Open Road

Sooooo... once upon a time I moved to a very small town surrounded by rivers and lakes and mountains and I was a new mom with a husband who commuted to work and I didn't have much to do... so I noticed an ad in the paper for meals on wheels volunteers and I signed up. All I had to do was go down to the community center twice a week, pick up the meals, and deliver them to whomever was on my list that day. And the baby would nap in his car seat the whole time.

It was awesome. I got to know the layout of the town and the surrounding areas from all the driving and I got to know some very interesting people, most of them elderly or sick, or sick and elderly. I never minded the driving and I enjoyed the smiles I got to give away and the even bigger ones I got back in return. The state compensated me for my mileage, which covered my gas, so all in all it was a win-win situation.

I continued on till I was six months pregnant with my second child and decided all the driving around was too much and I needed to stay at home and rest. And my little one was not wanting to stay put in the car anymore. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I didn't have to look for a real job. It felt really good to be able to help those who could not help themselves. And the food was actually really, really good (the other part of my compensation was to get a free meal out of it too :)