A new discovery at Jazz Fest

I slept maybe two minutes last night in my hotel room at the Mark Hopkins – anguished because I had asked to meet an old friend and then I ditched him in minutes because I had lost all reserves of energy and had a wake up call at 3:45 am awaiting me. I also kept thinking of Tin’s eye procedure because he will have to have a local for 15 or 20 minutes while they clear his eye tear ducts. And I just thought of the traveling home and was clearly so exhausted I couldn’t sleep.

I read through the New York Times on my flight and balanced all of our checking and savings accounts except one and felt a sense of accomplishment. But I didn’t get any sleep.

Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes were playing on the Gentilly Stage at 5, so I came home and did a James Brown turnaround and got Tin in his pack and off we went with bottle and rice cracker snacks to Jazz Fest. Thursday is my favorite day, it’s local’s day, but I had clearly missed most of Thursday by now.

We sat in the grass in the way back of Gentilly and had a bottle and I had a glass of champagne. And then Tin and I went over when the band came on and stood by the side of the stage and Tin danced and ate his rice crackers and on the fence was a black and white photograph of Bo Didley and Trombone Shorty when he was a wee little boy with a horn in his mouth.

Then we made our way over to the Chouval Bwa of Martinique Creole carousel that is over by the ancestors. There before us was a wood carved old timey carousel and inside were nine musicians from Martinique playing incredible music. They had just finished the last ride but they let me and another mother with her small child get on and did one more. A friend of mine was leaning on the fence and when I came out he said, “I’ve been here four times, this is the best music at Jazz Fest.”

Glad I rallied.

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