How to make groceries in a pirogue

Well, Rita did change my plans slightly, but they are concrete as of now. My office officially has power today, Friday, so I got the call to please come back to work. I said I could be there Tuesday, about 5 minutes before I got a call from Community Friendship, Inc. in Atlanta asking for an interview. I promptly scheduled that for 10am Monday morning and will just head back to New Orleans after the interview.

I sort of feel like I am reinventing the wheel. Coordinating Chris’s work search with my work search, along with my desire to go get things settled back at my New Orleans job…ahhh…stress. The good thing about this stress is I haven’t felt like I’ve had this much energy in days. Why is it when my life was fully scheduled did I feel like I had a ton of energy, and now that I mostly relax I am constantly sapped of energy?

I’ll leave for Atlanta on Sunday and spend the night and ready myself for the interview. After that, the way to contact me is on my cell phone. If that doesn’t work, during the day try my work at 504-896-2345. I’ll be staying at my friend Molly’s and will e-mail all of you her number as soon as I get done checking on everyone’s blogs.

I love hearing from the outside world, so feel free to e-mail, comment, call, etc. It really helps me to hear familiar voices. According to my boss, internet at the New orleans location is up and running, so I should be able to sneak in some blogging and e-mail time. I am super lucky to have such a great family, and can’t tell you all how much your support and warm wishes have meant to me.

Well, Rita may change the plan, but currently here’s where I stand. If I can, I’m going to roll up my sleeves and head back down to New Orleans to work next week. I’ll just be there temporarily while I’m waiting to hear back about the resumes I’ve sent out. Chris will stay up here and see if he can find some temporary work. He thinks I’m pretty insane for heading back down there, but I need to be able to look myself in the mirror and I won’t be able to do that until I’ve helped create some semblance of normalcy for my clients.

To be honest, I don’t care how bad it is, I just want to be home. I can’t wait to sit across a table, looking at friends faces, having a glass of wine and sharing our stories. Our west bank location is already up and running. Our New orleans location, where my office is, was untouched but still doesn’t have power and water. Our Kenner location is decimated as the roof caved it. We were able to salvage one hard drive from the entire Kenner agency.

I’ll let everyone know that I’m going before I head down, and figure out a way I can be contacted. If Rita doesn’t do too much damage, I’m thinking Tuesday next week.

Well, the resume is together as well as a cover letter and I have printed out addresses for every mental health facility from here to Atlanta. With every fiber of my being I just want to go home. But, in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want.”

We made the daunting journey back to our home uncertain of what we would find. Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish, allowed people to come back into the parish on Tues, Wed and Thurs this week from 6am to 6pm. After thurs. at 6pm everyone was supposed to be gone with no reentry until further notice.

We left Wednesday night at 10pm, and drove through the night. Chris’s little brother Jacob and friend Mike came with us. We were armed just in case and I felt like I was with a pretty safe group. Once we were about three hours away we could see the effects of the storm. Trees down, lots of those gas station overhangs toppled.

Once we reached LaPlace we were routed off the expressway and onto surface streets. The 1-10 from that point on was reserved for releif efforts. We were routed along Airline highway to our house. Some buildings were up, some were twisted tangled masses. Telephone poles were bent askew and trees were down everywhere. Traffic moved slowly past armed soldiers posted along the street. Military trucks and personnel were everywhere. There were impoverished looking people now and again walking down the side of the road.

Our street had branches and trees down everywhere, but they were cleared out of the streets. Power lines laid everywhere and telephone poles were slanted over the street. Our house was fine. Standing there like nothing had happened in the middle of a pile of branches all around. Flooding had stopped short of our house, and the tree that fell over in the back yard fell away from the house. Chris’s truck had been looted, but had no damage other that 1100 dollars in missing equipment and a busted out back window.

We are truly fortunate, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling sorry for myself now and again. We got most of our stuff, but the life we knew and loved is gone. I don’t think I knew how truly happy I was. How much I loved my friends, and job, and the culture of New Orleans.

It was hard to see my home innundated with military. Chinook helicopters constantly flew overhead. The sound of sirens coming from the direction of New Orleans didn’t stop. It gave us the sense that we were in some protected enclave on the outskirts of hell.

The men mostly packed up the house while I had a small melt down. We had taken everything we could fit into a U-haul trailer and the back of two trucks and left by noon. We drove back to Florence and finally slept again after being awake for about 40 hours.

I have taken pictures of baby Shelby, puppies, and goats to show all of you the great therapy we are getting, but can’t load them from this computer. A friend of Chris’s is driving by our house to assess the situation for us and we’ll see what our plan of action is with recovering what we can. It is looking good as far as no flooding in our area so we are a little more hopeful about Chris’s truck and equipment.

I’m not sure where we’ll end up after this. I really appreciate all the offers for spare bedrooms and any assistance from everyone. Michigan is probably not in the running due to Chris’s career. We are looking at staying in this area, which means we’d be close to Aunt Pam, Jen and Cheryl so that’s good. We are also looking at Atlanta, or should I say I am. My basic plan is to start looking for jobs where there are programs to get a masters in social work. I figure this is mother nature’s way of saying go back to school. As long as we stay in the south Chris is quite employable. As long as we are near a bigger city, I am pretty employable. Right now, who knows, but we’ll need to be making a decision soon.

I’ll figure out the picture thing soon, but know that my life is full of cuteness.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for all of the love and support you have offered. I have always been thankful for family and friends, but you never really realize how much you have until you loose everything. All that was material looses its significance and you realize all that ever really mattered were the people in your life. My heart breaks when I think of all the people who have lost family, or who are trapped in hurricane ravaged areas. Hug someone close to you and thank them just for being them. Life can change in the blink of an eye and in the end all any of us really have is each other.