eat at Texas Roadhouse

Why? Because they support Habitat for Humanity in a huge way - they build houses, get their staff to help, do major fundraising, etc.

Today I was Wrapper Girl. Me and Protecta-Wrap, we are tight. When you peel it back, it's stickiness is a tar-like substance, so I have brown spots all over my hands. It's all good, it'll all eventually come off - but it was a little embarrassing when I went to lunch. At Zimmer's, which Kim recommended - great sandwich, but they were out of bread pudding. It's famous - people come from far and wide for that bread pudding. I can't wait until I actually get some next week.

So, the wrap goes around the windows in a particular pattern. The only real challenge is getting on the damn ladders and going up so high. At one point my ladder slid back and I let out a little shriek and one of the Habitat guys was able to help me. Somebody working inside said she saw me and then I slowly sunk down and she couldn't see me - fortunately she came out to check on me, too. It was a little scary because I didn't have a spotter - I was up 20' on ladders in sand, wrestling with tar. But, I'm happy to report, I'm all good.

I started off the day with a Texas Roadhouse team, but they left about 9:30 (and my partner spent the last hour of that flirting with the National Guard Military Police who patrols the neighborhood in tanks). I'm trying to be patient with people who feel the need to take pictures of everything. I know if you only come for a few days that it's nice to document and all that, but I always want to shout, "Hey! Grab a hammer!"

So then I tried to find another team. Pepe Le Pew's team (OK, I may sound like a real anti-French here, but his accent is JUST like Pepe Le Pew's, except I really can't understand him well, but I'll probably get used to it because we'll be working together extensively on Jazz Leader's house hopefully - once it's actually squared) was overfull (that's where Jazz Leader was, the only person on the whole site today whom I knew) so I wandered around until I found a team where a lot of people weren't standing around. There was a kid sitting on the ground - he's the one on Wednesday who got a super-deep cut when I was in the medical tent with sting-in-eye-boy. So I asked him what was up, and his dad was the supervisor, and this leader was awesome. Such incredible patience - and he has such great kids who really love and respect him. He's one of those people who just exudes love, and being around him is a real gift. So I joined up and all alone I wrapped almost every window (until the Navy folks took my ladders away, trying to clean up).

It's rewarding working on a task like that, and I think Habitat work will continue to get even more rewarding for me the more accustomed to the work I am. Already I can do subflooring without much supervision, and some other tasks as well. The less I have to wait around to ask a leader what to do or if I'm doing it right, the better for everybody - plus, then I can help others more.

But I will never be as great a leader as the ones I've worked with, especially Michigan Leader, Jazz Leader, and today's Patient Leader. Patient Leader today said, as I teetered up to my fifth window, "You have an amazing spirit - how you can take a task and just run with it." When we said good bye, he said, "You're special." "Likewise," was my response. Knowing him only briefly was a gift.

And that's what's so great is that I'm meeting so many people like that through Habitat.

Like the Cincinnati girls last night said, working here with Habitat far exceeded their wildest expectations. For both, it was one of the best experiences of their lives, and they cried to leave (though, one also cried last night on Bourbon Street when one of the police horses bit her HARD - breaking skin and all that).

I am so over Bourbon Street. My ears are still ringing from all the noise. Maybe it's more fun if I'm not driving, so I can drink. Cincinnati Jennifer hopes to come back to work more, and I offered her my couch anytime.

I've always thought of myself as a pretty strong person, but now I have a real reason to increase my strength - to be able to lift 80-pound bags of concrete and huge extension ladders and piles of concrete blocks by myself. Michigan Leader said the guys he used to work with used to say, "If it was easy, they'd have girls do it," ... so I have to prove that wrong for sure.