Kari Goes To Mississippi

The sun setting over the Chesapeake Bay. And the Packers are in the Superbowl!! I got to watch the game last Sunday at a local bar in Cape Charles, and it was pretty great. The guy sitting next to me was a bit of a Bears fan, but he said he was happy for me when he saw how excited I was. Go Pack, go! Last week involved a little bit of everything in terms of work load. 8:30am Monday morning found me out in the woods of Kiptopeke State Park cutting down more pine trees, the mercury in the thermometer (figuratively of course; my daily temperature source is Ruth’s Blackberry) showed a solid 22°F, rising to 30°F by the afternoon. I sawed and loaded trees into a dump truck all day, until that same dump truck carried my teammates and I home at 4pm. An exterior view of my lodge home. There were a few days that I got to work with Jerry, a 79 year old man who retired from his “real” job as a radar engineer 17 years ago and has been working here ever since. He reminds me so much of my G...

Virginia, my home. After 2 FULL days of driving, my team and I finally made it to Cape Charles, VA! It was a pleasant trip, and since we brought a cargo van in addition to our 15-passenger van, we had plenty of space. I am one of 6 drivers on my team, and we drive in shifts of 2 hours, so my share was about 5 shifts over the two days, which wasn’t bad at all. In addition to a great trip (we stayed in a hotel with clean sheets and everything!), we arrived to find accommodations so wonderful, I’ve been stressing about how to describe them. Instead of going into great detail of which you would become bored and frustrated, I’ve decided to include these pictures to show you the lodge along with my teammates’ initial reactions when we first arrived. Jacquie and Chris Money in the hall. Cain and Mac in enjoying their new room. Huge living room. Cozy fireplace! Here’s a quick overview of the perks of my temporary lodge home: one roommate, hardwood floors, good water pressu...

My big sisters and I. Back in Mississippi, the home I missed over the holiday. Christmas was very nice and relaxing with the fam, but now I’m refreshed and ready for work and routine once again. In the past whenever I’ve had a few weeks off of school for Christmas break, I still have to work a job or two for all but a couple of days. This was the first year since I started work at the age of 15 that I spent 2 weeks with nothing I had to do, and nowhere I had to be. It was cool, but a little more boring than I expected. I rode the bus back to Vicksburg at the end of my KY vacation, which took about 16 hours. It was slightly stressful, sort of smelly, and more than a little strange, but all-in-all, uneventful, which is what I was hoping for. I’ve been back a week now, and nothing too exciting to report. Trainings and lectures on what sorts of things to do after this program, and how to go about doing them. Lots of focus on MLK Jr., and even a cool ceremony on Friday, which included ...