A Rough Day

Today started off with me not winning tickets for Sugarland...oh well I get to see them any way. Then sitting down with my co-manager, she was telling me that she was talking to a friend and asked him what kind of person puts red beans and rice on the menu for a Friday, and he responded with "an idiot" she repeated it a few times then told me not to take it personally as she was laughing about it. Well, that idiot is me, since I'm the one who made the menu up for the week. Real good way to start my day. To be honest, I don't know how not to take that personally. It rubbed me the wrong way and there isn't a lot I can do about that, but I didn't find it funny at all.

So I went to run some errands and see a house that my Delaware boys are working on, and ended up at the Joint for lunch and a tour with Heidi their construction assistant so now I know where to take Amber and her group next week. Then my boss called and had me go back to the UPS store to pick up the computer I had shipped to Louisville, because it needed to go to Houma instead. Now I'm in the office doing this while dinner is cooking...luckily it is already going and I don't have to do too much.

I'll admit though that not being "filled" spiritually in anyway is becoming more and more difficult. I need a break and a balance. I understand the job now, but I need some friends who can build me spiritually. This picture is me on the levy that the barge broke through to flood the Lower 9th Ward.

I stepped out of my comfort zone yesterday, I took the Delaware group through the Lower 9th Ward at dusk. We drove past a couple of elderly women who were talking on their porch and I made Win turn around and let me out. I felt like I really needed to talk to them. And so I did. I introduced myself, and they looked at me like I was a crazy white girl...mostly because I am, but we had a good short conversation. I got to hear about one woman's rebuilding process and how she drove down every day to watch the contractor work and didn't pay him anything until certain jobs were done. And if he needed money for materials, she went with him to get them. Her house and 3 others are the only ones rebuilt on her block, all the others are demolished to the foundation. The Lower 9th Ward is a hard thing to go witness because a lot of what you see are just front porch steps going no where. All that is left is the steps and if you climb them, then you can see the foundation slab under about 3 feet of grass. It is absolutely heart wrenching. I hope that I can build a bit of a relationship with some of the people in the Lower 9th so that they will get to know me by name and be able to bring groups by to sit, chat, and listen. It was really awesome to fall into the New Orleans culture last night by being able to stop and chat. That is what it is about down here.

I got to listen to advise from a woman today who paid off her mortgage in 1990, and she just received a foreclosure notice on Sat. She told me today that if this city is evacuating, then to not listen to the government if they say go to the Superdome or any other place, just get out of town yourself. She said it isn't worth following the directions and being put under martial law. That was her piece of advise for me if I was ever in the big earthquake in Seattle. People are really hurting down here, and the hurt runs deep...It runs all the way past revenge, to expectation. An expectation that the government is going to screw you over and don't care if it cost you your life. It is hard to see a city where the American dream was abused, and nobody can hope for it ever again, even if they are in their 80's and lived it their whole life.