A lot has happened lately, happy and sad. Irene came ripping through Saint Thomas and all my friends and family up north were calling and emailing to make sure I was alright, then, not even a week later she hit the north and I was emailing and calling all of them. Somehow I thought down here in the warm Caribbean waters I would get the worst of the storm but it seems she was just getting started down here and she really did her damage far to the north. Fortunately my family is all fine, and none of their homes were destroyed. Unfortunately my friends in NY were not so lucky. The town of Keene was hit very hard and had significant flooding. The AuSable River, normally flowing at about 220 cubic feet per second this time of the year, reached an incredible 48,500 cfs in under 18 hours (check out the impressive hydrograph here). The damage was catastrophic. In Keene roads were wiped out, the fire station was washed away, homes were lost or buried in mud, families were stranded as their roads and driveways washed out. In Willsboro power was lost and roads were washed out. In Vermont entire towns were flooded, homes lost, downtowns under water. My dad is up in Waterbury for the day volunteering and I dearly wish I could be there to help him. If you'd like to help him, or folks in your town, here are some places you might look:
In New York State: The NY Red Cross is coordinating volunteer efforts in all the towns in desperate need, contact them to find out more: www.nyredcross.org
In Vermont: You can always contact the Vermont Red Cross (http://www.redcrossvtnhuv.org/index.asp?IDCapitulo=44W8UXGL8L) but my congressman also sent me this great little site, a blog created to coordinate volunteer efforts and offers of housing, ways to donate, etc: http://vtresponse.wordpress.com/
As you may have guessed from my time in Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, volunteering is a really big deal to me, and it's killing me that I can't be there for my friends and neighbors to shovel some mud and haul some sand bags. Since I can't, I am begging those of you that can to help in any way you choose.
I don't think I ever thought I would be sitting here in the beautiful Caribbean dreaming of shoveling mud back home, but life surprises you sometimes.
Outside of that I have had plenty of other little excitements. My mother came down for a whirlwind birthday weekend of fun and we adventured around the down town, spent a day in St. John, and laid on the beach. It was such a pleasure to be able to share my new home with my mom, I've never had many visitors at all the crazy places I move to so this was a particularly special treat. Somehow the place seemed more magical when I was explaining it's virtues to her than it ever had before.
I have also begun the job hunting process once again. It seems I'm always "starting a serious job hunt" for about a month or 6, right up until I find something else temporary and exciting that distracts me from growing up and getting a big kid job. That being said I'm (hopefully) once again on the big kid job hunt, so if you find anything feel free to send it my way. I am being picky about my jobs this time around - #1 I want to be outside as much as possible at work. #2 I like to work hard, in fact I love it if I am completely exhausted at the end of a day at work. #3 I would ideally like to find a job I can feel proud of - something to do with helping people, animals, or the environment would be best, but I'll settle for one that avoids hurting any of those things if I have to. I have had a lot of jobs I did and didn't enjoy and I think my travels and transiency have taught me a lot about what I want in a home and in a job, so even though the job market is still pretty terrible I think I'm going to take my time and be picky. I have plenty of wonderful adventures to keep me busy in the mean time.
Anyway that's my life at the moment, a little Caribbean island hopping, a little momma visiting, a little beach laying, a lot of hours spent in this office. Not half bad.
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