Waking Up Late

I actually wasn’t able to make it to the shelter this week.  I felt really bad when I woke up at 10:00 Saturday morning, realizing it was too late to head to the shelter and that I had lost my phone.  The missing phone was a separate issue, but it was one of my foremost concerns upon waking that morning.  In order to fulfill all thirty service hours, at this point in the semester, I will have to increase the hours I put into volunteering at the shelter each week.  I could either spend more time each Saturday; after all of the dogs are walked, I could take a dog to the park nearby to play for a few hours or something.  Alternatively, I could go in every Tuesday and Thursday morning, walking dogs as I do on the weekends, from 8:00 to 10:00 or so.  This way, I could head back to campus and still have plenty of time to shower or what not before my 11:30 class.  I don’t know off the top of my head how many hours I have worked thus far, but it should be simple to count them up.

Ideally, I would like to count the hours I have spent volunteering for the College of Liberal Arts into my final hours count.  I’ve volunteered a total of six or seven hours thus far, fulfilling various roles for the department at events such as Purdue Scholars Day and Purdue is For Me, and I am scheduled to work several more events, including Purdue is For Me and Our Purdue, over the next few weeks.  I can’t think how this services a community outside of Purdue, however, as the course requires.  In a sense, I am providing informational service to prospective students, but the fact that I am doing through Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts most likely excludes these hours from my service assignment for English 108. 

"Crack Hill"

This Saturday was certainly a strange one for me at Natalie’s Second Chance.  I got my parking permit submitted and approved this week, which is awesome.  I included with the application a note from my doctor saying that I had a medical condition preventing me from walking long distances, and a note from Natalie confirming that I volunteer at the shelter and that I am needed at hours before the local bus system operates.  I submitted the application and received an email saying it was approved two days later, telling me to fill out the paperwork and pick up the pass at the front desk of my dorm.  So this was the first weekend I drove to the shelter in the morning, which is certainly a lot better than walking the two miles from my dorm.

When walking a recently fixed pitbull, who was having particularly bloody bowel movements, down the alleyway behind the shelter, as I was instructed, I noticed an elderly man who was visibly struggling taking a bag of garbage to the trash receptacle in the alley.

The pit-bull begin to walk towards him, so I casually said, “Ah, she just wants to say ‘hi’ to you!”

To which he replied about twenty seconds later, after I had already walked away, “Just takin’ out the trash.”

I turned around and asked him if he needed any help, and he said, again, “Nope, just takin’ out the trash.”

Trying to be friendly, I said, “Well, it’s a beautiful day for it!”

The man said, “Yep, Saturday, March 25^th.  Saturday, March 25^th.”

Noting to myself that it was, in fact, Saturday, March 24^th, I continued my walk.  After turning around where the alley met a main road, I began to walk back towards the shelter.  The man had finally managed to put the trash into the receptacle and was now hobbling back towards the gate in the fence that surrounded his yard.

Nodding as I walked past him, he inquired, “There gonna be a dog-fight in the neighborhood today?”

Startled, I replied, stuttering, “I certainly hope not!”

The man said, “You never can tell…,” and hobbled back to his house.

I walked back to the shelter as quickly as I could, and retold the event to Natalie.  Mentioning that she hated “people like that,” I recalled the part about the man confusing the date.  She replied that he was probably strung out on cocaine.  I laughed, thinking she was kidding, but when she remained stolid, I asked for clarification that what I had just heard her say was correct.  She then told me that the shelter was at the top of “Crack Hill,” as she called it, motioning to the steep alley I had been walking dogs through as the aforementioned hill.  Suddenly, the plethora of discarded undergarments and furniture that litter the alleyway behind the dilapidated houses of “Crack Hill” do not seem so far out of place.

Spring Break

This week is Purdue’s spring break, and as the name implies, I have been taking as much of a break from school as I am able to.  Unfortunately, some work is inescapable, but I have been taking a break from volunteering for the week.  I have spent most days sitting on the couch, typing away at the computer as my dog lounges at my feet.  I do expect the volunteer work to become somewhat more emotionally difficult in the coming weeks, as my dog has only been given a few months left with us.  I feel that in the face of his coming death, whether it come before the end of the semester or during the summer, the looming inevitability of his departure and the associated emotional baggage will likely weigh heavily on me as I work closely with other dogs.

                As for the issue of the unreasonably long walk to the shelter before the local bus system’s operating hours, that is a dilemma which I have been utilizing this break to address.  After researching the parking regulations at the garage outside of my residence hall, I found that I can apply for a restricted parking permit if I am employed off-campus and/or have a legitimate medical condition that limits my locomotive abilities.  After talking with an employee at the parking services office, I was told that a volunteer position off-campus would suffice as employment.  With the application for a permit I must attach a note from Natalie’s Second Chance, on their official letterhead and signed by Natalie, confirming that I do indeed volunteer at the shelter and that I do so at a time before the buses operate.  In addition to requesting this note from Natalie next week, I am getting a note from the orthopedist confirming that my condition is such that I should not walk long distances.