my favorite shirt

So I have this shirt. It is my favorite shirt. Although it is my favorite shirt, I am very selective on when I wear it. There are only certain days and moments that are deserving of this shirt to come out of my closet (or bin of clothes since I currently don't have a closet). But before I go into these details, I must tell the story of when this shirt came into my life.

Like I stated in an earlier blog, last year I was in a program called AmeriCorps NCCC. This program sent me different places to do service work. From the very end of April through the middle of June my team was in New Orleans to work with Rebuilding Together. The moment I drove our navy blue 12 passenger government van, TJ, into the city, I fell in love. You could feel the anxiety building as we drove through the neighborhood, searching for the place we would call home for the next 7 weeks. The moment my team of nine and I laid eyes on our adorable double shot gun house, painted with inviting colors, we all let out yelps of excitement. (To help you understand, many of our NCCC co-members we pulling up to volunteer camps that housed hundreds of people a month.) Immediately, we all jumped out of the van and ran inside. After searching through the house we immediately started jumping up and down, squeeling, while embracing each other. We felt like the luckiest people ever.

At that time, I was completely in love with life. I was living in an awesome house, near the river, where a movie was being filmed 2 blocks away and the French Quarter was easily accessible by jumping on the ferry 8 blocks from us. I was in a city I had never been. A city whose spirit you can feel walking down the streets, as the music from within the buildings flows out the open doors. I was working for an organization that stood for something and really cared about the people they work for and the people who work for them. I got to ride a ferry to work every morning and let the cool morning breeze on the Mississippi River gently wake me up. Life. Was. Great.

After being there for about a week, a couple of girls on my team and I were walking around the French Quarter and decided to check out a clothing store. We all walked around spending our time looking at all the clothes we would love to buy, knowing the small stipend we received for being in service would not allow, and rummaging the sales rack hoping to find an affordable treasure. I was sorting through a display of simple tees, reading all of their witty sayings, when I spotted it. Right there, buried beneath a pile of unfolded shirts, was my diamond. I reached down and picked up the soft cotton shirt as a shocked smile began to creep across my face, and knew that I had to have it. It could not have been more perfect, because there, written across the front of the shirt in big bold letters were the words I <3 LIFE. Perfect.

So, in honor of my shirt and Valentine's Day I am going to start a list of the things that I have found my self loving about life lately. I plan to keep this an ongoing list. One I can add to as time goes on and I am reminded of new things. I encourage you to make your own list.
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I LOVE....

• I love riding my bike home from work. Although the work day often leaves me tired, the ride home is the perfect wind down. Something about the breeze in my face as I whip through the streets of my neighborhood that's relaxing. It allows me to not just see my community but to be in it and say hi to them and exchange smiles.
• I love free things. The service community has been good to me.
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• I got lunch free for a week from the volunteers I worked with
• one week, out of seven nights I got 5 free dinners
• Kate and I found a bunch of stuff for our house free on the streets. the list includes a stand for our tv and dvd player, a toaster oven, dishes, two lamps and a bench
• there's a place that serves free red beans and rice every Monday while listening to music and another that serves free indian food every sunday night
• a local bar has a special where you can get a hair cut and shot for $10. Kate took advantage of that last week
• I love that I am on the first day of a six day weekend. Happy Mardi Gras everyone!
• I love New Orleans. I could go on an on about this one. But I'm sure it will come out in one of my blogs eventually. The history, the culture, the environment just rocks.
• I love my boss. She truly cares about the quality of work she puts out there and about her staff. I was at her house twice last week. Once for a dinner with her family and once for bbq she had for volunteers we had.
• I love working for Rebuilding Together. I love everything they stand for and how they are continuously striving to better an already great organization
• I love my house. I live in the heart of New Orleans in a traditional house. It's so cute. I love it. To see a picture on google maps, click here. I'm on the left.
• I love my roommate. We know how each other works and so far so good. I've been really really lucky as far as roommates go in my life. There are so many horror stories out there of roommates gone bad.
• I love meeting people who have interesting stories and create amazing networking connections. This is why working with volunteers can be awesome.
• I love that I caught a shoe from the Muse's parade. Amazing. (I will write more on Mardi Gras when the weekend of mania is over)
• I love washing my hands at the end of the day. For some reason, watching the cloud of dirt and paint fall off into the stream of water and down the drain is rewarding. I almost judge my days work on how dirty my hands are. The more dirt, the more I accomplished.
• I love that I have ideas for my future. Do I know what I want to do? Absolutely not. But having a ideas is new for me. And kind of comforting.
• I love that I have can build a closet for myself. I have enough construction knowledge to make things and be comfortable doing it by myself. It's empowering.
  

...to be continued.