I'm in Need

And it is not a comfortable thing.

I've never been in need before. I've always- well, for as long as I can remember- had food. I've had a fridge. I've never been without electricity at home for five straight days.

I don't feel like I'm in need, but apparently I am. I feel like, well, I might not have lighting or a full pantry*, but... I don't know. I guess this is what it feels like, though. I'm incredibly grateful for all the help we've received and the kind people around Nashville- the Jews up at the Jewish Community Center that gave us tennis shoes and deodorant (both of which were desperately needed, let me tell ya), the Section II Clubhouse here in River Plantation (great food!), Logan's Roadhouse (free dinner last night), and the folks at 107.5 The River (best top 40 radio station evar), who donated $225,000 to the various shelters.

For those of you not in the know, Nashville experienced some serious flooding. My mom's house only got a foot of water, but a foot does enough damage. We ripped out all the carpet and laminate on the bottom floor of the house, as well as the bottom two feet of all the drywall. Since we're in a condo, you can look through that bottom two feet and see inside the neighbors' house.

And, on top of all this, it's been in the nineties temperature-wise lately, so of course the damn mold is setting in where people aren't properly drying things.

Next door, the lady was just kind of sitting in her wet carpet. After two days. So me, Mom, Todd, Nama (by grandmother), and David (Todd's friend) went in there and ripped up all that carpet, and got rid of the stuff that was gonna mold, and just worked our asses off for about six hours. So then I went to bed smelling kinda musty, with a bit of wet carpet perfume and cat piss cologne mixed in there. (Yeah, she has a ton of cats, and she's lived in that place for twenty-five years.)

Anyways. I'm staying at my grandmother's tonight and going to work with her, now that we're at a standstill at the condo, waiting for things to dry. There's not much I could really do there, so I'm going to her office to hang out.

Have a wonderful freaking evening, internet.

*Though we did rip the pantry out, so I guess it couldn't be full regardless of the situation.