The Salvaging of Memories

We piled out and stretched our legs after the long drive. There were some notes on the front of the house. One was in spanish and addressed to her husband, the other just said that this house is ineligible. We pondered what it might be ineligible for, FEMA, insurance, demolition. We didn't have a clue. We checked out some of the neighbors' houses. The one across the street had the front door wide open so we went in and it appears that they will rebuild. The interior was striped to bare 2x4's and nothing else. Other homes didn't appear like they had been cleaned up much, inside or out.

There were refrigerators on the curb in front of almost every house and each had its address spray painted on it. I thought that odd. Will they only pick up one refrigerator per home? Most homes had huge piles of trash in front of them but most eery was the lack of people. It was a ghost town. We saw one old man on his porch and that was it.

"L" began handing out face masks and gloves. We spent some time suiting up with our feet wrapped in plastic and making sure our heads were covered. It was decided that we would enter from the back of the house as it had less debris blocking the way. Their suburban had water lines within 2" of the roof. We opened it up and documented the condition as "L"s elderly husband was convinced it could be repaired. The phrase 'no way in hell' came to mind. It had been completely filled inside with water at some point and mold grew everywhere.

We entered into a small parlor where the piano, music, books, and videos were all a complete loss. "L" mourned over her piano which was barely standing, the wood had rotted so completely. Of the many instruments the family had collected over the years only her son's trumpet had made it thru the storm undamaged. Guitars, keyboards, the piano, a flute, drums, all gone or beyond repair. From there into her son's room, where we climbed over fallen, ruined furniture and remnants of their lives. On the wall was a undamaged poster that we removed and took with us. It was about the only thing we could salvage from his room. Next came the kitchen. The refridgerator was on its back and covered in little flies. We climbed up on counters to retrieve items put as high as possible when they left during the flooding.

"A" was the lucky one. She retrieved several items from her room. A tiarra from promo, a couple of fancy dresses that didn't get wet due to good storage techniques, some jewelry, a high school jersey that didn't seem to have too much mold on it.

The walls were all covered in mosaic patterns of mold that would have been almost pretty if it wasn't so deadly. The floors were starting to give way and we were careful where we walked and made sure not to lean on the walls since they were starting to crumble as well.

We kept having to exit the house by climbing over all the debris to drag out garbage bags of stuff we wanted to take back. That and to breathe. It wasn't a hot day and there was even a breeze but breathing our own hot breath for any amount of time was getting to us and the smell of decay and mold still leaked thru. We skipped the bathroom but I peeked at the backup of sewage in the toilet and tub. "L" said she didn't want nothing from that room. We couldn't even get into the livingroom. Someone had previously stacked all the furniture against the door and we couldn't move it. "L" said it was ok as there wasn't anything she was looking for in there anyways.

All in all it only took about 2 hours to salvage what was left of their life. I knew they both wanted to see how the rest of the city was fairing so we de-suited and disinfected and piled back into the van for a trip down Canal Street.

A Sea of Blue

And so we drove all night, switching drivers before the sun came up. We ate poptarts and little donuts from a bag. We knew without any road sign annoucement that we were getting close. We began to see trees stripped of their folage and not in a gentle Fall kind of way but in an angry harsh manner. Then stripped trees gave way to broken trees, violent, snapped in the middle trees. We could see bright blue roofs in the distance, like neighborhoods had gotten together and voted to all get bright blue shingles.

Everyone was now awake and there were comments of "oooh, look at this" and "did you see that?" as we passed by damaged billboards and semi-trucks over turned and businesses ripped to shreds. It seemed like it might have happened the weekend before, not some three months ago.

I began to think about how angry I'd be if three months after my roof was damaged by a storm I was still sleeping in a house covered with a piece of blue plastic. But it was a sea of blue plastic covered roofs we drove by as we closed in on New Orleans.

We arrived around 11 am and found their house quickly as it was not far from the interstate. Everyone was excited when we pulled up and began to take pictures of the neighborhood. "A" pointed down the street and jumped up and down. "That's my high school, down the road, the red building." I couldn't see much with all the huge piles of debris infront of every house but knew we'd have time to atleast drive by so she could see it again...possibly for the last time.

You Can't Plan Adventures

We left in the dead of night after picking up our Katrina travellers who quickly fell back to sleep. Big Princess drove first and after an hour said, "Look behind us." I turned around and looked out the back window...nothing, pitch black, no city lights in the distance, no headlights on the road, not a twinkle, not a star.

It was the same ahead. Our headlights reflected only feet in front of us. We were surrounded by inky blackness that gave us a shiver. We marvelled and wondered at how it related to the journey we had just begun. We knew no more than we would drive IH 10 straight thru all the way to New Orleans and would return no matter what in 48 hours. We had never been and didn't know what we would see or feel. It was to be an adventure and you can't plan adventures or they just become trips.

Been Sick

I've been down with a chess cold for 2 weeks now. Then there's the DSL fiasco at home. Finally, I've been out of the office attending computer classes. Add all this up and it amounts to no postings. Things probably won't resolve themselves this week either. My grandma died this weekend, Thanksgiving is this week and I'm taking the Katrina family back to New Orleans to retreive what's left of their former life over next weekend.

But the TO DO LIST is slowing shrinking:
NOV.
Kids campout weekend-done
4-H bowling-done
4-H canning project-done
2 days of Access classes-done
little princess' pool party/sleepover Birthday-done
Big Daddy's Birthday-done
Thanksgiving
Drive to New Orleans

Last tidbit before I go:

Little princes said to me, "Mom, I'm going to live in Africa when I grow up."
"Africa? really?"
"Oh, well, not the poor part of Africa. I'm goinng live in the part of Africa where all the diamonds are. You know, the rich part."

The history of little princess

Its not actually little princess’ birthday but we are celebrating it today.

I remember well the day I first learned she was coming. We had tried for years to conceive a second child and finally given up. I was just getting a routine exam and said to the nurse “you know, I’m a couple days late. Could we do a pregnancy test?” I was sitting naked in the cold exam room waiting for the doctor when the nurse poked her head in the door and said, “yep, you’re pregnant” like it was no big deal. I was stunned and disbelieving. Instead of going back to work I went home and woke Big Daddy with the news. We couldn’t believe it for several days and I wouldn’t let him tell anyone because I was afraid we’d jinx it. It was a wonderful pregnancy.

The doctor kept saying she was little and while he didn’t want me to go into labor, we needed to leave her in the oven as long as possible. She was due on Big Princess’ birthday so we thought we had plenty of time when I went to the doctor on a Friday three weeks before my due date. The doctor said “I don’t want to get you excited but I’m scheduling you for Monday—early Monday. If you sneeze between now and then, here’s my cell number.”

Instead of having three weeks to get ready we had two days! We made calls and packed bags. Early Monday the phone rang and doctor said we needed to reschedule me for Tuesday if it was possible. I was doing fine and could use the extra time to finish last minute details. The problem here was we forgot to call the out of town family and they called the hospital Monday to check my status and I wasn’t listed as a patient. It caused a little bit of excitement.

Everything went smoothly, although the doctor got excited when the anesthia doctor was late. Planned c-sections are the way to go. She arrived right on time and even though the doctor said she’d be little, he was very surprised to find she weighed 8 lbs 11 oz.

We’ve been celebrating this day every year since.

This year she gets her second birthday wish. Her first was a surprise party. Every person deserves at least one surprise party. Her second wish was for a pool party. This is a little hard to pull off when your birthday is at the end of November. But finally it came to me—have it at a hotel with an indoor pool.

I truly believe birthdays are personal holidays and every person should do what they enjoy as a celebration of their life.

Continued from previous discussion

Hey now, I don't condone that lifestyle but remember when anything other than the missionary position was against the law, literally. Who was peeking into bedrooms across the country and writing tickets?

We watched wife swap last night and the one mom described herself as a Jesus warrior and she was the craziest person I think I've ever seen and trust me--I've seen plenty. I only let little princess watch it so that I could open a discuss about this woman. I wanted to talk to little princess about even people that call themselves Christians can be people you don't like or want to be around. This woman was rigid, fanatical, unaccepting of anything, idea or person that didn't meet her religious beliefs.

Which in my mind is not very Jesus-like, what with him hanging with people of ill repute, who had illnesses/diseases, tax collectors, non-Jews, and even those Samaritans.

Standing on the freedom to vote

To the people running the polling site: you suck!

I get there and there’s no parking, circle the tiny lot for 15 min. until someone leaves. The line is all the way out the building and no one knows how long the wait is. I hear someone coming towards me from the back of the line saying: “This isn’t our line, our precinct is inside.” So I start questioning people around me, “what line is this?” Most don’t have a clue but the lady behind me says go inside and check and she’ll let me back in line if necessary. I go to the where the line enters the building and I ask someone who apparently is working the polling site about what line should I be in. She says what precinct are you in? I don’t have a clue as my voter registration card is at home. I ask her if there is anyone who can check what precinct I’m in (there’s never been more than one precinct at my polling site). She says “Well everyone’s busy.” So how do I know which line to get into? She doesn’t know.

So when in doubt, get in the shortest line. (I don’t know why no one else ever thinks of this.)

Bingo, I’m on the roster and I’m done before the kind lady that offered to hold my spot in line makes it inside the doors. I wave.

But I’m curious, where do you stand on marriage?

Should the government be defining marriage? Is marriage only acceptable between a man and a woman? A woman on the news said “I love my dog but I shouldn’t be able to marry him.”

I do believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and that it is a religious ceremony. But I don’t think the government should be regulating unions. It does me and mine no harm if two gay men enter into a civil union. People are judging this issue on what the men are doing in their bedroom, not on whether they should be afforded the right to insurance benefits or equal division of property should the union dissolve or all the other rights the government affords to man/woman marriages. This is the same as my position on abortion, I have only the right to make this decision for myself, no one else. I choose pro-life for myself because of my beliefs but I also support the right of each person to choose for themselves and to not judge them because of their choices.

You can’t force others to do the right thing because you say it’s the right thing.

Get over yourselves.

Surrounded by Aliens

We invited "A" from our Katrina family to go camping with all of us from church this weekend after I found out she'd never been before. She seemed hesitant to go and I chaulked it up to not being sure if she'd like camping. We all told her how much fun it would be and how much we'd love her to come with us but I still wasn't sure she'd be at the meeting point come Saturday.

Well, I come home Friday night to discover Big Daddy has injured his knee at work and will not be able to go with us. Then I realize he can't get around and will need me to stay home and feed him and the animals. I'm a little disappointed but truth be told I was glad for the out. It was a huge group of kids and adults and I'm not fond of the problems groups of people like this usually end up with. And they had enough adults so I wasn't needed and with little princess still going, I'd have some much needed quiet time.

I pack up the tent, all little princess' gear, the food for breakfast I was supposed to make and we head for the meeting point. I'm touched when one teen tells me how disappointed she is that I won't be there. Then A shows up with her mom and the woman they are staying with and I'm please to see she's going to give it a go. I say to her mom, "I didn't know you were going?" She tells me she's not, they just didn't have time to drop her off at the house. I offer her a ride home since she's on my way home.

I tell her that I'm glad A decided to go and that she'll have fun. Then A's mom throws me for a loop and I'm left speachless. "Yeah, well, she wasn't sure she wanted to spend the weekend surrounded by white folks."

I could honestly think of nothing to say, not even something funny to respond with. I might have said, "oh".

Now the family looks black (or African American, if you prefer) in skin color and hair type but they have a hispanic last name and since I helped them enroll the son in high school I know they marked hispanic on the forms. Being from New Orleans, they speak some french and pronounce the kids' names in french.

Who does she want to hang with if not the white people that have taken her in, given her shelter, food, clothing, transportation, entertainment and inclusion into our lives and hearts? Does she just think of us as white people? Are we so culturally divided as to appear alien to the other?

I tried to put myself in her shoes. I tried really hard. I thought and thought about how I would feel. You know what? Its so foreign a concept that I honestly can't say how I might feel. But I do know that the comment hurt me just a little.

Cracking Myself Up (again)

I hope my kids remember how funny I was after I'm gone.

"Your Grammy was the funniest person for miles and miles. People would read her blog every day just to laugh. Some of them even had to use dial up internet just to read her blog."

"Dial up, Mom? What's dial up?"

"Well honey, they used to have to plug their computers into phone jacks that would.."

"What's a phone jack?"

"Shhh, do you want to hear about Grammy or not? Well, dial up was so slow that it would take like 5 or 10 seconds every time it changed screens. But they'd do it, they sure would, just to read Grammy's Blog and laugh. Now that was way back before the government started taxing laughter..."

"Mom, What was it called again, Grammy's blog?"

"ps. I love you"

"ohhhhhh yeah"

{giggling}

"Now hush, you want 'the man' to tax ya?"

The (Almost Impossible) To Do List

I'm laying out everything on my plate from now until the 2nd week of Jan. to Big Daddy last night and told him he was gonna have to step it up. He took it well and said to just let him know what he needed to do. I told him he could start with finding me a killer dress that accented my breasts for the company Christmas party. That made us both laugh! But atleast he's forewarned.

NOV.
Kids campout weekend
4-H bowling
4-H canning project
2 days of Access classes
1 day meeting in Houston
little princess' pool party/sleepover Birthday
Big Daddy's Birthday
Thanksgiving

DEC
Federal Jury Duty all month
Mother daughter weekend at Big Princess' college
Company Holiday party (because we are too chicken shit to call it a Christmas party)
2nd Company Holiday party in Houston
Church Christmas party
Big Princess' Birthday
4-H photography shoot
1 day Bingo duty for the Lions club
1 week vacation scheduled but probably down the toilet
11 needy families to holiday shop for, wrap & deliver
Christmas

JAN
1st week is the Jr. Livestock Show for 4-H
little princess entered like 6 projects (that will have to be done in December)
I am incharge of every kid doing a Food, Horticulture or Photography projects

This is in ADDITION to everything else I normally do (volunteer at the homeless shelter each month, teach Sunday school, etc.) and I promise you a minimum of 10 additional things will be added to this list before its all said and done.

So how's that for "how'm I doing"?

Because I Can

I'm eating pie for breakfast, blueberry pie to be exact, and I plan on counting it as 1 serving of fruit for today. I slept in an extra 15 minutes this morning, knowing it would make me 5 minutes late to work.

So there!

Federal Jury Duty Sucks

I was notified by mail yesterday that I'm on Federal Jury Duty for the month of December. That means I have to call in every Sunday evening to find out if I have to report Monday morning. I can serve on multiple juries during the month. I have to dress up, "men will wear ties and women should wear dresses, under no circumstances should jeans be considered appropriate." Well, that's just stupid. Like we can't pay attention in jeans. And if I remember correctly, we're in a box that pretty much hides us from the waist down. If its that important they should issue gowns, you know like choir gowns. Then we all look alike and nobody's wearing anything nicer than the next person. Otherwise I think I'll dress over the top, Zsa Zsa Gabor style with a boa and tiara.

Its the freakin holidays people! I have plans. I have vacation scheduled. I have a lot of charity work on the calendar. I have a job.

Let's look at a couple of options:

What if the jury pool was made up of people on unemployment compensation? Their days are free. Most of them are just watching daytime TV and faking the unemployment reporting.

I think the homeless should be jurrors. They aren't "doing anything" anyways and they could use the $40/day. That will buy plenty of Maddog 20/20 and keep them from begging on the street corner for atleast a couple of days.

Hey, Apple Lady, We know where you live...

So the price of gas has affected the economy in a frighteningly new way. Only about one in twenty homes passed out candy this year. A new record low. And apparently no one could afford the full sized candy bars because little princess got none and she was way cute, dressed up like a surfer girl complete with board. We even took the dog dressed up like Spiderman to boost the candy intake.

Well, since no one was willing to pay the neighborhood protection fee, consider your trash cans at the mercy of Mother Nature cause little princess ain’t fetchin’ em for ya.