virginia updates

working as a deployment specialist at mt. weather has been quite the enjoyable experience. today was my first real day "out on the floor" (FEMA deployment lingo) with my headset all on my lonesome. and might I say, it didn't go half bad. I've been making calls to FEMA reservists with deployment requests as well as answering phone calls from FEMA personnel who need to either check in or out of their assigned disasters, change their lodging addresses, etc. "the floor" has proved to be a pretty exciting place to be. 

this past weekend, I went with a few teammates to a tailgate festival in old town winchester where I'm pretty sure every winchester resident was in attendance. I can't begin to describe my newfound love for small towns. they are my favorite type of town. the food, the lingo, the people, the corn hole tournaments (west coast friends-google it. yes, people really play corn hole as a social activity). everything was wonderful. there were beer and wine tastings and everyone knew everybody else. at one point, the sheriff was leaning over a fence to catch up with another local and was there for a good half hour. it was a perfect day for a tailgate event (especially since my strange 24-hour strep throat episode was petering out by that point and I was more delusional and tired than achy and dying, like I had been the previous afternoon). things are really looking up over here in virginia. 

also, this past weekend, my team and I volunteered at a puppy adoption charity fundraiser at barrel oak winery in the  virginia countryside. we assisted with the silent auction, monitoring the food table so dogs didn't slobber all over the human food, grilled some veggie burgers and hotdogs, sold doggie halloween costumes (I've really missed out on a huge part of life by never having a dog...). the winery is purposefully puppy friendly and located on the most gorgeous little section of rolling hills I've ever seen. it got real hot and humid in that lovely ameriuniform as the afternoon went on, but the location was too beautiful to care about the sweat trickling down my back (let's not kid ourselves...it was water-falling down my back. wow, this whole living-out-of-a-duffel thing has really lowered my standards hasn't it....) anyhow, I got to pretend for an entire afternoon that I owned a pet for the first time in my life, as well as encourage others in attendance to adopt the dogs that need a home. it was a well spent afternoon indeed.

oh and I turned 24. so there's that.

also in other news.....

I've recently learned that I will be speaking at a national task force meeting at the white house this friday to emphasize the importance of national service. it will be just me, my khakis, and a room of representatives from seventeen federal agencies. tomorrow I will be prepping for my two minute FEMA corps schpeel. details to come later. 

in the meantime....photos.