02/17 - 02/23 2025

    This was the last full week of work in West Virginia. The end of this project feels like it came too quick. The further on this program goes, the quicker time seems to go by. By this time next week, I'll be back in Vicksburg doing retraining before heading off to South Carolina for my next project. Only now being so close to the end have I been taking advantage of my surroundings and exploring what there is to offer in West Virginia. Which isn't much. I mean, aside from discovering farms on rolling hills and shooting trash on forgotten trails, what else can I do in rural West Virginia? 

I'm glad we're getting out of here soon unfortunately, I'm starting to feel trapped. It's the same kind of feeling I had before on different projects, places like Milton, KY. But it's not exclusive to small towns. I've felt the same way before living in a big city like Philadelphia. A feeling like I do the same thing every single day, have limited options and I can't do anything about it. Of course that didn't last long in Philly once I figured out how to look for new experiences, meet new people and find a new ways to invent my daily rhythms. Just knowing I have limited time in West Virginia, I haven't had the motivation to reinvent the coming days. Hopefully I have an easier time finding that motivation in the coming months.

*

This week work-wise, I got to travel around a bit. We went to a NASA/NOAA site for a United Way campaign review conference. It was like a big conference center but is also at the same time an office building, hidden like an evil lair in the mountains with large telecom dishes surrounding everything. They had a replica space suit used in apollo 11 and a huge mechanical mass that I didn't understand that was probably instrumental in getting humans on the moon. There were other community organizations there too along with the donors to the United Way campaign. We had free lunch there and were commended by United Way for our efforts with income tax preparation. 

I decided to go back out to that evil trail I ran away from last week, this time with Isaiah as deer bait. The only problem was everything was covered in snow now, so we couldn't see any evil hidden artifacts. I'm still glad I brought Isaiah though, because without his knowledge of hick-tivities I wouldn't have known that the trash out in the woods was brought there on purpose, to shoot with various caliber firearms. We decided to trek further on the trail anyways, which turned into wandering in the woods when the trail disappeared under the snow. We ended up finding a cool cave and a rock face, and nobody was charged by a deer. Success. We also saw a few chickens wandering in the snow.

Same computer monitor as last week. On closer inspection there appears to be a bullet hole in the frame.

Neighbor chicken???

I tried planning out a few meals this week. Corned beef hash is still my favorite canned good, but I made some fresh things too. Steak was expensive, but combined with my teammates budgets I made enough tacos for all of us just fine. The potato soup and cheesy garlic bread I made was a large success, my team wants me to make it many more times in the future. I tried making cinnamon oat milk pancakes this morning too. Also a success. Tonight I'm making salmon, garlic butter cous cous and asparagus with some sort of horseradish sauce. I NEED MORE RECIPES. Please if you have any interesting or particularly difficult meals I would be happy to attempt them.

Oat milk Pancakes

Potato Soup and Cheesy Garlic Bread

Carne Asada Tacos

Lemon Pepper Sockeye Salmon, Asparagus, and Garlic Cous Cous with a Dill Horseradish Sauce 

I finally got to open Jena's mail she sent me for valentines day, she's so sweet to me. She got me a box of chocolates, a scratch-off valentines card, a little stuffed lady bug for my desk AND inside was a new knife to add to my collection. I'm so lucky having such a wonderful amazing caring person to send me chocolate, bugs, and knives in the mail. She even asked Kate's dad for knife recommendations to add to my collection. EVEN KATE GOT HER HANDMADE ORIGAMI HEARTS AND LITTLE PLASTIC DUCKS. I need to step up my game or she'll steal her away from me. Either way I miss her terribly and can't wait to celebrate in person one day. ♡

Lovebug on da desk

On Thursday we'll be headed back to Vicksburg, just shy of a 14 hour drive. Hopefully weather won't give us any trouble. ☺

02/10 - 02/16 2025

    It's gotten a bit warmer out since last week, a little rain and snow but nowhere near as cold. This week we weren't able to get the van out of camp, so a few of the staff from the office offered to drive us. Work has been very busy, alone I've done almost 100 returns and as of Thursday added $120,000 to the total money United Way has been able to get back to people. I'm getting much faster at doing them and I have PUB 4012 pretty much memorized by now. I think I'll aim for 150 returns and $200,000 returned by myself by the time we leave on February 26th. My team has also been getting much faster at them. With the system we have going, we can pretty comfortably do 4-5 returns an hour, given that no one from the team stays home that day.

Outside of work, I've been trying to explore more of the area this week. I haven't really done much of it because we usually return from work when it's dark, and on weekends I'm doing laundry, cooking, exploring downtown Morgantown, doing ISPs etc. I've been wanting to climb one of the cell towers nearby for a while now, so on Saturday I tried to do just that.

I brought a backpack with my tools, first aid stuff, a journal, a can of tuna and a fork, and my flashlight just in case. It was raining. I walked up the hill from the camp, about 1/4 of a mile up there was what I assumed to be a cell tower. Upon closer inspection of it however, It appeared to be a mast radiator with AM transmitters on it. Yikes. That whole tower is probably electrified. And even if it wasn't, being in the rain with no actual ladders meant climbing lattices with no guaranteed footholds. I wasn't going to give up yet though. I googled a map to try to find another tower hidden in the woods somewhere, very common here in West Virginia. 

Unfortunately not common enough though. Nearest one was a 7 mile walk. I still wanted to do some exploring though- even if it was in the rain and I couldn't climb anything for a view. So I decided to walk down the road past the camp. None of my team had gone over there yet, a new adventure beckoned me. At first, it was just neighborhoods. But about a half mile down the road I found some old graffitied gas wells, with cut chains on the gates. Jackpot. Nobody comes over here or cares enough to come check things so I'm bound to find something interesting. 

As I keep walking down the road with less and less structures beside me, I start getting a weird feeling. Sort of like an "I'm being watched" feeling but in a Stephen King sense. I felt like something evil was nearby and mother nature was telling me to turn around. I chocked it up to it being silent and rainy while I'm in the woods though and kept exploring. Walking down the road, on either side there were "NO TRESSPASSING" sings on empty forested land. On the left: 

Property of Camp Mountaineer

No trespassing

No Hunting
Help to keep the camp safe and 

the natural beauty preserved.

Property of the camp I'm staying at, probably fine to hike around in if I really wanted to. On the right side of the road:

PROPERTY OF 

THE CATCH'EM SKIN'EM

HUNTING CLUB
NO TRESPASSING
ACTIVE PRIVATE HUNTING GROUNDS

Ah. Okay. Maybe the feeling was the souls of sported deer surrounding me and invading my own spirit. Then again maybe it's the spirits of lost boy scouts doing the same.

Walking a few minutes further, an unmarked, unmaintained road veered off the left on the camp property. The mossy, rocky trail was almost asking to be explored. No tire tracks, no footprints, completely silent. That feeling came back again. Walking up the trail I found what looked to be recent trash. Beer bottles. Celsius cans. Not covered in dirt or leaves or moss. For a second I thought maybe Mack and Isaiah were up here recently. Further up I found more trash. This time plastic kids play sets. Plastic play tools, kitchen items and other items of the sort were all over the ground. No clue how any of that could have gotten here on the boy scout property on an unmarked dirt road. I kept going up the trail. More weird trash. This time 2 1980's era IBM computer monitors.

Not a single reason I could come up with as to why something like that would be out here. Not 200 feet further I found 2 large older-design subwoofers. Why would anyone put something like that out here on the trail? I had a bunch of thoughts come to mind. Either there's someone living over here, there's a secret facility somewhere in the woods, or there's a landfill further up the road. Either way when I walked not 150 feet further, I got that same feeling again, stronger than when I first felt it. Something was weird out here and I need to turn around. So I did just that, I turned around ready to go back to camp. 

The second I turned around, I heard movement behind me. Something moving quickly towards me. Something running. I pulled my knife out of its holder and whipped around prepared for some monster to appear, as I was already on edge. A young buck had started charging towards me and was bounding through the leaves quickly. I knew it had to be young, it basically looked like a doe with some short antlers. The only thing I remember being told about aggressive deer is to get behind a tree as quickly as possible. I went behind the closest one to me, a skinny one, waiting for the buck to either get confused or hit it. One of his antlers hit the tree and broke off with a snap. I locked eyes with the buck, circling the tree with him for at least a minute. Eventually he ran off into another direction. It was incredible to be able to see one up close. I doubt many people in the world have had an experience like that. I'm not sure of the species exactly but if I see a buck with one antler I'll be sure to take a picture and ID him.

That was definitely a sign from mother nature if I didn't get the message before to turn around. There's something weird over there and I don't think I should go back. I gave my teammates the location to go check it themselves if they so choose to, but I wouldn't go with them.

Besides encounters in the woods, I've been exploring other towns in West Virginia. I went to the Randolph County Senior Center in Elkins to do taxes for seniors. We set up a temporary office in the morning and packed everything up at the end of the day.

On the drive to Elkins we saw lots of Amish, and lots of local places called "Hot Spots". I had to ask a local what they are but apparently it's like a mini casino. Back in Nevada we just call that the grocery store. They supposedly serve alcohol and bar food, some places for free as long as you're spending money. I hear they attract some pretty unfavorable people.

As far as cooking, I hadn't really tried making anything new this week. Next week I'm making carne asada and I'm attempting croissants for the first time. If you have any recipes you want me to try I'll try to include them in my meal planning!

Valentine's day was Friday. I was supposed to spend it with Jena doing our tradition of building a Lego flower bouquet but I left my package at the office, and I don't go back until tomorrow. Huge fumble. Hope she still likes me. (Mostly kidding. Especially after the encounter with the deer.) 

Ok bye bye until next week ☺

02/02 - 02/09 2025

After a much needed return home to Philadelphia, my new AmeriCorps spike has been going very well. I'm in a small town in West Virginia, (compared to Philadelphia every town in this state is small), as a VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) volunteer with United Way. I've been preparing tax returns for the past 2 weeks and we've helped people get over $120,000 back so far as of writing this! I've heard so many life stories and there is an incredible amount of diversity of people that live in a small community in the mountains.

I've had widows, students, new families, old couples, young couples, investors, car salesmen, landscapers, truck drivers, retirees, veterans, soldiers, felons, unhoused, addicts and even sex workers come through to have their taxes done for free. Many of the clients I get survive on so little and live so well, I'm always baffled when a single dad tells me about his three kids he supports on an AGI of $15,000. In a weird way it's motivating- to know that people have been making it work it makes me less stressed about making things work for myself. This office is a surreal space- where I learn all about the intricate details of a persons life for 10 minutes, they ask about AmeriCorps and I ramble for another 5, and I send them on their way after review never to see them again.

They put us through a thorough (and boring) training for the first week and a half we were here, getting us certified and prepared for complicated situations with clients. We can do pretty much any kind of return, the only real exceptions being capital gains and losses and the majority of businesses and self-employed individuals. 

They gave us a test booklet and big book of tax law to follow, called PUB 4012, and it's basically a 400-page textbook outfitted with fancy tabs and one flimsy D-ring to hold it all together. They look like this:

In addition to volunteering with United Way, I've also had the chance to volunteer with the mission across the street, serving lunch to the community whenever I can. I also got to bake biscuits for their breakfast!! In addition, I've gotten to volunteer with the Appalachian Prisoners Book Project as well. It's an organization dedicated to mailing book requests to incarcerated people, as well as assigning volunteer penpals. After a simple 1 hour training, I've learned a lot about the prison system in West Virginia. The number of letters from new people is incredibly concerning to see and reading peoples stories of how they were put into the system is heartbreaking, but I'm glad there are programs like APBP available to those who need it.

I'm currently living in a Boy Scout camp staff building while the camp isn't being used. It's basically a big room that we all sleep in, save for Mack and Elyse who have their own rooms. Our little sleep area is sectioned off from the rest of the hall by a Lowes tarp hung on some chicken wire. 

It's a HUGE camp with a lake, lots of running trails and a very slippery road up to the main highway. Reminds me of Camp Galilee. We've been getting lots of snow, the van has gotten stuck a few times, had to shovel out a ditch or two, slipped on the ice way too many times. People KEEP WHISTLING IN THE DARK AND ITS GONNA GET US KILLED. I clutch my iron pendant to ward off the evil cryptids lurking in the rolling silent hill-esque snowy trails when walking to the dollar general for an Ocean Spray zero-sugar cranberry juice.

My girlfriend's birthday was on Sunday, I got her the matching necklace to an earring set I gifted her last year. So now she's all fancy with a full set! The USPS has failed me yet again, I think they somehow lost her card I mailed her. (She also got flowers and other things throughout the week too). I love and miss you so much. ♡

The kitchen is small but usable, only half the team actually cooks so we get by pretty easily. I've been baking a lot of bread products lately, which I shouldn't be eating, but it's REALLY fun. The team (and the mission!) agrees my biscuits are the best and my bread is really good and I should just switch career paths to open a bakery and be a biscuit baker for the rest of my life and I'm awesome and cool and awesome.

Besides bread I've been making the most of canned goods, corned beef hash is my new favorite. Hearty things like potatoes, beans, corn, carrots, tomatoes, tuna, and just about anything else you can put in a can I've really loved cooking with lately. That combined with an egg or two has been keeping my full and happy. I've made a few big pots of "Lucky Chili" for my team, and it's fed people consistently for up to a week. For the Superbowl I made cheesesteaks for my team, a tradition I'd like to start doing. I've also been trying new coffee recipes that I haven't really touched before. 

Dalgona Coffee

Iced Latte with Some Kind of Egg Yolk Mixture

Popeye Breakfast

Buttermilk Biscuits

Chili Dogs with Homemade Chili

One of my program directors put VITA this way: "the best way to bring people out of poverty, is to quite literally hand them money." To see the smile and excitement people get when they get told they're getting ten thousand dollars back from a return because of a new credit limit is something few will experience. The ability to 1:1 educate a community about how taxes work is something I wish was more widely known. I will definitely be volunteering with VITA next year and hopefully many years to come, whether it be with AmeriCorps or not. if you want me to do your tax return for free up until February 26th, here's the link! ☺

https://getyourrefund.org/tvunitedway

New blog! / Thank you

Hi! I've moved from posting my life updates on Instagram and Facebook, because it wasn't healthy for me to be using that form of social media in the way that I was. I've taken a liking to one of my AmeriCorps NCCC teammates way of updating his friends and family, through blogs like this one.

I believe that I'll be able to share a lot more and be more personal with my updates rather than just short, blanket posts that even my old coworkers and friends from middle school I haven't spoken to in years can see. I'll try to update once a week covering recipes I've made, places I've traveled, people I've seen and as many experiences as I can recount. The amount of support that I have received through my AmeriCorps term has been invaluable and I will continue to cherish every thank you, love note and blessing.☺♡