It’s been just wonderful, although today I learned that
there’s a leak in the ceiling in the breezeway. I have to call the owners about
that and see what they say. It looks like it’s been repaired before, so clearly
they know about it.
The house is pretty big and I am sharing it with a roommate
for about a month. She is a member of the church who just moved back to town
(air force) and is buying a house.
I’m in the main bedroom and it is more than twice the size
of the entire RV.
The best thing is the bathroom. It has a deep tub and a
shower. And bother have running water! Oh, my.
The first night, I caught myself pouring a glass of tea around
8 p.m. I caught myself and first thought, “No, wait, it’s after 7 p.m., you
can’t drink liquids” and then I thought, “Holy cow, yes you can!”
I no longer have to pull on boots, a coat and a hat to go
pee in the middle of the night!
Oh, these small hurdles are just so fantastic.
I also have a garage, which is wonderful for my little car.
I mean, that poor thing is as Southern as you can get. It was probably made in Tennessee,
and it lived in Louisiana before moving to Florida. It groans at me
in the snow – of which there is PLENTY right now.
I’m still getting used to some things, like where the light
switches are and the fact that there is no garbage disposal. Not that the RV
had one or anything, but these days, most sinks do, you know?
The TV has a satellite package but none of the ESPN
channels. This has worked out just fine so far because I had to work during the
FSU game on Saturday anyway. I trust the Gator game is on ABC or something, but
if not, I will watch it at Hope
Village in the rec chapel.
There is no DVD player but I brought mine over. The Internet
is pretty darn slow and I can’t Netflix but I will deal with that.
Walking to Walmart seems like it would be quicker, since I
am technically only four houses away from it, but I can’t just cut across those
three other backyards, I have to walk back up the street, around the road and
then back down the sidewalk.
My solution to this will be to try to avoid Walmart. I
usually do this after Thanksgiving anyway, and since I’ve pretty much done the
Christmas shopping (since I’m not buying gifts and all) and can now make my own
sweet tea, I don’t have much of a reason to go.
At some point, I will have to start grocery shopping. I’ve
bought minimal goods so far, like pasta and alfredo sauce. I’m still eating
leftovers from Hope
Village, although I did
make rice tonight to supplement the meatballs from HostFest. And I bought
another Key lime pie, although not with the coupon that was in the paper since
I had left it in my car. I will save that for another day.
I still have a ton of leftovers. Most of it is still in the
freezer at Hope Village, but I’m pulling out some stuff
and bringing it over. I grabbed Salisbury
steaks yesterday, thinking it was the salmon. I have pounds and pounds of salmon.
It’s very briney.
I also have eggs. We somehow had two cases left over and I
bought a dozen home and gave away a few more dozen before realizing I could
just take the rest of the stuff to the food pantry, which I did today.
But now I have a dozen eggs of my own, and I’m making
scrambled eggs in the morning.
And toast! I haven’t had toast in so long. It’s just so cool
to be able to cook my own breakfast. I am so sick of that Corn and Frosted
Flake mixture I’d been eating.
Hot food! Late-night liquids! Does it get any better?
 |
| Self-portrait in my new bed. |
Yes, yes it does!
I’m in the midst of my fund-raiser right now (www.hopevillageND.org). A donor gave
us $25k and agreed to match, dollar for dollar, amounts raised up to $50k more.
(This is the Zac Brown Band contest winner … so glad I don’t listen to people
who try to tell me what I can’t do …) So the whole package had the potential to
be $125k to flood recovery (not just Hope
Village).
It ends Nov. 30, and I was starting to sweat, even though it
was just this past weekend that I got the entire mailing to the post office. I
had $14k as of this morning.
Then, I got an email from another place I’d asked. I wrote a
grant for the entire match amount -- $50k – and they granted it in full.
I swear, I was so excited I was completely useless for
anything else. So that’s, so far, $139k for flood recovery, with the direct
mail just hitting mailboxes this week.
I’m so pyched. And to think, according to some little
blurbie thing I saw on Facebook, an average AmeriCorps volunteer brings in $8k
in grants.
I am so above average. But you knew that.
Happy Thanksgiving. I know I’m thankful.
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