An Eventful Week
Amazingly enough, it’s already September. This means I’ve been working for a month, and we’re about 3 weeks away from the official end of summer. It’s Labor Day weekend, but I’d been out of work for so long that I’d lost track of holidays. If it hadn’t been for one of my co-workers reminding me about the upcoming holiday I might have showed up at work on Monday wondering where everyone else was. I’m looking forward to having 3 days to relax since it’s been a long week. I’ve stayed late at work every day this week since I had so much to do. At least it has been a very productive week and I’ve made a lot of progress on several fronts. The extra effort was worth it, but I hope that next week I’ll be able to leave work at 5 o’clock every day.
Last weekend flew by and I’m not too sure what I did during those 2 days. Tim and I worked on our puzzle some more, and I worked on my plants. I spent plenty of time with the cats, of course. I also finally saw my neighbor Dean’a. I hadn’t seen her since I left for New Mexico in mid-July and was wondering what had happened to her and her husband. Saturday night I saw lights in their apartment and decided to knock. I got no response so I came back home, wrote up a note, and went back to leave it on their door. I thought I’d try knocking once more before leaving the note and Dean’a actually opened the door! She told me the reason why they hadn’t been around was that they were getting a divorce and so were moving out of the apartment. I couldn’t believe it, but then again I hadn’t known them that long or that well. She was working on packing up some of her things and said she’d be back in a number of times to continue with the packing. We sat outside to chat and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and it was time for both of us to go to sleep. It was nice to see her again, though I wish her news had been better. Then again, she seemed to be dealing with the situation very well. Now I have her cell phone number and she has my phone number and she knows she can call us or drop by anytime if she needs help with anything.
The other interesting development took place on Monday when we heard an unexpected knock on our door (we don’t get many visitors). It was Noshin and Arman, two kids who live across the parking lot. They both love cats and that’s how I originally met them since I spend so much time outside with the cats. Noshin is in the 6th grade and Arman is in 3rd. Noshin had her math book with her and asked if we could help her out with mixed numbers. I of course said we’d be happy to so I let them in and sat down with her to work through some addition problems that involved fractions and mixed numbers. It was fun finding ways to explain how to solve the problems, but also challenging. It’s much easier to do math than to try to explain it. It’s especially hard because if I have to add mixed numbers, I do it in my head and don’t really think about the process. I also take a lot of shortcuts, but I didn’t want to confuse Noshin with shortcuts. Shortcuts come later, once you understand how something works. Arman grew bored since he’s 3 years away from mixed numbers, so Tim took him upstairs to play with Lena. Luckily Arman had a great time with Lena, even though Lena wasn’t even playing along the whole time. We told the kids they could come back anytime they needed help with homework. Generally their dad helps them with math since their mom says she isn’t very good at it, but their dad is currently working afternoons so he’s not available when the kids come home from school and need to do their homework.
This means I finally met their mom, who is really sweet. Unfortunately she is terribly allergic to cats and during the short while she was in our apartment she was already feeling the effects of dander or hair or whatever was causing the allergy. We didn’t speak too long that day, but yesterday I went by their apartment and she and I talked for probably over an hour. She and her husband are originally from Bangladesh and lived in Los Angeles until a few years ago. Like me, they found OKC hard to adjust to because it’s such a different type of city. But also like me, they are enjoying the much lower cost of living. I’ve talked to her husband a number of times already (and he’s the one under whose car Mama Cat had placed her babies before I brought them into the house) and he’s a great guy too. They really make a wonderful family. We’re trying to see if we can find a time when everyone’s schedules work out to get together for dinner—I think that would be very nice.
This has also been a very eventful week in terms of hurricane Katrina and the devastation it has caused. We all knew that someday New Orleans would completely flood, but I guess residents weren’t expecting it to happen this time around. I can’t imagine losing my house and everything in it and having to be evacuated to a different city, and perhaps even a different state. It angers me that so many people are looting and that on top of that, some of the looters are shooting at rescue helicopters. As if there weren’t enough injured and stranded people, the looters are willing to prevent others from receiving help so that they may steal merchandise that has nothing to do with survival. I saw a sign online that someone had posted outside their home or store that said, “Looters will be shot on sight.” That person had the right idea.
One of the effects of Katrina that has hit everyone around the country has been the soaring price of gas. A few days ago I saw it rise within a few hours from $2.69 (which was already very high) to $2.75. The next day I saw it at $2.97, and luckily Tim fueled up then because a few hours after that the price had risen to $3.09. It’s unbelievable to think that just a few weeks ago I had fueled up at $2.17. At least the price seems to have stabilized. I’m lucky that I filled up my tank right before the prices starting going up so drastically. I am also very glad that Tim and I drive fuel efficient vehicles. I had to laugh yesterday when I saw a Hummer pulling into a gas station. I wondered how foolish the driver might be feeling at his or her vehicle choice. If gas prices stay this high for a long while, I am curious to see if there will be a lot of people trading in large SUVs for vehicles that are more appropriate for their needs and their wallets. But I’m not going to get into an anti-SUV rant. If I did, I’d be typing here for hours!
Now I’m looking forward to a relaxing, uneventful weekend.
Last weekend flew by and I’m not too sure what I did during those 2 days. Tim and I worked on our puzzle some more, and I worked on my plants. I spent plenty of time with the cats, of course. I also finally saw my neighbor Dean’a. I hadn’t seen her since I left for New Mexico in mid-July and was wondering what had happened to her and her husband. Saturday night I saw lights in their apartment and decided to knock. I got no response so I came back home, wrote up a note, and went back to leave it on their door. I thought I’d try knocking once more before leaving the note and Dean’a actually opened the door! She told me the reason why they hadn’t been around was that they were getting a divorce and so were moving out of the apartment. I couldn’t believe it, but then again I hadn’t known them that long or that well. She was working on packing up some of her things and said she’d be back in a number of times to continue with the packing. We sat outside to chat and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and it was time for both of us to go to sleep. It was nice to see her again, though I wish her news had been better. Then again, she seemed to be dealing with the situation very well. Now I have her cell phone number and she has my phone number and she knows she can call us or drop by anytime if she needs help with anything.
The other interesting development took place on Monday when we heard an unexpected knock on our door (we don’t get many visitors). It was Noshin and Arman, two kids who live across the parking lot. They both love cats and that’s how I originally met them since I spend so much time outside with the cats. Noshin is in the 6th grade and Arman is in 3rd. Noshin had her math book with her and asked if we could help her out with mixed numbers. I of course said we’d be happy to so I let them in and sat down with her to work through some addition problems that involved fractions and mixed numbers. It was fun finding ways to explain how to solve the problems, but also challenging. It’s much easier to do math than to try to explain it. It’s especially hard because if I have to add mixed numbers, I do it in my head and don’t really think about the process. I also take a lot of shortcuts, but I didn’t want to confuse Noshin with shortcuts. Shortcuts come later, once you understand how something works. Arman grew bored since he’s 3 years away from mixed numbers, so Tim took him upstairs to play with Lena. Luckily Arman had a great time with Lena, even though Lena wasn’t even playing along the whole time. We told the kids they could come back anytime they needed help with homework. Generally their dad helps them with math since their mom says she isn’t very good at it, but their dad is currently working afternoons so he’s not available when the kids come home from school and need to do their homework.
This means I finally met their mom, who is really sweet. Unfortunately she is terribly allergic to cats and during the short while she was in our apartment she was already feeling the effects of dander or hair or whatever was causing the allergy. We didn’t speak too long that day, but yesterday I went by their apartment and she and I talked for probably over an hour. She and her husband are originally from Bangladesh and lived in Los Angeles until a few years ago. Like me, they found OKC hard to adjust to because it’s such a different type of city. But also like me, they are enjoying the much lower cost of living. I’ve talked to her husband a number of times already (and he’s the one under whose car Mama Cat had placed her babies before I brought them into the house) and he’s a great guy too. They really make a wonderful family. We’re trying to see if we can find a time when everyone’s schedules work out to get together for dinner—I think that would be very nice.
This has also been a very eventful week in terms of hurricane Katrina and the devastation it has caused. We all knew that someday New Orleans would completely flood, but I guess residents weren’t expecting it to happen this time around. I can’t imagine losing my house and everything in it and having to be evacuated to a different city, and perhaps even a different state. It angers me that so many people are looting and that on top of that, some of the looters are shooting at rescue helicopters. As if there weren’t enough injured and stranded people, the looters are willing to prevent others from receiving help so that they may steal merchandise that has nothing to do with survival. I saw a sign online that someone had posted outside their home or store that said, “Looters will be shot on sight.” That person had the right idea.
One of the effects of Katrina that has hit everyone around the country has been the soaring price of gas. A few days ago I saw it rise within a few hours from $2.69 (which was already very high) to $2.75. The next day I saw it at $2.97, and luckily Tim fueled up then because a few hours after that the price had risen to $3.09. It’s unbelievable to think that just a few weeks ago I had fueled up at $2.17. At least the price seems to have stabilized. I’m lucky that I filled up my tank right before the prices starting going up so drastically. I am also very glad that Tim and I drive fuel efficient vehicles. I had to laugh yesterday when I saw a Hummer pulling into a gas station. I wondered how foolish the driver might be feeling at his or her vehicle choice. If gas prices stay this high for a long while, I am curious to see if there will be a lot of people trading in large SUVs for vehicles that are more appropriate for their needs and their wallets. But I’m not going to get into an anti-SUV rant. If I did, I’d be typing here for hours!
Now I’m looking forward to a relaxing, uneventful weekend.
posted by Ana at 21:50
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