Pinkerton

Shopping with my stepfather Tom, is like participating in an extreme sport. He constantly says, "Go", and "Move it", knowing that it makes me very angry. That's just one of the things that Tom does to make me angry, but it's all in good fun. I think I can make this whole post just about our experience at Fry's, but I have some other stuff in mind too.

We walk in to Fry's, and it's one of the new ones, the improved ones. I swear we were in a shopping mall. This place had everything. This may be the first time I was literally excited by walking into a grocery store. Automatically, Tom scopes out every sample that he can find, and says, "Here try this." When we come to the pastry section, we pick out these powdered things that I have no idea what they're called. Knowing me, I take a bite, and all the powder falls over my shirt and hands. Thankfully I can wipe the powder off my shirt, but my hands are still powdered. I walk up to Tom, and I say, "Dude, people are gonna think I have a cocaine problem." All he says back is, "You got a little white stuff on your nose you should wipe that off." Yes, I live with a 13-year-old grown man.

Finally, we get to the check-out counter where Tom proceeds to mortify the poor bag girl by having a schizophrenic fit about what kind of bags he wants; paper, or plastic. Finally, out of necessity, he says plastic and tells her to pack them with a lot of stuff. Not daring to say no, the girl goes to work, and I just feel terrible for her.

Getting out of there as fast as we can, we pack our bags into the pimpin' mini van that belongs to Tom's boss, and get the hell out of there.

Moral of the story is, don't scare people with excessive anything..

Onto the next topic of the day. A good friend of mine, Aubreya Barnwell, I already introduced her in a previous post, is a volunteer at a local Phoenix hospice. I've always been interested in knowing what goes on in a hospice, so I decided to interview her with a couple quick questions.

1. What hospice do you volunteer at?

Hospice of the Valley at the location of Ryan House.

2. How long have you been volunteering there?

I've been volunteering at HOV for about a week or so. Not too long.

3. What kind of work do you do?

The kind of work I do is anything I'm allowed to do basically. I do whatever the CNA's or nurses ask me to help with. Talk with patients, give them food and things like that.

4. How did you get involved with working at the hospice?

I got involved with HOV a while back. When I found out about it, I was at Vans Warped Tour at their booth. I decided to apply online and I had an interview, that's how it all started.

5. What's it like knowing that you help make a difference to people who don't have much time left?

It changes you knowing that you get to be around someone in their last moments of life. Just knowing they most likely had a fulfilling life. I also work in a nursery so I feel good knowing to be at the beginning and end of peoples' life.

6. Have you ever volunteered anywhere else besides the hospice?

Yes, I've volunteered at schools before. Helping out in classes and things like that. Mainly in like kindergarten to about fifth grade.

7. What kind of people do you meet while working there?

I meet all different types of people while I'm volunteering. Very interesting and pretty sweet people actually. I meet people who have had interesting lives and some who haven't. Just a variety of people.

8. What information can you give for other kids who want to volunteer there?

Some information or advice I can share would be this, if you're thinking about volunteering with HOV, do it! It's a great opportunity and you'll love it. It's a very interesting field to get involved with and you'll become a very warm hearted person and you'll have compassion for everyone.

So there you have it, volunteering does make a difference. I volunteer at a place that's kind of like a Feed The Homeless, and it's a very fun and fulfilling experience. You can also meet other kids there too, and make new friends. Everyone should get out there and volunteer at least once. Thanks to Aubreya for doing this interview.

Before I go, I want to talk about a documentary that I watched last night called Winnebago Man. It's basically about a man who tried to make an advertisement for Winnebago in Iowa in 1988. The weather and humidity were both very high, and this guy just wouldn't stop cursing, and getting frustrated at the shoot. The video got very popular and found its way to YouTube in 2005. But the video's star, Jack Rebney, was nowhere to be found when it came time to try to find him. That's when Ben Steinbauer went looking for him, the Winnebago Man.

Winnebago Man is a hilarious and heartbreaking story of a foul-mouthed man, who's got more heart and passion than anyone you know. It's definitely a film everyone should see.

That's all for now hooligans :)