Driving Day

Today was a driving day- to be honest, it wasn't actually that much driving. I definitely have done a lot more driving. The driving is stuck in my mind because I did have a funny experience on a one-way street in Dorchester. I was trying to find a homeless shelter that we scheduled a donation for. I'm not very familiar with Dorchester, so I was relying on my GPS. I turned down the street- it was a one-way (Yes, I was going the correct way!), so I'm crawling down the street, trying to find the shelter. I see a school with a similar name on the right, a church on the left, but no shelter. I drive down to the end of the street, peering at house numbers, but couldn't find the place. Since, it was a one-way street, I couldn't turn around and I didn't want to drive around the block and get stuck in traffic. So I decided to reverse up the street- I reverse half way up the street, still can't find anything. Then I drive down the street in slow motion again- no luck. I decide to reverse up the street yet again- still the building hasn't magically appeared. I didn't have their phone number, otherwise I would have called. Then I decide to park and go into the school and ask for help. So, I park my car on the street, then I decide that maybe I didn't look closely enough, so I drive down the street again- this time cursing. Still no luck, so for the 3rd time, I reverse up the street, park and ring the school's doorbell, probably more times than necessary. I hope no one was watching my reverse up the street routine, because it must have looked slightly insane. The good news was that the lady in the school knew where the shelter was (entrance on another street) and I was able to drop off our items. The guy that took our donations was very nice, we chatted for a few minutes and he gave me a t-shirt. The shelter is run by Catholic Charities. I believe he said it was home to 16 children, I don't remember. After Dorchester, I hightailed it up to Lynn PD, then made a slight detour on the way home and stopped at my favorite supermarket of all time- the Market Basket in Chelsea. So, I only did 2 stops today, but it felt like a lot more.

I still didn't get to submit our web updates for the month. That needs to be a priority for tomorrow. I want to get stuffed animals to children in Haiti, but I don't know how to do that. Obviously, there is a great need for emergency items for Haitians, but I really would like to send some. Carolee spoke with the Red Cross a couple of weeks ago and they were receptive but said the basic supplies were needed immediately. I was thinking of trying UNICEF or another organization that is focused on children. It was much easier when we did our donation to the children who survived Katrina. I keep watching the news feed of the children in the hospital in Haiti and it would be nice if they could be given a little stuffed animal to hold. I'm going to do more research tomorrow on how we can arrange that. I'll keep you posted on what I find out.

Anyways friends, I think that's it for tonight. I'm getting tired and might actually head to bed earlier. I've been doing some pre-birthday organizing tonight in my room and my office- there still is quite a bit more. I just finished a grapefruit before I blogged and now I'm getting quite hungry- I should just go to bed before I raid the fridge and munch on all that good food I got at the Basket! Until tomorrow friends...