49 Days!

If I'm doing my math right, and since it's technically almost midnight here I guess I could count it as 48. Still, that's a little over a month and a half. I have quite a bit of time, yet still not enough. On my current crappy budget, it's taking awhile to buy things I'll need before I leave. It's actually funny to think that I'll be getting paid maybe a little better in Americorps than I currently am, but the job market sucks here, so I'm lucky to have what I do. Next weekend I'll get a better paycheck and buy more then. Until then I'll just make a list of what I plan on buying here, and what I'm going to wait to buy in Iowa. I've heard the main store up there, Alco, can be pricey, so I'll have to limit that stuff I guess. It's weird that it's a Midwest store and I've never even heard of it until now. Guess the St. Louis area just has way too many damn Walmarts.

I've met a lot of cool people too on the Facebook page, and I'm excited I've had the opportunity to talk to them. Maybe I'll end up on a team with a couple of them? And the TLs are going to be arriving this month, maybe next week? My mind right now is all over the place as I think more and more about this opportunity. I've done it all once, but FEMACorps is still going to be completely different, so all of it feels like the first time again. (And I hope whatever flight I get has a layover  at O'Hare just so I can say I was in Chicago again.)

I also, finally, told my mom last week that I was leaving. I'd actually kept the whole thing quiet besides a few people, just because I wasn't sure how they were going to react to me doing this again. But everyone has been supportive, and my mom just kind of laughed it off when I nervously told her I was leaving again. She knows that once I set my mind to something, I kind of can't be talked out of it. Stubborn runs in my family, with a capital S.

And now I'm going to leave you with a list. These are goals I want to accomplish while I'm in FEMACorps, and I'm hoping to cross off a good deal of them, if I can.

1.- Save money. $1000 would be great, but considering our budget, that's pushing it. I'm just going to try and save as much as I can. Right now I'm aiming for $500.
2.- Be more open. I'm horribly shy when I first meet people in real life. I'm hoping the Facebook group will help with that.
3.- Lose weight. It'd be real nice to fit into my size sevens again.
4.- Return to vegetarianism. I did it last year, and I loved it, but my current living situations doesn't allow it. I try my best, but when I don't make the food or buy the groceries, my options are almost slim to none.
5.- Quit smoking. I've tried here, but I'm constantly surrounded by people who smoke. I plan on not bringing any cigarettes with me, and just quitting cold turkey the moment I step on the plane.
6.- Visit a big city I've never been to. That discounts Chicago, St. Louis, KC, and Omaha, although I'd happily go back to any of them.
7.- Improve my mile run. I can't run worth a damn. Never been able to. I have short legs and a weak knee thanks to a childhood accident, so running really sucks for me.
8.- Not get injured! I was probably the first person last year to get injured on a job site. The first weekend we were there actually.
9.- Gain a more positive outlook on life. Things suck, a lot, but I want to be able to shrug that off and move on without letting it drag down my determination.
10.- Grow close as a team. The best and worst part about the whole experience is learning to live and work with ten other people for ten months. And I want to be able to leave knowing that we went through it all and still love each other.