This is the most beautiful time of the year in the Appalachians, in my humble opinion. The dogwood, red buds, and all sorts of flowering bushes are showing their true colors as spring has finally come to Jackson county, after much anticipation. We have been working like mad to finish old workfest jobs. While it was a great time to have the students around, we now have 3-5 jobs open. And, the existing work on the jobs is ... less that perfect. So, we have been tearing down and putting up as fast as possible.
Here at the Jackson house, business continues much as it has this past 8 months, with change coming slowly ... if it comes at all. However, a looming cloud of awareness has come over those of us who are nearing our end with CAP. Most noticeably, Ross (my partner in crime for the Perfect Storm) and Jennie are leaving in less than a week and a half. For my part, I have begun to look for ... a job... yes, as odd as it sounds. I will most likely be in St. Louis or Chicago next year. As I begin my search, I am surprised how much the salaries are. When you go from making no money at all to making some money, some money seems like a lot. I'll say to myself "hmmm this is 35 times as much as I'm making now." I've also signed up for the GRE on June 7th. It seems my time here is starting to end as well. The first 6 months of CAP were carefree. Now, as my end approaches in 2 short months, I feel I may have to return to the fast paced world once again. A world where no one waves on the road, frequent breaks do not happen, you don't have dozens of friends ready to hang out on the weekends, and food costs money and is not yet expired.
I forgot to tell you a couple stories from workfest. So think of this as the encore to the Perfect Storm. Over a series of three weeks of workfest, Ross and I had convinced each of our groups that we had three different identities. One week I was a former British sailor and Ross was a former mercenary soldier. But, on our last week, Ross was a former NASA engineer and our group bought into this one hundred percent. One of the college students even asked Ross, "So, why did you leave NASA, was it budget cuts." To which Ross claimed, "The game changed, too fast, and I had to get out."
The second story comes from our first job. There was an 80 year old man who, more or less, joined our crew. His name was Denver (last name unknown). He spent most of the time spitting a ton of "backer" out among the girls and laughing at our kid's lack of construction knowledge. He was always coming in and leaving, every hour or so, claiming that he had to "feed the horses." And, at one point, he said, "Buddy, I don't move too fast, but I can if I have to. I bet if we raced to the top of that roof, I'd be up there in a heartbeat and you'd still be on the ground. aHEH HEH HEH HEH (spit backer here)." I had no response.
There has been a song dedicated to Ross and I, you can find it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1vFVvS0xxo4&feature=related
holla at you boy, and cheers.
quote of the day:
Life is change, and change looks frightening
Watch that wind I’ve been warned
But I live to feel this lightning
In this perfect storm
p.s. Here is a great article on the Pope's visit, which I am greatly excited about
http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html
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I went to Pittsburgh on 4/15 and the red buds were beautiful on the surrounding hillsides.
Correction, here in the big city people do use the one finger wave.
Maybe his last name was "Colorado".
We are also happily watching EWTN to see the Pope in the USA! Viva la papa!
Don't forget, you now have friends in the Appalachians as well as in Chi-town. And I bet if we dig far enough back in the pantry, we can even find some expired food too.
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