A perfect evening in New Orleans
As soon as she got out of the cab, we whisked Flower to the Ogden to go hear the second half of Mary Gauthier. It was standing room only when we walked in the door, and Mary’s rich vocals were already in play singing Christmas in Paradise, one of my favorites. She looked so petite, smaller than I imagined but her voice carried the three story height of the Ogden, reaching up to the people sitting along the stairways and hanging over the rails on the third floor. She closed with Mercy Now, T’s favorite. When we stood in line to tell her we loved her music, I saw that she was inches taller than me even with my cowboy boots on.
We headed to Meaux Bar and Jim was welcoming – got us Debbie’s table by the window – and the bartender made us his delicious Kettle One Cosmos.
Evan and Tom were at Donna’s, so after dinner, we walked down Rampart and Evan was just picking up his clarinet since he was late to the gig. Didn’t matter. He gets better every time we see him and Tom’s always good.
It was a full moon and before we left the LaLa, we opened our purses in unison and said “Fill it Up, Fill it Up, Fill it Up.”
Flower asked “Why open your purse?,” I said it gets filled with money, and T said, “No, filled with love.” And I corrected myself and said filled with everything.
At midnight, when we returned, the moon was high and bright in the sky, and our wishes had come true.