jhay

I pulled an all-nighter last night. It wasn't a crazy party or an all night sex romp, as I like my all-nighters to be.. instead I was volunteering with the MCREST program, which provides food and shelter to the homeless. Its a great program and they offer these people a lot in the way of a normal life. You have to prove you're doing your best to turn your life around to get admitted to the program, and you're allowed to be there for 30 days before they ask you to make room for another unfortunate case. They give these folks a big breakfast, one or two sandwhiches in a packed lunch and two bus tickets for the day, they go out into the world from 8am to 6pm before returning to the shelter for dinner and a chance to watch a little tv or hang out with other folks before lights out at 11.

Its held at various churches, who house the program for a week. They need someone to supervise the program overnight, and thats what I was doing. Basically I needed to make sure the guys didn't venture to the ladies rooms, and vice versa.. and wake them up in the morning. So I spent 9 hours copying movies, reading, playing my NintendoDS, and watching a marathon of Deadliest Catch. Easiest community service I've ever done. I pounded 2 mountain dews and drank half of a "5 Hour Energy" and it was pretty easy to stay up. There was a female supervisor there as well, but she was an older lady and she fell asleep in her chair by 1am.

That being said, because the program is run by the church, it was the largest bunch of holy rollers I've ever seen. I pretty much knew that if I didn't act like one myself they'd preach to me all night long. So I pretended I was an avid church goer so they'd lay off. During the night, I learned that the power of prayer had:

healed a broken leg
got a kid into college
kept a kid from going to iraq
found someone a job (with the church o'course)
and fixed someone's car.

My eyes hurt. Why? I had to fight not to roll them all night.

If they ask me to do it again though, I'll probably go. It was easy. The homeless people are very real and very down to earth. They can tell you what you need to take serious in this life. They put shit into perspective like no one else could. Plus, from 11pm to 6am, I have the place to myself (well, myself and the female supervisor.) and can work on any of my own projects. Now if I can just figure out how to never need sleep I'll be set.