“…see how the flesh grows back across a wound, with great vehemence, more strong than the simple, untested surface before. There’s a name for it on horses, when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh, as all flesh is proud of its wounds, wears them as honors given out after battle, small triumphs pinned to the chest–” -Jane Hirshfield, from For What Binds Us
Went to an advertising council meeting here at Galatoire’s last night – and the topic of conversation was how I got to here from there – it was interesting and encouraging. But what was a tad more interesting was meeting the father of a boy, E, I went to Israel with when I was 16 years old as part of a Jewish youth organization. His brother, J, happens to live down the street from me…
N came by to get the Bean and walk her around the bayou. When she brought the Bean back, L was with her and he gave me a photo of us from 1987 – vintage – my hair is big, like Stevie Nicks, only I’ve curled it and so it is curly curly and I am smoking a (gasp) cigarette and L’s hair is black black black and full. Oh my. I look almost older…
This week if you got through Monday and Tuesday in my shoes (or shoe) you were lucky and to get to Hump Day relatively unscathed is quite a feat. Speaking of feet, my left one throbs and my right one is on the mend, but I went to Pilates first thing this morning anyway because all the hobbling around has made me ache in places I never have since I am walking so crooked and…
The appraiser called and said he would be here early in the morning. I went downstairs to appraise things myself and saw how dirty the front windows were from all the sawdust of the guys redoing the columns. I quickly wiped them down and while I was out there I heard the PA system coming from Cabrini – the Catholic school across the bayou – it was a young child reciting Hail Mary Full of…
Willie came by today to put the space dividers in – he’s an odd duck – a New Orleans character through and through – when he put the first spacer in, it was way too short. Then the next twenty four were all not the right size. He started scratching his head and then started saying things like you need to lower all these shelves is what the problem is – I just said I…
Work was better today albeit it didn’t start so pretty. A few phone calls this morning set a mood that was so palpable – the Flower and I had to do some gris gris to get rid of it. The good thing about having done this work for a while now is that you know “this too shall pass” and basically you can apply any cliche to workaday life – “whoa what an asshole” –…
I got a disturbing voice mail message from my sister who I have been thinking about a lot recently since I have been in pain. The doctor told me to “stay ahead of the pain” and take the Vicodin on schedule whether I was in pain or not. I did okay on Friday but by early Saturday morning I was not able to keep anything down because the Vicodin had wreaked havoc with my stomach.…
The past couple of days I have been hobbling about, blessing the healthy body I have, and moaning about the dull ache in my foot from my surgery. Both of my knees have blisters and bruises from getting around on all fours for about three days. But the feet are improving and I have spent the past couple of mornings having breakfast at my dining room table looking out at the bayou. I wave to…
I mentioned the Giovanni issue yesterday because it was getting me down – I feel in some ways like so many people did good work on the LaLa but some people took advantage – a lot of advantage – because they see me as “rich white girl” (someone else called me that) and therefore someone to take advantage of – today when someone came by to get money, $90 for a menial task, and said…