Jasmine was here
So in all their infinite wisdom Bell South decided to rewire all of Midcity thereby keeping us without landlines till most likely August.
Then they took it upon themselves to take control of the end of the neutral ground on Ursulines and Hagan – Ursulines being one of the, if not the, most beautiful street in Midcity – they ripped out jasmine that had been growing there for decades and was perhaps the largest jasmine anyone has ever seen – they ripped out a Japanese plum – then they scorched the earth – then they built a 4 foot concrete platform and erected the ugliest biggest steel box ever seen – now the people who live in the beautiful houses that grace the street can sit on their front porches at night and sip mint juleps and marvel about how ugly their street has become.
But wait – the neighborhood went balistic – and we decided to have a rally to protest this invasion and we invited Channel 4 and every council person and representative we could find to show up today at 2. But last night, in anticipation of this rally, a good friend got a wee bit tight and snuck over and graffiti’d the monstrosity with the words – JASMIINE WAS HERE – and today when Channel 4 showed up I was the spokesperson to go tell the cameraman to make sure he didn’t miss the graffiti on the other side.
The good news is that I think they are actually going to have the eyesore removed – which is unbelievable and fantastic at the same time.
I ran to the Quarter this morning to get a long run in – my IPOD went out twice – that means when I run the Crescent City Classic next Saturday I have to decide whether time or experience is more important – the last race my IPOD went out at a crucial time but I powered through – I think it could mean forget the time and go for the fun – hence a reboot stop and crappy time.
I took H&T after the rally by the LaLa and they were enchanted by the house and the experience on the porch as H called it. I had my tinge of guilt again sitting on the porch but I put that emotion in my new outbasket where I keep throwing all my vestigial emotions – the one that requires re-emptying and constant vigilance that none of those emotions try to creep back into my psyche. Remember the manifesto I admonish myself – something like Remember the Alamo – which I must say is not a too far off analogy.
My birthday plans started taking concrete shape and now people are getting involved and so now weather permitting, it will be a grand celebration – the new age and the unwinding all wrapped up into one funky occasion.
I learned again that some people have an amazing capacity to change, you know, or morph – maybe not in their current environment – sometimes it takes shattering the foundation – I spoke with S who spent the weekend with his family watching a slide show of when all of them were kids – he was overwhelmed by the thought of children and regret.
Later I watched 60 minutes where they visited an elephant orphanage in Kenya – these babies are abandoned when their parents are killed by poachers seeking ivory tusks – FOR GODSAKES DON’T EVEN THINK OF BUYING IVORY – but the baby elephants would die without their mother’s milk so they are brought to the orphanage under emergency circumstances – they thrive on love like human babies – and so when they get to the orphanage they are assigned a person who sleeps with them and spends all day with them till they reach adolescence. It is quite an amazing place – a place I hope to visit when my financial obligations to the LaLa are behind me.
I told somebody new – C – who I met the other night to check out my blog – but I warned her that without controversy there is no interest and so she might be lulled to sleep by the latest entries. Again I grab hold of Tennessee Williams, who said: The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that’s true of everyone, don’t you?
Oh Tennessee – really? Did you think that is true of everyone? Did you really believe everyone had this capacity to love as deeply or feel as profoundly as you did?
Muses come from the oddest places at the oddest times.