I finally got to drive to Station 7 tonight. Volunteering can feel like such a burden at times; fitting that 4 hours a week into my life like some big challenge. But it's always worth it. I had such a great night there tonight.
The two people that staff Wednesday nights, Phil and Katie, are absolutely hilarious, adorable and great at what they do. And they treat me so nicely. I understand tonight Katie leaves at 1:30am and Phil leaves at 3:30!
Tonight was a mild night though. Only one poor sick little guy in the back, who was this girl Kayla's cousin, and Kayla's friend Rosabella. Also Jake, another volunteer, who smells terrible and has some serious speech problems; he used to stay at the shelter.
Rosabella took to me, I think she might've thought I was cute. Honestly, she got more and more flirty as the night went on, which is bad. I can't encourage anything like that. Telling her her name was pretty probably didn't help - but it is isn't it?! Rosabella. I ended up helping her out later in the night as we played Scrabble.
I brought my sketch pad, some pencils and some watercolor pencils and tried to get everyone to draw with me. Haha. I could tell Rosabella wanted to but she said she wasn't in the mood. I think she had to move out of her mother's house and she's really sad about it. She was dropped off by her father, which seemed interesting to me, who she has sorta moved in with instead. I think her dad might live in Springfield or Cottage Grove or something because she mentioned she needed to be in a city when Katie said she thinks city and country people walk at different paces. Sad. She is in 8th grade and showering and sleeping at a homeless shelter.
Her friend was crazy. Kayla smokes, has a dirty mouth, is very much into dishing out attitude left and right and I think she works at Arby's. She made some really funny comments to me. The kids get used to faces and people when they come into the shelter regularly and when Kayla walked in she goes "Who the fuck are you?!" Then she looked closer and remembered me from the previous times I'd been in. At one point she talked about New Roads and I am familiar with New Roads but thought I'd ask her some cutesy 'look what I know about your world' questions and she saw right through it. Haha.
I asked her, when she said New Roads, if she meant the New Roads School. She goes "If I was talkin' about the school I woulda said New Roads School." I was like, "Oh, yeah, cool. Do you know Chris Mirabal?" She nodded. "He's a nice guy, right? I interviewed him for a story." The best part: "And this matters to me because?" HAHAHAHAHA. I was like "Yeah that really doesn't matter to you at all. I'll stop talking now."
We had Wolfgang Puck frozen pizzas. A little burnt but they were Garlice Chicken with onions and deliciousness. They were pretty good. Some broccoli too. I bussed the dinner table and swept and mopped the dining room to pitch in; the kids do chores so the volunteers do something too. Scrabble after dinner was the cherry on top of the pie. I had some good words and we got really into it, but I did not emerge well. Katie dominated, Phil beat me by a few points but we all killed poor Rosabella. She was being helped by Jake but Jake was NOT into it. Oh, Kayla decided she need to go to the hospital because she was sick and coughing (she did sound terrible, and she did have a decent excuse for not waiting and going to a regular doctor tomorrow because she has to work, but I don't know if a cough, soar throat, and serious smoking habit is reason enough to rush to the hospital). So for the last few rounds I helped Rosabella a lot, which was good for her, cuz I helped her get the word 'TRAIT' which I think might've made her night.
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