tonight i love computer cafes

blues 3 (our sos team) is on a friday night excursion to a "computer cafe" in metairie (a suburb of new orleans). in other words, i can catch up on emails, blogs, and tony hawke's pro skake 4.

today was blissful, relatively-speaking. don't know if i've mentioned this - sos is hands-down the hardest thing i've tackled besides sophomore year of high school. david and i decided to do afternoon pt, which translated into a 7:45am meeting time. i did not get my first phone call until 6am, and no major drama occurred between then and leaving for work.

once at work (lowernine.org this week), blues 3 was given plenty of tasks for the day:

1) lawn crew - this consists of using canning knives, machetes, and weedwhackers to tame 3-ft high grasses. the purpose? to help residents who have not yet returned to the 9th ward since the storm avoid fines for unkempt yards.

2) the burgundy house - moving massive amounts of trash (some of it untouched since august 2005) to the curb for pickup and assisting with construction work inside (i put up my first wall frame ever!)

3) mr. turner's house - painting, mostly. mr. turner lives next door to the lowernine.org house.

on the way to the burgundy house, i bumped into kelvin. he was my site supervisor while working with the alliance for affordable energy in the holy cross neighborhood last round. it was great to see a familiar face.

despite hot hot heat, everyone worked really hard. of course, this inspired my famous maternal pride. at lunch, i took off with chris and joe, who had privately requested to visit "where my dad used to stay at" and "my house before the storm," respectively.

the 45-minute excursion included a stop at an over-grown lot near the levy breach where chris' dad explained he was born and raised and chris added the detail "my daddy says i orginated here". we then traveled to the other side of the 9th ward near the st. bernard parish line where we drove around until joe recognized his 2-story green house. he pointed out the water lines - both highest point (close to 14 feet) and standing (about 6) - as well as changes made by the new residents. it's these moments that make me love my job.

the rest of the afternoon was, well, hot. but we worked hard and packed up just as the afternoon rain arrived. back at dillard university we showered, headed to mcdonalds for a treat, and hurried back to campus for dinner in the cafeteria (i know. i know.). and now, the computer cafe.

chicago dan has friends in town so i'm entertaining the idea of an evening out (after room checks at 10:30, of course). yeah. it's been an outstanding day.

p.s. finding barack obama's "the audacity of hope" truly disappointing, i made a desperate trip to borders last week and picked up "how to be good," by nick hornby. it reminded me of a book party with sniar and dax last summer and how terribly i miss dave reading aloud to me.

p.p.s. another highlight of today - the magical day of wonders - was a call from "erin in panama". huzzah!!!!