In Red Cross Land, we’ve been fairly busy. The funny thing about working for an organization that is all about disaster preparation is that we often hope that the work is for nothing. Before Friday I would have said there was no way our office could have handled even a medium scale disaster. After one of the most exhausting days, I think we have finally crawled out of our April 27th rut and gotten ourselves close to a fully functional level. Until we get a new building this won’t be completely possible because our resources are so spread out. We spent the day calling hundreds of volunteers to get them on call, updating the Chapter Disaster Response Plan, taking an inventory of resources, and securing vendor agreements with restaurants to provide food for clients and volunteers. We were also somehow able to have a casserole day during all of this. My chicken casserole was spot on even if I spilled half of the original on my foot before I was even able to get it in the oven… We finished all of our work around 3. Holli had to leave to go to the EOC, and our office was officially “closed” for the weather. Mike and I stayed around and played bezzerwizzer while I waited for the news about canceling the show and as we watched James Spann’s latest update. Thankfully our 8 counties made it through the night with only minor amounts of damage and no tornadoes. If you want to donate money to the Red Cross’s recovery effort in North Alabama you can visit redcrossal.org for more information.
The Hispanic Service Providers are quickly getting everything together for the Brazos Abierots Health and Information Fair in April. It seems like it will all come together, but I just have no idea. We’re planning an event in four months that is normally planned in twelve, and I can’t seem to get the same people to show up to two meetings in a row. The person being my biggest help is my age and has also never been to the event. How do things like this happen? I actually talked to one of my friends recently about activism and how some people prefer spreading awareness just by clicking share on facebook but never actually do anything or become well versed in the cause. I much prefer being a part of making the change. That’s why some people’s lackluster attitude about planning this event is so annoying. If we are going to have any chance at all at helping combat HB56, we have to help educate the community in an active way so they can know what their rights are under the law and how different organizations can help them in spite of it.
In the less serious realm of my life, the second weekend of Hamlet went really well. Our Saturday night crowd was nicely sized. Friday was a lot smaller because of the weather. Wednesday after our quick line through, Taylor and I went to see The Secret World of Arrietty because if I was going to drive all the way up to Birmingham I wanted to make the gas worth it. The movie was visually very enjoyable, but I wish the ending had not been so Disneyfied. A more tragic ending would have made the move more interesting. It made me wonder how much changed in the translation from the original Japanese. Ever since I began reading the Harry Potter series in Spanish I find myself constantly wondering about these things. I guess a Bill Murray movie title wasn’t enough to make me think about it earlier.
Friday was a pretty small crowd, but the show was solid even if I was constantly waiting to hear that I’d be leaving the show to go open a shelter in the middle of nowhere. We really wanted to get sushi afterward, but that failed so we got stuck at JClyde. You get better service at a Waffle House. It was the first time I got food there, and I was not impressed. It may be a great place for a beer connoisseur but not a hungry party of eight. I need to write down all the things that happen backstage, but this week was mostly devoted to Susan’s urban dictionary education. She learned about pearl necklaces, Alabama Hot Pockets, furries, and Alaskan Pipelines all in exchange for giving Taylor hypothetical piano lessons. Someone got the short end of the deal on this one. We had our second cast party Saturday night at Bates’s house. Sadly, he won’t be in the show at all this coming weekend. He knows how to have a good party, though. He had fresh fruit, goat cheese ball spread thing, and vegetarian chili with mushrooms. The mushrooms were a big hit. The other interesting feature of this party was a cooler filled with abandoned beer he had collected over a few months. Whichever beer you drew, you were required to drink. Most of them were pretty mediocre in quality, but one should not complain about free drinks. There was, however, one DISGUSTING beer that I had never heard of before. It’s called Chelada or something. It’s a mixture of beer and calmato juice aka clam and tomato juice. No one drew it, but at the end of the night Susan, Taylor, Bates, and I were the only ones left. Taylor suggested that we all just taste one anyway. It was very teenage pact to not mention we killed someone. Everyone took a sip and regretted it. It coats your throat in the most disgusting way. We’re all better for it.
Even with all of this going on, I was able to go to dinner with my friend Jessie on Tuesday night. We were going to try out the restaurant that took Café Venice’s place on University, but it looks like it has already closed. We’ll just never know about that one, I guess. We then decided to go to 5 because neither of us had ever eaten there. We’re about a year late to be trendy by going here, but I think that’s okay. Jessie and I shared conversation about sundry topics as well as some Olive Cheese Bites. This may sound odd, but they were delicious. They stuff olives with cheese, fry them, and serve them to you with a spicy ranch dressing. I also had an alcoholic strawberry lemonade that I question whether or not there was actually alcohol in it. If there wasn’t, the waitress must have just humored me in looking at my ID to order a child’s beverage. The table we sat at is actually in the bottom right hand corner of this photo. It is really well decorate, though lacking a theme. Also, stools are not the most comfortable of chairs to be sitting in for a long period of time, but there are worse things in the world.
Last night was my triumphant return to trivia with Maggie, William, and others. Our team name was “We’ll Have What She’s Having.” We were in fifth place going into the last question, but sadly we didn’t know the chronology of Whitney Houston songs as well as we should. Tonight begins the final weekend of Hamlet and includes my birthday and party. Next week’s installment of my blog should hopefully be eventful then.
James Quotes of the Week
“Here comes Clara Barton with a baseball bat.”- James on haints
“Have you ever taken a picture with him?”- Me
“Shit, hell no.”- James on the Ronald McDonald on the bench at Walmart
“Yabbadabbadoo.”- James being happy
“That didn’t fill you up. You greedy thing.”- James on me only eating a sandwich for lunch
“Police told me don’t say nothing.”- James when I asked him a question
“You actin like he on cloud nine.”- James describing Joe’s good mood
“Everyday he got a different one that’s a different color.”- James on Cody’s Community Education volunteers
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