Deep sorrow for the families who lost a loved one in Mumbai during this horrible tragedy.
Here, Abby is still missed.
You pick up the pieces and you move on. Right?
The bells of Cabrini are ringing and so it is time to shut down and enjoy Saturday night. As Flower always tells me, hope dies last.
If anyone wants to know – we’re ready.
Good friends who think they have something to tell us that we might not already know have told us that a child is going to change our life. Really, we say, trying to be considerate but thinking to ourselves, why, we never thought of that.
We have gone over and over and over in our minds the pros and cons of being a parent and the one thing that was certain the day we met was that we wanted a child. And we have gone over and over the many ways that might happen, and we realize we are not tied to how or who, but when.
One friends says do IVF, another says she knows a woman who adopted a child who was abandoned in her neighborhood, another says get one from foster care, another says surrogate mother, one says Ethiopia, another says Russia, still others think that China remains open, and I keep thinking one is going to float down the bayou in a basket and we’ll call it Moses.
I got irked recently when my mother turned at the table and said, “I know you, Rachel.” She had just said I am easily repulsed. Which I don’t believe I am. “I know you,” she said, as if to imply, better than you know yourself. Since T had the fur covered peach slice incident at the ready, it was easy to concur. But honestly, one or two incidents does not make a label.
In a conversation recently, the person speaking with me kept assuming that she knew me, possibly better than I know myself, and as hard as I tried to offer a rebuttal, she kept giving me that knowing look – which I must say really vexes me.
Okay, I don’t know me either. I’ve done things I didn’t think I was capable of – and that is a wide range of great things and horrible things. I’ve reacted most in line with who I think I am but mostly I have spent a lifetime questioning who I am, so what gives anyone outside of my skin to think they “know” me if I am still surprising myself?
Recently, New Orleans was awarded the (dis)honor of having the highest crime per capita of any U.S. city. Last night, at Swirl, a friend was talking to my friends visiting from Atlanta, she had recently moved back to New Orleans. She said, “Yes, Atlanta’s a functioning city, but it’s good to be home.” Ah, home, crime ridden but lovable.
This morning after breakfast at Dizzy’s – eggs, grits and fried catfish – my friend said she really thought I would never find a person, male or female, who would compliment me until she met T. I said I feel the same. But wondered is that a comment on me or T?
Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Customers
By JACK HEALY and ANGELA MACROPOULOS A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers on Friday.
How could we not be connected in these global times to every event, every city and citizen who suffers?
Mumbai – my colleagues recently held a conference there, in a country that I dream about but have never visited, and now Mumbia is in peril. Damn these terrorist to hell – with so much in the world to worry about, young punks wrecking senseless havoc on people who were living their lives – very sad, indeed.
We opted for a small gathering this year for Thanksgiving and it was a long and lovely day. The weather was superb. I woke up and walked Loca into the park where the Turkey trot was underway. She and I ran into Sangi, Loca’s new best friend, and the two dogs tripped the light fantastic in and out of the lagoon, terrorizing anyone near who wanted to stay dry. Then home again, where T and I decided to ride our bikes to the lakefront and had a lovely ride on a gorgeous, sunny day. We came back and started the meal in earnest – why? – because we were deep frying our turkeys and didn’t have to be tied to a stove or an all day affair. Mom showed up around 3ish, looking pale and shaky, but she came and that was good.
We prepped two turkeys – one with just salt and pepper and one covered in Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Barbecue spice (yum). We also had shrimp and tasso stuffed mirlton, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, sugar snap peas sauteed with sliced almonds and nutmeg, cornbread, challah, and ciabatta. Then we finished with pumpkin cheesecake from Cafe Minh and pecan pie from me (Thanksgiving eve the lights went out when I was supposed to be making the mirlton and pie, the only advance items that needed attention. Somewhere between losing electricity and our out of town guests arriving, the pie got left in the oven when the broiler was turned on for the mini hamburgers and WALA, burned pecan pie – it was delicious nonetheless).
But for those of you who have not had the pleasure, behold seven steps to a delicious turkey:
Step 1 – rub the turkey all over with Magic Barbecue and stick on the turkey thing:
Step 2 – Bring turkey out to deep fryer in a wide open place – like the bayou
Step 3 – make sure the peanut oil has hit 350 degrees
Step 4 – immerse turkey into hot hot oil
Step 5 – what hot oil looks like
Step 6 – 30 minutes for an 11.5 lbs turkey and Wala – dinner!
Step 7 – enjoy, super darlings
City Park was so beautiful this morning. The crepe myrtles and the cypress are the only trees in fall color – and the crepes give an array of yellows to rust, but the cypress have turned an umber color that is just magical. As I rounded the bend to come back towards home, I noticed many pockets of people throwing bread to the ducks and then a clandestine circle of ducks holding an impromptu meeting under a large cypress. Here’s what they were saying:
Turkeys are in, ducks are out. We made it another year. Woo hoo!
Each day about 150 people read my blog. Interestingly enough most of those are unique visitors to the site. The areas that get commented on the most are my entries about loving New Orleans and being in love. But the entry that got the most comments was when I had my chemical peel and posted the day to day progress of the peel.
I started this blog in 2004 because I was going to write about my family – wow, did that ever take a detour – as I moved back to New Orleans in early 2005 after 16 years in California, my writing focused on what was happening to me: Katrina, my affair (btw: don’t regret much, but this I DO), a divorce, and rebuilding from scratch the LaLa in post-Katrina times, as well as falling in love with a woman, and now trying to adopt.
Move over family, Rachel’s in the house.
That chemical peel was symbolic as you can tell. And I’m overjoyed to think that New Orleans is still on the map, Obama was elected president, and I still feel as if I have not even gotten started writing about the wonders all around me.
Thanks for reading my blog and have a happy and fun holiday!
This is me as Pocahontas last Thanksgiving, my first in the LaLa – we had a ton of fun, but this year we are going for small and cozy with my high school friend driving in from Atlanta and mom and the zoo:
Our suitcases came after I went to bed so before I took Loca out this morning, I was trying to unpack and take care of a few things and was running late. I raced out the door, and Loca saw two of her friends, Louie and the white dog, playing off leash on the grass by the bayou. I let her off to run play with them and this could have gone on forever, but I knew I needed to walk.
So we quickly walked to the park and just seeing the Great Egret on the cypress knee crags of the lagoon, the Cormorants in the bare tree, as well as the lone big Pelican resting calmly on the surface of the glassy bayou made my heart warm. I realized how inspired I am by nature and how wonderful my life is here in this oasis of natural beauty.
November 26, 2008 – Daily Affirmation
Today, I open myself to be nourished by the beauty in life. My thoughts blossom and bear fruit.