Having a Wild Weekend
I’ve always viewed the weekend as starting on Friday morning and ending at 6pm Sunday evening. This is a holdover from school days and from the days of corporate employment, when you began Friday by looking forward to what was going on during the weekend, then knew you’d have to get to bed at a reasonable time Sunday night to get up and Fight The Good Fight early on Monday. It’s silly to hold onto this as a self-employed adult, I suppose, since the hours are more or less dictated by what the clients need or what the business needs. Sometimes it’s a 60-hour week and sometimes it’s a 30-hour week, but old habits die hard. And with my business still in the rebuilding stage, this mindset is thrown even more into chaos. “It’s only 1pm on a Friday! Am I really out of things I have to accomplish today? Already? Can I go drinking? What am I forgetting? Damn this work ethic.”
Already, this wild weekend has put me at the FEMA place on St. Charles for two hours, helping a neighbor navigate her battle for some temporary housing money (since her roof was blown away and her place is gutted). I also went over to Algiers to give them some food stamp documentation, which took another hour or so. My workplace has already been gutted and has to dry out a bit more, so I can’t work on that. So NOW what?
This is a city full of folks in my exact situation. They can’t or don’t want to take a temporary job because their real job (or their business) might come back any day. The businesses that have restarted need people, but I have trouble with the idea of committing someplace and then having to bail after a couple of weeks just when every worker is badly needed and relied on (there’s that damn work ethic again). So we fill our time volunteering or helping neighbors (like this morning’s FEMA thing or taking a friend to Gentilly yesterday to pick up her paycheck). They’re small things, but very important when all of us are kinda in the same leaky boat. I can honestly say I’ve met more good people over the past two months than at any other point in my life, and most of them are folks I would never have met otherwise.
The neighbor who was riding with me yesterday mentioned something about Katrina being an equal opportunity storm. Rich, poor, black, white, Hispanic, low-wage flunky or Captain Of Industry — everyone got whacked. If you lost it all or lost very little, you’re still having to deal with the day-to-day if you’ve come back — shortened hours, standing in lines, smelling the mold and sometimes just stopping to take it all in when you go into Mid-City or Lakeview or Gentilly or the Ninth Ward.
It’s this shared experience that is making us a stronger city. Hassles be damned — I love it.
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Thank You! It’s really rare that someone actually says out loud that the storm was equally as devastating to all economic levels. There are so many conspiracy theories floating out here about how it was only the poor or only minorities and that somehow everyone else was profiting from the storm. Everyone was screwed across the board and I’m glad it’s finally a well understood enough fact that’s it’s being said.
As long as you’re not misrepresenting yourself to a business as a permanent hire, I don’t see the problem with taking a temporary job if someone wants to offer it to you. They may be fine with another body that can only work two weeks if it allows them to generate more cash flow. Obviously more specialized jobs aren’t going to go for something like this. But a lot of places can make do with just more labor, even if it is temporary.
yeah. I worked for a week at Parasol’s with the understanding I had my own stuff to do as well. That worked out well. Once I get back from Dallas next week I’ll check around with some other places (unless I happen to get insurance cash, in wich case I’ll go back to my own business again). I’ve just gotta generate some income.
I have friends all working as waiters and barkeeps for their friends, because there’s nobody left to do the job…I was going to shuck oysters, but I’m afraid I’d get pissed at the owner, and wouldn’t be able to go back.
which was first….the levees or the houses in front of the levees?
Just discovered your Blog. Quite informative. Good to get info from right on the ground.
FYI: Have a book out on this situation “Katrina and the Lost City of New Orleans” that you can find at lulu.com and amazon.com. Trying to keep it real.
Keep up the great work!
RA
New Orleans’ flooded - it’s on the net so you know it’s True!!
Laurie
Craig, Great posts. Wife and I will be there 12/9 to 12/16. Bringing a few bucks from our Chamber fro a Children’s charity. I am looking to work a bit. A contractor by trade. Trade you six hours of my labor plus dinner and a couple drinks for a couple hours of conversation. Send me a note at chair@necastlecc.com
John Jensen
Craig, Great posts. Wife and I will be there 12/9 to 12/16. Bringing a few bucks from our Chamber fro a Children’s charity. I am looking to work a bit. A contractor by trade. Trade you six hours of my labor plus dinner and a couple drinks for a couple hours of conversation. Send me a note at chair@newcastlecc.com
John Jensen
Mike, I believe the Universe came first then planet earth
then came the Mississippi river to piss off the corp of engineers
then came the levees; the houses were built on whatever side of the levee
so you could see the river and fish out of your back door.
Laurie