My People

The evening I arrived here with my friend Ana, after 20 or so hours of driving stretched over a couple of days, I was greeted off the interstate by two crazies grinning and waving flags.  These crazies are now my roommate/office mate (Hope) and my supervisor (Justin).  When we got to the house I share with Hope and another girl, I found reading materials about Green River on a bed already made for me, and we had a melon tasting featuring several varieties of Green River's finest.  We also made an 11:00 pm visit to the truck stop, West Winds, for breakfast (served 24 hours). It was as good as you can imagine a breakfast at a 24-hour truck stop could be.

My bed when I got here. So cute. And yes, it's a bright blue bunk bed.  It's great.

As these are the people I now spend a lot of my time with, I'd like to tell you a little about them.  If you come visit and meet them, don't creepily mention that you know all these things about them.  And if they ever find this blog... well... I apologize in advance.  

They accompanied me on my maiden kayak voyage on the Green, and there was a decent amount of bickering coming from the canoe- generally involving Justin's steering. 

Hope is an AmeriCorp VISTA as well, but she works primarily with the youth programs that PACT runs.  Because we're short on staff, she plans after-school and summer programs as well as spends every day with the kids.  

She's quirky, funny, and quick to argue, which means that we often spar about silly things.  We definitely both like to have a little fun, sometimes at others' expense, like the time we decided to tell the poor girl working at Which Wich that our names were Jane and Ambrosia.  To her credit, the girl called the name Ambrosia with a totally straight face when my sandwich was ready. 

Because, you know, when you live an hour and a half away from a Target, every trip is an adventure.

She loves green olives, books and movies, especially Edward Scissorhands, The Fight Club, and V for Vendetta, outrage (she just likes to get angry about things), odd television shows from the 90's, sleeping deeply, HARRY POTTER, sarcasm, anime, and chocolate milk, among many other things.  Our food tastes are fairly different, but her redeeming qualities are that she likes her steak medium-rare and she loves apple cider.  She's probably also good for my bones- there have been many an evening that we've bonded in the kitchen over glasses of Nesquik and milk.  

I was trying to wake her up by saying her name, but I was unsuccessful after about 6 tries.  She eventually woke up, mumbled some answer to my question, promptly fell back asleep, and didn't remember any of it later.  Side note: Hope can pull off a bandanna really well.  Like, better than anyone I know.

We picked out some truly hideous thrift store wall art for our living room.

She's probably said countless funny things, but these are some of my favorite Hope quotes. 

"Amber is the most optimistic person I know." 

... either Hope either knows a lot of super pessimistic people, or I'm a little different than I used to be.  Probably a little of both.  

"I'm sorry for the noise. I would put my headphones in, but I washed them AND dried them yesterday."

After our favorite girl didn't win the Melon Days Queen Pageant: 
"I'm going to go home and eat a lemon to get this bitter taste out of my mouth."  

The funny part is that she was totally serious.  We didn't have lemons, so she drank some lemon juice instead. 
  
"Look at you and your fancy grilled cheese.  You just walk in here after I make my normal grilled cheese and make me look bad.  You make me sick." 

Just for the record, my grilled cheese had tomato and deli turkey on it... 

She's also only 20, and in some ways it's like having a piece of my sister here.  I definitely lucked out in the roommate department.  

Hope did Rylie's make-up for the Junior Melon Queen Pageant while I worked on her hair.  

Once upon a time, Justin was a VISTA here in Green River, and life eventually brought him back to take the Director position for PACT.  

Justin is a child.  Yet, somehow, also an old soul.  He owns every Disney movie before Frozen, he's a huge Star Trek nerd, and his wardrobe is composed only of thrift store steals.  I think his favorites are his Grandpa cardigan and the Wendy's employee green short sleeve button up.  I need not even say that I would do some serious work on his wardrobe if I were ever allowed.  He loves being barefoot, so he often comes to the office in flip flops.  More often than not, his pants are dirty from crawling under the van to check it or running around in the dirt with the kids.  He's slightly obsessed with Ireland, which kind of makes sense since he graduated from Notre Dame (I've forgiven him... ).

He's quite particular about random things, like not passing both the salt AND pepper when someone just asks for one of them.  He's decided that items such as anything plastic and normal shampoo are things to be avoided, and he's just generally a little anti-consumerism.  Unless it's potato chips, chocolate, or any number of things that he binge eats in lieu of a meal (and then scolds me for not eating a proper lunch).  

He's a little bit of a push-over with the kids, but also pretty perceptive about when they're lying.  He loves to make theological or other esoteric references/jokes when talking with them, particularly when they're being mouthy.  It's probably an avoidance tactic.    

This is also the man who came up with 25 of the simultaneously worst and best interview questions ever, which everyone should probably be able to answer.  If you're interested, some of them below.  I think the "defensive" question was pretty eye opening.  I've never had to answer it so directly, and in thinking about it since I've definitely seen patterns emerge.  For a good time, just spring the questions on your friends in casual dinner conversation.

In spite or (or perhaps because of) their quirks, I genuinely feel that it's a pleasure to work with these two, and I wouldn't trade them.

In one of the first meetings I had with Justin, it came up that I hadn't yet managed to eat at the Chow Hound (old fast food place in town).  He immediately stood up and said, "we're going to get cheese sticks".  Priorities.

The interview (in part. food position questions were removed):

Who are you?
What do you want?
How would you define service?
When you have a stressful decision, how do you make it?
What is your spirit animal?
What are you defensive about?  Why?
What have you learned from someone else?
How do you try to improve yourself?
Why does color exist?
How would your personal creativity contribute to this organization?
What is your favorite team that you've been a part of?
What motivates you?
Describe a choice you've made and how it affected others.  What did you learn?  What were the consequences?
How have you identified and addressed a personal weakness?
How do you work with new and diverse cultures?
Describe your personal philosophy in seven words.  Elaborate on the meaning if you'd like.