<< Back to Day 15, Rhode Is.
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The Staff that Never Sleeps
Since our arrival Thursday night, we've met some of the nicest people money can buy (unfortunately, also some of the looniest). Here are just a few that stood out in our minds:
Paul: An EMS Instructor on the Jersey side of the river. We bonded with him soon after acquiring the Tapelifter position, probably because he reminded us of Rick Mercer from This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Paul: This Paul was a firefighter. He was my Endman on one of the supply brigades, or, as I like to call them, conga lines. Nice guy, had a whole line of jokes aimed at Union workers.
Paul: Let's get all the Pauls out of the way first, shall we? It's surprising the number of people we met named Paul. Maybe the name Paul just makes you the kind of guy that just wants to help out. Anyway, the final Paul was running the Salvation Army booth when we got out there. Busy fellow, but always ready to lend a hand. I don't think he slept in four days.
Linda & Jackie: These two lovely ladies kept the Flea Market medical table in business.
Stanley: Commissioner to the Attorney General, Hostage Negotiator, and one heck of a bad comedian.
Horace: This man ran the supply table almost as well as Aimee did. Friendly, helpful, and so personable that he lost his voice by the third day.
Chris: The man with the ID tags. This was the man who could make things happen.
Good Rich: There was a good Rich, and a baaaad Rich. Good Rich was top of the supply chain. He's the dude in the combat boots and the Hulk Hogan moustache (he'd make a perfect General in a B-movie).
Bad Rich: There was another Rich on site. He was commonly known as Looney Rich. This guy was a looooneey. Looney looney looney. Oh trust us, he was a freakin' loon. I could elaborate, but, enh.
Emily: Big on conversation, big on hugs.
Miss USO: Sang a fine rendition of God Bless America, and generally kept the boys happy.
Fay: The ruler of the storage closet. She spoke softly, but carried a big stick.
Bethany: Where did she come from? She reminded us of a song by Meredith Brooks.
Daryl: For some reason, this guy was always happy to see me, and for that reason, I was always happy to see him. "Aww, Kevin, you still here man? Do you ever go home? It's great to see you man."
Airman Sweeney: "Don't worry, we'll be sending people down to help you guys out any way we can. I just need to report to my Commanding Officer." We never saw that boy again.
Hodge: Policemen are just so darn nice! He was the one that told us we were in the Daily News.
Jeff: Cutoff man at the meeting. Do first, talk later.
Officer X: We think he was undercover, because his nametag just said "X". Met him on the last day, and wished we'd met him sooner.
Helpus: Saved our asses at the Embassy that night from the EMS terrorist movement. Dude, you have to do something about that snore. It sounded like you were trying to breathe through a cat.
Sydney: I always forgot his real name, but he was from Australia, so he didn't seem to mind when I called him Sydney. The perfect nationality to run the drink table.
Salvador: Again, the name escaped me, but he was from El Salvador. He got the job done.
Dennis: A unique gentleman. Dedicated. Introspective? Slightly off the conversational plane, but man, could he do sanitation duty. I hope you found your duffel bag.
Mike: Quite possibly a fitting president of GZI, and head of the business meeting Tuesday morning before we all got shut down. The kind of guy I could go out for beers with, and I don't even like beer.
Angelo: The runner for the Flea Market. This man could get stuff done.
Karman: The sock throwing nurse. That was a fun evening.
Mario: What can you say about a guy who tries to pick up ladies at the site of a terrorist attack? Not much, I'm afraid.
Jon: We've got a place to stay when we get to Chicago now! Jon's great. He totally kept me sane (he also kept my cellphone).
Esther: Our contact to the Mayor's Office. She did whatever she could to get people down to the site, or at the very least, got us a phone to call the people who were stuck at checkpoint after checkpoint. Thanks Esther!
Kate: A no nonsense volunteer that made sure when stuff had to be done, it got done. We needed more Kates.
Sue: Kept the supplies rolling in when Good Rich needed to take a nap.
Flick: Credit is very much due to this gentleman. As a shift supervisor at Intel (I hope I got that right), organization from chaos is second nature to him. He ran a tight ship over at the chapel, and he was one heck of a nice guy. I hope to see him again.
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Please, volunteers, there are so many. If there's anyone we missed that you feel deserves just praise (or just desserts), please let us know.
Also, we've got a partial contact list. If you want it, or you want to be added to it, drop us a line from the link above. Miss you all. Stay safe.
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the trip so far... contact kevin & aimee
