Really pople, MREs?

I love that everyone loves New Orleans, but really, the MREs and the 8 oz bottles of water need to go to BR, Feliciana Parishes, Lafourche, etc. We don't need them b/c I took myself to the Whole Foods and bought some overpriced groceries, mineral water, and then had a dinner party. This is not what WE need right now. It is what some folks need, but not us.

There is a very significant way that Katrina offered an opportunity for people to feel better about themselves and their lives by volunteering their time to repair a problem that was actually way bigger than the damage to people's homes. In many big ways, this volunteering has been helpful, appreciated, and has had a noticeable impact on the recovery effort in New Orleans. It has also allowed New Orleans to remain stuck in a victim role.

It drives me crazy to see college kids walking around my neighborhood picking up trash. That trash is there because somebody, or a lot of people who are responsible for that trash are too lazy to do it themselves. Christians get to put an entry on their application to heaven called
New Orleans Relief Worker. If you really want to help us, bridge the gap between public need, and public policy, solve housing inequity, sit in a classroom and assist a public school teacher, but do not come pick up trash and hand out MREs and tiny water bottles.

Screw the cone of probability... seriously

This storm actually sucks. It looks like it is coming here, but nobody seems to think it will. I have not decided to evacuate. If things go anything like last time, we will be much better off staying. More on that later.

Words from the safehouse

I had a dream last night that featured the dark bands of a hurricane that suddenly took the form of an Octopus reaching down from the sky and swatting at everything on the ground. I hid in the closet as the octopus tore the house apart and sucked all the light from the sky. Fortunately when I woke there was only a fast moving grey sky. Sean is outside playing the trumpet as each note gets sucked up by the wind, and hopefully taken back home to New Orleans by this circular breeze.

I have a few things to say about this experience so far. Most notably Sean and I now identify as evacuators. We leave under any reasonable threat and pack a month’s worth of stuff. We will continue to do this even if we do not believe that the worst will happen.
We realize that this is what it means to live in New Orleans. We are completely aware that at anytime our home, stuff, town, and life as we know it could disappear and we would need to start over. We know that New Orleans will flood again. We left this time with our eyes full of tears and our hearts in our throats drunk with gratitude for 3 more years in New Orleans. We do not have a plan B to living in New Orleans. We do not want a plan B (at least not yet).

It is 11:44 on Monday the industrial canal is about spill, I have know idea what this storm will actually do but I suspect that it won’t do what we all thought. Good.

I know that many people have been watching the news, and it has been very scary. Please don’t let them keep you scared for us. I am not trying do downplay the seriousness of this storm, but CNN, MSNBC, TWC, etc… make tons of money by keeping people terrified and watching TV. They will never be able to tell you exactly what’s happening or going to happen. So given that we are evacuators now, just know we are ok and don’t believe the hype.

Our camp in Clinton LA is great. We are comfortable our dogs are happy; we are with good people watching movies; all is well.

XOXO Jacqui