Last spring, I tried to envision what it would be like to have been in Kentucky for any amount of time. I envisioned the day I’d move in, my first day on the job, I even thought about getting together with the family for Thanksgiving and responding to a slew of questions about Americorps, Kentucky, The Future and how much weight I’d gained in the last year. (Oh, wait, Aunt Sally wasn’t there this Thanksgiving…) Last weekend, wow, it was Thanksgiving. The fam came in bit by bit from around the Midwest. Maxine’s new place is…something, alright. I was the first to arrive, on Friday Mom and John came, and Saturday brought Dad, Katherine and Benjamin on the train. They were only there for 24 hours. It was the perfect amount of time. Maxine hosted three Thanksgivings in three days. By the time I left, I realized there had been almost no questions about Americorps, Kentucky or The Future from my family. Have I narrowly averted an uncomfortable situation, or should I feel somehow cheated? Well, regardless, I know that my right hand is chillier than my left hand.

An awkward transition, you may say, but it’s cold here in Kentucky! Stop laughing. It does get cold here. It’s about 30 degrees on this cloudless night, and one thing I’ve learned since moving south of the Mason-Dixon line is that houses here weren’t built with any sort of effective insulation whatsoever. My room in particular holds in all the heat beaten onto it during the sweltering summer days, making trips outside pleasantly cool trips, and loses every degree of heat in the winter, seeming to hold in the chill throughout the day. On one hand, it makes me spend as much time outside of my room as possible. On the other, it’s noticeably colder by the window (to my right) than by the doorway to the hallway.

So I’ve been in Kentucky for four months. What have I learned? Allow me to make a bullet list for easy reading, and lazy typing:

-Don’t ever change lanes. Or if you do, don’t bother using your blinker. No one else uses them, and the great majority of the people here who do use their blinkers do so for the same reason they get neon purple lights underneath their cars, or spinners, or blonde girlfriends: for decoration. Then, as with neon purple lights, spinners and blondes, these Louisvillians tend to forget about them quickly, leaving you to pace someone for eight miles on the highway thinking that this (asterisk ampersand pound dollar percent) is preparing to think about considering the benefits of investing in turning the fuck RIGHT!

-The amount of precipitation this city receives is inversely correlated with the intellect of its drivers. These folks will drive like bats out of hell when its pouring like the end of the world, but if they see one snowflake half a mile away they forget how to brake properly and cause ten-car collisions.

-Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa mean one thing: cold. “But you’re from (Wisconsin/Minnesota/Michigan/Illinois/Iowa), so this weather NOTHING to you!”

-Religious institutions have their hands in just about every charitable organization and educational organization. It’s a bit unsettling to realize that in this city, if you’re going to be philanthropic, you’re going to have to pair with an established institution that preaches something you may not believe in.

-People here are downright damn friendly. I’ve had more genuinely polite conversations at gas stations in Louisville than I ever had in the state of Wisconsin. Maybe it’s all the sweet tea.

Now, to move from a list of things I’ve learned to a list of things I’ve been doing:

-Painting a mural! The grant was won by last year’s VISTAs and implemented by this year’s. It was supposed to be done over the summer, though everyone fell behind schedule, and that’s probably for the better since this summer was atrociously hot. So for the past gajillion Saturdays anywhere from one to six VISTAs have met at this north-facing wall with anywhere from zero to twelve immigrant and refugee kids and a resident artist from Argentina to paint a mural themed “Empowerment Through Literacy.” Even though I contributed a relatively pitiful amount to it, I’m proud of what there is now! Will try to post pictures.

-Working. The school (I discovered that blogger.com opens all its blogs to search engines, so I won’t ever be listing any specific names of people or organizations) I’m working at has been running pretty smoothly – we’ve implemented an attendance-tracking program that has taken probably 50 hours so far to set up, hooked enough volunteers to make the four days per week that we operate tolerable, secured a second VISTA at last, overcome most of the office politics, won our first grant ($500 – you’ve got to start somewhere!), given up every Saturday post-mural to fundraising, and other small stuff I’m proud of but won’t mention here. VISTA is going alright – there are lots of politics within this organization, and between it and its partnering agencies, and between it and other branches of Americorps, but I’ve learned not to sweat the small stuff. Or I would have died of ulcers months ago.

-Writing. November was National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org), which I no longer hold as highly in regard because of their arbitrary definition of a “novel,” but it spurred me to join some local writers to churn out lots of words (in the form of short stories) regardless.

-Applying to grad school. I almost waited too long, and now have to scramble a teeny bit to get everything in for the first deadline coming up. We’ll see what comes of this.

I’ll leave it at this for now. I hope there are still people out there.