OK, I'll shut up now (for a day at least)

I'm going to volunteer at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency again tomorrow as a Public Information Officer from 7 a.m. till 7 p.m. (Who thought of 12-hour volunteer shifts?) No blogging tomorrow, I'm sure - so I probably overcompensated today.

My first shift, from 7 p.m. till 7 a.m. on Friday, was interesting, to say the least. One call was from a family stranded on the beach in Bay St. Louis with a sick baby. And I'm not quite used to the government set-up yet. The four press releases I wrote that night were read and edited by FOUR people. The 9 p.m. update went out at 11 p.m. there were so many changes. (But, as a bonus, I did get to wake up on Saturday morning to TV newscasters reading my press release. That and a free Backyard Burger at midnight on Friday.)

At my day job, I've fielded many e-mails from people searching for missing loved ones. Today, two people actually wrote me back to tell me that they had found their brother and their son - and to thank me for helping. I replied to one, "But I didn't help at all. I didn't find your son." His reply? You were the only "real person" I could get on the line. And whether you helped or not, you listened and you tried to help.

It goes to show you the power of the personal. And that sometimes we all just need to feel like a "real person" is listening to our problems and at least trying to help.