I had a job interview once where the guy asked me what was the quality about myself that most people wouldn’t know right off the bat and I said, “I’m fearless.” Yeah, well, it isn’t true. I’m not. Tatjana boarded a plane this afternoon and all my fears that have been held in abeyance for the past couple of weeks re-emerged in great glory – what if? is top of mind. When we first met,…
Walking Loca this morning to the Post Office to drop some letters in the mail and I noticed a junk yard dog in a yard running around with a toy in its mouth – the dog was frolicking and having a great old time all by itself. It made me think of yesterday when we were on our way to see Martina at the tennis center and I had asked a cop where the event…
I spent this past week with my colleagues in Austin – always good to get some face time with people you speak to mainly via email and IM and phone. One of the best things about where I work is that we are truly a multicultural organization – speaking many different languages. I piped up at a meeting and said I speak two languages but hope to learn two more – Turkish and Croatian. Someone…
Martina Navratilova is in town exhibiting her tennis art – she soaks tennis balls with paint and hits them against a canvas. T was speaking to R and said we were going to walk down to the tennis courts in City Park and see her. She told R she read that it takes 1,000 balls to make a painting. R said, “Well, it takes balls to sell one of those paintings.” We don’t have to…
When I first starting seeing E a few years ago, my world was unraveling – my sixteen years with S, the city of New Orleans on shaky ground, my love affair with N having gone south, and some of my friendships exploding and new ones imploding, and I was a mess, let’s face it, a pure mess. And E was the only one who provided the salve I needed to weather this rough patch –…
T quoted I don’t remember who, saying “we travel to find a good place to die” – sort of a gloomy view – I would say we travel to learn more about where we are – coming back home after Austin, I felt an incredible sense of belonging that New Orleans offers, that the LaLa has, the dogs and the cat welcome us back into our routine, our vista of the bayou, our bed, our…
Standing at the food line chatting with a colleague – she commented, “Work’s good, home is good, I’m good, it’s all good, and you?” – I said, “Same.” Then I sit at my computer this morning and read 50,000 believed dead in China’s earthquake, 120,000 in Myanmar’s cyclone, and the horror around the world and our insulation from it at this moment quiets any real confirmation of it’s all good – if you are from…
Arrived in Austin this morning with an EEL posse and one bourgeoisie in tow trying to adhere to EEL rules for living while on the road, but alas, upon multiple recommendations we wound up eating at Gueros – honestly, Tacqueria Corona in New Orleans beats the food at Gueros hands down – the ice cream at Amy’s was delicious and the hip shops on South Congress were interesting enough. T went to Las Manitas for…
A hectic day of work, scheduling, preparing, Jake, Loca, Arlene, and finally at dusk, a walk with T and me and Loca through the twilight streets of Uptown – into Audubon Park – a change of scenery – the heady scent of Confederate Jasmine overtaking fences, Nightblooming Jasmine tall as trees, Gardenia bushes chock a block full of white fragrant flowers, and more – New Orleans – this is what it smells like. Walking hand…
We are compiling data for our new magazine launch of EEL – and here are some of the elements suitable for our publication: eat your dessert before your meal. Never eat more than what fits in your two hands. When you bite someone, bite hard. Look good in your photos or reserve the right to censor. B 4 Real – is probably the biggest one. Keep A/C at barely sufferable temperature so as to conserve…