tuesday

tuesday - 2nd work day
woke up before 630, wich was really 430. surprised at how it easy it was to be up so early. must be something in the FEMA water.
get dressed, brush teeth, wash face... mostly in autopilot, but functional. sorta. as long as i don't have to talk. communication center not quite functional this early. have breakfast, make lunch. getting used to this new life style.

head out to Les' house with Mikal and Rachel. confession time: Rachel sounds exactly like Jennifer F. same pitch, same tone, same inflections, it takes me a while to not to call her Jennifer (inside my head).

there's 2 new cast members today:
Emily: our americorps site coordinator (it was her bday that tuesday, "the big 2-0" she said. i'm old, and i was never that young)
Katie: a very cool vintage store owner from NY. this was her 2nd volunteer trip to St Bernard Parish. she's very familiar with the ways of Camp Hope from her previous stay.

and we met Les. He brought us donuts (ok, so i'm covered in drywall dust from head to toe and yet, i eat my donut carefully so the powder sugar won't fall on my clothes... sometimes i wonder about that supposedly smart brain of mine). He also showed us a DVD created by the St Bernard school board about Katrina, the flood and the aftermath. Beyond sad. i know i keep saying that, but really there are no other words. He had to leave the room at some point, he can't watch anymore.

i'm trying to find a copy of that video, it needs a wider distribution, and my words can't do the story justice, so i won't try. beyond sad.

more sanding. more fixing previous plastering mistakes. sigh.

i got a ride back to camp with Katie instead of Mikal, and as a result i missed out on the unique experience of the Daiquiri Drive-Thru!!!!!! 'nuff said.

Get to camp. shower, and i believe eat something (i think that was the rubber chicken day). it must be said, the vegetarian choices at camp are much superior. then a whole bunch of us (2 cars) headed to NO to go shopping.

the shopping expedition turned into a lazy stroll once we realized the shops at Magazine St were already closed for the day. we walked, drank a bit, introduced Sebastian (and later Lloyd) to the most awesome deliciousness of Cafe Du Monde's Beignets.

We picked up a other one brickers along the way, Emannuel, Lloyd and Christina, and somehow lost Sebastian at some point. We meandered our way to Bourbon St. where i was promptly smacked on the face with Mardi Gras beads tossed from a balcony by a bunch of drunken frat boys (ok, i do not know for a fact they were frat boys, but i believe i'm allowed a bit of poetic licence here, it hurt!)

eventually we wound up at Bourbon Cowboy? (i think that's what it's called) where everybody got to ride the mechanical bull, everybody except yours truly because i had the foresight of wearing an A line skirt :) no bull riding for me, thank you very much! but way, way more power to : Gail, Sandra, Lloyd, Janet, Mikal, Emannuel, Christina and Jill. Lloyd!!!! and Gail!!!! very impressive you two.

Then there was the "dancing" episode. we were hanging at another club, dancing to some mild hip hop, just chillin' ya know? then this older gent (60's? 70's?) joined us. at first i thought he was probably a bit smashed and dazzled by Gail (most men are) but no (well, he wa probably dazzled by Gail, but he wasn't smashed). not at all, he proceeded to give us a demosntration on how to do Travolta's moves from Pulp Fiction and he knew the words to the song. after the song ended he took a bow and thanked us kindly. funny!!!!!!! come to think about it, i still owe Christina a drink...

back to camp. we made curfew by a few minutes. There's always a line of cars heading into Camp Hope at 10:55pm on weekdays, i'm convinced.

at the time it's only been 3 days since Janet and I arrived, but it feels like i've been living there and doing that much much longer. like i belong. like that is my life. i think most of us started feeling that way at some point.