Here we are

Back in St. Louis - yay for humidity! I think I've sweat more here in the last few days than I did the entire summer in Colorado. Luckily, my parents have a pool.
Jason and I are currently living in my sister's room (the poor girl) because the basement is not finished yet. They had the ENTIRE summer to finish it, but, I'm not that surprised. I think I am a member of the busiest family in Amercia. Saturday Jason, my mom and myself went through the boxes in the basement (that have been down there for two years now) and almost everything ended up in the throw away pile or the give away pile. Monday Jason and I loaded up a friend's pick-up truck three times with junk! We took a trip to the dump, a trip to goodwill, and a trip to the church. Good times! We also got to demolish this big shelf made of 2x4's next to the stairs with a hammer and a crowbar. It was awesome! Do you remember making block towers as a little kid? I'd want to make it as high as I could but about halfway through the construction the urge to just knock it all down and fling the blocks across the room would overtake me and I'd desroy it. Then later in life I'd really be trying to build a nice tower and my little brother would just pulvorize the thing - I'd cry he'd laugh. Anyway, I guess that urge to destroy never quite leaves us because I thoroughly enjoyed knocking that thing down one piece of wood at a time - except for the time I almost hit Jason. He didn't think that was very funny... So now the dry wall guy is supposed to come on Saturday and we'll be another step closer to having a room of our own! Keep your fingers crossed.

Here's a thought. With all of the coverage of Hurricane Catrina at times I have felt like I am watching a movie. On Sunday night all of the news channels were throwing out their predictions of the worst non-stop. Then on the local news they interviewed a random woman whose sister lives in New Orleans. She decided not to evacuate her home because her car didn't have much gas. Then on my dad's satellite television guide the weather channel was titled "Hurricane Catrina Coverage" We found ourselves watching the news channels, soaking up their predictions and wondering if the worst would really happen. I don't know if it's just me but seeing something on TV too much tends to desensitize me to it. It doesn't feel like real people. Maybe it's just all of the hype that comes before the actual hurricanes here. When the Tsunami hit last winter that felt very real. I felt horrible for those people. There was no hype or predictions here about that tragedy- it just hit. There was no mental preparation for the devestation we saw on television and it hit right at the heart. So maybe all of the hype just makes me numb to the actual happenings. I'm not sure why I feel this way but it bothers me. Jason and I have tossed around the idea of asking the Red Cross or the Salvation Army if they need people to go down there. We have the time right now. That would make it very real.

One more thing; I like St. Louis more than I ever thought possible, and that scares me. I think it's going to be hard to say a final goodbye.