Yes, I volunteer. Originally, I wanted to be a Big Sister. It was something I’ve wanted to do for over 10 years. When I first looked into it, my county did not have a program and Los Angeles County wouldn’t accept me because I was not a resident. My county finally started a program. I signed up … donated the cost of my background check and received a letter three months later thanking me and telling me they had more Big Sisters interested than they had Little Sisters available. Huh? So, I am a volunteer tutor for my local Adult Literacy Program instead. I tutor my adult learner two days a week for about two hours each time.

You’re NOT boring!!

I don’t volunteer, sadly. If I did (i.e. if I had time), I’d do something with the Multiple Sclerosis Society or something else MS-related. I have a VERY mild case of it (I haven’t had an attack in years… poo poo poo) and I’d like to talk with people who were recently diagnosed to show them that it may not be as bad as they imagined.

re: TV - watching project runway and gossip girl. catching up on the wire. looking forward to lost. and watching a lot of hulu - finally watched all of firefly. hulu is amazing.

re volunteering: I’ve been a docent at the schindler house for the past 3+ years. used to be a volunteer dog walker for paws/la for a terminally ill man but stopped after he died. used to be a reading mentor at weho elementary until the program lost funding and shut down. just started as a tutor for 826LA. spent a few hours yesterday painting their new space in echo park.

EB72, we have the same problem–too many Big Sisters and not enough Littles. It’s easy to get young women to volunteer, but finding the kids is a whole other story. Some parents are embarrassed to sign their kids up, some don’t know the program exists, etc. Apparently it’s quite a common problem amongst the agencies.

I was a Big Sister for 3 years, then my Little aged out of the program and they didn’t have a replacement. When I was still living in the same city as my Elementary and High School I used to volunteer there for many programs.

I am serving on the board of the high school Band Parents Association - VP of Fundraising. They raise a ton of money to support the marching band, colorguard, drum line, jazz band, and symphonic band. Of course, schools don’t have money to support the music programs.

I would really like to work on Habitat for Humanity, but they told me kids under 18 are not really allowed. It’s something I wanted to get my daughter involved in, maybe in a couple years?

I’m a bum I don’t volunteer. Bad me.

Amazing race: I thought I was for TK and Rachel, but they’re kinda boring. No, that doesn’t mean I like Nate and Jen.

Project Runway: Ricky you’re killing me!!

YOU RULE!!!! Thanks for the shout out! …and your baking blog is really just that good…

I don’t volunteer but would love to at a soup kitchen.

My cooking blog gets a ton more traffic than my personal one ever did and my baking/sweets posts are more popular than my non-dessert posts–I think it is just more widely appealing.

Maybe I should start a cooking blog called “How Not To Cook Things.” LOL

So let’s see . . . good luck with the date Sunday! Are you giving this week’s bachelor another chance, or did you tell him that you thought he wasn’t for you?

TV: I’m not watching anything, but American Idol will start up soon (next week?), so my wife and I will watch that. We wanted to catch up on Netflix movies, but the mail screwed that up well.

Volunteer work: I read for a blind guy for ten years, but when my wife and I had our first kid I had to stop because I just didn’t have the time anymore. One of the things I learrned was to speak SLOWLY when I leave my phone number on an answering machine or voice mail (and leave it at the beginning of the message, too).

I do political volunteer work, which in Virginia means I am active every year (since we vote every year, often two or three times in a year in the Commonwealth).

Speaking of baking, I found this recipe for cranberry, orange, and dark chocolate chip cookies. Haven’t tried making them yet.

I volunteer with The Breast Cancer 3 Day, I walked 60 miles in 3 days two years in a row and I now volunteer on the behind the scenes crew. I also volunteer weekly at my church and just applied to be a Literacy volunteer.

I haven’t started volunteering in Houston but I’ve done a lot of time in shelters, with Habitat For Hummanity, in classrooms, and with animal rescue centers.

I’m considering volunteering as a tax preparer for the underprivileged. We’ll have to see, this wedding thingy is eating up my brain and time.

Yes, I volunteer. I work with Molly’s Mutts and Meows, an animal rescue and adoption group and I work with the Blind Children’s Center through my alumni group as it is our designated charity.

A

You’re definitely not boring but I am positive your baking is that great.

I am going to be in LA next week, for two days — maybe we can meet up for a drink — I’ll email you.

I try to volunteer whenever I can. Right now I am volunteering with Everybody Wins L.A. reading books at lunch one day a week to an elementary student.

Good question — enjoyed reading the responses! In the three years before I began teaching, I did a ton of volunteering: weekly lunch at soup kitchen; BBBS; in-school mentor; adult ESL teacher… all of which I greatly enjoyed. I’ve only done a few “one-time” volunteering gigs since I started teaching. I’d eventually like to get back into at least one regular volunteer position but for now I feel like I’m volunteering 902384 hours a week for my kids (first year teaching = ahhhhh) and have literally no extra time (which I hate to say because I think that’s the worst excuse ever for not volunteering! I mean, I could be volunteering right now instead of commenting on your blog!).

I do want to mention that I’m proud of the fact that I’ve gotten a bunch of my students (at a very low income, urban public elementary school) hooked up with in-school “bigs.” As soon as I heard we had that option at my school, I referred a ton of them and many have been matched up with local college students.

Good luck with the new J-Date.
I’ve been with Meals on Wheels for 7 years. I love my sweet old peeps!

I am totally sincere when I say I hope that I am not the only one dealing with dating issues, am I? Has anyone been able to locate any decent single sites out there? I can’t believe I have been all over the web searching for activities that don’t cost an arm and a leg? I’m not the type of person to give up easily I’ve been on several sites looking for local events. The only one I was able to find is http://www.singlesinmotion.com does anyone know?