In all honesty, I didn't put in half the effort that those guys did! Recycling was dirty business and exacted a pretty big time commitment. There were, as you can imagine, hundreds and thousands of dirty beer bottles, old papers, cardboard, foil, plastics, you name it.

We drove carts onto which we slugged heavy recycling containers. Thankfully, Rice University provided us with a rather large metal building where we collected and sorted papers, plastics, and metals and smashed the glass to get it ready for the big trucks.

The carpenter students were building plywood boxes for collecting the newspapers at the various residential colleges, for it was easier to collect the papers if they were a tad more organized.

Well, it was sorting time one day, and I found myself standing atop a ten foot mound of nasty papers and trash. I started to lose my footing and grabbed a board over my head. To make a long story short, the board was not attached nor were any of the sheets of plywood, etc. from the box-building project which I did not see.

It all came tumbling down on my head! I bent over in agony holding my head in my hand. And to my surprise--there was blood pooling on the ground. Where was that coming from? My dear roommate Amy Ksir and the others rushed me to the hospital where she checked me in immediately.

I spent the evening with a minor concussion of sorts, sleeping that day and a day or two afterwards. Under doctor's orders, Amy woke me in the middle of the night a few times, however, I remember none of it. I was out. Had Amy not been there, a terrible situation would have been made much worse.

Thank you, Amy, for your time and loving care!!!

Rachel Nation
rachel@rachelnation.com

Rachel and Bonita "SuperDog" Nation hard at work.