Budget

Hey Dielle! Wasn't sure how else to this, so I ended up using Blogger! I separated the screenshots of the budget statements by the date they occurred. Please keep in mind, all Lyft screenshots can be found separately below all the bank statements. Thank you!

5/21 - 5/28

5/28 - 6/3

6/4 - 6/5

6/10 - 6/14

6/17 - 6/19

6/20 - 6/24

6/24 - 6/27

6/27 - 7/5

7/5 - 7/10

7/11 - 7/15

7/15 - 7/18

7/17 - 7/22

7/22 - 7/24

7/25 - 7/26

7/25

Here's the Lyft section

Lyft
5/20 - 5/31


6/1 - 6/11


6/12 - 6/19


6/24 - 7/26

Week 9

Hey Dielle! Or, I guess, bye Dielle...

This was it... the last final week + weekend of CSOS... I'm really a mix of emotions, not gonna lie. CSOS has been a blast, and I really don't want it to end. I wanna continue spending time with these incredible people and working my job which I really enjoy, but I guess all good things must come to an end... Also, I guess I do feel like I need a break as well, but I wish that was all it was. A little homestay then back to the grind. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. I'll be really interested to see how our relationships with each other evolve over the school year, and I'm curious to see how my role at CEF will change. I was offered a leadership position as Tech Coordinator and I'm really excited about that! I basically work on helping populations without steady access to the internet/web/computers gain access. I've already got a couple ideas relating to nonprofits in the area that work in that field, but I'm excited to explore that goal! I'm tempted to also stay on the Housing Team but I wanna just try Tech Coordinator first and make sure it's not too much of a time commitment.

On Monday, in the office, I only had one meeting with a member I really like, so that was a fun day. Unfortunately, I had to tell him we'd no longer be working together due to the end of CSOS (sad) so that continues the sad trend of things being over.

Tuesday, was extremely similar. I had two member meetings, both of which with members I'd developed a great relationship with, so telling them I was gonna be gone sucked. The one upside to all of this is I always get to tell them I'm coming back in the Fall. To be honest, the timing also couldn't be any better because CEF is moving offices and will be closed August 14 - September 1, so by the time I'm settled in at school, I'll be able to get right to it and I won't have missed that many member meetings.

Wednesday was very interesting because I don't usually have member meetings on Wednesday, but this particular one I voluntarily came back in to meet with a member who I'd been having a difficult time with recently. The same one I talked about in last week's blog that had me in a tough position. I just really wanted to sort out his business before I left to Egypt. He technically came in on Monday as well, but he was 40 minutes late so we couldn't really do anything. This time he kept on insisting on the $200 Chapel Request, but we were hesitant. I got on the line with his landlord again and this time he confirmed the Member was getting locked out today. I pleaded with him for a while to let the member stay for 2 or 3 more days while the Chapel processed his request, but the landlord eventually hung up on me. I fulfilled the Chapel Request in a fashion that was both totally honest to the Member's complicated situation while still arguing on his behalf to get the money, but at the end of the meeting, I had to tell the Member there was nothing more I could do for him which was extremely difficult. In fact, not only did I tell him there was nothing more I could do for him, the one thing I could do was get him the address to the Durham Rescue Mission because he had nowhere to stay. I'd never seen anybody so look so defeated in front of me, and while I knew I wasn't at fault, I couldn't help but feel useless and inadequate for not being able to fix his situation. That was the first time I ended up crying at my job this summer.

Thursday, I met with a member I'd been meeting with for 7 weeks now to tell him I couldn't meet with him again: a recurring theme for this and next week. My other member was an old lady who needed her life insurance processed, so that was an easier meeting.

Friday was Seeds!!!!!!!!! I'm really happy with how the event turned out to be honest. I honestly didn't expect the turnout we got and I was honestly really happy serving food and dancing with all the kids. Although I had my doubts, the event was really great in my opinion.

On the weekend, we went to the Food Truck rodeo which I had no idea about but it ended up being really cool! I can't wait to go to things like that and the Farmers Market during the school year. I definitely feel really integrated into the Durham community and can't wait to try and spread that to my friends and other Duke students!

Here goes to the final week of CSOS... Thank you for everything, Dielle!!!!

Week 8

Hey, Dielle!

I feel like this gif of Matt Damon growing old describes how I feel entering week 9 of CSOS. It's unreal to think this Friday will be our community event and the following one, CSOS will be over and I'll be flying out to Egypt. As far as the community event is concerned, I'm extremely thankful to Bre for being the main facilitator for it and making sure everything is happening. Personally, I'm on the catering team and games team, so my job wasn't too bad, I just had to coordinate with the Co-op for salads and the day of the event, I just have to keep the kids entertained with games. I really don't know how many people are going to show up considering we still don't have any RSVPs, but I hope it still works out. Then again, RSVP'ing isn't everyone's style, I would know, having not RSVP'd yet to the event.

Another reflection I've been having actually relates to what I was talking about earlier with respect to not being ready for CSOS to be over. I feel like that thought's been running through all our minds since like week 4 even though that was so far in the beginning, and I think we should've/should just enjoy our time here together instead of always worrying about how we're not ready to leave. Kinda flows with that adage, "Don't be sad it's over, be glad that it happened." 

Work's been goin pretty well. My to-do list is pretty much over, I just have to keep contacting landlords and whatnot. However, with my role in housing, I got a meeting on Monday that just really messed with me ethically, as an Advocate for CEF, and really just as a person. I had a Member come in saying he was going to be evicted later that day as he was 2 months late on rent, but there were a lot of details that weren't coming together. He also said he'd be getting a $2000 stipend from NCCU at the end of the month, so we called his landlord to tell him that and he said he needed physical evidence, but if he got it, he didn't mind letting the Member stay. Anyway, after a lot of digging, we found out that the Member had dropped out of NCCU over a year ago. We also found out he'd been paying his rent for the past 6 months using various emergency financial assistance services and churches, and he'd been using the $2000 stipend story to his landlord for a while. The landlord then called us on his own and complained about the Member's habits and how he even tried to convince the landlord to raise the rent on other tenants in order to pay off his own debts. So here I was, with this person who was behaving arguably unethically by lying to various churches in order to get financial assistance, but also, he's a living, breathing human, who does deserve a roof over his head, and it's unfair that we live in a world where that's what he had to do to get by. Out of curiosity, I later looked him up online and found out he was a refugee from the DRC, but he also had a Ph.D. in Chemistry from a French University, so he was this incredibly well-educated man, but due to language barriers and the systematic injustice and racism that plagues this country, he was about to be out living on the streets. I kind of just shut down after that meeting and walked to Biddle to play piano because I didn't know how else to deal with it.

Tuesday was a lot better. I had this sweet old lady come in for my first hour there, and basically, for an hour, I just helped her learn how to use her new laptop. It was something I felt totally prepared for and capable of helping, so that was a nice turnaround from the day before. She was also just extremely nice and funny, so that set a pretty good tone for the rest of the day. Later, Eka, Seayoung, and I all went to see Spiderman: Far From Home which was surprisingly good! I don't know how Marvel keeps doing it with all their movies, but I'm all for it.

I came back from the movie theater around 11ish and both Fran and I hadn't had dinner, so at 11:30, we started cooking dinner, and it was really my first time since the beginning of CSOS, so it was a nice throwback to when it took me 8 hours to cook chicken. This time, we made chicken and mushrooms with a white wine sauce, and it actually kinda slapped. Oh yeah, we also started a small fire!

Wednesday was a pretty chill day overall. Nothing crazy in our outside the workplace. I spent the majority of the day reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, which I actually really liked. I hadn't read a book that caused me to do that much soul searching in a while. That night, I also watched Coco for the first time, which was a really cute movie. Wednesday and Thursday were really similar for me this week, I don't know why, on both days, I was just reading a lot outside of work I think which is why they blend together.

Friday was a lot of fun, a lot of us went to the Swift pool for a little for the first time, and then David hosted us and all the BNs in the area for dinner which was fun! It was great to get to see everyone again, and I'm honestly surprised it took us up until the 8th week of CSOS to do that.

On Saturday, we went to the Farmers Market, and it was my first time! It was really cool and I honestly can't wait to go during the school year, I feel like that'll be really fun. Got me some goat cheese and a fruit bowl. 

Today, we got Dance Dance Revolution for our suite, so that's been fun, but I'm kinda scared of another noise complaint from the people below us. Loooottttt of stomping feet in that game. But yeah, that's been week 8, here's to week 9!!!

(Actual video of Sarah playing DDR)

Week 7

How's it goin, Dielle! I don't know about you, but I've grown pretty tired of, "Hey, Dielle!"

So we're switching it up! That's kinda how I feel about this week: switched up. Fourth of July really threw things outta wack but it's okay. 

On Monday, nothing too crazy happened at the office. It was all fairly standard meetings up until the end of office hours. It was such an uneventful day that it was actually the first time in 7 months I forgot to take a one second video, which I usually do on the daily. I'm still pretty upset about that and I've considered cheating by just adding throwing in a video for that day that didn't actually happen that day, but I haven't decided yet. If I recall correctly, after work, I went over to the Biddle music rooms and just played piano for a little bit; that wouldn't be too hard to replicate just for the essence of it...

Tuesday was a lot more eventful for whatever reason! We had our staff meeting early on in the morning, after which I just made some more phone calls and worked on a new spreadsheet. My project work has actually been accumulating a bit more quickly than I anticipated so my to-do list is actually pretty long now. I'm gonna spend pretty much all of Week 8 making sure I finish everything on it. I've been doing alright thus far crossing off items more quickly than they're added on, but we'll see how that changes next week as both Ben and Olivia are out of the office, meaning I'm going to be the lead housing advocate and housing support. Basically, I have to redesign part of the laptop test again, process a new laptop request, distribute and document fliers, work on calling LIHTC properties, properties Olivia gave me, and DHA waitlist properties, and create a new FPOD spreadsheet.

After work on Tuesday, I went and played soccer with Fran and one of his co-workers at Reality Ministries which was a lot of fun. We then went to North Street for Taco Tuesday, and I got to meet a lot more of Fran's coworkers and the people he works with at Reality, so that was great! To cap off the day, we then watched Argentina vs Brazil in the Copa America, but sadly, Argentina lost. After coming back, we had a meeting on our community event, and that was the day. 

Wednesday morning for CEF, we had group massage therapy which was extremely relaxing and much needed! I then had a meeting with Ben on what I need to do while he's gone at Dashi and had legit ramen for the first time in my life, which was nice! The rest of the day was very chill/lowkey and was just more to-do list items until the dinner, which was actually really cool! I really enjoyed getting to talk to the B.N. alums and honestly haven't found a single B.N. yet that isn't doing something interesting or cool. Big legacy to live up to!

Fourth of July was a bit of a bummer because of the rain, not gonna lie. I really wanted to have a grill day outside of Swift but it rained out so we couldn't do that. Most of the day I actually spent on my own because I just needed some alone time. It was very regenerative but also I felt like I wasn't spending my Fourth right since I was alone for most of it. At night, we went to the Bulls' stadium and watched the fireworks, which would've been fun, except there was a massive sign blocking out most of them in front of us.

The weekend as a whole was pretty good. USWNT won the world cup which was super exciting!!!! Megan Rapinoe is the G.O.A.T. no questions asked. Egypt choked in the African Cup, but honestly, I was fine with that with all the scandal the team's been going through recently. I didn't really watch any of their games, I just kinda kept up with the scores. We're also having a game night tonight and it seems like it's ripping us apart!! Monopoly Deal and Resistance are giving me major trust issues!!!! It's really fun though, and I can't wait for next week!