it's been a hard day's work

when my alarm went off at 4:30am for physical training yesterday, my first thought was something semi-articulated like: "arghsiowerklsdf", quickly followed by: "why me?". i remembered quickly that i chose to be here and enjoyed the rest of the day, which included american red cross cpr/first aid certification.

a flu has been spreading like gossip among the ameriwhorps, and i have not been immune. when we got back to campus at 5:30pm, i took some cold medicine and crashed. i was mildly devastated. i look forward to weekends so much, ya know?

in true sparklepants fashion, i woke up around 8, slapped a silver sparkle star on my face (thanks katie!), and housemate sara and i headed over to juergen's to meet up with ohio jeff and other amerifriends.

ah juergen's. there is one - i repeat, one - bar in perryville. it is the only place to go out late at night. and it is called the rendezvous. everyone refers to it as "the 'vous", which i think is a terrible idea. it sounds like deja vu. besides, the owner's name is juergen. i think i'll mentino to him that he'd double business if he named the joint after himself.

we went last night, chiefly, to make an appearance and foster our new americrushes. we felt lousy and had no intention of staying out late. when we arrived around 10, there were loads of ameriwhorps, a great cover band, and a timid crowd of people dancing. how could we resist? we didn't have the energy to shut juergen's down, but we stood our ground until 1:30ish when piratepants mark offered to walk us home.

in other news, i am now the proud owner of across the universe. if you haven't seen it, maybe you should. it was an indulgent purchase and so so so worth it.

thanks to all inquiring parties - final word has not yet been released about the firefighting team. i know decisions are in the works, but i'm not sure when/how the roster will be disclosed.

in closing (yes, i am wrapping up this blog with "in closing"), i attended a seminar on "effective citizenship" as part of training this week. it gave me some food for thought so i wondered if you might enjoy as well:

THREE TYPES OF EFFECTIVE CITIZENSHIP
*I apologize - this is an academic model for which I don't have proper citation. (Chels, maybe you came across this in your schooling?)

1) Personally Responsible Citizens - effect change by actively participating in their community through social constructs that are already in place (e.g. blood drives, voting, pta volunteer).
2) Participatory Citizens - effect change by organizing activities in their community through social constructs that are already in place (e.g. pta leader, running blood drive, rotary club president).
3) Justice-Oriented Citizens - effect change by evaluating the source of community issues and challenging current social constructs/developing new social constructs to address these issues (e.g. think tanks, lobbyists, grassroots organizations)

The presenter asked us to think of our natural inclinations as citizens, and evaluate if that is where we want to be. He then posed 5 questions:

1) What knowledge does an effective citizen need to have?
2) What skills does an effective citizen need to have?
3) What attitudes does an effective citizen need to have?
4) What actions does an effective citizen need to take?
5) How does service help you to become an effective citizen?