Archive for the ‘Bill Wilson Center’ Category

090519 – Layers

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

I’m still getting used to life in the South Bay (the area to the south of San Franciso, aka “Silicon Valley.” This morning, I stopped in the restroom at work and as I was washing my hands and looked in the mirror, I realized “Holy Crap! My hair has its own marine layer!”

I’m trying to wind things down here at Bill Wilson Center. I am disappointed to be leaving here–I really think I could continue to do good work here. I’ve made a lot of progress, and have so many more plans for helping to position them more visibly in the community.

At the same time, things are seriously ramping up with the new consulting gig. Actually had my first conference call of the day at 4:30 ayem. Yup. 4:30 in the morning. Silly east coast people and their 7:30 start times! But it wasn’t too bad, especially since (you guessed it!) I was still in my pajamas for the call. That, coupled with figuring out the mute button my my cell phone so that I could sip coffee, made it as pleasant a call as you can have while it’s still dark out. Finished the last call at 8:15 and managed to get both me and the kids out the door on time this morning. But that definitely explains the hair!

My new office setup is pretty cool–I bought a used cubicle from Craigslist on Friday, and Saturday Eric put it together for me. The shed looks like a real office now–and will look even better once I get a rug for the floor and a window AC unit. Sunday and Monday’s heat wave made it a pretty uncomfortable 95 degrees in there, so I’ll definitely have to do something. Although I’m sure Sylvia will tell me that the heat isn’t typical.

OK, time to figure something out for lunch. Also need to stop by the grocery store to pick up some sugar–totally ran out this morning and had to put artificial sweetener in my first cup of the day. Yuck!

090417 – TGIF Underwear and Socks Edition

Friday, April 17th, 2009

So I was minding my own business this afternoon, taking a quick coffee break in the courtyard, when Juan, our Youth Shelter manager, comes up to me and says “I need girls’ underwear.”

Ahem.

I think he realized what he’d said when I looked at him funny–turns out that the shelter (which serves boys and girls ages 11-17) really needs girls/women’s underwear. Apparently the shelter does OK with donations of boys’/men’s underwear, but for some reason, women’s underwear is underdonated.

“Oh yeah–and socks. We need socks!”

So OK, Juan–I’m putting the word out there in the blogosphere–The Bill Wilson Center Youth Shelter needs new girls’/women’s underwear and new socks for boys/men.

You can drop donations at Bill Wilson Center at 3490 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA 95050 or call (408) 243-0222. You can also donate online through Donate for Good by clicking here. You can also call me directly at (408) 850-6156.