Volunteering for the Red Cross

[bkdelong]

I can't take it anymore. Reading the personal accounts, seeing photos and, worse, watching it on tv, the situation in the Gulf Coast has gotten to me so much, I have decided to volunteer with the Red Cross. I was unemployed during 9/11 due to ZOT Group failing during the Internet "bubble burst", and did not do anything but gawk at the television. I see this as even more important since my younger brother (jdbryce) has gone down to Fort Dix to prepare for deployment to Iraq.

Now that I have decided to move on from MIT to bigger and better opportunities, I am taking this opportunity to volunteer for at least two weeks with the Red Cross - at, surprisingly, the suggestion of my wife, (kiekre). Hopefully those at the handful of jobs I've applied to and a few of my professional collegues I've set up meetings with will understand.

I'm nervous because, as I've made clear on here before, I am very overweight. I have athletic-induced asthma and don't need meds for it. I have to be attempting a sprint for it to crop up. I have cold-induced asthma but, well, I don't think I'll have to worry about that down south.

But I want to work and help so I hope they will accept my request. As many of you also know, my MBTI is an INFJ - strong on the intuitive feeler "NF" so I'm more nervous about being able to control my empathic tendancies. However part of preparing for my volunteering effort will include reading up on various ways to shut myself off from it when need-be for my own sanity.

I will keep everyone posted on my efforts and I could seriously use some advice on renting or borrowing a Blackberry or Sidekick or some other device to check email or at a minimum store and send myself emails on what's happening. My handwriting sucks and if I can send it off as soon as I write it, it won't get lost should the device get damaged, (or in the case of handwritten accounts, destroyed by water or lost in chaos).