Katrina, You Bitch

Labor day weekend didn't end up being half of what I had expected. A downer really, but it was for a good cause - sort of.

I originally planned on making a four day weekend out of the holiday, taking Tuesday off after the given Labor Day Monday. I was headed back east to a camp reunion in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where I spent the summers of my college days working as a camp counselor. And yes, to those of you that are wondering, it is the perfect summer job. Hell, it's the perfect job for that matter.

Then reality struck. As we all are too much aware, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast last week. The result has been devastating beyond belief - and seems only recently to have gotten any better whatsoever. At any rate, (to see my real opinion on this mess see the previous post, "Wake Up") the effects of the storm on my life were minimal to say the least, but Katrina did put a damper on what would have been a happy time under normal circumstances. With a hauntingly real shortage of gasoline, and a need here for me to stay and help in the small way I can, I begrudgingly admitted to myself it was the wiser decision to stay put. A 500 + mile drive is not the type of adventure one wants to embark on when it starts with a challenge to fill up the tank.

I work for a healthcare company, and I must say we were excellent in putting together emergency volunteer crews to fill orders over the holiday weekend - all at the last minute. (Please excuse the bragging) We were able to have a small crew every day, Saturday, Sunday, and today, to fill the desperate orders that kept several field hospitals down in the New Orleans area up and running. Today at least, I am proud to be working for an organization in a position to help. At the beginning of the post I said it was for a "good cause - sort of." I said that because today was my day to cover the crew, and no emergency orders were transmitted. I guess the important thing was that we were there.

So, not being able to go home A and I tried to make the most of the weekend. Saturday marked the beginning of college football. Now normally I would be going nuts about this and it would dominate my posts, but with all that's going on it doesn't seem right. The VOLS won, and that made my day. I went over to a work friend's house to watch it and we had a blast. Saturday night we sat around and watched several other games and then went to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Sunday was another day of relaxation. We watched the Braves, cleaned up the apartment, and watched Finding Neverland. It was actually a pretty damn good movie. It is worth watching if you haven't seen it, and it wasn't exactly about what I thought it was going to be - another version of Peter Pan it was not. Sunday night we went downtown to our favorite watering hole and watched the end of the Virginia Tech/N.C. State game. Good times.

And of course today. We kicked off the morning by watching Spanglish, it was a smart film. I ended up really enjoying it, but the ending was kind of weak. Like I said, it was smart. Fast forward a couple of hours: It was my day to go in and cover the Katrina orders that didn't end up happening. I waited around for about forty five minutes or so and then turned everyone loose. I wasn't there for over an hour and a half. Meanwhile, A was chipping in and volunteering her efforts towards relief by manning the phones of various hotlines set up for victims from 4 pm until 8 pm. Good job A, I'm proud of you! So what did I do with the free time? I played nine holes of golf and very much enjoyed the late afternoon relaxation, all by myself. It was very calming.

Tonight we've basically ended the weekend on a slow note. We ate sushi and watched the FSU/Miami game. A fell asleep on the couch and I was glued to the T.V.

And that about does it for the weekend. Everything is going great except for the fact I missed out on family and friends over the weekend, but if that's all I have to complain about with all the horrible stuff going on I should consider myself blessed. I'm still horrified by the lack of coordination and logistics by this whole 'relief' effort. The shortfalls just keep getting worse, and it looks as if more and more it could have been at least partly avoided. What a disaster.