For the second night in a row, I woke to Heidi begging to get out because she has diarrhea – blessed with a child who sleeps through the night – we have two dogs to keep us humble. As I lay in bed both nights, my left hand was itching, badly. I thought, uh oh, what now? – left hand itching means I am going to have to pay somebody. Sure enough, took Loca to…
Tonight the sky put on a show of drama without the summer colors – just big white clouds outlined in grey against a sky blue sky. I walked Tin around the bayou and it was the usual dynamics. He will hold my hand to cross the street but any suggestion of holding hands on the sidewalk leads to a fit. But nothing leads to a hissy fit like telling him he is going the wrong…
I was speaking to a neighbor the other day (who is Jewish) who said she was born black and therefore has the wrong color skin (she is fair skinned). Another friend who sent me an article about adoption, about the guy who adopted two Chinese girls and wrote a book about it, said the guy had also mentioned a boy who was adopted and who thought he was American Indian. His adopted parents brought him…
This is a familiar refrain in New Orleans – it started raining Friday night and didn’t stop. We set up the umbrellas and plastic gazebo because we decided that rain wasn’t going to stop us from having our Release Party – I mean rain? Water? That is our metaphor, right? We put our shrimp boots on and carried tables, food, and drink out to the bayou and people came carrying more food, more drink, more…
We were driving out to Metairie to pick up the noodle kugel we had ordered for the Release party as well as two 2-lb challah loaves when the eastbound side of the I-10 was completely empty and we saw the motorcade on its way in – President Obama here in the Crescent City to honor our loss and our rebound. It’s raining outside but we are still holding our Release party come hell or high…
The rain is clearing and we are holding our Release party this evening. We’re going to burn all our grievances and regrets and we’re going to cast (Jewish style) a piece of bread into the bayou for our many wishes. Today marks 5 years since the great levee failure of 2005 and we are going to get down on our knees figuratively and be grateful for where we are today. Hallelujah we’re home, home at…
Yesterday on the rainiest days of the year, we decided to put in a DVD for Tin and watch for 20 minutes. It was a Baby Einstein and two minutes into it, I was like yuck. So today I went online to find DVDs and read reviews and here’s one that scared me, “I have 20 of the Baby Einstein DVDs that my child watches a lot…” STOP – 20? A lot? Geez Louise who…
Some friends stopped by yesterday to see Tin – they were in town only briefly. We comfortably sat at the dining table while it continued to rain steadily outside and talked about everything we could cram into an hour visit, while Tin ate everything we put in front of him – yoghurt, two cookies, dinner, applesauce and he would have gladly eaten more – growth spurt? We also started giving him his vitamins in the…
Here we are on the five year anniversary of the great federal disaster called the levee failure of New Orleans and it is raining, still. We’re supposed to be commemorating the occasion with a Release ceremony on the bayou this evening – burning our grief and casting forth our wishes – but right now we’re wondering how in the world we’ll be able to stand on the grass without sinking into the muck. It’s fitting…
Since returning from the Garden of the Tunafishes (Zahara de los atunes) I’ve been in a dreamy state of mind. I thought it would have ended after a week back and jumping straight into work, home, zoo, etc – but really I’m still sort of coasting along on shifting sands. Everything resonates like a dream. I drive down Orleans Avenue and look at the project being rebuilt into the now fashion of separate housing and…