Waiting for Gustav

Posting a bit early this week.... though Gustav is not predicted to blow into town before Monday, the brewing storm is already impacting gas prices, gas pump lines, traffic, grocery shopping, and work-planning, so in a few minutes of calm,with internet securely in place, power still on, and all errands run, there is time to write.

Yesterday was the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina - and today, New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents are preparing for evacuation. Tomorrow, contraflow will be enacted, with highways all flowing North to speed the exodus. Unlike in 2005, there is far more planning for this storm. Buses wait all around New Orleans; Mississippi Public Broadcasting gives updates of which shelters, college campuses, camps, churches and other makeshift evacuation sites will be opening when; even here in Jackson, two hundred miles from the coast, residents are stocking up on water, flashlights, and gas. It could be that this storm will not be as bad as we fear; but no one - and certainly not government officials - wants to get caught unprepared this time around.

It's strange to wait for a hurricane. Right now it's sunny and 91 degrees. I worked this morning, got a haircut, ran errands, gave the dog a bath, vacuumed, cleared out my car, ran the dishwasher, tried to do anything that I might later regret not having done before losing power, or having all the local filling stations run out of gas (several already have), or not being able to use my water.

I keep thinking back to three years ago. I left Mississippi for graduate school in Michigan just before Katrina ravaged the state. Watching from afar, I felt almost guilty for not being there. I signed up for a recovery trip, journeying back down to Mississippi a few months after the storm. I flew into Jackson, celebrated my birthday with some friends, and then drove down to Biloxi. Driving down highway 90, through towns once familiar, I started crying and couldn't stop. My whole first day on the coast, I alternated between fighting tears and succumbing to them. And then I spent two weeks roofing houses and clearing debris. And then I left. Back to Michigan, to snow and ice, but cities intact.

I spent the summer of 2006 in Jackson, and moved back full-time in April of 2007. Neither of the last two summer saw a big storm. Somehow, I feel like I've been waiting for Gustav for three years. I hope he's a lot less exciting than I imagined him to be.

My prayers this weekend are for the safety of everyone in the storm's path. In the meantime, our senses of humor are still intact. I just received the following text message from a friend: "Hurricane party at my house tomorrow night! Bring your perishables. (FYI: Alcohol is perishable.)"

Yeah, Write Whatever!

All right, dear Bethweek readers - a rare request for assistance!

I'm working on a project called "Yeah, Write Whatever!" (YWW) that we genuinely believe will positively impact kids' reading and writing skills. Our new nonprofit, Imagination Education, Inc., is partnering with Eyevox and the Mississippi Board of Education to make this happen. We have a great idea and the right partners.... and now, our YWW team has a really exciting opportunity in front of us - we're one of the projects competing for funding from American Express through their Members Project initiative - AND YOU CAN HELP US WIN!

It costs nothing, you don't have to be (or become) an American Express cardmember, and it literally takes about 3 minutes. (PLUS, if you want, you can watch our savvy little promo video, and you may recognize some of the faces....)

PLEASE, PLEASE go vote and help us make the Top 25 for funding consideration! Here's how:

1. Go to www.membersproject.com
2. On the top right, click on "Guest Members Login"
3. This will take you to the login page. At the bottom of the page, click "Guest Members sign up here."
4. Sign up! (They just ask for name, email, and to choose a password)
5. You can then "search projects." If you enter "Write" in the search box, "Yeah, Write Whatever" will turn up.
6. Nominate, leave a comment, and feel excellent about doing your good deed for the day!

A special note if you DO happen to be an American Express cardholder: as an AE cardmember, you get to vote all the way through the final round, so PLEASE bookmark our page and support "Yeah, Write Whatever!" all the way through!!

If you have any questions or want more information, email me, leave a comment on this blog, or give a shout!

Thank you.

Beth

P.S. Please re-post this, forward it on, help us spread the word! Voting closes on SEPTEMBER 1, 2008. We have a real shot at this, with your help. Thanks again!!

So, what do you think of your haircut?

Sofia? Excuse me, Sofia? Would you mind answering a few questions about your new haircut?


Great... thank you! Okay. So. First question. We'll start with an easy one. What was your initial reaction when you first heard that Beth was going to be shaving you this year instead of sending you to the professionals?


Hmm, I see. So in general, do you think your owner makes good decisions about your appearance, or do you wish you had a little more control/opposable thumbs/money? (OMG! Your eyes totally just went up and to the left! You said nice things but you were LYING, weren't you, pup?!)



All right, all right, last question. Do you think your haircut will become "The Farrah" or "The Rachel" for your generation of husky-mix rescue dogs living in the new South?


Yeah, I couldn't take that question seriously either. Thanks for your time, pooch, and have a great week!

--The BWInterview Team

Shear Genius - Canine Edition

Sorry not to post it earlier... but here is the photo journal of the Summer 2008 Shaving of Sofia.

First, for any readers who don't know her, this is what Sofia normally looks like:


She is a pretty, fluffy husky mix.

That is, pretty and fluffy when it's a reasonable temperature outside. Sweltering Mississippi summers make it hard to think of her as anything other than an Unstoppable Shedding Machine. So, though it always makes people burst out laughing at the poor creature's expense... I caved and shaved the husky again.

And this time, I bought a razor and did it myself.

The photo-journal follows. Enjoy.


At first, it wasn't so bad. We went out on the back porch, armed with razor, brush, and a positive attitude:



I think Sof knew what it meant when I said "oops" and took out a giant chunk of neck-fur...


And then the haphazard back-shaving began... (I actually think it should be considered a plus that I know zilch about back-shaving)


Then my friend O showed up and schooled me a little on how the shaving business is run:


But Sofia started looking awwwwwfully nervous when he went for the neck.


It ultimately took another two days of me using my evenings to plow through that thick husky hair... but finally, she was fairly evenly shorn. So then I interviewed her about her reactions to her new look.

....and those are the best of the photos, but unfortunately the stupid computer is now refusing to let me upload them, even when I just tried creating a second post, so hopefully Blogger will be more friendly tomorrow, and there will be a Part II to this post...

On the (Eek!) Road Again

Traveling scares me.

This might come as something of a surprise, since I tend to travel ... quite a bit. It's a rare month that I don't cross state lines. In fact, I have done less traveling in the past year than in any of the previous five, and yet I still have Silver Elite Status on a certain oft-bankrupt airline, and off the top of my head, in the past year I can name trips to the following places:

• Memphis, TN
• Massachusetts (Westboro/Marblehead for a fall wedding, just Marblehead for a spring baby)
  
• Austin, TX
• Michigan (three times)
• Chicago, IL
• Alabama (Birmingham twice, Florence once, Huntsville once, Daphne once)
• Louisiana (New Orleans once, Monroe once, Baton Rouge once)
• The Secret Trip (long story)
  
• Mississippi's Gulf Coast (three times)
• Washington DC
• Georgia (Macon once, Atlanta once)
• Oxford, MS

(Amazingly, all of those trips were either for work or scheduled over a weekend/holiday weekend. I haven't taken an actual vacation since Costa Rica 2005. Haven't used a single "vacation day" from work since moving back down here in April 2007. I know - I'm a total idiot on that front.)

So it's pretty clear that even in a "light" travel year, I do a lot of traveling. And literally every time I travel, I get nervous. I clean my house before I leave, so that if God forbid something happens while I'm gone - someone needs to go pick something up from my house to bring me to the hospital while I recover from a nasty car crash, say - I won't have left a mess. I try to make sure that the last interaction I had with my closest people was positive. (Traveling while in a tiff with someone is not always avoidable, but I do what I can.) I always make sure to have plenty scheduled for when I get back, so that I'm subtly reassuring and reminding myself that the plan is, in fact, to make it back safe and sound.

--As I write this, it sure does sound paranoid. It's all more subtle than it sounds -- but the point is, there is some little voice of warning chiming away in a corner of my mind, a little edge of fear tracing itself around me as I prepare for the next trip. Always that little lurch in my stomach when I hit the road, when the plane takes off, when I navigate the unfamiliar neighborhood. Especially when I travel alone, which is most often the case.

Is it some remnant of something? In my own past - or, in some larger communal past? Could well be that the fear is by design. Protective, some ingrained type of self-preservation. After all, just a few generations ago, traveling was far rarer than it is today. It was common for people to never leave their own hometown, let alone state or country... let alone dozens of times a year. On some deep, patterned level, is there a fear of leaving the familiar and venturing into the unknown, with all the risks of highway bandits and choppy seas along the way?

Maybe. I'll probably never know... but the more important realization is this: I still travel. I'm scared every time, but it doesn't stop me from booking the next ticket or planning the next road trip. Perhaps the lesson is not that I need to get over my fear of travel - but that in some other areas of my life, I need to use my Nervous Frequent Flier status as a reference point. Just because I fear something doesn't mean I should avoid it. At the end of the day... traveling might be a risk, but it's one I'll keep on taking. It's something I want in my life.

Knowing that... perhaps I should aim for Silver Elite Status on a few of the other items on my List of Scary Things.

PS I know I promised some of my loyal readers that this week would be a photo-essay about Sofia's recent haircutting experience. However, I'm at a hotel, out of town, without my camera-transferring-cords... so I can't upload the photos. Thus, this will be a double Bethweek week. I'll post the Sof photos once I'm back home, safe and sound.