I can't think of a title.

The nation sems to be under a bit of a cold spell, and yesterday my gutting crew had to experience it the hard way. We had gutted for maybe two hours or so and finished off the house we were working on yesterday. After much sweeping and cieling kicking, the house was done, and we were ready to go. However, our ride, Ian, didn't show up because of an altercation at the Womens' Center. One hour turned to two, two turned to three. We stood in the 30-40 degrees cold trying to find other rides but no one came. It wasn't until around 4 or so that our tall, blonde hero Ian, nicknamed Sunshine, showed up.

But those four hours spent waiting weren't entirely miserable. We befriended the neighbors, and Sarah and I took some time to explore the abandoned school across the street. The school has been left mostly untouched since the storm. It was frozen in time: all the clocks are stopped at the same hour, journals with entries dating to just days before the storm were stacked on teachers desks, and calendars were flipped to the month of August. The bottom floor was ruinous, but the top floor, save for some cluttered desks and marks of vandelism (in particular "See you in hell" written in blood-red paint on a chalk board), looked as it must have looked before the storm. Pretty creepy.

That night our class went to see Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, give a speech centered around seeing the world through "the prism of Katrina." She actually only spent a few minutes on Katrina before moving on to the death penalty and the importance for education, but it ws a very good, thought-provoking speech nonetheless. She earned a standing ovation at the end. At the beginning of the speech, all the students in the room (that is, all the Woxy kids) were made to stand, and everyone else applauded us for gutting houses. It felt kind of strange and undesevered. After the speech we were treated with small sandwiches and sodas.

We ended our night at Rock'n'Boll, a neon-lit, 50s themed bowling alley with a live band. I came dead last in bowling, and spent time in between rounds watching all the impressive swing dancers and chatting with friends. It was a lot of fun.

I don't know if anyone reads this anymore, but I'll keep writing till the very end. Expect pictures in the next few days.