Day One Under Wraps (Craig)

Sitting in the sweet suite occupied by Colleen and Mel overlooking the Gulf of Mexico right now. We're all drinking beers and comparing blisters after a long day of work. On the way to Yankie Stadium, somebody mentioned that the 8-4 working day will be a breeze compared to the hours we crazy advertising people pull every day. I mean jeeze, we're going to be done at 3:30 in time to clean up and be out by 4. That's nothing. Well, after pounding nails for 6 hours (allow 45 minutes for us to scour lunch from either Taco Bell, Burger King, or Subway), the entire team was exhausted driving back to the Edgewater Inn stopping only to pick up wine and beer. Now we sit here comparing stories from the work site and comparing areas of burnt skin from the gorgeous Mississippi sky. The pains and sores are nothing vs. what they'll be later in the week, but for now, we're all proud of the effort we put in on day 1.

Speaking of day 1, it consisted mostly of laying plywood slates to the roof on top of the frame that last week's group built. Imagine this group of desk hounds climbing ladders, hammering nails, wearing hard hats, bending nails, dropping nails on other's hard hats, and avoiding the top two rungs of unstable ladders. As tragic as it may sound, we actually worked very hard and efficiently. Most of the roof is now firmly in place ready for the shingles to be added tomorrow. We all know way more construction terminology than we did yesterday while pouring hurricanes down our throats on Bourbon St. We now know what OSBs, H clips (Colleen is now a clip knocker), scabs, and cat claws are. Actually, we may know what a cat claw is a little too well. It's not our fault, though, since it was last week's group's fault that we had to build scabs because the OSB's didn't fit perfectly into the necessary H clips. Oh snap! Now I know more acronyms besides EOD, GRP, RFP, and CTA! Woo Hoo!

Alright, my face is starting to feel the effects of forgetting sunscreen and drinking a few Coronas, so I'm going to sign off for the night and join the group for a night of fine dining at CiCi's. Mmmmmm. Pizza.

Night.