Katrina storm pics

I feel like a soccer mom!!!!!

Hi everybody!! I know it has been a while since I have posted, but things have been very hectic here. Well, I am back in Mississippi, living in Hattiesburg where the main campus of USM is located. Its about an 1 hour 10 min drive. The university has put us up in the family housing dorms, mind you I had told myself that I would never live in a dorm again, and these were getting ready to be tourn down, so they are not the nicest. And they are right across from frat row :(, now some of the students here were like, yay that sounds great!! They obviously do not know me!! First, I am not big into the frat boys, 2nd saturday all i could hear was there loud music playing (it sounded like i had a sterio turned all the way up in my dorm room :( ). I walked into this place and it was like a scarry freshman year flashback, but i didnt have all the cool new stuff this time. The apt came with a bed, fridge stove, it lacks a kitchen sink however, so dishes are washed in the bathroom sink, atleast there is a bathroom sink. So i had to go out and buy a shower curtain and all that kind of stuff and lots and lots of antibacterial stuff and bleach!! But its a place to stay for free and it is not a tent, so its not so bad. There is however a long drive (hence the soccer mom comment). The university is allowing us to use two departmental vans to transport the students back and forth (so we dont have to pay), which is very nice of them. And the majority of the students up there are the foreign national students who either cant drive or can drive but because of insurance purposes cant drive the departmental vans. So, everymorning both vans load up and i ask everyone if they have their badges (and usually someone has to go get it), so i totally feel like a soccer mom with kids, then it is off to starbucks so i can wake up, and then drive then begins. It kills so much of the day, it rather sucks, but i like to drive, I cant read or write in a car (i get sick), so atleast driving gives me something to do!

Anyway, cell phones still dont work here -- it took me 4 days to get in contact with my mom, so many towers were destroyed that its hard to get throught. If anyone has called me -- i dont know it, because my phone doesnt give me my messages till like 4 or 5 days later. Now every once in a while it works ok, but not very often.

Then there is the internet, the buildings here do not have ac, so the internet stuff and servers can not be run all day, because of them over heating -- so we have limited internet access... depending on how hot the building gets and what not. It should be fixed sometime this week -- Oh I hope it gets fixed, it is hot as hell in here!

Anyway, my days are filled with catch up for class, lots of reading and trying to repair this place. A good bit of the labs and offices were damaged, so charlotte's (my advisor) office is in the hallway across from my office. so things are quite hectic.

well thats a quick update -- ill do more later when i have time

KATRINA

http://community.webshots.com/user/jik24601 --- pics from katrina -- i will be adding more later

RIP GEORGE!

So, I went to the beach today to lay out and to start reading the latest Harry Potter book. I know, I know how could I have not read it already? Well, I was waiting for a time when I didn't have a large stack of school papers to read, cause I knew I would choose Harry over School and that is bad! So, I deferred reading it till now. So, as I was laying there this little dark green lizard comes running up and hangs out next to me. He hangs out for a while, I give him some of the granola I was eating. And we bonded, I named him George. So we hung out for a while more, he mad excellent beach company. He then decided that he was going to go down to the water for a little swim and to enjoy the water lapping over his toes. So as he makes his way down to the waters edge this crow flies up, lands next to him and eats George in one large GULP! :( Stupid crow, dumb "circle of life" crap! Biology sucks, and poor George, the last thing he saw was the inside of a crows mouth.

So this blog is dedicated to my beach companion George. He was a good lizard and will be missed by all!!!! RIP GEORGE!!

Place to live rant

Sorry, I need to complain for a moment :)

Well the department has decided to start classes on the 19th of September, the main campus is resuming classes on the 12th. Since many of the students (mostlikely including myself) do not have a place to live, the university is renting apartments for those who need it, and some of the faculty who have extra rooms will be letting some of us live in their spare room. Now these are amazing gestures, but Hattiesburg is an hour away :( and ill bet money that they are gonna make some of us who go up there share a room. Now I don't know this for sure -- but I'm guessing. There is a reason I live alone people... and I've never shared a room with anyone - - and I don't particularly want to start now. And for living with a professor, I just think that would be weird and awkward... Especially with some of them!!! Wouldn't you just feel wrong coming in after midnight... and then I don't think that I could relax, I would always feel the need to be reading some journal or working on my prospectus, I couldn't just sit down and watch TV :(. And it looks like that whichever of the two I get, it it going to be a while before I can move out. The apartments in Slidell have long waiting lists, and the rest on the coast were destroyed. So, either I will have to go farther north -- like I can afford the gas to drive to school every day, or just live with people or with an advisor. Now I know I am sounding bitchy!!!!, and it is absolutely wonderful for both the university and the professors to be putting us up like this...but :(. And I'm am sure IM not gone get a choice as to who IM living with, if I live in Hattiesburg ill probably share an apartment with the few people I really don't like, and if I live with an advisor ill probably get Charlotte or one of the Russians. I wouldn't want to live with Charlotte, because well she is my advisor, I need some time away from her... and her husband and her tend to put me in the middle of their little jokes ("hey jenny, go tell Allan this..."), which is fun at work, but it wouldn't be fun all day. Or if I get placed with a Russian (they are very nice men, and have very nice wives) but they smoke like no tomorrow! I don't think my lungs could handle it. OH well, we will see how this goes!

Update

Hey. . . so it looks as if I am going to be staying in myrtle beach for a little while. . . I can work for bath and bodyworks again (I worked there during undergrad) and I am sure if I ask Scott or Erik one of them would have some work that I can do... So it looks like I am in myrtle beach for a while, sorry Amanda ;). . . I heard from Charlotte today (my advisor) and it appears all who stayed at stennis are safe. . . the roof had a leak but it was fixed and they had water and electric, however FEMA has taken all of the diesel so the generator will not beable to run past tonight, so they are all leaving stennis for elsewhere. Charlotte says she has no idea about school and what is gonna happen. . . she is heading to Old Miss (Oxford Mississippi) for a week, and then if it appears that things are not better by then then Allan (her husband) and Charlotte will be going to san Diego (allan's family lives there). . . so . . . who knows. . .

with new orleans continuing to worsen and people still being trapped there, all aid and crews are being sent there, so no one is working on the Mississippi coast, so it may be a long time before we can go back... Some have even suggested Feb. . .but who knows. . . no one knows. . .

Aww

Bay St. Louis: A rusty patchwork quilt of foundations, scraped clean of their houses, all that's left of choice homes, prized for their water views

how poetic -- this was in the sun herald paper, this is all that they say about my town :(

SHIT

www.wlbt.com you can find aerials of the bay area. . . there is nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!