Catching up the blog

Once again, I have gone too long between posts and now there are a bunch of things going on that I should probably write about here.

First in my announcements would be the fact that I was recently elected to the board of Habitat for Humanity. It's a volunteer position, and it's my first board position so I am pretty excited about it. I've been volunteering on the site selection committee for several months and really enjoying that, even though it is not easy to identify properties that are suitable for Habitat in our current high-priced market.

I'm really excited to be helping with the work Habitat does. In my job, I have the ability to have an influence on people's lives on a day to day basis, but the work that Habitat does really changes lives. It's "important" and I feel great about being a part of it.

I've also been traveling a lot recently, including a trip to Thailand where there recently was a bloodless coup. The military overthrew the elected government of the prime minister. We arrived "in-country" 2 days after a bomb threat against Prime Minister Thaksin, and left 2 weeks before the coup. I read the newspapers while we were there, and it was pretty clear something was brewing.

But happily there was no unrest in the air of the resort that we stayed at in Hua Hin, though.

More on Volunteering

So, one of the big things I have wanted to talk about in here is some of the other organizations I have been getting involved with. One of the reasons I wanted to get into real estate is that it's the kind of job where you have the opportunity to be involved in the community. As I mentioned, I joined the Chamber of Commerce for Mukilteo, and also have been working with Habitat. I am pretty excited about both of those--I think the Chamber puts on some great events and obviously, Habitat is a great organization too.

The third thing I am excited about is the Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival. The Festival is basically Mukilteo's "Town Party" and it's an all volunteer event and a very big deal. Because it's all run by volunteers they basically need all the help they can get. So I told them that I would be willing to help out however I could--they took me up on it and now I am the "Sponsor Recognition Chair." Wow! You volunteer to help and you end up as a chairperson!

Okay, so really this is not that big of a deal. The first thing on my agenda is...THANK YOU NOTES! Later I'll be coordinating certificates and plaques for sponsors, and making sure everyone is recognized on signage and so forth. But it sounds impressive doesn't it, being a chairperson?

All joking aside, it's always amazing how many people it takes to make one of these things come together smoothly. I just have one little piece of it, and there are at least 20 other people who also are volunteering, and there is still more to do. It'll work out though...these things always do. Maybe not perfectly but the only people who ever notice the glitches are the ones running the show.

Anyway, next time you are at a festival or other volunteer-run event, think about how every single thing that you see requires someone to donate time or money to the cause. Most of the time, no one is getting paid to make sure things work out like they are supposed to, and of course, most of the time and effort people put into it has to be in addition to whatever the volunteers do for a living. Kind of amazing they run as smoothly as they do!

Construction Is Not For Wimps

For many years, I have thought that Habitat for Humanity was an organization that I wanted to get involved with, but working 10-12 hour days at my old job made it virtually impossible to do much about it other than wish for the time or the money to support the organization in a way that would be meaningful.

As a real estate agent, time is still an issue but it's more feasible than it was previously, to volunteer. So I have gotten involved with Habitat, and I'm so glad I did. I think I've mentioned before that affordable housing is a big issue with me, so I am glad to be in a position where I can help an organization I believe in work towards the goal of helping people own their own homes who otherwise wouldn't be able to.

I am working with the Site Selection/Construction committee and I am also taking the Cornerstone Training Class so that I can work as a team leader on job sites. Cornerstone Training basically provides an overview of construction techniques so that volunteers can work more effectively on job sites and also, so that they can provide leadership as needed to guide untrained volunteers as to how to perform their tasks safely and effectively.

My first day of Cornerstone Training opened my eyes up to several facts. One is, hammering a nail properly is not as easy as it looks. There is actually a right and a wrong way to do it, and all my life, I have been doing it wrong. The second thing I learned is that my fear of circular saws CAN be overcome, but I will need to work on my upper body strength if I'm ever going to be much use with one. They are heavy, and make my arms and wrist hurt. But I am still proud of myself for overcoming my fear of using one.

The third is, that working construction for 5 or 6 hours will really wipe you out if you are not used to it. I am still very sore today!

The last thing I learned is that there is a lot to know about construction, and I think it will help me in my job to have more of a ground-up understanding of how houses are built. I can already think of several things (for instance, why it matters which way you lay down a flooring joist) that I understand better now than I did before my first day of training. And the opportunity to learn about things you ordinarily might not, is one of the great things about volunteering.