It's Been Awhile

I realize that the last time I wrote here, it was the middle of October. It's now the day after Thanksgiving, and I am no longer in Kansas City, no longer doing our first assignment we were given.

No, now I am a thousand miles away in New Jersey. Shortly after we arrived in KC, Hurricane Sandy struck the Atlantic coast, and as part of FEMA, we were deployed to assist the state of New Jersey. We've been here since November 2nd, doing a job that's not completely ours, and trying to make it through a difficult and sometimes maddeningly frustrating assignment. Some days I miss Kansas City and the work we had there, while other days I'm glad to be here, enjoying the oftentimes crazy schedule. We're currently working in Community Relations, going door to door asking survivors if they sustained any damage and registered with FEMA yet. I haven't had the opportunity to see some of the worse off damage on the coast, but there are a lot of people out in the counties my team has been working in with downed trees and power lines. It's not the job we were trained to do, but we accept it with a smile and a positive attitude, because we know that it's something that needs to get done.

I can't really give you all the details because each day blurs into the next. But the past two days have been a nice refresher. I went with three other members of my team to visit New York City for Thanksgiving. It was just a time to get away from the rest of the Corps and step away from the stress. We all have a fantastic time. We made it to the Macy's Parade and ate at some really cool little restaurants. We spent more time than not walking around Times Square and just taking in the feeling of being in New York. I did the touristy thing and bought myself a shirt, as well as some keychains for my siblings back home. (It sucks being broke and not being able to get them something cooler.) We rode the subway, went to Central Park, and then finished off the evening at McGee's, which, if you're ever up there, go to. Fantastic food and a homey atmosphere. It was probably the highlight of the entire trip for me. It sucked that it was towards the end and we couldn't stay longer unless we wanted to miss our train back.

And now I'm back here with the team, taking the time to get myself caught up on sleep and alone time before we go back to work tomorrow. There's word that we might get phased into a logistics position tomorrow, but that's something we're not positive about. It would be amazing to have that opportunity, but we'll see what the morning brings. At least when I leave here I can say I was cross-trained in CR and Logistics.

Time to go read a good book or something. I just figured I would take the time to update while I was sitting in front of a computer. I'm going to make an effort to update again before we leave here. Christmas break is only in a month. I'm looking forward to going home!