GUIDING LIGHT WEEK- YIPPEEE celebs!

Gulf Coast sunset! Pretty! Oh, so pretty!

Monday January 22nd:

I must mention that Guiding Light, a daytime soap, is "staying" with Hands On for this week and "building" three homes.... found out they volunteer once a year with a non-profit- AWESOME! and this will be on local prime time! so watch for it we may be in the background making faces or pointing at those gorgeous stars! Props to my grandma because she told me she watches that show and is a big fan so she would definitely enjoy having these stars around for a week.

I don't really know what we are in for as we have been told not to wear any logos, hats and being a girl I have to wear my hair up... arrrrgh the luxuries of being in the presence of celebs; along with this.... I begin my breakfast, awkwardly gazing around the room at the randomness, cameras, booms (the speakers).... yada yada..

soon, oh so very soon, we are told to move out of our seats and move to other tables because the table I was enjoying my breakfast at is going to "be for the actors."

I FIND MY SKETCHBOOK! - at the Coordination Center, on the floor- where I did not leave it, all lonely, I must say it was a joyous morning! I help work on plywood, curbing more Sheetrock, measuring for the base boards, and adding more Internet lines at the Coordination Center this morning, lots of odd and ends really.

OK, lunch time I have to say this. OMAR is on my meanie list. Blurred on the actual lunch we had but here is what Omar did. We are all sitting at the picnic tables eating lunch under the BIG yellow and white striped tent at SALVO. (don't know the reason for this nickname but that is the lingo for the Salvation Army, which is currently feeding us and housing volunteers at the Biloxi Yankee Stadium. To my left is Peter and to his left is Derek, Derek has a PB sandwich and for some reason I forget Peter leans in close to smell the PB... I follow and get a little, too much, closer and WHAM! My mouth and cheeks are covered and my nose is full of PB! There is a quick move as my hand wipes off the PB and lands it on Derek's knee ( sorry for assumptions and not thinking - Derek would never) I soon find out it was OMAR! - I go chase for the attack of the PB hand I have from wiping my mouth... long story short revenge is sweet and has yet to happen.... stay tuned, I have to let him forget that I will have revenge...

We head to studio and we end up spending the first hour or so talking about our Dewey reading; Primary (crude, common, non-verbal) vs. Secondary (refined, understanding, reflective) Experience.

O.W.H. - "The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience."

We then get a good amount of time to have our first design ideas drawn for the large sliding interior doors for the Coordination Center. Each of us present and many interesting ideas are discussed (reuse of the church windows, repeating the pattern of the plywood, varies in density, exposed studs, operable parts, a place to display community, dynamic piecemeal, waterline and reflection)


Tonight we have a catered meal! YUMMMMMM E! I'd say this made up for making me move mid-breakfast munch. Hands On has become a ruckus of celebs and with all good intentions we go to the Pub to discuss door designs and choose groups but some of us got distracted. Oh, and I beat Omar at pool!

Tuesday January 23rd:

We are off to a late start (hmmm. the Pub is a bad choice to try and work???), we somehow form a group for the doors as Peter, Omar and I head to the Katrina Memorial that Mike has suggested going to see. The reflective granite wall (which will soon get the names of all residents that passed away from the storm) is at 12 feet, the depth of the storm surge that came through Biloxi. I learned the term "Slabbing" homes, (leaving nothing but concrete) when I looked up Dennis Cowart, the architect, and found an article written about it.

Picture of the week!

Our construction methods class today was to inform us about the Hazard of building on the coast, the flood zones (V for velocity and A for .... means nothing) and the new building codes raising homes above the flood elevation (now 12'-16'). We also looked at the Model Home Program projects (you can check out at the Architecture for Humanity website). One is seriously called the 'Porchdog' because it ended up looking like a dog in elevation.


Tonight for our seminar we go to Shady's.

Wednesday January 24th:

Omar, Peter and I have a few sketches, but want to see what we find with local resources and reusing found materials that are placed on the curbs or found within the numerous piles on the side of roads.... sounds good! After a few stops, we talk with a crew working on a demo and they warn us about the mold on the materials and that we will have to treat it. We decide to head into the Coordination Center to talk with David about our door design. We conclude with new materials, and some criticism for our ideas, we head to the St. Louis. (where we have been building and is the location for the new Coordination Center) We spend the morning collecting our ideas and we are about to go to lunch when Mike pulls up and sees all of us leaving. We are not fast enough, he wants to see what we have. (without us being able to construct anything) - we end up getting a really odd critic but with a major concern for ours looking like too many found objects in a nice composition. We focus the rest of the afternoon on design build, getting our hands dirty with the materials.

Pizza for dinner! Omar, Peter and I, eat and run back to the 'studio' to work out our design. We found it difficult in the afternoon to work with the shortage of tools. I get my newest nickname from Omar this evening, Sunshine... not for being a happy bright star. Omar and I decide to join up with some of the crew at the pub watching the B-ball game. MS state lost : ( BUT, I WON at 301! We meet LeOn tonight, Conor's french middle name transforms a new side of Conor we have not seen before.

Thursday January 25th

This morning I feel a sickness coming on, : (

Peter, Omar and I work on our big design ideas to complete a partial full scale model (pic update later) and I try the skillsaw today. (Matt doesn't trust me, I guess...

In Construction Methods I pass out in class, head bobs and all- Mike talked about development.... Della offered me notes.

Mike and David later in the afternoon gave us a great crit on where are design was going.

Dinner tonight jumbalia. mmmm mmmmm! The evening meeting is never ending and we end up clapping......

clapping.... stand up, sit down....

and clapping..... at times we don't even know why we are clapping.

Hands On, every Thursday, has the NO TALENT TALENT SHOW... this time with the actors involved made it Great! FIRST, I'd like to say Debbie Gibson flew down (random) to sing and kick off the talent show! I got a pic with her that I will track down for proof! We had dancing, poems, many great songs (reverse cowgirl), the oldest and the youngest guys here streaked across the room for their 'act' (when is the next time you get celebs in a room to run naked in front of??? -clever thinking boys!), an actress known for her 'crying act'- probably the best we will ever get to witness here.

OH how cute, pose for the 70th Anniversary cake!

Tonight we headed out to 'Just Us'- with peeps from Hands On and the cast of Guiding Light, not too bad but Hands On peeps basically took over the place and the Karaoke kept the actors on stage, performing songs all night. Met a local and her friend. (Omar got his toosh patted while standing in line for the lil' boys room- GO Omar!)

Friday, January 26th

Today I feel like my throat is coated in sandpaper and my head is filled with mush... below the sad pic of what I looked like... in the zone?

Here is a play by play: Go to the Coordination Center to "work". my first question: How many people does it take to screw in a light bulb? (or to accomplish a 4 person work load?) I sit and chat with Nadene, I don't try to 'look' busy, I wait for work... screw in 10+/- tapcon anchors into concrete block...which I enjoyed doing and learned a screw driver has two modes, wood and concrete (dealing with power/battery), take a break for Snickers, (hungry why wait, right?), lunch time slowly comes around, I see chickens in a yard that are waiting for their picture to be taken... lovely!Ok, notice this new smiley face! It is the first warm sunny afternoon! and my cheery cheese face was not what I was displaying earlier or later... I take a nap in the car after lunch and then sweep for the rest of the day. Below are pics of me finishing my tapcon anchoring day.

OK best meal now... SOUTHERN BBQ! YUMMY! Tonight is a stay in, do laundry, move inside to sleep, Matt gets a Mohawk and I stay nice and too warm all night!

Saturday January 27th

Rain, rain rain, Omar, Della, Peter, Lucia and I head out to the Unity Homes ribbon cutting, an affordable "green" modular home. (pics soon) What a wonderful surprise - catered food, dang this is a good week! There is a choir and a good speach about the rebuilding that will be going on with these model homes on Martin Luther King Blvd. I just have to add, I could not of asked for anything better as I ate my favorite desert, the Banana cream pudding, as a singer, who does Luis Armstrong impressions sang "What a wonderful world."

We go out to a movie tonight; the Pursuit of Happiness! GREAT FLICK!

Nightcap: Ice cream and fries at Sonics.

Sunday January 28th

This morning with Derek and Peter, I meet up with Ollie, a Hope Force volunteer, from London, also working at the Coordination Center, who invited us to his church Calvary Gulf Coast. We go to lunch with another couple from the church and then return to camp for a nice 2.5 hour nap.

BILOXI WEEK 1 UPDATE!

Our first week already and it feels like a month has just flown by. I would describe my experience so far as being challenged outside of daily rituals. Expecting to be living inside a building and sleeping in bunks- I soon came to realize that my expectations are quickly diminishing and I am going to live each day as it comes.

Monday January 15th:
The trees fascinate me, I am curious of the empty lots and my hearts sinks, as I take a deep breath and view numerous blank foundations, some with stairs to nothing. The beach is on my left through the thick fog I barely see the Gulf.

I am told we will be in tents for two weeks and my thoughts of this experience being like camp makes me smile.

As we pull up to Hands On, it’s a big box to my right and an interesting combination of regular and M.A.S.H. style tents. Inside the good ol’ green is a lil’ commune. A “little America” as I would like to call it, all the same tents, small backyards and minimal side yards and only two per household. Oh and by the way, the nearest WALMART is 0.7 miles away, YIPPEEE!
We set up another G.I. Joe tent and organize our new sleeping arrangement. James starts calling me Shanaenae. I meet the dog, named Helicopter (Animal Rescue team - he was one of 26 pups) and the cat, named Marmalade. (she acts like a dog and is determined to get a taste of your food)I get a tour, by Matt, of our living situation; the Spin Cycle (laundry and local hangout for movies and video games) the outdoor showers and the Hands On facility, that I will refer to as the DoomBox, (no daylighting -kinda smells, and I always seem to get tired in there) has toilets, our kitchen and dining area, computers and the indoor sleeping areas in the lofts (which are disastrous).

Dinner time and Omar and myself get to stand up and introduce ourselves to a group of 60+ strangers.... food was not so bad, but I have to say its not like home!

We go to the pub a block down the street called, 'The Pub' - Have a few 2$ domestic beers and Omar starts the game "googly eyes." I get the nicknames; Jackpot and Swamp Ass or Swampy for short (Omar), personally I like Jackpot (thanks James).

During the night I froze, it rained and I barely slept.

Tuesday, January 16th:

First day of class. Class?! I spend the morning stapling insulation into the stud walls within this church that is being renovated to be the new location for the Gulf Coast Community Design Center. We are told to hold off on covering the electrical so we do as much as we can. What I learned: I need gloves that fit my small hands, I almost stapled my hands to the studs 20x today. At lunch we had roast beef sandwiches and chips. We skim through the book 'Before and After Katrina' - a book that gave great incites to all of our thoughts on what some of the places that we are getting to know once looked like.

Gulf Coast Community Design Studio

After lunch we meet Bill, director of the East Biloxi Coordination Center. Very insightful his words were inspiring to hear on the first day of class; "purpose to the madness.... see it or not, everything we do will make a difference....perceptions are reality.... divine appointments... trust and believe... see miracles." We then headed over to the site of the Tellus House - an important place that shared many memories with the community here, now gone, except for the trees and a short white sign that read; "Please wait here for next tour."
David Perks spoke warmly about the trees and how they truly stand strong with nature and create a sense of place in Biloxi, "The trees were here first...they hold with them stories of the past... but can still keep growing."

Wednesday, January 17th:

When you step into an outdoor shower, you really realize its outside because you can see the sky, feel the cold air but it's not until you commit to undress behind the wooden walls that you really comprehend you are really going to shower outside... I'll tell you its a battle of good and bad, but mostly good.

Today I continued insulation and others started cutting plywood. I helped clean up but tried my best to conserve the materials that were going to the curb even though I was told people know 'curb items' are up for grabs. Today is a nap day, dinner was Mexican! (taco salads!) and started our readings (Dewey, Experience and Nature)

Tonight I go to bed with a shit grin, somebody loves me and doesn't want me to be cold! A sleeping bag was in my bed! My first night that I am too warm and I actually take off a few layers!

Thursday, January 18th:

Today I Sheetrocked! I learned a lot of common sense issues on ladder position, tying cords, reading levels, lifting Sheetrock, supporting Sheetrock, screwing Sheetrock, measuring and cutting Sheetrock, checking screws in Sheetrock, zipping holes out of Sheetrock... ok you get the point, I learned a lot today about Sheetrock. Lots of puns and jokes- my fav.! "We are rockin' the sheets and screwing lots!" I get the nicknames 'trouble' and 'fluffy pants.' (don't really understand this one till this day)

During class I also had my first embarrassing moment. Words don't always come out the way you are thinking about them... so here is my infamous quote of the day, "How come teachers always say they cant sleep with us" I spoke up after Micheal stated he had insomnia.

Tonight at dinner a game was introduced to us to help tie breakin' and its similar to the game paper rock scissors, called the Steve Irwin, hand motions included!, the Steve Irwin (hands in front of chest making a scary grab motion) beats the alligator (hands stretched out opening and shutting like that of a large mouth) and the alligator beats the stingray (arms and hands move at your side in a wave motion) and you can guess it the stingray beats Steve Irwin. ... pretty genius.

Friday, January 19th:

We take a tour of local projects that are complete or under construction. The bridge that will connect Biloxi to Ocean Springs that is not anything special but could have been but the city just wanted to get something started. We see a community center in De' Lisle designed by SHoP and by Parson's Design Build Studio... (check out the website www.parsonsdesignworkshop.org : 39571 project). WOW! Have an excellent lunch at the cafe. We meet up with Brandon, a builder, and go inside a modular home made in a factory in Texas.

On our way home we stop and take pics of many houses that are now rebuilt on large pilasters. Some just look better than others. Does this look wrong to you too?

This is a moment where we stopped to understand the composed signs and came to a conclusion that the campsite behind is for volunteers and the names of places are where they are from... breathtaking and beautiful!

Tonight we went to S&B's suggested by James for his last night, (for this week) for Crawdads (craw fish). The best service ever! even though they did not have any craw fish - its not in season yet - I have crab cakes and try hushpuppies for the first time- yummy! we have a blast, get a little rowdy and enjoy great food!

Saturday, January 20th:

We work in the morning to finish up the Sheetrock and then we head over to our site after lunch at a great Vietnamese restaurant, Pho 777. My sketchbook is currently MIA. Tonight was a break from the last and I cannot concentrate on the readings at all!

Favorite pics from my first site visit:

Sunday, January 21st:

Sleep till breakfast, then back to bed, then go to the 1030 mass with Chandler, here where Hands On is located, Beauvoir United Methodist Church and then head out for an Afternoon Adventure with Peter, Omar and Della. We hit up the restaurant to see if my sketchbook was left behind, nopers : / We go to the site to see the actual site since I walked the western border the first time yesterday. We see a little of main street Biloxi! cute one way, filled with closed shops and businesses. And another pedestrian side street where we imagined what business we would own... I chose the hotel. A bronze plate in the ground taught us: Biloxi, in the language of the Sioux Indians who lived here, means "the first people." We head to the beach! Finally I get my fix! We then end with ice cream in Ocean Springs, a rivalry city (really near, distance, across the peninsula) See the best thing ever! A huge oak hanging over the road, Clearance 11'0".



So far the best house in the neighborhood!

so fresh and so clean, my first blog

I will have to say that figuring this blogging this is quite fun. I am starting this blog for my friends and family to keep track of me while I am away for four months in Biloxi, Mississippi. I will be posting pictures and hopefully (with determination and strong will for success) a daily diary of my new experiences. Back for more later.... I'll keep you posted. ; )