QUOTATION OF THE DAY (NYT) “Hopefully things will pick up, though. That’s the way I see it. Things are bound to pick up.” MATTHEW BAILEY, who is still looking for a job and a home two years after Hurricane Katrina.
A friend dropped by last night and sat on the porch with me chit chatting about this and that. We were talking about big things (hurricanes, babies), medium things (family, bills), and small things (shoes, hula hoops). I said, “man I’m not looking forward to this week, I am already pulled in too many directions with not enough time to accomplish one well” – he said, “Rachel, just shine, be a light for everyone else.”…
The three year anniversary of Katrina is approaching and I’m still hundreds of thousands of dollars upside on my mortgage because of the 3x cost elevation of doing the house, there are still neighborhoods that look like a war went through them, and there are the people that are still in the diaspora. I spoke to one today talking about an airline ticket – I said my clothes were lost on the way out there…
While we were in Hvar there was this slow food restaurant we were going to try but the guy had been an asshole the year before so we hesitated to go there. The concept was brought about by the French who decided in their typical anti-American ire that our notion of fast food was ruining the world so they were going to introduce slow food and save the world. The irony is that none of…
Parkview Cafe just opened in City Park in a cool old building by the lagoon across from the sculpture garden. They serve coffee, tea, wine and beer and ice cream and some grilled items – burgers, dogs – popcorn, and frozen Hurricanes (of course). I went there yesterday and I was the only person in the place. I hoped news would get around and people would patronize it, if only to keep it alive. Then…
I was deadheading my roses yesterday afternoon and a friend strolled by, sweating from the heat, having just returned from the post office. She lost her job in Katrina after having developed a special program for one of the universities here that didn’t fare so well after the storm. She said after doing about twenty different things, she finally decided to do what she wanted to do and it is working out swimmingly for her.…
Yesterday was a watershed on so many levels, material and nonmaterial, that today I feel a little lean – it started with two things, a phone call and a drawer. I had on my “to do” list for Saturday to clean out another drawer to make more room for T’s stuff. And before I got off the ground, I woke to the sound of thunder and rain, and it rained and it rained and it…
Unemployment at 4-year high Not since 2004 have so many people been out of work. Employers cut jobs again in July, according to a government report Friday that showed the seventh straight month of job losses. Losses spread far beyond the battered construction and auto industries. Retailers cut 17,000 jobs, and professional services lost even more than that — 24,000 positions.
Woke this morning to rain – upset the whole dog walking cycle. Dreams of lost luggage and business trips where I didn’t have my suit to go see clients. Anxiety abounds these days.
I moved back to New Orleans in 2005 because I wanted to be by my family. I wanted kids in my life. I wanted to be an aunt, a sister, a daughter. Well, who knows what went wrong with the equation but it’s been good being here with my mom, although whose to say I’m a good daughter. I told J the other day my sole purpose in my mom’s life is to entertain as…