New Orleans

I'm so bored at work today. After staying until 7:15 last night, I think I'm due for a break.

So I went to New Orleans this last weekend and I had an absolute blast!! We left at 7 pm on Friday evening and got to New Orleans at 12:30 am local time. I took a shower and then went straight to bed. I bought a new sleeping bag especially for this trip. It has memory foam built into it, so it's actually quite nice! The design is a little funky, but over all it's a very comfortable little sleeping bag. I didn't even use an extra mat! Saturday morning we got up at 5:45 and got in line for breakfast about 6:15. The local churchmembers made us a breakfast of pancakes and eggs. It was really good, but I was really excited to get to work. We got our assignment and headed out at around 7:30. We went to a lady's house not too far away from the stake center where we were staying. When we got there we got some direction from the son of the lady who owns the house and we got to work. There were others there already working on the wiring and siding and gutters of the house. I started by cutting out some cardboard to cover the windows in the rooms where they were going to spray some texture on the wall. Then I sanded some spackle in the bathroom. Then we moved a whole bunch of stuff (including King Tut--that's what it said on the bin) from the porch to the shed. Then we dug a trench to lay a wire from the house to the shed so there would be lights in the shed. Then we built a fence and I found my true calling wielding the hammer to secure the slats. You can call me "the hammer" now, if you like. Then we ate lunch. The lady who owns the house actually made us lunch. It was sooooooo good. I think we got some real New Orleans cookin' if you know what I mean. She made jambalaya and some rice and beans and she picked up some fried chicken. It was so tasty and I think everyone was really hungry after working so hard all morning. Things kind-of tapered off after lunch. I spent some time watching the men using a sledgehammer to break up concrete slabs, then I cleaned off some of the grates from the air vents and then I took a little rest while laying on my friend's leg as she sat on the grass. One of my favorite parts of the day was when I got to use a grader to slice off a metal post. That was pretty cool. Sparks were flying everywhere and they kind-of stung when they hit me, but they didn't leave a mark. It was probably the bravest thing I did all day. I'm really kind-of a scaredy-cat, so it was a big deal for me. I certainly learned that there's a lot that goes into rebuilding a house!!!

We returned back to the stake center at about 6 o'clock and we had dinner. After that some of the people I came down with decided to go into New Orleans for a cultural experience. They came back quite shaken. I guess they got more "culture" than they had bargained for. I went to Wal-Mart with some others, purchased a couple of games, and we played them in the foyer at the stake center. I finally got UNO, which is a game I've been wanting forever!!

Sunday morning we had a church service at 7am. I played the piano and we had the sacrament and a couple of talks. After that we packed up our stuff, got some new assignments and went out to a house further away from the stake center. This time we were mostly painting. I was very careful to stay out of the sun as I had gotten pretty badly burned on my neck the day before. Who knew you could get sunburned in March?? I guess you can in New Orleans!!

We worked for half a day and then headed back to Atlanta. Our car made a short detour to the beach where it was cold and windy, but it was cool to walk around. The devastation was unbelieveable, even now, a year and a half later. I'll see if I can post some of the pictures somewhere and put a link up so you can see. We got back at around 9pm Atlanta time. Then instead of going to bed, of course I stayed up and watched "Guys and Dolls" with my friend.

All in all, New Orleans was a very good time! I really hope we go again soon!