24/7 commitment to AmeriCorps

When you become an AmeriCorps VISTA they send you to a large, 3-day training in an exotic location like Provo, Utah. At this training, you are forced to sit in a circle and discuss your feelings about poverty. Crying is encouraged. Strangely enough, this was not the highlight of my trip to Provo. The highlight was when Nicole and I went to the Monte L. Bean Science Museum on the Brigham Young University campus with her VISTA supervisor Christopher James 'Mancub' Cochran and his sould twin, P. Ryan. This was not actually a science museum. It was actually just a building filled with taxidermy. Here are some examples:

Something else that they tell you during VISTA training is that you make a 24/7 commitment to your organization. They are not kidding. You are literally supposed to be available to work for WHENEVER they could possibly want you to work.

Usually, on Thursdays, I work from 9 to 4 and then go to yoga. However, today I have to attend a customer service training from 4 to 6. I don't even do customer service. Now, I realize that attending a two hour training instead of yoga is not a flagrant abuse of the 24/7 policy (unlike the egregious exploitation of my VISTA status this past weekend), but I really wanted to go to yoga today. Plus, Chloe, the office black lab, is taunting me by doing yoga poses. She was just doing the cat/cow stretch. Silly Chloe! You should be doing downward dog!