big, right?
I had it. I mean, I had it. It felt like the first project this week where I knew what I was doing. It was great feeling, however fleeting. Anyways, one of the items on my list was to buy and fill approximately 200 water balloons. So I undertook a journey in the pouring rain to a shady little dollar store that was recommended for me to go to to purchase said balloons at, eventually caving in and buying an umbrella at a drugstore on the way back because I just could not handle the freezing cold rain anymore. I got back, tore open a package of water balloons, and...they were the worst water balloons I have ever encountered. They were all already half-broken and tore if you stretched them the slightest. I had to wait until much later in the day when the Boss was back to ask him what he wanted done, and he wanted them returned and replaced ASAP. So, at 6:30 friday night, I battled my way back to the dollar store, got the money back, visited two Rite-Aid's and finally found a higher quality brand of water balloon. I went back to O.E. and started to fill them, and I got maybe 40 done when it was pointed out to me that it was 8 PM already and everyone else was clearing out. My only option was to stay by myself, fill up more balloons, then head home in the dark and rain, which was picking up further still, or to try and get them all done in the morning. I accepted defeat and headed on back to the apartment while it was light yet.
To preface, you have to let me backtrack a little. We'd been building all week to this year-end picnic at Riverside park on saturday, and friday I was given a list of tasks pertaining to the picnic to accomplish.
No big, right?
I had it. I mean, I had it. It felt like the first project this week where I knew what I was doing. It was great feeling, however fleeting. Anyways, one of the items on my list was to buy and fill approximately 200 water balloons. So I undertook a journey in the pouring rain to a shady little dollar store that was recommended for me to go to to purchase said balloons at, eventually caving in and buying an umbrella at a drugstore on the way back because I just could not handle the freezing cold rain anymore. I got back, tore open a package of water balloons, and...they were the worst water balloons I have ever encountered. They were all already half-broken and tore if you stretched them the slightest. I had to wait until much later in the day when the Boss was back to ask him what he wanted done, and he wanted them returned and replaced ASAP. So, at 6:30 friday night, I battled my way back to the dollar store, got the money back, visited two Rite-Aid's and finally found a higher quality brand of water balloon. I went back to O.E. and started to fill them, and I got maybe 40 done when it was pointed out to me that it was 8 PM already and everyone else was clearing out. My only option was to stay by myself, fill up more balloons, then head home in the dark and rain, which was picking up further still, or to try and get them all done in the morning. I accepted defeat and headed on back to the apartment while it was light yet.
A certain phrase about the rain being the best place to cry was perhaps more then slightly applicable to me as I trudged home after work on friday. I was really, really, irrationally upset. I told myself in my head the success of a picnic celebrating a year-long program would not be contingent on water balloons being there, and yet it was really hard to push past that, mentally. In the end, it was prayer, dry clothing, and a turkey sandwich that did the trick. I calmed, relaxed, and a few hours later talked with my family for the first time in almost a week, which needless to say, was wonderful!
Saturday:
Saturday boded ill from the start.
I don't know why, it just did. You ever wake up with that "today is going to be terrible" mentality?
I woke up, got ready, and went to work as normal. Once I got in, I went to the kitchen to finish filling up the darned water balloons, and...
They were gone.
No one knew where they where. They weren't were I left them, nor where they in the staging area for the picnic stuffs. They were gone. We called the cook and the janitor, the only other two people who would have been in the kitchen in that time frame, to no avail. The balloons were missing, and so a half hour later, I was on my way to Rite-Aid yet again. I successfully procured some and spent well over an hour at the sink filling up 250-some balloons to be brought over in the second van-load to the park while all the kids and mentors headed off, as did van load number one. Which was all good and well, but that the van couldn't find a spot to park at to unload, so they, too, were running behind.
We did the only thing we could've done: we prayed, and then we loaded up a taxi with three large coolers (two of which contained the balloons), a cake, a few large boxes, two adults and three kids and headed off to an easier location for the van to pick us up at as soon as they were able. At this point there was definitely a palpable sense of panic. Nothing was going at all as it was supposed to, at all, we were behind schedule and they needed all the stuff we had with us at the park ASAP. It was nerve-wracking, and I was expecting chaos, but when we got to the park, and it was calm.
Dead calm.
The kids were all playing together well, no one was complaining, the awesome mentors and volunteers were just hanging out, and despite all the needless anxiety, everything was going swimmingly. It took a while for my heart-rate to go down, but the picnic continued to run smoothly, albeit delayed, from eating to playing to the stupid water balloon toss to the subway ride back. There was so much worry and fear in my mind about the whole ordeal, but it was lovely. It put things back in perspective, really. You can say it 10 times a day, but it's always good to remember that "God is in control." Because as cheesy and cliched as it sounds at times, it's always true.
And praise Him for that!
We did the only thing we could've done: we prayed, and then we loaded up a taxi with three large coolers (two of which contained the balloons), a cake, a few large boxes, two adults and three kids and headed off to an easier location for the van to pick us up at as soon as they were able. At this point there was definitely a palpable sense of panic. Nothing was going at all as it was supposed to, at all, we were behind schedule and they needed all the stuff we had with us at the park ASAP. It was nerve-wracking, and I was expecting chaos, but when we got to the park, and it was calm.
Dead calm.
The kids were all playing together well, no one was complaining, the awesome mentors and volunteers were just hanging out, and despite all the needless anxiety, everything was going swimmingly. It took a while for my heart-rate to go down, but the picnic continued to run smoothly, albeit delayed, from eating to playing to the stupid water balloon toss to the subway ride back. There was so much worry and fear in my mind about the whole ordeal, but it was lovely. It put things back in perspective, really. You can say it 10 times a day, but it's always good to remember that "God is in control." Because as cheesy and cliched as it sounds at times, it's always true.
And praise Him for that!
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| The harbingers of despair themselves! Be ye wary, gentle blog reader. |
Sunday was my day off and it was in all truthfulness, gloriously relaxing! I slept in, then headed to CCF for a very good and much needed church service. Afterwords I headed to Ft. Tyrone Park to take in The Cloisters Museum, which was, if you'll pardon the use of web-speak, asdfghjkl;! (definition: something so cool you can't even produce words.) I moseyed back home, enjoyed the quiet and caught up on a few things before going to bed at 11. What a granny...
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| I love terrible tourist pictures and I'll make no attempt to hide it. |
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