Since Tin’s school is now out for the holidays, I took the menorahs over early to do a Hanukkah lighting and story telling. A friend made the latkes for me to bring in. Tin is like a sponge, after one reading he was already calling the lead candle a shamus and talking about the menorah, but all the kids really engaged and later one of them bit her pretzel into the shape of a menorah.
The other day I went to lunch with a friend at Rue 127 and it was delicious. It was the second time I had been there and both times I was very impressed with the menu, the food, and the service. I started with a romaine and lardon salad and then had a filet sandwich with the best fries I’ve had in a long time. Delish!
Today continuing in my carnivore state of mind, I went with the same friend to Bear’s after the Times Picayune gave their roast beef poboys a great write up – sorry, I don’t agree. Too bad Jazzy’s is no longer there, it opened right after the storm, now that was the best roast beef poboy I have ever had.
Okay so before I got back to watching Crazy Heart, which I started during Tin’s nap, I just got an email from someone who got my Recession Greeting Card and he told me his story after years of climbing the corporate ladder, talking to his kids on his cell phone at airports, and stress and worry, he quit and seven months ago went to work for himself and now he spends time with his daughters, stresses less, and is a happy camper.
Oh my one by one the smartest minds are waking up like flickers of fire across a vast wasteland and as my daddy used to say, the darkest hour is just before dawn.
A while back walking down a beach, a friend suggested that we ask a dear friend to be Tin’s godfather and before she could finish saying godfather, I knew who that would be. When I got home from the trip, I spoke to Tatjana and there was no doubt that we were both sure we wanted Evan to be Tin’s godfather. It was a decision that both of us have so enjoyed because Evan took it to heart and had already taken Tin to heart.
Today I got to thank her for opening that door when I was speaking to her out of the blue – she said it was the best gift she has received this year.
I love to hear Irma Thomas sing Holy Night, I mean she gets it, she gets right down in it and when she sings towards the end, “little bitty baby boy,” my blood warms. Well we got a call about a baby boy but our hands are full so we called our friend, the one who is a mother waiting to happen, and she is now in action, and I might be in action, driving her to the Midwest to meet this little bitty baby boy that we are all hoping now comes at least on his due date to give us a chance to get ourselves in order.
As I was vetting phone calls about logistics and who needs to do what, Tin said to me, “I want to see the baby boy. I want to talk to her [meaning the person on the phone].”
So this is what I have to say to you unborn baby boy – we’re all ready – the village we have created here that says, yes, we love baby boys and we all have strong arms and big hearts and you will be welcome here in our wonderful world – but stay where you are for a little bit longer just so we can finish the paperwork!!!!!
The fourth person I know just walked into my house and told me they were laid off this week. It is starting to look a lot like the Great Depression around here when Ms. Marie who lives across the bayou recalls five people in her family getting laid off the same week. And yet, I was walking someone through the house today – the previous owner – that’s right, his aunt owned the house and it eventually got passed down to his sister. He walked through the LaLa delighted to see how it had morphed into the home it is today.
He kept saying, amazing, this looks like a completely different place, you live in such a magical place, look at your view of the bayou, look at this, look at that. And I kept nodding my head, and despite all the ticks I have had lately about the burden of the LaLa, now that I’m an innkeeper I am feeling a little bit more like Ms. Kitty from Gunsmoke than bereft and victimized by the excess of my own fantasies.
I told my friend who stopped by I believe and I told the man who came by earlier the same that we are in the midst of a great gear shift, which is grinding so hard because so many are resisting the changes afoot, but that if you just let yourself get carried away by the motion and go with the flow, you’d find the whole process quite liberating. If not downright exhilarating.
I like embodying Ms. Kitty, I like nothing being quite perfect and everything sort of taking on this wild west frontier like quality – reminds me of the days after returning from evacuation and everything had a feeling of like every one has to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and everybody did. Well some sort of zoned out, but most did.
And those of us who did became scrappier, and so when the next gear shifted, we were more adept, and ready for change.
I just got a text message out of the blue from my life coach – he said this, “I think this time next year is going to be a huge shift. 2012 is a big year for you. Mark my word on this.” Now everyone needs a life coach like that don’t you think?
NOMA is having their big 31 straight hour of celebration of their centennial – be there or be square.
Check it out
http://noma.org/events/detail/63/NOMAs-31-Hour-Free-Centennial-Celebration
To commemorate 100 years, NOMA will be open for 31 continuous hours with music, family art making activities, exhibition walk-throughs and more.
Friday, December 16th:
5 pm to 8 pm: Art Making Activities
5 pm to 7 pm: Piano by Wayne Daigrepont
6 pm: Comedic Improv Tour by The New Movement
7 pm: Raffle drawing for the NOMA 100 Green Playhouse
7 pm to 8:30 pm: Isidore Newman Choir
7:30 pm to 8 pm: Reading with Mark Yakich fromChecking In/Checking Out
8 pm to 12 am: Art Making Activities by Prospect.2
8:30 pm: Tour by Modern and Contemporary Art Curator Miranda Lash
9 pm to 12 am: New Orleans Jazz Institute Quartet
9:30 pm: Irvin Mayfield performance and book signing
10 pm: Comedic Improv Tour by The New Movement
Saturday, December 17th:
Midnight to 3 am: Quintron – DJ Set
Midnight: Food by La Cocinita
Midnight film screening of The Science of Sleep
2 am film screening of Basquiat
3 am to 6 am: DJ Kazu
4 am film screening of The Science of Sleep
8 am: Yoga in Second Floor Museum Galleries
9 am to 11 am: NOCCA’s Red Hot Brass Band: Jazz Brunch in Café NOMA by Ralph Brennan
11 am to 4 pm: Art Making Activities (Young Audiencesand YAYA)
11 am: Roots of Music Second Line around NOMAleading to the front steps
11:30 am: “Louisiana Purchase” performance by ARISEAcademy 2nd grade students
12:00 pm: Vocal performance from the New Orleans Opera Association
12:30 pm: Young Audiences of Louisiana presentsD’Project, Inc. Youth Ballet Ensemble from Woodmere Elementary’s “Seasons of Joy”
1:00 pm: Music performance by Talented Music students of the Recovery School District
1:30 pm: Theater performance by Talented Theater students of the Recovery School District
2:00 pm: Performance by the New Orleans Ballet Association
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm: Amanda Shaw Finale Performance
I was listening to Garrison Keillor yesterday on NPR and he said it was the something something anniversary of Gone with the Wind and that the premiere in Atlanta was a huge event where all the actors attended the screening. Well all but the black ones. They were barred from sitting with their white colleagues. Good grief. It’s not that racism has evolved so much since then but thankfully we do have laws that protect people from their own stupidity now.
I think of same sex marriage in the same continuum, the debate is absurd, and one day we will all look back on this period in America and scratch our heads about the time in our history when people who love each other and want to be a family were barred from doing so by others who made the law.
Today I read that they are banning using chimps for medical research because they are too darn cute, no not because of that, because they resemble us. Really – like black people with two eyes and two ears resemble white people, or like gay families resemble not gay families? Well it’s not an out and out ban, it’s a restricted ban, an out and out band would be the equivalent of Obama having pushed for federal recognition of everyone’s rights, not just in the military.
Now that would signal change.
A while back I downloaded a song by Marvin Sapp called He Saw The Best In Me – it is a gospel song speaking to how some draw their inspiration when everything else around them is turning dark. Right now we are entering the dark turn of the globe where the days are short, the sun is seldom seen, and everywhere people are gawking at light.
I watched a TED video today about a woman who became a spoken word poet, I met with the couple who are going to be renting the front of our house the whole month of January, and I received copious responses to a recession greeting card I emailed out.
Yep, we’re all looking for the light, but this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, because when I do, the world around me glows. Can I get a witness?
We had decided to quit bringing the cats in for the numerous senior wellness exams, and countless bloodwork this and thats, and also for the boarding shots since they are never boarded. Annual savings about $600.
Our house became a haven for wayward pets but I had to have a come to Jesus with all of the animals around here. I had a one on one conversation with each of them:
1) Bam Bam – we took you in when your owner died and you have been weird and deeply disturbed from the get go. You did satanic things to the sofa pillow till I had to throw it away. You carried the carcass of that dead stuffed moose for so long like it was a kill all the time yowling in the middle of the night till we finally kicked you to the screen porch for nighttime. I’ve done my share, now you do yours.
2) Blekica – we took you in because they were going to kill you. You kneaded your head into my stomach and showed how affectionate you could be and then you came home with us and turned into a psycho kitty. You clawed the sofa, you clawed my favorite sarong, you clawed the coats in the closet, you have pissed off every other animal in this house, you meow so loudly you wake up the neighbors. You are so bad you resemble the kitty in Bad Kitty not to mention Tin is scared to walk into a room if you are there. You flew up and bit my lip. You are being given your fair warning, enough.
3) Loca – you jumped into my arms at Swirl after someone dropped you off at the curb. You have too much energy but you are handsome and a clown. Alas, you ruin a lot of my walks because you aggressively attack other dogs. I have no peace with you. I have asked you to stop but you continue even though now you are 4 years old. You are jealous of all the other animals and right now the only redeemable thing I can say about you is that you loved Arlene and were kind to her before she passed. And you were kind to my mother, getting on the floor to look into her eyes when she fell. But you growl at Tin, which makes Heidi fight with you and you bit Heidi on the forehead and drew blood. Your negativity is unacceptable. You must stop.
4) Heidi – up until recently your only flaw was that you shed, copious amounts of fur all over everything. But as of late you have begun stealing bread and crackers. You nuzzle into any nook or cranny to seek out these carbs and you tear through bags to get to the crumbs. I came home tonight to find an entire loaf of bread on the floor, eating every bit except for plastic tears. Shame on you. You are fed well here, along with treats. If you feel like we don’t feed you enough, perhaps you would like to try someplace else?
I have said my peace. Admittedly, I am no Dr. Doolittle.