This is my cousin S demonstrating his ability to make a hand print. During this trip, we bonded briefly over my knowledge of the phrase “Dragonball Z” and my usage of that phrase in a conversation about his sweet afro.
Category: life
Introducing Mama
Before she was my mother she was an oldest daughter and sister to 9 siblings. She grew up in North Carolina, went to school and got her Masters degree. She taught special education. She owned and operated one of the first contemporary jazz clubs in New Orleans and is respected by legends.
She raised four kids and homeschooled three. She participated in every activity I ever remember doing, from dance to karate, and there were a lot of them. She chastised, encouraged, switched, laughed and advised me into the person I am.
She is everything I’m working towards being and today is her day.
Angry situation
I am very, very angry. If I were less of a geek and if my poetry didn’t suck lima beans I would write a poem expressing my anger. Since I’m not and it does here’s my version.
if isAngry(sunshine) AND reason == 'helpless' {
if isAble('sunshine')
donate('time');
anger--;
if notBroke('sunshine')
donate('money');
if isConnected('sunshine')
spreadWord('solicit', 'all');
anger--;
if(anger > normal)
explode('sunshine');
throwSomething('sunshine', 'tv', 'offBalcony');
beatSomething('sunshine', 'anything', 'bloodypulp');
}
Now I know what you’re thinking… a value of bloodypulp can’t be a good for anyone. You’re absolutely right. Good news is that the expedition to Mobile to do disaster relief for the next three weekends is full. Better news is that you can go to VolunteerLeon to sign up to hear about other such efforts or needs.
FSU has some other tips for the FSU community about how we (they) are trying to help. Check the homepage for the Hurricane Relief Effort Link under news. For example, if you’re going to the game this weekend you can take your spare cash and give it to the Red Cross volunteers that will be collecting stuff.
You can also do normal style donations to the Red Cross if the mood hits you. If you can’t give cash stay away from the Red Cross. There may be other organizations that take non-cash donations and have the manpower to process these donations and get them where they need to be but the RC isn’t having it. I don’t know of these places (beyond the normal email forward type stuff) and I can’t vouch for them so I’m not listing them. I’m sure Google and the news sites are teeming with links to charitable orgs that want to help.
In the lovely bit of code up top you’ll notice that donating money doesn’t actually decrease anger. That’s because it doesn’t make me feel anymore helpful. I’m a hands on type of girl and New Orleans is MY city so if you have some suggestions on how I can avoid getting to the bloody pulp stage I would love to hear it.
Katrina
My sister (and her cat) thankfully evacuated New Orleans and they are currently staying with my parents. Her house is about 8 – 10 blocks from the river and her neighborhood is in a (relatively) narrow part of the city with Lake Pontchartrain on one side and Missisippi on the other. Good news is that she’s closer to the river so the water from the levee break on the lake might not have reached her house. We probably won’t know for a while. We still haven’t heard from all of our freinds and family in New Orleans but that is understandable and hopefully we will soon.
Best wishes to all of those affected.
Image taken from CNN.com and modified.
Boxes and babies and birds, oh my
Two to three months ago I noticed new tenants moving in. Today I watched as mama spurred her three children to jump off of my 2nd story balcony.