Katie Hanchuruck: October 2014

I’ve been keeping so busy at work, and living the social life of dorm living that I’ve barely had time for myself the past two months. But this week and weekend I’ve managed to set aside some introvert time and refocus myself. I’ve started running again. Intensely. Today I ran 13.3 miles and while the last three were pure torture I feel great that I managed to keep going, make every mile count and that I was able to focus on one activity for so long. After that I had brunch with Logan so skipped yoga, which I may have skipped anyway from the aching muscles in my legs. Due to my crazy work schedule (roughly 50 hour weeks) my yoga practice has been suffering. I’ve been managing to go to 2 classes a week, after my shifts at Okra. And those classes have done much to restore my calm, re-center myself and reflect on my life. So after those classes I’m ready to hit it hard again the next day!

Yesterday we started building a new house. Isaac said I could be in charge of running this one totally, all the volunteer days, scheduling and checking on the subcontractors, inspections, and making sure the house is built and built to code. So we had a beautiful day framing and raising walls with a lot of volunteers from the community. The homeowner, Synethia, and her family came out and swung hammers alongside the volunteers. We got all the walls framed and braced into place, and the first sheet of OSB put up. Chanelle and Isaac joined me after running the their 2 houses to finish cutting and nailing in the cap plates. Michael Matthews (our resource manager who is in charge of ordering supplies and maintaining the Americorps apartments) joined us in the afternoon to do a bit of framing work. He had mentioned earlier in the week that framing was the only aspect of Habitat Building that he had never experienced so I invited him to join us, and he kindly stayed until the cap plates were completed as well! And Elhadji joined us after he finished his work for the day (he is one of the Americorps on a Home Repair team) to do cap plates and help clean up.

Other items from the past month I want to remember and recognize:

· Gratitude to Jenna who came and visited me for her weekend and ended up working with me two very physically taxing days. We did roof sheathing and shingling on Latasha and Angela’s houses and it was a blast! Jenna’s visit came at the perfect time to save my sanity from all the craziness running around my head, and having her see my work and my life reaffirmed what I’m doing.

· Love, love, love to my parents whose visit coincided with Jenna’s. Being able to spend a week with them seriously helped me distress as well as make sure I was well fed. I enjoyed having them join me on the build site even though I made them do some of the work volunteer tasks- nailing in hurricane hangars and caulking! Their visit was during our blitz week which meant I worked about 60 hours and my weekend was nonexistent.

· The Nascar Build! With the Bank of America we framed Samantha’s house at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Nascar to generate media attention before the Bank of America 500. Nascar Drive Kasey Kahne showed up with us for a bit, and we were given tickets to attend the race! It was an interesting experience. We left the house up in the parking lot for a week, then returned to take it apart and move the walls to the site where they will be reassembled and completed!

· The absolute joy I have in my team here at Haibtat Charlotte. Isaac is a great boss. Over the past few weeks he has been giving me a lot more independence and trust to complete tasks and his faith in my ability to lead Synethia’s house alone was really inspiring to me to work even harder. I love Chanelle and Logan and working with them is a blast. I feel like we have really gotten to know each other’s habits (like I need a giant cup of coffee the start the day, Logan WILL show up in flip flops and won’t take them off if he can get away with it, and Chanelle will boss him around if she can get away with it). I love how Chanelle will offer to give me my first hug of the day, and sometimes Logan will bring me coffee even if he is embarrassed about ordering it the way I like. I like how we have “Team Food.” For example if I’m eating a slice of pizza someone can just say “team pizza” and then everyone is entitled to have a bite of the pizza. This happens with any and all food items from water bottles to apples, pizza to lollipops.

· I love my roommates at the apartments and how they make me seem like a neat freak in comparison. I pretend that I’m going to be glad to have the place to myself while they are in Talledega next week, but secretly after half a day the place is going to seem lonesome and empty. This place is always hopping with people hanging out, playing games, chatting or baking delicious treats. Although I find it hard to find “introvert time” I cherish my new friends.