New Orleans, LA

About six months after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 a group of folks from Intuit partnered with Habitat for Humanity to volunteer for a week.  That first trip became an annual tradition and I have been participating since 2008.  Since I don't start my new job until mid-July (details on that later), I was able to join the group one more time.  It has been nearly 8 years since Hurricane Katrina hit, but you'd never believe it was that long ago when you see the amount of need still crippling the city.  Habitat has done an awesome job doing their part to rebuild communities, but it still amazes me that for every house we work on, there are 5 more on the block that need to be condemned and/or demolished.  The good news is that I have seen remarkable improvement year over year and continue to be impressed by the enthusiasm and resiliency of the people who love the city.  It is inspiring!

Rather than breaking down the trip day-by-day, I'll capture some highlights for this post:

I arrived on Monday and met everyone at the house where I was handed a frozen daiquiri.  What a good way to start off the trip!  The build is always Tuesday through Friday, but we typically spend an entire week in the city at a rented house.  This year, we rented a different house than usual and were in a whole new neighborhood that had lots of restaurants and shops within walking distance.  Once Marilyn arrived from North Dakota, we made our way to dinner at Jacques Imo's down the street from our house.  It was really crowded, but Danny went in and worked his magic to get 2 tables next to each other that could accommodate all 14 of us!  It was so late that I decided to only have an appetizer, but all of the food looked amazing.  We realized upon walking up to the place that one of the bars Fred and Len had been told to visit was right next door (The Maple Leaf) so we got some cocktails while we waited for the tables to be cleared and set.  We had several newcomers to the group this year so I was eager to see how the dynamic might change.  Well, as you probably could guess, the newbies only made things better, fitting right in and becoming the ring leaders for debauchery.

Table #1 at Jacques Imo's - That's Bo hiding behind me!

We worked on two different houses this year and got to meet the to-be-owners of both which was awesome.  First, we did some finishing work on a house that would be moved into at the end of the month.  Anastasia and her 6-year-old son would be moving into the first house we worked on.  Originally from Russia, she was visiting the US when Hurricane Katrina hit and gut stuck in the city.  She's been there every since.  She was closing out her sweat equity hours while we were finishing her house and it was so nice to know she'd be happily living in the house once we finished it.  Second, we worked on a house that would eventually be owned by Brian, Maggie and their two kids.  Their house was in the earlier stages of the build out and we worked primarily on siding and painting.  The work was very rewarding, as always, but by 10:00 am on the first day we were once again questioning why we continue to do this in May/June each year.  It was so hot and humid that my t-shirt was soaked through and I had reapplied sunscreen twice already!  Luckily we had enough cases of water to keep an army hydrated so no one got physically ill from the heat.

Working on house #2 mid-week.

The fruits of our labor - House #2 at the end of the week!

Tuesday was Jeff's birthday and we went to Brennan's for dinner.  After a slight miscommunication about which location we were actually eating at, we all arrived in time to order.  After numerous bottles of wine and some delicious food, the restaurant staff bought out a loaf of bread that had been dressed up to look like Jeff.  We all sang happy birthday and decided Bread Jeff would be the 15th guest in our house for the remainder of the week.  It was priceless.  He began causing mischief throughout the house immediately and I can honestly say that our antics with Bread Jeff gave me some of the hardest laughs I've had in years.  We added more Jeff-specific characteristics throughout the week and eventually had to put him in ziplock bag to stave off the fruit flies and gnats.  Check him out:

Real Jeff, posing with Bread Jeff on his birthday!

Bread Jeff's demise at the end of the week.  A true NOLA-style funeral!

We also had dinner at a fabulous Sushi place called Chiba one night and were pleased to find out that it was Happy Hour all night, so we had 1/2 price sushi and cocktails.  To say that we gorged ourselves is an understatement.  It was fantastic and we were all able to sit at one table:

The whole group at Chiba for sushi.

We had a great week and I can't believe how quickly the time flew by...  Some of us had to head out on Saturday and closed out the trip with brunch at The Country Club which is a place we discovered last year.  Delicious food and interesting clientele.  Check it out for yourself if you are in NOLA!

I am off to Chicago for the Urban Challenge later this week.  I am trying to fit in as many trips as possible before starting my new job at Q2 in mid-July!  After Chicago I have my cousin's wedding in NJ and July 4th in either Mexico or Puerto Rico.  More on that in future posts...