Week 7

Reunion in NOLA.

Hurray for productive weeks! My shoes are filthy and my clothes should really be burned, but I had a lot of fun. Sometimes I feel like a little kid again, playing in dirt and coming home with a sunbur, and a big appetite, excited to do it all over again tomorrow.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday I worked at our new building site where we did more truss work and started decking. Thursday and Friday I worked in two houses that are almost finished and are going to be dedicated next Friday. The indoor work was great, and I learned a lot about tiling, grouting, and caulking, but my true passion is working outdoors on new construction.

I came up with a few sayings relating to my tasks this week, and my teammates tell me I should write them down, keep adding to them, and call them Kari’s Construction Philosophies. I have three so far.

Life is like grouting a tile floor; to fill the gaps of inexperience, one must first make a mess and then clean it up.

If a neat finish be the food of sight, caulk on.

Roofing is a like a Broadway show. The shingles take center stage but the decking works behind the scenes making sure the show runs smoothly.

Chillin' by the Mississippi River in NOLA.
It was BEAUTIFUL and we could hear Jazz
music coming from a boat near by.

Call me a nerd, I don’t care. You’re probably just jealous. When I come to work with a new one, I tell my site supervisor, and I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m a little off, but it makes him laugh. He told me the first two were too confusing and sophisticated for lowly contractors and to make them easier to understand, thus the third Broadway saying, which he really liked. It’s fun, because I can be my weird self here and I’m weirdly appreciated for it.

Me, Jacquie, and Sarah in the French Quarter.

This weekend I went to New Orleans with 7 of my teammates for a little vacation. We rented two cars, got a great deal on a hotel room downtown, and had an absolute blast! There are quite a few AmeriCorps teams based around NOLA, so we got to visit a lot of our friends while we were there. It was such nice break from work, and seeing friends was a breath of fresh air. We got to spend time exploring, clubbing, hanging out by the river, and sleeping in beds that don’t shove springs into your back, which was a nice change. Our housing in Mobile is fairly disgusting, and I would never EVER consider taking a shower without shower shoes or walking around the house barefoot. Staying in a hotel for two days was more luxurious than I can describe.

Now I’m back in Mobile, and though my temporary home here is gross, it feels good to be back, and I’m refreshed and ready to start the week tomorrow.

The last thing I’d like to say is that I’m so very grateful to you guys for the emails and snail mail you send. Please keep it coming and know that it means a whole lot to me. It’s nice to still feel so connected to home, and there’s nothing more exciting in the course of a week than receiving encouraging words when I’m able to find internet or when the mail comes through every so often.

Love you guys!

  k

Our clean, comfortable hotel room may as well have been the Ritz.