Wiser – maybe – but last night’s hurricane party was unlike any other – it was solemn, sad, anxious – and I had to take an Atavan to sleep. This morning, everyone is heading out of town. We’re driving to Atlanta as soon as we board up the house and pack. The boys are going to try to get on their 4PM flight. We’re convoying with friends and animals headed to Alabama and Atlanta. Our…
As New Orleans denizens flocked to groceries buying water and canned food, my baby went looking for roses for me. A dozen yellowish orange long-stemmed roses, all perfect, sit on our counter because for now, for the present, for this moment, we enjoy.
It’s now almost 5 PM and the city is shutting down. I went to get the boys from the W around 11 and the National Guard was blocking most of the streets downtown. I took them to Elizabeth’s for the breakfast of champions (shrimp and grits, biscuits and mimosas) and K bought a Dr. Bob “Be Nice or Leave” sign and then we went by the Country Club where as I told T, I was…
This weekend which was supposed to be about moving on and showing tens of thousands of visitors that New Orleans is back instead is now a hotbed of anxiety and fear. Our friends checked into the W last night having had their bags lost by Southwest and the desk clerk told them they have to be out today so we are picking them up to bring them over here this morning. I hear the pounding…
Here we are on Friday, the third year anniversary of the Katrina, and things are iffy. We have Gustav as a giant unknown causing a lot of agitation – some people are packing and going, some are packing and staying, some are packing and riding it out unless it’s a “mother fucker”, some are staying and not packing, some are just walking around in circles. My neighbors on either side have already put up on…
Our yoga instructor said the vibes were growing edgy in the city and we had to do everything possible to ground ourselves in something stronger. We have to make ourselves as big as the storm approaching. This whole month has been an instruction in Lila – the folly the gods enjoy as their divine pastime – if we are as big as the storm, we can see how we won’t be undone by it. We…
Last week, I was thinking of this day approaching and what we might do to commemorate. But life changed so much in the last three years. And in the last three days, I am grieving for a friend’s child who is dying and simultaneously have been looking forward to an old friend arriving for Southern Decadence weekend. My friend is from another life I lived – the one in California – which ended on or…
Who knows if Gustav is as big and bad as it could be, but we’ve made our preparation list. We have Plan A and Plan B. We’re headed to stock up on water and can goods. And then we’re going to have a cocktail and watch Obama accept the nomination.