The thanks of giving

The final total was 144. That was how many families we were able to supply with a turkey. We got donations from all over, but were fifty short of what we'd hoped for. One of our major donors simply stopped returning our phonecalls. We were sad.

But, we got in surprise donations from other places, including people who just showed up and said, "Hey, we've got turkeys. Do you need them?" And some people we'd listed to get turkeys we never could get ahold of. And other people we'd not listed were able to get one. It really did work out well. And, holy cow was that a lot of work! It was awesome.

Going on between the turkey donations was the last mad-rush to get children signed up for Christmas gifts. We do an angel tree sort of thing. So, while dozens of families a day are coming in to sign up, and we're giving out turkeys and trying to contact donors and recipients, I am also creating and recreating lists of Christmas gift recipients for various churches and organizations that are "adopting" kids for gifts. One church in particular (donating gifts for 251 children) had me recreate the list with new specifications no less than three times. But I felt productive, and appreciated even. Because no one else knew how to do the computer stuff I knew how to do in order to create and recreate the lists. I was in high demand.

Then came Wednesday. We've been serving about 260-270 families on Wednesdays. The pantry opens at 1:30. We exceded our average numbers by four. And with another two hours to go, oh my. It was madness. I was doing intakes as well as lost cards-- so I would interview people if it was their first time, or create a new pantry card for them if they'd lost theirs. We made extra intake forms for the day, but ran out by 3:30. Everyone else just got emergency food from then on, and we told them to come back another week to register for membership. There was a sea of people, all crammed into our little pantry. In the back, volunteers rushed to pack new bags. We might have run out of food, except that churches kept stopping by with food drive donations. And El Milagro brought by approximately nine billion cases or tortillas, tostadas, and chips.

That night I fell asleep at the dinner table. I slept for eleven hours that night. Was still a bit tired when I woke. Coulda slept another couple, I'm sure.

But, had to go back to the pantry to receive more donations (now, a week later, we're still sorting all the food we received that day). But then we went to the Claretians' Novitiate house and had Thanksgiving dinner, complete with mad crazy alcohol that left me drunk till late in the night, many hours after I'd stopped drinking. Yes I know. The priests are a bad influence.

On Saturday, my community had an Egg Drop Competition. I thought it was particularly cool thing to do because we just did it on our own. We didn't go to some place that was sponsoring it. We weren't raising money for anything. We just did it because we thought it might be fun. And it was. And I won. And I shall lord it over my roommates for millenia to come!!! Bwah ha ha!

What I won, was a drink. Each of the other volunteers is going to buy me a drink sometime before our volunteer year ends. Not a bad prize, really. And again with the drinking.

IN OTHER NEWS:
I've seen two movies this week that I would like to take a moment to recommend, with my own little bit o' critique.

1) Casino Royale. Dude. I used to watch James Bond movies with my dad. With him, I watched probably ever James Bond movie made before I moved out. Have not seen one since. Have not wanted to. James Bonds after Sean Connery have just not been the same. It's hard for me to accept others. But whats-his-name did a pretty good job. We all agreed that he hasn't quite got the suaveness down, but he makes little quips about that (like, 'hey, that's a pretty good line. I'll have to remember that) so that I can forgive it. The "terrorist threat" in the movie is vague at best, but there are plenty of explosions, chase scenes, and very exciting plot twists that perhaps you saw coming, but perhaps not. At any rate, I plan on seeing this again. I'm gonna take my dad when I go home for Christmas.

2) An Inconvenient Truth. This is a pretty incredible movie in terms of breaking down the Global Warming issue and explaining it thoroughly. It is easy to understand, the information is well-cited and not opinionated, and the evidence is provocative. My problems with the movie are

(1) The movie is too Al Gore focused. Sure, it's based on a lecture that he gives (a very good lecture, I might add), but... well... Republicans are not going to watch the movie and be swayed by the science because the movie is also too much about Al Gore. If the same movie were made, but it was Dick Cheney or Karl Rove presenting the information, along with biographical snippets and stories, I wouldn't rent it. I wouldn't sit through it. I wouldn't believe their science as true. But no, instead it's liberal blabber, which is fine for me, but which is not going to be fine for a lot of others.

(2) There was not enough information about what can be done to curb global warming. I know there is a lot that can be done, but on a large scale... hell, on a small scale... what exactly is it that our society as a group and as individuals need to do? And how do we get people to do it? I want many answers. I want solutions. I want it to be fixed.

Is there more going on? Of course their is. Today is the first day of our MAC (mothers and children) program. An extra box of food for an awful lot of people. I'm down with that. It's neat. And this weekend is our Fall Inservice, which means the volunteers in other states are coming to visit, including my old roommate Britton. And also we don't have an oven. Which sucks. But more on that later, once it's resolved.

peace, y'all
Kati