The trip to New Orleans was really good, as those trips tend to be. I'm pretty much in love with that city, and I encourage anyone who hasn't been there to make a trip. I mean, there's a few down sides to New Orleans - extreme drunkenness, debauchery, and excessive nudity to name a few. But if you can just look past that, you'll find a city full of culture, beauty, and - best of all - music. I'll go ahead and say that my time in New Orleans has been my biggest challenge to date in our Stand-off. I've been there four times and you would think that I would be numb to the countless stores in the French Quarter designed just for shopping tourists. But each time I go my love for the city grows, and so also grows my desire for the latest cute t-shirt, or for a brightly colored painting, or for a second Cafe Du Monde mug (the first of which I am about to fill with coffee). And this time Jonathan couldn't be with us on the trip, so I found myself really wanting to bring him a piece of the city when I came home. Since I couldn't shop, I ate. The French Quarter Festival was taking place while we were there, which offers visitors two incredible opportunities - music and food. While we listened to a variety of great bands I chowed down on food from all different vendors surrounding the stages. Crawfish pies, roasted oysters, veal and crawfish po boys, and fish tacos. YUM! I want to go back already...
That's not actually the story I wanted to tell you about though. I just can't help mentioning that when I'm talking about the city. We weren't there for the French Quarter (or the beignets) though Lord knows that's a bonus. We were there to help with the rebuilding effort that continues in all parts of the city after Katrina. We worked in a home in the seventh ward, laying insulation, hanging dry wall, mudding, laying sub floors, and more. It's a great experience for the kids, and I tend to enjoy myself as well.
Long work days make for stinky feet though, and so at the end of the long work day we discovered the best place for our shoes was the porch on the second floor of the beautiful home where we were staying. Most people would stick their shoes out for a couple of hours to air out then bring them in, but I found no reason to bring mine in. The weather was beautiful and even if it wasn't the porch had a roof over it. Why not just get my shoes in the morning?
Our third night there however, a might rain storm swept through the area. I laid in bed listening to the rain and enjoying it - I love a good storm. I never gave a second thought to my protected shoes on the porch. What I didn't realize about that rain that I was happy to listen to was that it was coming down sideways. The next morning when I went to the porch to grab my sneakers I realized they were soaked through. When I picked them up, there were actually puddles underneath where the sneakers were, even though everything else on the porch was already dry.
I had packed two pairs of shoes for the trip: my sneakers for work, and my flip-flops for everything else. There was no alternative to the sneakers. With ten minutes before we had to leave for work, I had to throw them in the dryer and hope for the best.
I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what to do. The closest shoe size to me on the trip was one of the boys, and I just couldnt' bring myself to wear a pair of oversized boy sneakers all day. I'm the type that would be completely distracted and annoyed by something like that. I obviously couldn't wear my flip-flops - they weren't even allowed on the site. And I couldn't imagine my sneakers being even remotely dry even after their time in the dryer. Deciding that my work environment needed to supercede the Stuff Stand-off, I decided to go with the obvious solution and run by Walmart for a cheap pair of sneakers to wear that day.
Just as I was about to walk out the door for the store however, I had something of a guilt attack. After all, wasn't this the entire point of my Stand-off? To find out what happens when I can't just run out to the store and buy something new? Even though it was a work situation, it was my own carelessness that got my sneakers wet in the first place. It's hardly the same thing as justifying the purchase of a book that I honestly need to use for my work. Besides, a pair of Walmart sneakers is hardly worth the breach in our agreement for the year.
With a sigh, I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed myself a couple of sandwich bags from the pantry. Taking my now-extremely-moist shoes from the dryer, I pulled the sandwich bags over my toes and slipped my feet into my shoes. With my toes protected, I wasn't as bothered by the damp shoes, and once I went inside and started working at the site, I hardly noticed that there was anything different.
In my line of work, we use the expression "this too shall pass" a lot as a way of bringing people comfort. Seems to me that expression can also be used when the urge to purchase arises. I was pretty convinced I needed new sneakers that morning, but by the end of the day my shoes were dry and it was the furthest thing from my mind. If I had bought those sneakers, I'd be one guilty feeling blogger right now. Instead, I'm just the proud owner of a very old pair of running shoes that have survived another week on a mission trip. Oh, and I survived the trip too. Hooray for me and my sneakers!
Me and Fritz, and the mask I did not buy...
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