Can I get a witness?
We arrived in New Orleans after a not so long car ride that included a stop at PreJeans for lunch. N asked the waitress and anyone else that would listen if they had a car to sell as Mom had called crying and said her car was dead. The waitress asked if he had a house to sell as they had lost theirs in Rita. What goes on? It just is so invasive Katrina, Rita, the rains in New Jersey now for 8 days – the finance guy at the Ford dealership said it’s biblical. Well it has biblical proportions but certainly not end of days type stuff.
Meanwhile this roadtrip was actually wonderful or won’rful depending on who is saying it. The first day was somewhat disorienting as we were looking for an epiphany and it was hard to come by and then we started going around the city in different increments – S and N went to get coffee and rediscovered Magazine and I went for a run to the park and saw such varying degrees of repair that it gave me heart. The decision ended up being to come back and the how and whatever is still being figured out but it lead to me going to the Ford dealershp and buying the truck I’ve been wanting while I gave the Volvo to mom who was in need of a well running car.
The city was hard to digest – one block perfectly in tact, the next trees felled and houses regurgitating stuff. Then the smell – no one has collected garbage and it was all out there but when they started getting it it disturbed the protective seal of being there for a period of time and the stench appeared. The refrigerators sit there like white vertical coffins – with notes on some that say “Free” or “Buffet Inside” and then there was the rumor but now confirmed story of Zara’s throwing their meat on the sidewalk and as it rotted the stench causing the entire hood to fall apart – they are now and foreever boycotted because of their total irresponsible actions. But there were also fifty egrets sitting up from the bayou on the neutral ground – hovering near home like the rest of us.
Or there was going to August and seeing John Besh and Michael and having the best best best meal of our life. And just being there brought everything into focus – they are back, they are making it work and they have been trying to be there for the community to the point of John handing out red beans and rice when it was all going down. Is this the best restaurant in New Orleans? If you don’t believe that you are dead. Along with the company – L and N joining us – and the wine Napa Valley Napanook – what could go wrong – everything was perfect. Then going to the Gold Mine to see Bill who we missed and hear the poets come out of the woodwork to support or tell the story of our fair city.
Then we returned – I fear coming back to the morgue but P and W were here to assuage any sullenness that might have tainted our road trip. And we are so on board with leaving on Saturday or Sunday to go back and reclaim our New Orleans life. So many things about yesterday were very nice – and so very hard to put in words – running to Audubon Park, having a crying session on a park bench there, being close to those we love, having moments and hours of utter delightful joy – life sometimes can be so utterly rewarding it is hard to think of what is wrong with it all.