Nurse Rachel
It’s a tale of the old cobbler’s kids have no shoes. I’ve been stalking G all morning because I worry about her. Her funk funked up more when she read about City Park having no funds this morning. I said but the good part is that people are going in and cleaning the park, and they weren’t doing that pre-Katrina – so we know it falls to us and we’re doing it. She said, “it’s a big park Rachel. We need money.” Late for pilates I said I’d call her back.
Pilates kicked my ass – as it usually does. But I was almost getting weepy because I hadn’t eaten breakfast and was about to go in full blood sugar drain.
I went by the LaLa to see what K had done yesterday – he put the trim around two more windows – almost. How long does it take to trim a window?
I got a text from S last night, the Cougar is on patrol down in Southern California – her first messages were fun – the last not so fun – she had gotten left by her cohort at some guy’s house. Not cool. The ethos of a date even if with your girlfriend is you see her home. No leaving anyone behind. Not cool at all.
I called G after Pilates and she wasn’t around – read: she is over there with her thick gloves trying to pet the cemetery Chihuahua – she won’t give it up even thought the little bitch wants no part of her.
So I drove home and thought about New Orleans and about my being here right now. It’s going to take years for the city to get fully back and it never was fully here to begin with, it’s been a tattered old shadow of its former self since I arrived on the scene – but “it feels like home, feels like all the way back where I come from” – sometimes a man can make you feel this way and sometimes a city called New Orleans. Either way, it’s where I want to be.
So the whole thing about wanting to take care of G, or take care of ________ (fill in the blank), is I don’t have to spend any real time taking care of me – but today, I’m going to see if I can’t find a way to take care of what Rachel needs because I’m getting lost in the chaos that is sometimes my life.