A Day in the Life of a Volunteer

Some days I end wondering what exactly I did with my time. I am sure I am not the only one who does this. Today was a pretty typical day (if there is such a thing here), so I thought it might be interesting for you to see how I spent my time, so here goes:

8:05 wake up, roll over, toss, and turn until...

8:10-8:25 get up, get ready, begin day

8:30-9:15 Mass in the chapel at the Inn

10:00-11:00 work out at Holy Family University

11:30-12:00 lunch with Jamie and Mo (it's Fat Tuesday-we got Grilladelphia)

12:00-12:45 shower, get ready for the "work" portion of the day

1:00-1:30 begin the afternoon shift with Renee and coordinating for the meal-this entails finding out what the cook is making, what the drink will be, and how many guests we are planning for, as well as what other preparations need to be done for the meal

1:30-4:00 cutting 275 slices of pie and cake for the meal, answering the door and phone, checking mail, letting people in to use the bathroom, sorting whole desserts to give away, letting the men irrigating the garden into and out of the yard, organizing people to bag bread, accepting donations, attempting to help a man whose pants fell down in the middle of the office find a place to stay for the night that wasn't the Inn (I was unsuccessful, but at least I got him to leave), assigning jobs for the meal, bringing up toiletries and diapers to hand out

4:00-4:30 greeting the volunteers for the day, assigning them jobs, training the new servers, making sure that drinks are available, bread is put out, and food is ready to be served

4:30-6:00 handing out toiletries, giving out tickets for takeout meals, checking on the servers, mopping frosting off the floor from the desserts, finding a lightbulb for a guest who never came to get it, holding a baby, chasing down a man who stole juice, giving candy to kids, putting out more bread, answering questions for the servers, explaining to a group why they could not perform a play in the middle of the dining room during the meal and then training them to bus tables, keeping an eye out for a man who is wanted for rape, running up and down the creaky basement steps to get baby formula

6:00-6:40 overseeing sweeping and mopping of the kitchen and dining room, thanking and bidding adieu to the volunteers, shutting things off, putting things away

6:40-7:00 evening prayer in the chapel

My hours are not terribly long (except Mondays, which seem to last forever), but the intensity of those hours can be very high. Some days it seems like everyone who rings the doorbell has a sad story and it can be downright depressing. Other days, like today, hilarious things (like the man's pants falling down and the performers/volunteers arriving) happen and serve as reminders that life is not all, not even mostly, doom and gloom.