Tuesday, May 23, 2006

funny stuff about my job

My job consists of managing 6 "volunteer villages" spread across a 250-mile-wide area in the Gulf (plus hiring and supervising the managers of those sites, maintaining the relationships with the local communities and churches across the country, developing future plans, writing and implementing policies and procedures, going to recovery conferences, making sure the building is going according to specification, blah blah blah, etc.). Volunteers who work on rebuilding homes stay at our sites, which are basically upscale campsites.

...Apparently, when I'm not at work, I'm still thinking about work: when I was at Coachella, I looked at the campsite and said "Oh, they don't have enough showers for 50,000 people," and "How many times a day does the truck come by to suck out the port-a-potties?", and "Why don't they have hand sanitizer available?" When I was at Jazzfest, I had port-a-pottie envy when I saw a trailer that was equipped with toilets and sinks and mirrors. ("Wonder how much those cost?")

Trailer life is going well for me so far. Since I've got 2 identical trailers (one in Mississippi and one in Louisiana), with identical cheesy curtains and bedspread, sometimes I wake up and it takes me a few seconds to figure out what state I'm in. At first I could tell by whether my stuffed hippo Harvey was in the room with me, but since he didn't like being left behind while I was gone, I had to bring him back and forth, so now I really can't tell.

Accidentally left the hatch above my bed open one day when it rained, and my sheets and mattress got soggy :(

Me and some of my Mississippi co-workers had a late night romp in the supply warehouse, where we had forklift races and wrestled on 30-foot high piles of carpet samples.

Lots of people in the South pronounce hurricane "hair-i-cane"... What gives?