If you’re a fairly regular reader of my blog, you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as much lately as I normally tend to do. I guess it’s basically because I’ve been feeling pretty run down as of late. I’m not exactly sure why, other than I just have all these thoughts and ideas lately and always feel like there’s so much I want to do, but then when it comes time to do those things, I don’t really feel like it. But I am actually writing this post now, so that’s a start.
Yesterday Jen and I, along with her coworkers Anne and Andrea — and 100+ other people — painted the hallways and newly-constructed shelves for Malcom X Academy in Hunter’s Point (a very economically-depressed part of San Francisco, for anyone who’s not familiar with the city, which is putting it rather lightly). The elementary school falls between gang lines, so apparently there are often shootings and other sketchy happenings. So sad. The project was part of Rebuilding Together, formerly known as Christmas in April, for which I last volunteered during my junior year of high school in 1994. I still have the green shirt. I think. Wait. Maybe I finally got rid of it.
It was an exhausting all-day project. And inhaling paint all day didn’t help. It felt really good to contribute to something wherein you could see immediate return. We painted the hallways periwinkle on the bottom and a cream color on the top. We painted the shelves, which were being cranked out by the woodworkers who volunteered their time and 9.5 tons of wood, an Ikea-like green. Some people thought it was baby diaper or puke green. But I liked it. The hardest part was taking the hand brushes, sticking your head into the small compartments of each shelf, and getting into the corners. Woo-wee. Nothing like getting high from paint fumes. I swear I was still smelling the paint several hours after getting home and having showered. And today, Jen and I both have headaches, surely from all the fumes yesterday. If you look at the rest of the photos, you’ll notice little particles — probably the paint fumes and sawdust. The last time I saw that happen with my camera was in December 2001 when Jen and I visited Ground Zero.
It was so exhausting that Jen and I came home and did nothing besides watch Bill Maher and last week’s episode of Six Feet Under, which was probably the best one so far this season (with Keith’s paintball revenge, the polygamist Daddy and his many wives and children, Ruth’s escalating crush, and Keith and David’s threesome with the Sergeant from paintball). James was going to come to town, but decided not to since it was getting late. Enoch and Ben and Jess were all down for getting together, but I was too beat, so we didn’t.
Tonight we’re going to a dinner party at Jeanine’s place, which should be cool. Jen is at the store getting some stuff to make some vegetarian dishes to bring.
