I have a tendency to absorb stress and overwhelming demands and then later, much later after the fact, I have my meltdown. I’ve got a slow slow trigger and like a pot of water trying to boil at a million feet, it takes a long time to see the bubbles on the surface. But I think lately I snapped. The stress of the summer finally added up to bubbles. Sure, Portugal helped relieve the pressure.…
I was talking about my mom and her condition to a good friend, and my friend said, “She’s doing better now, right?” And I said, “Yeah, well but then what? What’s happens now?” And my friend said, “Well, the hardest part of this is not having any control over that answer.” And there you have it. It’s the question I’ve been asking on a time loop that has become like a rutted groove in my…
Loca was a perfect angel this morning, having spent the better part of her day sulking in her bed yesterday after having lunged after a poor innocent dog who just happened to be walking by her house. She did hop all the way to the park, but it wasn’t because she wanted to run and lunge on a dog. And she greeted a few dogs in the park very politely almost making me smile because…
The pelicans are back on the bayou! I was walking Wolfie this morning and saw one big Louisiana brown pelican soar by me and land in the bayou. This is the first one I’ve seen and it means that fall is here. Although I was sweating when I saw the bird and the thick, humid air outside did not inform me it was fall, rather a continuation of summer. But the joy that fills my…
It was raining so hard today that we batten down the hatches and decided that it was a day to be inside. The other night, T had asked if I wanted to watch another Bergman film she had ordered from Netflix – Cries and Whispers – when I asked her what it was about she said it was about sisters, one of them dying of cancer. I said, “Say what? No thanks.” But today, given…
This morning, we slept in late because at 4:30AM some mysterious cellphone caller woke us up for no good reason other than he had misdialed. So I reordered my Sunday morning and decided to have my tea and New York Times first before walking Loca and heading out for my long bike ride. I went to take Wolfie out for a quickie and Loca was bouncing off the walls from the get go, so I…
We went to see Julie and Julia last night. T hadn’t seen it yet, and neither had a friend. It was good again – in other words, great to see Meryl Streep play Julia Childs. How awesome is she, really. And I had the same criticisms of the other part of the story – the blogger who gets famous and finds success in imitating the one and only Julia Childs. At least last night, I…
To be in California for five straight years in a drought without a single drop of rain is to know what it means to miss New Orleans. When the rain started it would be a drizzle that would cause everyone to rejoice. This is rain? When I came to housesit in 2004 in New Orleans at my friend’s already dark cozy nest of a house, I would lounge in their bed, reading to a low…
I opened my eyes And looked up at the rain, And it dripped in my head And flowed into my brain, And all that I hear as I lie in my bed Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head. I step very softly, I walk very slow, I can’t do a handstand– I might overflow, So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said– I’m just not the same since there’s rain in…
It’s raining outside and I mean cats and dogs. If you have never experienced New Orleans in the rain, you haven’t experienced rain. Someone from out of town asked how long it could go on like this – and everyone turned and looked as if to say, uh, forever. The Cabrini bells are ringing that it is 6PM and there are toadstools in the garden that are almost high enough for me to sit on.…