Aurora's Blog

Picking up from last time –

Not only did all the bags need tissue paper, they all also needed cards from the mayor (with some personal messages written on them by various volunteers and such).

This became yet another source of confusion. People would be walking the bags over to various tissue paper stations. The people putting in the cards couldn’t keep up with how fast they needed to stuff cards in the bags. And the people carrying the bags didn’t necessarily know that some bags had cards and some didn’t, so they’d just set the bags down somewhere generally by the station. And you’d have to have eagle eyes and quick reflexes to go get those bags immediately.

Chris and I were at one of the stations, putting in cards as fast as we could. One of the bag carries noticed how ridiculously fast we were going, and thankfully asked if we needed help. I gave her an immediate huge yes. With three of us, we were able to keep things pretty well under control.

Chris gave his brilliant idea that it actually would probably be easier if, instead of trying to keep piles straight at tissue paper stations, people just went over to where the finished bags were and put cards in there – with no bags getting carried away from that station until they had cards.

Of course. Why hadn’t anyone thought of that before? Even when he said it, though, none of us went over to do it. So many people were carrying bags. There was no way one or two of us could’ve kept up with the way things were moving. And we didn’t feel like we could all go, because then there’d be these bags coming in to our tissue paper station during the transition that didn’t have cards.

So, we just stayed in triage mode – stuffing cards into the bags coming into our station as fast as we could.

Once our station slowed down a bit, I noticed a very busy station with only one person manning the cards. So, I ran over to help him. We were stuffing as fast as we could. Even still, our new station was getting out of control pretty quickly. So, I ran over to the pre-carried bags and started stuffing them, just as Chris had suggested. I went as fast as I could. Very quickly, some other card stuffers came to join me and the bag carriers jumped on board, not taking anything except the carded bags.

Yay for efficiency and super helpful people!

Of course all the bag carriers also told their stations “these are already carded” when they delivered the bags, so the stations could keep to whatever individual sorting stuff they had going on.

So, everyone seemed to be on the same page. Woot!

We wondered why the cards weren’t just part of the assembly line. My best guess is because they weren’t necessarily done in time to be part of it. Volunteers were writing personal notes on the cards when I walked in for my shift. So, I think that’s why we waited on those.

While I love to learn from the experiences and write out how things could’ve gone better, I’ll also say this was a good day, with a lot of nice people, where a lot got accomplished (and we got nice mini-workouts and free swag). So, thumbs up!

Picking up from last time –

The line got oh so much slower as people had to stop for longer periods of time for us to stuff goodies in their bags. We were going as fast as we possibly could. But it couldn’t be as fast as the ol’ drop and go.

Some people were asking us (at the front of the assembly line), “Why are the blankets in first?!” I didn’t totally enjoy having annoyed people around me, because there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t even give an explanation as to how or why that came to be the deal.

Soon enough, we all kind of shrugged our collective shoulders. No, the whole blankets-first thing didn’t seem like the greatest idea, but at that point there was nothing any of us could do about it. People who were there were there to give and have a great day. So, everyone got back in the spirit, and we all just laughed about our bleeding fingers.

Eventually all of those bags were finished. We got to go back to stuffing empty bags. There was practically cheering about it, and the already happy mood got even happier.

Everyone in the line seemed cool, but there was one guy specifically (Chris), who had this super outgoing, sort of flamboyant personality who was totally my new best friend of the day. Every time he’d come through, I’d ask a little more about him, ‘cause he seemed so fun. And he’d ask a little about me. Once as he came around, he said, “It’s kind of like we’re speed dating, Aurora!” That got a nice laugh.

I also loved that during the event, I was basically getting a nice little workout! Someone said she felt like Lucy in the chocolate factory episode (which was actually just on at the gym the other night – so her reference was extremely fresh in my mind). And I agreed! The line went so quickly. And as people went by, we kept having to open new boxes of stuff. Then people would be running us boxes, as our resources depleted. It was actually a semi-taxing day. Yee haw!

Once all the bags were completed, it was time to put the tissue paper in the top to make them festive.

Some bags got white tissue. Some got red. They were separated according to gender.

This sort of confused me, as in my line we didn’t have any gender specific products. I later found out that they were separated based on the style of the blanket. Oh, come on. The men got more “manly” styles. I think theirs had some animal prints and such.

I want people to be happy with their bags (enjoying their styles) and all, but do we need to be quite this gender stereotyped about these care packages? Just curious…

Oh well. A nice thing is being done. No need for me to nitpick so much…. Though I totally finish up with a bit more about the finishing of assembling the bags next time (not for a while because coming up, we’ll be talking about Let’s Make a Deal…).

Picking up from last time –

The way the bags had been being made was that you’d put little items in on the bottom (such as  stamps, toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, soap, and a light little scarf). Then, you’d put this big blanket (that was already wrapped up for you) over that stuff – as the last thing in the bag. And it worked great. It worked great for the first part of my shift. From everything I heard, it worked great for the whole first 4-hour shift of the day.

And then someone decided to change it.

I will admit when I got to fill the one bag earlier in my shift, getting the blanket in was the hardest part. It was a pretty big blanket. So, it took some work to stuff it into the somewhat tight bag. But it wasn’t so bad. The way we did it was I held it, and the two people at the bag station stuffed it in. Yes, it took slightly longer than the other stops where people could practically throw in the small items. But in my experience, it didn’t take inordinately long.

Even still, somehow, they changed it up so that people would fill bags that already had blankets in them.

What?! Who decided this. I don’t know who decided it or how it happened. I just know that before we could do anything to stop it, we looked over to this area that was filled with so many bags with blankets. People were told they then needed to be filled with the rest of the stuff. [*head falls on desk as I write this*]

I’m pretty sure that whoever made that decision must’ve thought it was going to save time or headache. And maybe things were much tougher for the blanket stuffers than I imaged (though they still had to stuff the blankets… the hard part was the sides of the tight bag, not the bottom with stuff in it… so I have no idea how doing blankets first really made anything easier for them).

But the only thing this did was annoy, confuse, and even hurt people!

Some people were confused as to what had the small stuff in it and what didn’t, since all the other finished bags also looked, from above, just like rolled up blankets in bags. And then, when people cam through, we had to try to stuff the smaller goodies into the already tightly squeezed sides of the bag (so the stuff hopefully wouldn’t fly out). A bunch of us in the assembly line were literally getting cuts because of the plastic sides of the bags we were catching our fingers on as we tried so hard to stuff things in there. (Ow!)

A bunch of us actually bled. Yes, it’s just small cuts. No one was seriously injured. But still… I hope none of the recipients of these bags have any blood on their stuff!

And this is where we’ll pick up next time.

Picking up from last time –

Someone came over and said we’d be consolidating lines. So, we needed to move whatever supplies we had to the table in front of us.

Okay, sounds good. We all did.

Once I got up there, we had more than enough people (since two lines were converging into one). So, I got to grab a bag and go down the line myself to fill it. Yet again, from a different angle, I saw the great efficiency.

Once I got back to the beginning, the morning shift was leaving. With the empty spots, I re-took my place behind the table.

There was one person who was trying to be efficient, and I appreciate her (as I appreciate anyone trying to make things better). But her plan was proving not to be wildly efficient after all. Her plan was to take a bunch of empty bags and put the first items in them (stamps, toothbrushes, and toothpaste). Then people could grab those bags and not even have to hit that station.

This was not necessarily a bad idea in theory.

Granted, the station that had that stuff was staffed just like the others. So, it really took barely any more time for the bag-builders to start a couple of feet earlier in the line and have someone plop that stuff in there… So, personally, I didn’t think the half seconds of extra efficiency were necessary.

But I’m not gonna argue with someone who seemed so happy to be implementing her idea to try to make things go smoother. Also, who in the world do I think I am to even worry about this, right? I’m an assembly line worker today. So I don’t need to be worrying big picture… Bu I’m still gonna talk about it a bit… So, it was sort of a potato/po-tah-to situation in my mind. It might be slightly better. It might not be. My feeling was it didn’t truly matter, since it was about the same… Or was it?

There were a couple of small issues that came up.

Since none of the other lines were doing this, the bag-building people would get confused. They’d come up to our line with an empty bag, but then she’d be trying to hand them one that had a few things in it. Then they’d either have to reach over her to get stuff in their bag (since she was keeping her pre-started bags right in front of the station with stamps and stuff). Or they’d have to go put their empty bags back… It was just confusing people. And it started to get in the way, since it became so hard for people to reach over to the stamp/toothbrush station.

Also, she’d start putting lotions (the next item in the line) in the bags sometimes. And then it became this whole thing of, “Do you have lotion in there already?” The additional confusion definitely outweighed the half-seconds that may have been saved.

Again, I admire this person’s desire to make something better, and her gumption to just start doing it. I love when people are really thinking about the task at hand. I’d rather work with people passionate about what we’re doing (who might make a mis-step (as any of us could)) than people who don’t care. You never fully know if something will work until you try, right?

Since that wasn’t working out so well, she stopped doing that. And people just started again with their empty bags. Basically, no harm, no foul there. And great teamwork. The day was still spectacular.

And then…. This is where I’ll pick up next time.

I saw a listing on Volunteer Match looking for some office help in the middle of the afternoon one day. By the time I saw the listing, the event had already started. But since it wasn’t too far from my house, I went over there any way to check if they could use me. Sure enough, they could!

I met this really fabulous, fun man who said, “nice to meet you.” This is why you always use Drew Carey’s “nice to see you.” He’d actually met me very briefly before when I tried to help with this organization (but they were more than fully staffed). I’m actually pretty glad he didn’t remember me. Why would I want him to remember the girl who had nothing to do?

I’m so glad that I tried again with APLA! I felt so welcomed and impressed from the moment I entered their building. Every person I met was extremely friendly. Also, by the looks of things, it seemed like this organization does a whole lot. So, I was more than happy to help them.

I was set up in a cubical to address and stuff envelopes (as I was the only one who came for the shift after all).

One thing that was so interesting to me was that I’d heard about high schoolers who’d come earlier in the week and didn’t know how to address an envelope! What? Is mail seriously that obsolete that teenagers really don’t even know how to address an envelope? I could see it happening. (It obviously did happen.) But it blows my mind nonetheless.

Fairly soon into my task, I made my own makeshift standing desk with a box (because I can go a little nuts if I sit for too long).

I thought about putting on a podcast and zoning out a bit. But I feel like lately I’ve always had something in my ear. I’m always semi-distracting myself from a commute or simple task. And this time I decided no, I just want to think.

I got to listen to some of the conversations around me, and hear about planning events. (It must be so fun and busy to work at a non-profit.)

I also got lost in my own thoughts a bit… I was being considered for a job in New York. Spoiler alert: I didn’t get it. But I was thinking about what I’d done with my time in California, and what I would do with my time in New York.

The task itself was very simple. I had all the supplies I needed, and a very easy list from which to read addresses. (APLA’s address was already beautifully pre-printed on their envelopes.) They had plenty of that special sticky envelope glue stuff so I didn’t have to lick any envelopes. They thought of everything and made it as easy for the volunteer as possible.

At the end of the day, Tarik thanked me so much for all my work. He made me feel so appreciated, and he even took the photos you see here in the post so I could document the day on my blog!

I had a great time, and I’d happily help them out anytime in the future!

Picking up from last time –

No matter what we did, we consistently all got water splashed on us all the time. I can only imagine what it’s like for any poor souls who ever have to do this in cold weather (ouch!).

It was a very hot day in Los Angeles (yes, on Thanksgiving – that’s LA). So, our stops were even more slammed than we were expecting.

And since everyone was so parched, no one seemed upset if any of the cups were a bit fuller than they probably should’ve been. *High five!*

(Also, can we just mention, maybe there should be a specific “race cup” that has a line marked to where it should be filled… Or, I don’t know. I think there are a lot of innovative things we could do with race cups (making them easier to hand off, and such). So, let’s think about working on that!)

Anyway, eventually everyone went past us, and it was time to clean up.

The captains of the stop told us to dump all the water. The other volunteers and I were a little stressed about dumping so much good water in the middle of the street (in the middle of a drought in California). So, we started pouring all unused water from cups back into the jugs so we could at least go pour the water in the surrounding plants, even if open/unsealed water jugs couldn’t be given anywhere for human consumption.

Our impatient crew leaders didn’t care about trying to save any water, and they told us to just dump the tables. All the tables got dumped, and there was tons of water in the street…

Then the van to come pick up the supplies didn’t come for at least another 45 minutes. So, as far as I could tell, we did have time to be a little more judicious with how we got rid of the water. However, there may have been a permit issue or something that made it so we needed to get out of the street… And none of the nearby trees looked like they were in any danger of dying anytime soon due to lack of water or anything. And who am I to question the people in charge? So, you know, it’s all good…

While we were waiting for the van, the guy in charge of the water station asked me if I was a vegetarian (as we were talking about Thanksgiving dinner). I said, “actually yeah, I have been for a few months. Why?”

He said I seemed like a vegetarian. I’m not totally sure what that means. I’m unsure if I even like it. (Who am I becoming?!) But I thought it was funny that someone who was so against going vegetarian is now getting told, “you seem like a vegetarian.” Ah, life.

Eventually the van came, we loaded it up, and took everything back to the big recycle bins.

Then I walked home in the burning, burning heat. But at least I’d gotten wet all morning!

Picking up from last time –

So, we laid out all the cups. (There are even cardboard dividers so you can stack rows of cups on top of each other. I never noticed those before. Smart.)

As a runner, I never fully understood why water cups so often seemed to be overfilled. Now that I’ve worked at a water stop, I can understand. It’s hard when pouring quickly (from a jug that’s constantly changing weight) to try to get the exact right amount in.

And there seemed to be some disagreement as to what the right amount was. So, if people who work water stops think different things and if jugs can be hard to handle, then water is most likely just going to come out at all sorts of various levels. But I think we can deal with it. Right, runners?

(I know I’ll be a little less judge-y and more patient, now having been a pourer myself.)

When it came to the Gatorade, I asked what the most efficient was to pour that was. Someone said to mix the solution with water in the big tub (with the little spicket on the the end). Then, use that little spicket to fill up an empty water jug and go from there.

I didn’t think of any more efficient ways, and that didn’t seem too slow. But if any of you have amazing tips for doing that part faster, I’d love to hear them.

Once we got to the actual handing out part, I was holding the cup from the bottom. The lead guy at the water stop told me it’s easier to hand them out if I hold them from the top. So, I switched to the top-hold.

Even after spending a whole morning at a water stop, I can’t tell you the best way to hold the cup. Holding it from the bottom gives you more control, but I think it becomes harder for the runner to grab it.

Holding it with one finger inside the cup seems like a mess to me. For one thing, many runners don’t love when you have a finger in their cup. But more importantly, I find it much easier to hand off that way, since you have such a flimsy hold.

Holding it with your fingers coming down around the top is, I’m assuming, the best way since that’s what I was told – and it seemed like probably the best among the different ways I tried. But no ways seemed perfect.

Again, if you have advice on the best way to hold the cup, hit me!

Picking up from last time –

I don’t know if I feel this way because we were 3 water stops in 1, but I am kind of of the mindset that you can almost never have too many water stop volunteers.

I mean, I’m sure there is some number somewhere where it’s just too crowded.

We were not at that number.

As the race was starting, we hadn’t been given any specific instructions. I asked if we were to each stand at different tables, or what. And the person in charge said two of us should stay behind tables to just refill, and the rest should go in front of tables wherever it seemed we were needed.

Okay. So we just kind of felt it out, instead of divvying things up. (Granted, there weren’t that many of us to divide. So, even if we had been assigned tables/spots/whatever, I don’t know that that would’ve done much… People very well have had to move around anyway.)

Before runners got there, we set everything up.

This whole 3-water-stops-in-one thing really confused us all at first. The leaders tried to point how the tables would go. We’d start to move them. It would be wrong. We’d look a little dumbfounded. They’d then jump in to help physically show us where to go.

I guess in the heads of the people doing it, they totally understood and didn’t think it would be hard to impart this idea on us. But the lesson I took from this is that maybe it’s always better to err on the side of having to over-explain. Perhaps if we’d had some sort of drawing, map, diagram, etc., we may have understood faster without being slightly annoying to the people running the stop.

We also poured a bunch of water and Gatorade in cups, preparing for people. I didn’t realize the Gatorade came as concentrate that you dilute. (I thought it just came as Gatorade, but at least here, it did not.)

When we were putting the cups on the table, it was interesting to me how many people started by having a sleeve of cups in one hand and then pulling out a cup at a time from the top, and putting it down with their other hand…

It doesn’t seem like that would take all that long, but when you put someone doing that next to someone who was just tapping the sleeve on the table, letting the bottom cup go each time, you can see tables getting filled at something like only 1/3 of the speed of the faster way.

Of course once people could see that, everyone switched to the more efficient way. Hooray for efficiency. (Though I still don’t know the most efficient way to do other things, which we’ll get into next time.)

Picking up from last time –

I didn’t have super specific goals with what I’d take Flat Stanley to do – as he mainly just came along on my life.

However, in the end, it seemed as though he got to experience a wide variety of things, which I thought was pretty awesome.

One thing I liked, that I didn’t even do on purpose, was that hopefully I introduced the kids in the class to things they may not have known about, or thought about, before.

Even if we taking striking out of it (since I honestly don’t know whether that’s appropriate for an elementary school audience), there was a rehearsal of a show – where we talked about what happened backstage, since so many different people go into making show happen. (I thought that speaks to teamwork, and how helping with things can be valuable – even when you’re not seen helping.)

We also gave blood. I know they’re too young to do it, but it might be nice to learn about it. Maybe they’ll remember and do it when they’re older!

We also did an obstacle course ultramarathon, which is nice and healthy. So, that felt great.

And we did a couple of extra silly things, so it’s not all stuff that can be used to possible teach some kind of lesson.

So, I was pretty happy with how it worked out!

The only thing I wasn’t very happy about was that I sent back Flat Stanley later than I wanted.

The letter gave me a date, and asked me to try to send him back by then… And I didn’t send him back by then.

I thought there was a photo printing place by my apartment, and when I went looking for it, it turned out it had closed. There wasn’t one I could find anywhere close to me. So, it seemed easier to order them online. Fair enough, that shouldn’t take that long, right?

Then, by the time I got the photos, I was kind of distracted with the play I was working on amping up. Even still, even during tech week, I was working far (far!) fewer hours than I do in television. I should’ve had the time to write a simple letter and put it in the mail…

I feel like I’ve kind of been noticing… while keeping this blog (which I think helps to give me some sort of reflection on who I am/who I’m becoming, as it helps me to see things over time – being that it’s all written down)… that in some ways, I think I might be becoming a bit more of a procrastinator… And I’m unsure why.

And this is where I’ll pick up next time.

I’d never been tree mapping, and I love trying new stuff!

This activity was done with Tree People. (They have a cool website and they care about the environment.)

This project was done as part of Tree Map LA. If you want to learn all about that project, you can click the link. But the overview is, they want to use available data plus tree mapping to get information on all the trees in Los Angeles (and surrounding areas) to one central place.

The main purpose of getting all that information in one big map/app is summed up in this paragraph I got from their website:

“This information will help us to manage the well-being of our region’s urban forest and make our city more livable: shadier, cleaner, safer and more beautiful, and better able to meet climate change impacts. Users of this information include government agencies, arborists, landscape architects, planners, students, civic organizations, and everyday citizens.”

I went to this with a friend of mine from one of my old jobs. This was a very fitting thing to bring someone to, as we got put in pairs.

(Of course, I’m sure it would’ve also been a fulfilling experience to meet a stranger. Nonetheless, it’s a great morning to spend with a friend, if you’re looking for something to do with one of your buds.)

Basically, there was a morning huddle of volunteers and the people in charge. The volunteers were given all the supplies we’d need – a paper full of pictures of trees and their names (so we could identify them), and a nifty tape measure (that we got to keep!). We also were given the cell phone number of the guy in charge, in case we had any questions. And we got maps with the streets that we were to do highlighted.

After we heard a cool little speech about trees and Tree People’s mission, James (my friend) and I went off down our street.

We took turns with who got to do the cool measuring job, and who got to enter the data into the app (though really, that job was kinda fun too).

It went by pretty quickly. I learned a little more about kinds of trees, and how to map trees. It was a fun, productive day!

Picking up from last time –

Oh yeah, that whole volunteer part (which is what this thing is supposed to be about).

As an usher, I was to mark tickets, give programs, and count on a little counter how many people I had. (And I was supposed to point them in the direction they were going.)

I kept trying to do it in the same order every time. But it seemed like no matter what order I tried to do the marking, programs, and counting, it always got a little messed up.

If I counted first, I wasn’t fast enough with programs. If I tried to take tickets first, someone would hand me a handful of tickets and the rest of the party would start walking away from me… Wait! you need your programs! Though, many people had gotten programs in the lobby. So sometimes that step with me was skipped altogether.

It’s silly because it’s such an unbelievably easy job, yet I never thought I got rhythm quite correct of what I thought the best order of those simple steps were. However, ultimately, everyone got sat. Everyone got programs.I laughed and had a grand time with people as they came in. People seemed to have a grand ol’ time.

Also, the house manager (who was in charge of the ushers) was really kind. The Falcon Theatre was a cool place with a cool vibe, and I had a really lovely night!

Side note: I’m so glad I did, as I really needed it. Small spoiler alert for my ongoing kidney story. This was the day I found out I had a very unexpected obstacle get in the way of my hopes of donating a kidney at UCLA. Part of me wanted to just be home alone all night. But I’m glad I decided to venture out into the world of theater – which almost always makes anything better.

This one barely counts because I barely did anything, and I got to see a free show!

Nonetheless, since I was technically volunteering, I’m counting it!

I’m a pretty loyal reader of Ken Levine’s blog. When he announced a play of his would be premiering in Los Angeles, I had to see it!

I learned you can see the show (at the Falcon Theatre) for free if you usher for one of the performances!

Free theater? How am I not aware of this cool stuff after over 3 years of living in L.A.? And why have I seen such a tiny amount of theater since I’ve been here? (Preposterous.)

The play had an interesting concept, and some fun, laugh-out-loud moments.

In the play, we watch a story unfold in two timelines with a slightly different beginning. The show starts with a job interview and in one timeline the woman gets the job. In the other, she doesn’t (and starts dating the interviewer).

There are moments where possible romantic complications just might occur in the timeline where she gets the job – but you’ll have to see the play to know.

I kept my eyes peeled for Ken (the playwright). He’s posted pictures on his blog, so I had an idea of what he looked like. After reading his blog most days for years, I wanted to meet him!

It was lovely meeting him. I felt a bit like a creeper, ’cause I was all, “Oh this must be Annie” (his daughter, whom I’d seen on the blog).

You’d think I’d have tons to talk to him about. Surprisingly, I felt that having read oh so much of the blog made it hard for me to start a conversation with him.

I felt like I should have a million questions for someone who’s been in the biz so long, with so many wildly impressive credits. But I’ve read it all – how he find his writing partner, their first spec, their first jobs, their move from one show to another, creating a show, writing movies…

I’ve even read about his other jobs such as being a DJ and a baseball announcer. And I’ve read so much more – opinion posts, travelogues, and all that jazz. What do you say when you weirdly already know so much about a person’s life, and have already had so many questions answered.

I still asked a couple of things, and was able to carry on somewhat of a conversation. Then I felt kind of rambled after I mentioned I blogged as well, and he asked what I blogged about. But he was so gracious and kind, he didn’t make me feel as though I was rambling!

It was so nice to meet someone you kind of feel like you know (but you totally don’t) in person, and have him be even lovelier than you were expecting!

And I’ll get into the actual volunteer work of the night tomorrow.