OK already, we are home, AND back on line!!! Sorry about the wait Suzanne.
I have been procrastinating quite a bit about publishing a re-entry post. Ya see, I wanted to write something dramatic and elegant….but um...uh..eh-hem, it’s just hasn’t come to me yet. So, I guess you get what you pay for folks.
Once upon a time a storm came and destroyed my city. This, I was told was a good place to begin.
As it turns out, my house, and the majority of my neighborhood seems to be in tact. My life is mostly in tact. Some things like mail and grocery shopping, or traffic from the West Bank can be discouraging. However, I am able to shop, dine and visit with neighbors like nothing happened.
But something did happen. Something awful happened. Even though I am home, it is really easy to forget. Sometimes it is like a bad dream or Grimm fairy tale where everything ends up mostly ok, but something indefinable and sinister remains pulsating in the back of my psyche. I am still trying to define this event from every perspective I can think of, but it’s too hard right now.
Today in New Orleans the reminder of our tragedy comes in waves of smell. The smell of rot assaults my senses like shock treatment at the oddest moments. It’s different than you might think; it’s not like the early days of Post-Katrina when everything just reeked. The smell is literally sticky and it had adhered itself to every item in the city. At this point every item that has been deemed salvageable has been somehow liberated from the sticky stink by way of soap and bleach. It is the discarded items that were destroyed by the funk, whose smell haunts everyone’s nostrils as we encounter them.
There are still piles of people’s precious things and trash and houses lining all of the streets. Most of the refrigerator corpses have been taken to some sort of mysterious black hole. This fact is at first comforting but if I think about it for long enough, my comfort dissolves and is quickly replaced with a totally overwhelming feeling of despair for the already delicate environment. I can’t even wrap my mind around the desperate situation surrounding our precious marsh.
Sean and I have been spending the majority of our time mending our home. These activities have kept my attention very much contained to the small sphere that surrounds my life at 1729 Clio St.. I have been forcing myself to go to neighborhood meetings and read the paper, but honestly, it is much easier to just sand the floors and paint the walls. Those tasks at least leave me with a sense of real accomplishment.
We got a new roof for the camel back. The tile color is called dessert sand, and it looks smashing with the black tile on the shotgun (or front) of our house. We have also fixed up the yucky apartment in the front of the house and moved in to it. It looks beautiful and I will post photos soon. Now, we don’t have to walk through the funky alley, and we can be in the front of the house and represent. Unfortunately, the new apartment is not bigger, but it will be soon. As soon as Sean moves his shop junk into the back room, we will have a bedroom and I cannot wait! I miss my big kitchen with the fabulous view, but this is good too.
I want everyone to know that our exile in Florida was as wonderful as it could have been. It was super cool to get to hangout in Sarasota and meet all of Sean’s friends and family. We both really appreciated that so many people came to our engagement party. I have not been quick to send thank-you cards because the mail isn’t really working correctly. Sorry about the bad bride etiquette.
It has been years since I have been able to pal around with my family for a whole two months. That experience was wonderful. I miss everyone a little bit more now (don’t get excited mom). I am tempted to write an Oscaresque speech thanking each and every person that has been so helpful to us during the last few months, but I’ll refrain. Besides, chances are, if you are reading this you deserve a gianormous thank you from Sean, Jacqui, and their dogs. It is because of you that we were able to weather the storm, as they say.
That is all for now, but I PROMISE I will post some pictures this week.
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