T-minus 6 hours

Image hosted by Photobucket.comAt approximately 5:15, or whenever the last of the LWF students heads home, I’ll get in my car and begin the 17-20 hour drive to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

As I alluded to in a previous post, there is a group of high school students from Eugene, Oregon headed there to help with the hurricane reconstruction, but they’re going to be in superhero costumes with superhero identities as they work. I’ve been in contact with the school, but they have no contact with the students while they’re gone. All I have is the town they’re going to, and the assurance that a handful of costumed superheroes will stick out enough in a town of 8,000 that I’ll be able to find them.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared. I’ve done the solo road-trip thing before, for much longer periods of time, but for many reasons, this is quite different. One big thing is the pressure involved in getting something good for the documentary. Lately, I’ve been having trouble getting into putting it together, largely because I just felt like it was lacking another good chapter. Then this came up. So the stress of the long drive down, needing to get some good material, and then the long drive back, is kind of weighing on me. But I think that’s probably the good kind of stress – enhances the performance or whatever.

The bad stress is how my parents are worried, my mom’s having bad dreams, and if something did happen to me, right before Christmas would be kind of a bummer. Not like my family wouldn’t care if I accidentally drove into the Gulf of Mexico in July, but holiday tragedies just have that extra layer of bad timing. I’m not really even worried about the whole “bad things happening” thing, but knowing that the loved ones are doesn’t sit too well.

One thing I think will be kind of fun about it is that I’ll be leaving from Lefler on Thursday afternoon and then rolling back into town in time to teach on Tuesday. So my LWF club will be the last people to see me before I go and the first people to see me when I get back — which means I’ll probably frighten them with my stench, matted hair and overgrown poor excuse for a beard.

So anyway, I should have something good to share Tuesday night.

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