27 Hours

Okay, so in this post, I will have to tell you about my day leading up to my volunteering.  It will give a better feel to the story.
So, here we go.

I worked 12 1/2  hours the previous night at the hospital.  I got off work around 7:30am…..I knew I had a long day ahead of me, so I hit up the Starbuckaroos (name change) on the way home.  Venti Mocha with an extra shot was the concoction of the morning.  Just in case you don’t know, that is a whopping total of 4 shots of expresso.  Ay yi yi.

When I got home, it was straight to the closet.  No time to bathe.  I had to find an outfit to wear for a film shoot that I had to leave for in an hour and a half.  Being the typical woman, I tried on 10 different outfits, had to fix my hair, redo my makeup, etc etc.  I still left late.  I had to pick up a friend that was going to be in the shoot with me.  Now, let me clarify that we were not shooting a full length film, just the teaser trailer.  We were super excited about being extras.

It’s the little things that remind me Im in Arkansas.  We arrive to the film shoot about 5 minutes late (prompt, huh?)  We are literally the most normal dressed people there.  It is around 33 degrees and warming by the hour.  Yet, there was a girl in daisy dukes and a tank top; a woman with half of her head shaved wearing cut off pants; a man about 7 feet tall wearing pants to fit a 5 foot woman; and a man wearing spandex pants.  Yeah, this is going to look super normal.  I can’t wait to see the trailer.  Long story short, we shot the trailer, had a man walk with us while showing us pictures of him in a horror movie. Filming in total, we were at the film site over 3 hours (in the cold wind; on top of a bridge).

After we finish filming, I dropped my friend back off at her place, then drove about 15 minutes back to mine.  I was exhausted.  It was around 1:15 in the afternoon by this point.  My volunteer time at the Museum Fullll of Kids was scheduled for 2pm to 4pm.  It hit me……..this is a Saturday……it’s a gorgeous day that has warmed up to a windless, 59 degrees……the museum is in a prime location in Little Rock, surrounded by famous businesses with the river as the backdrop……..this means one thing……KIDS…..LOTS of them will be at the museum.  I asked myself, “do I have the energy?  No.  Should I call in?  Too late.  Can I at least take a power nap?  Yes.”  So, I fall onto my couch and take a half effort power nap.  I was worried more about falling into a deep sleep (I had been up almost 24 hours straight by this point) to where the power nap wasn’t even feasible.  So, I pulled the big girl panties up and changed into my Volunteer shirt and made a huge cup of coffee.  Thank you, to the coffee inventor.  My friend, my 2nd savior.

I head out.  By this point, I am on my 2nd wind aka in the Zombie mode.  I get to the museum like 10 minutes early.  Over achiever, I know.  Take note ;0)

Just as I expected.  TONS of children are occupying the museum.  There’s something different about this place though.  Kids are happy.  Kids are learning.  There are parents that are having just as much fun as their kids.  The feel of the place is contagious.  I immediately forget how tired I am, and get to the volunteering aspect; the whole reason I am here.  To help, to teach, to make a difference.

I actually wound up meeting a couple of other volunteers (who were going off shift…..leaving me the only volunteer).  Super welcoming people.  So when I say the atmosphere of the museum is a happy place, it is.  Everyone’s attitude reflects that.

My first interaction of the day was in my comfort zone.  Where the human body experience exhibit is.  I taught about sunscreen.  I know, sounds boring. That’s the awesome thing though, the museum has it where it makes the learning process about it a fun one.  So, you really don’t realize that you are learning about the usefulness of sunscreen as you are placing your hand(s) under an infared monitor.

Then, I head to the robot room.  The dreaded robot room, where I am in way over my head.  I immediately see a 3 foot little girl working a robot as if she had designed the darn thing.  All I knew to do was say, “Oh, wow!  You are so smart!”  Almost instantaneously, as I uttered those words, the robot quit working.  Now is when she looks at me, like, “um, fix it……”  I go into panic mode, read the directions, try to make the robot work.  I realize that I think it’s broken.  So I let her know that I am going to go get someone to fix it.  As I am walking off, a 6 year old walked up and did some kind of kid magic and had the robot working.  Yet again, I am put to shame by a 6 year old.  I leave the robot room.

I now proceed to the area of the museum where the kids usually come into interaction with first.  It’s an area where you really have to think to make things work.  It is also the area that includes the nail bed, my favorite device.  As I walk over to it, a little, 3 foot girl (I swear it was the robot room girl…..or her twin) calls me over to a machine.  I go over there.  She is asking how to start it.  Easy peasy.  Finally, something I know.  So, like a boss, I press the red start button.  I know, that is simple, but hey, robot girl couldn’t figure it out.  So this machine has air that levitates a kickball.  You can alter the air by waving your hands through the air and it teaches you how altering the air will alter the levitation (trying not to give too much away).  Well, after I hit the red start button, the machine starts.  It is making a seriously, horrible noise.  The little girl’s mom walks up at this moment.  She is smiling and I cautiously say, “I don’t think this machine is suppose to be making this noise….” As in, mom, get your daughter off the machine.  Mom doesn’t get the silent, ESP talk.  So, I have to say to the little robot girl, “I think this machine is not working right; you better get off”.  The little girl doesn’t believe me or listen to me.  I can’t say that I blame her…..I mean, I did tell her the robot was broken when evidentally it wasn’t.  About 45 seconds later, the belt pops off of the wheel (that you can see through a clear, bullet proof glass type display), and you smell the gears burning.  My instinct is to duck, cover and run (remember, I lived in Memphis for 5 years…..not only did it teach me there are bad people in the world…..it taught me to run like h-e-double hockey stick when danger is imminent).  I don’t run though.  I just look at the mom and let her know that the machine is broken and that I would be right back; I was going to notify someone of this.  As I am walking to the front to notify someone of the disaster that just happened, I also realized how appropriate it would be for volunteers to get walkie talkies like the staff does.  Anyways, I notify the front.  They send someone to the machine to put an “Out of Order” paper on the machine.

For the rest of the day, I steer clear of little, 3 foot robot girl.

By this time, an hour of my 2 hour volunteer shift has passed.  Woohoo!  I’ve taught and been taught in an hour’s time.

So, I decide to head downstairs to where the animals are.  There are about 3 kids peering through the glass cases looking for tarantulas, scorpions and walking stick type bugs.  I interact with them for about 5 minutes.  The cool part?  These kids had no clue what these “bugs” were that looked so cool.  They couldn’t read.  So, I got to read the info charts next to each glass case.  I explained the bugs to them like I actually knew what I was talking about.  I mean, I had to start rebuilding my ego somehow after the robot and levitating kickball incidents.

Then, the Tinkering Studio opened.  This studio is only open on certain days and hours.  It was closed on my first volunteer day.  So, I was excited (like a kid) to see what it was all about.  How freaking cool.  Today’s hands on activity was constructing an flying object.  There was a wind tunnel at the front of the room.  There was a huge craft table surrounded by chairs in the middle of the room. Long story short, kids used all kinds of recycled items (toilet paper rolls, egg crates, plastic Kroger bags, etc etc) that they cut, taped, tied or whatever they wanted to do and constructed a device/object.  Then, they would take their device/object/thinga-ma-bob to the vertical wind tunnel and see if it floated to the top.  Of course, the lighter the better was the idea.  Well, I had a blast observing the kids.

I took a 5 minute restroom break and returned to the studio.  These kids had already made awesome models of legit, working flying machines.  So, I walked over the the table where there were constructed machines lying.  I wanted to play, too.  I placed the object in the wind tunnel and what happened?  It got stuck.  Of course.  Should I really have expected anything else?  I look around.  Everyone is deep into their cutting, taping and tying. Now, let me explain that this flying machine that I had just gotten stuck was a Styrofoam baseball with feather attached at angles that made the ball fly upwards.  The feathers must have had static and they had decided to stick, or attach to the side of the hard, plastic wind tunnel.  Okay, back to the story: nobody has noticed I have something stuck in the tunnel.  I try to reach up into the tunnel to grab a feather to pull this flying baseball back out.  I can’t reach.  The wind tunnel is about 6 feet tall.  The baseball is stuck at about the 4 foot mark.  Not happening.  I look around and see an old tube…..I think it’s like a poster tube.  Yes, I will use this to poke in the tunnel to un-stick the object from the side of the tunnel.  I will do this before anyone notices.  Easy peasy.  I walk over to the machine, ready to release the baseball and another 3 foot, genius-of-a-kid is standing there, waiting on me.  I mean, he came out of nowhere.  He looks at me and holds up a piece of cardboard.  He says, energetically, “Here! This is the wind stopper!”  I take the piece of cardboard, look at it and read the words, “Wind Stopper” written on it.  You place it on the bottom of the tunnel where the “wind” is blowing UP the tube.  This stops the wind, and in sense, your device comes tumbling back down (law of gravity).  I look at him, and say “thank you!  You’re a genius!”  I just got schooled.  Goodbye again, ego.

I unstop the flying baseball and walk out of the studio.

I decide to go to the tornado shelter.  It turned out to be a good thing, because throughout each “session” of the tornado experience, the room was becoming overcrowded and children were coming and going throughout the experience, which in turn, was interrupting the others’ experience.  So, I became crowd control.  I would man the doorway and allow the room to fill up, start the session and prevent stragglers by kindly asking them to wait until the next session.  It was a win win….because honestly, you don’t get the full experience if you waltzed in mid-session. I have to mention this……a grandmother, grandfather and their probably 5 year old granddaughter were entering the tornado session.  Although there is a 12 inch sign that warns that the session can be too intense for some small children, not everyone truly realizes how intense it gets.  So, I warned them, let them peek into the current session and let them decide.  The little girl immediately ran out.  So, grandma attended the session while grandpa maintained play time with granddaughter.  Each session is about 10 minutes.  After grandma’s session, grandpa attended.  Okay, back to the story: What I didn’t take into account was the fact that for like 2/3 of the tornado session, the room was dark.  Definitely not a genius idea when you had been awake and going for now over 24 hours straight.  I had to leave my post.  I glanced at my watch and realized I only had 30 minutes left in my shift!

I walked around, picking up books, trash, etc for the remaining 30 minutes of my shift.  About 5 minutes before I was fixing to head out, grandma and grandpa from the tornado session passed me.  They had been looking for me because they wanted to let me know that their granddaughter finally went into the tornado session right after I left post.  She made it all the way through!  I looked at her and said, “You mean you sat through the WHOLE thing?!?!?!”  She threw back her shoulder and lifted her head while responding, “Uh-huh!”  I smiled really big and dropped my mouth in astonishment (over played it a little, but she didn’t know).  Then, I said, “That is so awesome!  You are such a big girl!  I think that deserves a big girl high five!”  I reached my hand out and she ran up and high fived me really hard.  I looked at grandma and grandpa.  They smiled and said thank you.

Well, my shift was over.  It really flew by.  I was schooled by some geniuses, I schooled on sunscreen and a start button, tinkered with flying machines, guarded a man made tornado shelter, read the info charts of animals to kids like I was a zoologist and got a big girl high five.  I am again reminded in this moment why I volunteer.  Although you don’t get paid with green, physical money, you get the best pay being able to volunteer.  That pay is at the end of the day when you stop to take it all in and realize how awesome life is, how awesome the people are that are in it, even if it’s just for 2 hours, and how awesome the feeling of humanity in a whole is.  I have always been one to love life.  Anyone that knows me can account for that.  I am truly developing a different love for life in this volunteerism.

In ending, I have to throw in a few more things that you might be entertained by.  After leaving the museum, I sit in my car and it hits me……the 2nd wind/Zombie mode has expired.  I am done.  I cannot possibly go on any longer.  I need to eat and sleep.  Or maybe skip the eat and just sleep.  Dangit!!!!!!  I have prescriptions that I must pick up from Walgreens because they will be closed tomorrow.  So I have like 30 minutes before the confirmed “pick up” time.  So, food it is.  I go to Dixie Cafeteria (name change).  I go inside to order.  As I place my order, there is a lady to my left who is normally dressed and there is a man to her left who I don’t know if he is homeless or just under privileged.  Well, I place my order.  The lady next to me is talking to the man like she knows him.  So, I figured she’s his boss and she’s buying him dinner.  She is talking about why she is in the area……it’s because her mother is in the local hospital.  They are originally from a town about 45 minutes away.  Social work had given her a food card.  Evidentially, they were facing hard times financially.  This broke my heart.  But this also shows me how the health system not only helps people’s lives in savin them, they extend to the families and help them eat.  I’m proud of the healthcare system at this moment.  Now, i didn’t say I was proud of every aspect…..that is another story.  Anyways, their food comes out.  The lady to my left goes on to introduce me to Bob (the guy on her left that I assumed worked for her).  She lets me know that she met Bob outside and he is homeless and was hungry and so she’s buying his food.  She has used that money card that Social work gave her and paid it forward by feeding a hungry, homeless man.  I mean, the price of his meal could have probably bought her another meal, but she chose another route.  Bravo.  Well, Bob decided to stay inside and eat while the lady leaves to head back to her sick mother in the hospital.  She says bye to Bob and says “God bless you brother”.  This warms me.  So I think to myself, Am I seeing all of the good in the world because I am volunteering?  Because I never saw this much kindness on a regular basis before.  Or……was I so blind to it all before volunteering.   I came to the conclusion that volunteering has opened my outlook and eyes and heart to so much that I was  blind to before.  Chill bumps.

Okay, so I am still waiting on my order.  A lady, about 80 years old, hunchbacked, dressed in pearls, walking with a cane, walks up to the counter and says, “Mildred Omeg here for my order”.  The cashier says, “Perfect timing!  I have it right here.  I’ll bag it up for you.”  Then, Mildred says, “Now, do I get my old person discount before 5pm?”  I immediately think of my father.  He makes sure to get his discount everywhere.  When he first started utilizing it, I would get embarrassed.  I don’t know why.  Immaturity, I guess.  Then, as time went on, I realized, he worked his a-s-$ off for years and years.  He deserves everybit of that discount.  So, back to the old lady.  While she is paying, my order comes up and is bagged up and I’m headed out (I already pre-paid).

I get to the door and decide to wait on her so i can hold the door open for her.  I look over at her and she is trying to figure out the best way to hold her two orders, car keys and maintain balance on her walker.  I walk over and offer my assistance.  She greatly appreciated it.  On our way out of the restaurant she lets me know the walker is new to her and she is still learning it.  She also lets me know she is 90 years old.  Holy moly.  You go girl.  As we head to her car, she points out some trash on the bench outside.  She said some man just threw it there.  I automatically knew who it was.  Bob had the last portion of his meal packaged up before he left earlier.  That was his food that the other lady had bought him.  So, I helped this lady into her car, placed her food in the back where it wouldn’t spill.  I walked over the Bob’s trash and placed it in the trash receptacle literally 2 feet away.

By this time, it is now time to pick up my prescriptions at Walgreens.  I go through the drive through.  They had one more of my medicines that they were currently in the process of filling.  So, I waited.  Well, I fell asleep.  I woke up to the lady over the intercom saying “Ma’am?!  Ma’am?! Ma’am?!”  I seriously don’t know how many times she said this before I woke up.  I do know that I remember looking at the car next to me and the lady was shaking her head in disgust.  You know, that’s the problem with people, she had no idea what kind of person I am, the day I had, who I helped, and how long I had been awake.  People should really be slower to judge.  Try it.  Even if you start to negatively judge someone, afterwards ask yourself some possibilities that might have been going on to make that person so tired or whatever the circumstance may be.

After my Walgreens nap, I head home, eat, and hit the bed.  Out.  Cold.

I was up for 27 straight hours.  I was continuously going for 27 hours.  I saved lives at work, became part of a trailer to a film, schooled kids, got schooled by kids, fell asleep in the Walgreens drive through, ate a warm meal and slept like a baby.  I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.  I love my life…..actually, I love life and everthing/everyone in it.