So that cousin whose story I said should be on the news but probably won’t be? Well, it turns out, he is on the news. Video and all. His interview is just a short snippet that’s mostly talking about the general disaster itself, rather than about his experience in getting there, but whatever. There he is. Good grief.

In job news, I’ve had a couple of phone interviews this week, which may be promising. There was one yesterday, which I think went really well, and the job is basically perfect for me, but I’m scared to get my hopes up so we’ll just wait and see how that turns out. And then the one I had today was for a job that I’m almost positive I don’t want, but I suppose that every interview is practice for the next one. Or something like that.

But yeah, that phone interview yesterday? I really, really want that job. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to keep track of all the movies I’ve watched and books I’ve read over the past couple of weeks (and in the coming ones), and write a little summary when I’m finished with this phase of unemployment. As for the movies, I will say this: a few nights ago, I started to watch “Titanic” when it came on one of our movie channels. I’m not sure why, I never really liked the movie all that much (only saw it once; I thought the true-to-life stuff was cool but the whole love story was kind of cheesy and silly), but Kate Winslet is gorgeous and her costumes (those amazing beaded gowns) are awesome, and I was just sort of spaced out and not really paying attention. I watched it until the boat hit the iceberg, which is when it occurred to me: a real-life historic disaster where the rich people were immediately shuttled to safety and the poor people were left to die. Hmmm. Perhaps that’s just a bit too appropriate right now. I’m not sure if the programming people thought of that connection themselves, or if it was just a coincidence. I immediately turned it off and went to bed, but I couldn’t get the damn movie out of my head and it kept me awake for hours. Bleah.

Last bit on current events: The Daily Show is finally back on the air (they were off all last week), and Jon Stewart’s summary of the hurricane, and the government’s failure of a response, was just awesome. You can go see it here.

Here’s one of those stories that should be on the news, but probably won’t be. Ok, first we have my cousin, who I’ll call “Mr. Used to be an arrogant jerk in dire need of an ass-kicking, but I hear that becoming a father this year has magically transformed him into a compassionate human being with an actual soul, but I haven’t seen him in 2 years so I’m withholding judgment for now.” Actually, that’s a pretty long nickname, so I think I’ll just call him my cousin. I’m sure that the few family members who read this have NO idea who I’m talking about. (And if certain other relatives read this, I might get in trouble, but you know, calling him an arrogant jerk in dire need of an ass-kicking is nothing that I wouldn’t have called him to his face. So really, no big deal.) Anyway, he’s a doctor now, doing his residency (I think?) in North Carolina. He’s from St. Bernard Parish, one of the outlying areas of New Orleans that has been severely flooded because of the hurricane. He also married a girl from that area, whose father is (go figure) a doctor. (Yes, it’s a theme. Go with it.) So I guess that makes him my cousin-in-law’s father? Anyway, Dr. CILF, as we’ll call him, being a responsible citizen, evacuated his family from the area. A couple of them went to NC to stay with my cousin and his wife, but Dr. CILF had to stay behind because he’s a family doctor in addition to being the St. Bernard Parish coroner. And sadly, in situations like this, there’s usually a high demand for coroners.

So, Dr. CILF was able to talk to his family as the hurricane was passing through – I believe it was on Monday morning – and he told them that the water was coming into the hospital, all the way up to the second floor. Problem: it’s only a two-story hospital. Then they didn’t hear from him for a few days, because communication to and from that area was essentially wiped out. Naturally, his wife (my cousin-in-law’s mother, or Mrs. CILM) was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because she had no idea where her husband was or if he was ok, etc. My cousin and cousin-in-law were both upset and worried as well. Finally, on Friday morning, he was able to get through to them. Apparently, he evacuated the hospital and set up a temporary shop at the parish jail (of all places), and since they had no food or water, the nurses and docs were giving each other IV’s so they wouldn’t dehydrate and pass out. He’s usually a very stoic kind of guy, but apparently he was quite emotional when he finally managed to talk to his family. My cousin, the doctor, asked if he needed some help – probably expecting him to say “oh no, everything’s under control, you just stay put” – and instead, Dr. CILF told him that would be good.

So my cousin, along with one of his fellow doctors from the hospital in North Carolina, loaded up with supplies and prepared to set off to Louisiana, only there’s no easy way to get in or out of the area. So he found a friend who had a small plane, and he flew them from North Carolina to Lafayette, Louisiana. They were told that they couldn’t take a boat into the area, because odds were high that they’d get shot at. My mom used the term pirates, but I think I’d call them boat-jackers. As opposed to car-jackers. I mean, if you don’t have a boat, but you need a boat, and you have a gun and you see someone who has a boat, why not work that to your advantage? Not that I’m advocating that sort of behavior at all, just that I think I understand where the desparation comes from. I’m certainly not saying that the people who do this kind of thing aren’t assholes, because they are. Anyway, they’re stuck with the dilemma of how to get the two traveling doctors out of Lafayette and into the area. So my uncle, who works for an oil company (and let’s face it, their Louisiana branch isn’t doing much of anything these days since all of the offshore oil rigs are shut down) called in a favor and managed to get them a helicopter ride straight into St. Bernard Parish. They arrived safe & sound at the makeshift hospital/former jail yesterday afternoon. No idea of how long they’ll be there, but I imagine that if you’re from that area, and you have the ability to help people, it would make you feel much better to be there and do what you can.

So ok, maybe he’s not such an arrogant jerk in dire need of an ass-kicking. Although I certainly don’t envy his wife, alone in North Carolina with a 6 month-old baby, I still think it’s pretty damn heroic that he’s doing this.

And while I’m bragging on my family: my little brother, who lives in Houston, is planning to volunteer at the Astrodome this week. He doesn’t really have any specialized skills or training for these types of events (much like the rest of us), and he’s broke, so he can’t donate much, but he’s willing to give his time. So he can hand out food and water and whatever else they need down there, and I’m damn proud of him for that, too.

The update on my family: my great aunt and her daughter are still at my parents’ house, and it looks like it may be up to 3 months or longer before they’re able to return home. My parents still don’t have electricity, but they borrowed a generator from their neighbors (who already have their power back), so they have fans, which helps. And this morning, they saw three utility company trucks working on a downed tree in their neighborhood, so they’re optimistic that they’ll have power back soon.

I made a donation to the Red Cross today. Not out of concern or need for anyone in my immediate family, but I was born and raised in Mississippi, and I consider New Orleans to be a second childhood home because that’s where my grandparents and so many other relatives lived. I know that I’m blessed because the worst my family may have to deal with is property damage – which is horrible, but the people themselves are still around, and that’s all that really matters. But even though none of my family are currently missing, hurt or dead (thank god), come on. For better or worse, those are my peeps. And I’m so far away, I don’t know what else to do except give money to the Red Cross. So that’s what I’ve done.

I also gave money to a really great organization called Noah’s Wish, which rescues animals that are stranded during disasters. I know that our main priority should be the humans who need help, but whenever I think of all of the poor cats and dogs who are too domesticated to know how to provide for themselves in this type of devastation, my heart shatters into a billion tiny pieces. And once again – I’m not there to help or to go pluck the kitties and puppies off of the rooftops myself, so I do what I can.

Meanwhile, if you want to read something that will make you hate the world, make you feel the rage rise up in your throat, and make you want to strangle someone in frustration, this ought to do the trick. The guy basically says that the hurricane was brought to smite New Orleans for being a city of sin and homosexuality. Gaaaah. Funny how he has no explanation for the God-fearing, Bible-thumping citizens of Mississippi, but whatever. He’s an ass. I thought about leaving him a message telling him so (complete with quotes about how Jesus himself said that we should all love each other and not be judgmental and all of that good stuff), but I decided it was probably pointless.

So in the wake of all of this hurricane mess, I’m assuming that the folks over at Catoptric are safe and sound, albeit without electricity. That seems to be the case with my parents, anyway. Jackson is about 200 miles or so inland, so they weren’t affected by the mass devastation the way that towns like New Orleans, Biloxi & Gulfport were. But 75 mph winds in a town full of trees makes for lots of downed power lines, so that’s what they’re dealing with. Plus my great aunt, her daughter (my mom’s cousin), the daughter’s friend/boyfriend/not-really-sure-of-his-status, and their dog all evacuated New Orleans and are staying at my parents’ house. They did this last year during Hurricane Ivan as well. Oh, and my great aunt? Is 90 years old, almost completely deaf, and paranoidly senile. She’s in the phase of dementia where she repeats everything she says approximately every 30 seconds, plus she gets easily agitated and becomes verbally abusive (mostly toward her daughter, but god help you if you accidentally say the wrong thing), so you know they’ve gotta be having a big ol’ laugh riot over at my folks’ house. Plus it’s 90 degrees and they have no air-conditioning because the power is out. I am SO glad I’m not there.

And then we have my poor dad, who is what one might call a routine-based person. You throw in the extra visitors in the house, which stresses him out under normal circumstances, then take away his regular golf game (because the streets are covered with debris so no one can drive anywhere), plus no TV or Internet access, and he is just on the verge of losing his mind. Poor guy. And there’s no telling when my aunt and her family can go back home to New Orleans, but it looks like it’ll be at least a week, if not longer. It’s entirely possible that her house is safe, because she lived in a different parish than the ones that have been severely impacted, but there’s no way of finding out for sure, since news from that area is spotty at best. My uncle’s house may not have been so lucky – they were all in Houston at the time the hurricane hit, so they’re safe, but they have a house in St. Bernard parish, which was pretty badly flooded. Again, no way of knowing for sure, but my cousin found this picture, which is an aerial view of the area – if this is any indication, it looks like their house could be under several feet of water. This is all very, very bad.

As for life here in the Northwest, I have a few potential job leads at the moment, but I won’t know anything for a while, and I don’t want to jinx anything by talking about it too soon. We’ll just have to wait & see.