Dec 19 2004
ho. ho. ho.
It’s freezing. I have no desire to leave my house until the danger of walking outside and saying “Holy crap, it’s cold out here” has passed. Unfortunately, life prevents me from staying indoors where there’s a respectable temperature, and I’m going to have to go out into that ridiculous coldness every day. I guess the plus side is that I have lots of fashionable hats suitable for warding off the winter chill (at least where the top of my head is concerned, and believe me, it’s concerned). Of course, by “lots” I mean “um, two.”
Tuesday, the group of middle and high school students I work with is going Christmas caroling at the nursing home and a couple of senior centers and maybe some other places that I will figure out tomorrow. I know it’s a decidedly jolly activity for a decidedly un-jolly person such as myself to have planned (especially considering the fact that it involves public singing, which I avoid at all costs and the world is grateful, really), but that’s the way the cookie (said cookie being my job) crumbles. Even though it’s going to involve aforementioned public singing AND me driving a ginormous van (and I fear large vehicles), it should be pretty fun because I like the kids a lot and I’ll do anything to further the impression they have of me. That impression being that I am a total geek.
Anyway, while I was quasi-planning Tuesday night’s foray into holiday festivities, I decided it would be a good idea to pull in another group of middle and high school students to participate. You know, because the more the merrier I say, especially when there’s potential public humiliation involved. So I called up the leader of this group and said, “Hey Joe,” (because Joe is his name) “my group is going Christmas caroling on the 21st, and I thought you guys might be interested in joining us.” He said, “Sure. You make the announcement,” to which I replied, “Uh, okay.” And that was it. So tonight his group is meeting and I have to go over there in a little bit (and my hair won’t dry, which is problematic because of the whole “God turned the heat off and even the rain is so cold it’s turned into white droplets of agony” issue) and stand up in front of a group of 30-50 teenagers who have no idea who I am and try to make singing to senior citizens sound like an exceptionally fun and exciting idea. So, if you ever think about joining AmeriCorps, take it from me: these are the things you’re going to have to do that nobody tells you about when they make it sound so idealistic and world-changing.
I’m just saying.
