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I took the dogs for a walk after the storm and it started pouring down rain. But hey, I don’t have hair, so what do I care? I was just going to get wet and either you are wet from the heat and humidity or you are wet from warm rainfall. We walked down the bayou and a pelican flew by. Out of season. The trees were down, the houses boarded up, there was a…
I just ordered a glass of champagne and was given a bowl of assorted snacks in the Lowes Hotel on Poydras. There is a/c, there is WIFI, there are cocktails and food. I’m now a believer that I can survive anything if every once in a while someone gave me some luxuries. A friend is here with her son, Tin’s friend, and they are up in the room jumping on the beds in the a/c.…
They cancelled the flights into NOLA and we were able to slip onto one at the last moment. And home we came in a plane full of Red Cross workers on their way in to deal with Isaac. New Orleans was desolate, no cars on the street, houses and businesses boarded up, and a sky that looked like it was painted on a stretched canvas. The wetlands were Monet’s, the mighty Mississippi river belonged to…
Today we start the trek back to Madrid (through Frankfurt) and then Monday it is the long flight home to New Orleans. Tanja always talks about how much kids grow up in the summer, especially on vacation, on the coast, like both of us grew up with our parents. Tin has learned how to get his own milk from the fridge and pour it into his glass, how to swing on a big swing alone,…
I know the life of a zen bunny is to relinquish all thoughts to a more esoteric question – what, when, how, where and why all lead to a grey area. I know the Hurricane in the making – Isaac – how appropriate that on hearing of a hurricane arriving at the same time as me in New Orleans made me only say – whatever – unlike the reaction I had to the Hurricane that…
Last night, after everyone had gone to bed, I sat on the terrace for a moment of reflection and across from me, a woman sat on her terrace, a dark silhouette staring down at me. The image unnerved me because she seemed to almost be a reflection – sitting quietly, alone, waiting for a benign breeze to help her make it through the night. We’re in Zagreb, there is a heat wave. In front of…
On the way home from the country, there was a fat crescent moon in the night sky. Tin said, “Look the moon is following us home.” And in those words, many dreams exist. The truth is that now at the end of our gypsy wanderings, through many uncomfortable beds, tiny bathrooms, and a newfound practice of recycling everything and anything, we are on our way home this coming Monday, and on Tuesday, Hurricane Isaac is…
We spent last night in the country, in Belcici right by where Jana’s spring water comes from and it was an idyllic country house on a hill with orchards surrounding it and a beautiful view to the hills. On the road trip there Willie Nelson and Solomon Burke were blasting on the stereo (not my playlist) and the amount of food consumed was legendary (cevapcici, mortadella to die for, pasta with fresh shrimp and olives,…
Tin and I had a chance to get out to the square alone today and we decided to make the most of it. We took the tram from Tanja’s mom’s apartment in Crnomerec and stopped in at one of the local bakeries and bought a cheese burek for me, and a generous slice of pizza for Tin and then we sat at a cafe with a direct line of sight to the trams coming and…
I’ve noticed that as soon as we walk in the door Tatjana is in her role; here she is a daughter. We’ve been talking about going home, Tin is asking to go home, we are thinking about home. We both question why we would both be so attached to a house that on paper seems to carry more burden than comfort. Every day of my healing summer has been a journey to accept rootlessness, uncertainty,…