Change is in the Air

Thursday, October 27, 2005

I write this post from my hotel room in Tampa, Florida. I just performed "Ghost Stories by the Fireside" at the University of South Florida (thank you, Diane Ladley!). It was a fabulous event and I had a terrific time with the students. Antonio drove in to be with the girls while I am away.

The weather in Houston has cooled and with the Autumn winds come change. The girls and I have settled into permanent housing. We live in a three bedroom duplex in Stafford, located in south west Houston. Our 1200 square foot duplex is just perfect for us. It’s nice to have a space of our own and I have tried hard to make the girls feel like they are at “home.” My brother and his four kids live around the corner in the same complex and we help each other out. I am so glad that we are done building furniture! Woohoo!

We still have some cleaning up to do at Auntie Erlie's house. For the most part, I have retrieved all of our belongings from her house. My mom, my brother and I plan on doing a top to bottom clean-up so that when she returns home from the Philippines, her house will be dazzling.

I decided to transfer Eliana the school around the corner from our new house. It was a tough decision because it is her third school in two months. But logistically, it will be easier for my brother and I. My brother has also enrolled his two oldest children in the same school. Her teacher and classmates from her old school gave her a wonderful going away party, which made Eliana feel so special. I will truly miss her old school. They were so good to us. Eliana has only been at her new school for a few days but has adjusted quite nicely. She’s already singing new songs and bringing home beautiful artwork.

Soleil received her first quarter grades. She did very well considering everything she has been through. She has mostly As, one B, and one C in Algebra 2. Algebra 2 was a difficult transition because her new school was in a different place than her old school. She's not accustomed to having anything other than As and she was quite upset. I explained to her that her grades are not a reflection of her ability but rather evidence of the hardship she has been through. I know that once she fully adjusts to the new curriculum, her teachers, and her new school, she will have an easier time.

My husband, Antonio, has returned to New Orleans to rebuild with his job at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and repair our home. He had his tetanus shot so he can work downtown. All of his employees have been furloughed so he is a one-man department. LSUHSC plans to open the nursing school at the first of the year. Antonio has so much work to do to in order to be ready for that. As director of parking, he has to have a new office operational by that time, new gates installed, and new parking tags ready to disperse to returning students, doctors, and personnel. It's a tall order but he's working frantically to get it done.

Mom drives back and forth between Dallas, Houston and New Orleans every weekend. Last week, she returned home to retrieve important documents from work and take care of business related to the house. FEMA declared her house unliveable due to the mold and told her and Clay that it was a health hazard to live there. Repairs to the house will be very costly.

I performed “Scared Silly” programs in Lafayette on October 22 so I decided to drive the two and half hours and return home for the first time this past weekend. It was an emotional return. As soon as I began driving into the city, I began crying. There is so much devastation and this is after several weeks of clean-up. There are “Help Wanted” signs and “We Are Open” signs littering areas that are coming back to life: Metairie, Uptown New Orleans, and the West Bank. Businesses want to reopen but cannot because they have no employees. The Burger King in my neighborhood is offering a $6000 signing bonus!

Duck-taped refrigerators line the curbs in neighborhoods that are revitalizing and the stench of garbage is permeable. Water lines on the outside of the buildings mark the flood levels. As soon as I entered our house, I was struck by the smell of the mold and began having an asthma attack. There is no way I could live there. FEMA blue-roofed our house and our insurance adjustor is coming next month to do a walk-through.

In spite of everything that has happened, we are doing okay. We are picking up the pieces and moving on. Thanks to the generosity of family, friends, and professional colleagues, my business is picking up. I am finding gigs in the Houston area and scheduling tours. My new contact information is:

Dianne de Las Casas
747 Stafford Springs Avenue
Stafford, TX 77477
281-499-3101
dianne@storyconnection.net
http://www.storyconnection.net

Eliana insisted on decorating for Halloween so we have a huge Halloween banner on the front door. A glowing Jack-O-Lantern greets us inside the house. Eliana wants to be Wonder Woman for Halloween and I look forward to going trick-or-treating with Eliana and my brother’s four children. I'm usually working on Halloween telling spooky stories so it will be nice to be able to be with the kids this year.

Life is beginning to look "normal" for us. Having a space of our own really helps. The holidays are around the corner and I am glad that we will have a home to celebrate in. We are truly blessed.

Until next time...

A Place Called "Home"

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Friends:

It's been a while since my last blog because so much is going on in our lives right now. My brother and I found housing! Yeah!

FEMA approved us for one year of housing assistance and we found a very nice duplex apartment community. Gary and I secured the last two units they had available. We have a beautiful three-bedroom duplex in Stafford, Texas, which is located south west of Houston. We are near major road ways and every store you can imagine. Super Wal-Mart is 10 minutes from our new home and my brother and I have been "living" there! :)

The duplex community has small playgrounds all over the place. It's so cool. We have one right next to our house. I can look out my kitchen and bedroom window and see kids playing.

We have been busy moving belongings from our host family's house and purchasing furniture and other household necessities. It's so weird to start from scratch. You don't realize how much you accumulate and use until you have to start over!

FEMA declared my mom's house unliveable because of the mold. We have not had a FEMA rep or our insurance adjustor to do a walk-through at our house yet. They are so overwhelmed. We are also waiting for FEMA to "blue roof" our house -- cover it with a tarp to prevent further damage from rain and the elements.

I managed to furnish our new place on $2000, thanks to the low prices at IKEA and Wal-Mart! But all of my furniture is RTA (ready-to-assemble), which means hours of back breaking labor! Still, it's fun and we are so lucky that we CAN buy new furniture and set up house.

Soleil has a silver double loft bed with a desk underneath - so dorm style but it helps save space. She is decorating in pink, black and white. Retro and funky. Eliana has white furniture and is decorating in purple and pink in a "Princess" motif. My living room has spurts of deep red (always wanted red in my living room!). I have a red chair in the living room. It's fun to decorate and it makes us feel like we're "home."

Mom and Antonio drove in this weekend (Mom from Fort Worth and Antonio from New Orleans) to help with the move. This weekend was spent carting stuff back and forth, shopping, and assembling furniture. Antonio went grocery shopping and stocked my fridge and pantry with the basics. My living room and Eliana's room is done. We still have to do Soleil's room and my room.

I have phone service (281-499-3101) and DSL should be hooked up by next week. So in the meantime, I don't have Internet access at the new place. Ugh! I feel so paralyzed without it!

Gary and I are trying to decide whether or not to move the kids to the elementary school near our apartments. It's in the same school district and we were told it's a good school. We don't really want to uproot the kids since they have settled in but transporting them back and forth to school may become a problem (it's about 25 minutes away). The apartment manager said that there is bus service and the kids could catch the bus to the school nearby. We are going to see how it all pans out.

It's been a challenging road but we are making it. One thing is for sure - it's nice to have a place called "home" again.

Until next time...

Moving Out, Moving On
October 6, 2005

Friends:

It's been a while since my last blog because I have been so busy. So much has been going on!

First, the good stuff. Yesterday, I had a performance at the Pasadena Library. Linda Befeld, the children's librarian and an excellent storyteller, hired me. She arranged with the local cable station to film my show so it will appear on Channel 16 on Monday, October 10, 2005 if you are in the Pasadena, TX area. At first, I had a small group of kids but as the show progressed, the room filled up. We had so much fun. We sang, they played instruments, we danced, and the children and grown-ups participated in my stories. I performed a Potpourri of stories including my popular "Rockin' 3 Billy Goats," "La Hormiguita" (in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month), and "The Viper," a cool spooky story with a surprise ending to celebrate Halloween. At the end, the kids stood up and played instruments and danced while I performed my song "World Fiesta." It was a blast. Linda was impressed and hired me to perform again at her library. It was a great day.

Then my brother and I found out that we were selected to receive some funds from a local foundation to help us get back on our feet. We are going to use the funds to help us furnish an apartment. We are anxious to get beds for the kids, who for the first few weeks, were sleeping on the floor. Now they have air mattresses but we would like to get them in real beds
.
I just finished teaching the last of my four-part Story Biz telecourse through Storyteller.net. It was a great experience and all the participants enjoyed the classes thoroughly. Sean Buvala wants to work with me again to host more telecourses next year. Yay!

Eliana, my kindergartener, received her report card and scored all excellent marks. She is at first grade level on most of her skills and even scored fourth grade level on some of her skills. She has adjusted quite well to her new school academically. Her teacher called me the other night and told me that I didn't need to participate in the parent-teacher conference because Eliana had adjusted so well in her class, both academically and emotionally. Needless to say, that makes me very happy.

Now the other stuff. Clay (my stepdad) has permanently moved out, splitting his time between trying to get the house fixed and staying with my mom in Fort Worth. Antonio and his parents have gone back home. Gary and I are now alone with the kids, relying on each other for help. He has asked me for a tutorial on how to fix his girls' hair (so important especially once we get our own place).

After an extensive search for new housing, it seemed as though things were going so well because my brother and I found two bedroom town houses near our kids' school. It was perfect, with a private carport, lots of storage, a washer and dryer included, and a large swimming pool. We were supposed to be receiving housing assistance from the City of Houston with a voucher system. We were approved for the apartments and even had the electricity accounts set up when the apartment manager called us and gave us bad news. They didn't participate in that particular voucher program. We were back to square one. Housing in Houston is hard to come by because of the numbers of evacuees still here.

So Gary began searching again and found another complex. These were duplexes in Stafford, Texas which is about 25 minutes from where we are. It's still the Houston metro area but a lot further than we had originally wanted to relocate. But the duplexes turned out to be very nice with three bedrooms, washer and dryers included, and lots of space. They are relatively new and have lots of modern amenities. There are playground areas for the kids all over the complex. The complex is very kid-friendly. Gary and I found out that they did participate in the voucher program and we scooped up the last two units available. Then, as we sat down to fill out the paperwork, we discovered that we were provided the wrong paperwork and didn't have the voucher the complex needed to process our application and award us the housing. (The City of Houston is working with FEMA to provide evacuees with 6 months of free housing). The apartment manager was very nice and told us he would hold the two units for us, giving us a chance to secure the vouchers we need.

So now, we have an appointment with FEMA at the Disaster Relief Center in Houston to expedite our housing application and provide us with the voucher. I am on pins and needles hoping and praying that this will go through and we can move in. Please say a prayer for us that this housing situation will work out in our favor. Thank you.

So that is where we are now. I am excited to be moving out and moving on, yet sad at the same time. Though our house was crowded and chaotic at times, my whole family was there. Now, it's a lot quieter and my brother said, "I kind of got used to having everybody around. Now I'm bored so I sleep early." I will miss everyone, especially my husband. Eliana cried on and off since she arrived home from school. She teared up talking to him on the phone. And today, she wouldn't let go of my hand when we went out. Soleil talks it out with her friends on the computer, instant messaging with her friends.

We have a new life now. We have to move on.

Until next time...