Mardi Gras day approaches
Have I mentioned that my friend Sara Gran is leaving? Like many people here who actually have options, she and her boyfriend/hubby have decided to move on. It is hard to sit around waiting, trying to decide whether to fight, or write, or look for work, or volunteer, or write, or look for another place to live, or worry about being shot, or consider buying a place, or look for a job, or change the locks, or meet with the Mayor in order to be told that "We are all just pawns in a bigger game." And so people move on.
Meanwhile, I spent Friday running pre-holiday errands: the bank, the bills, groceries, drug store, dog food. Anything I might need in the next week. What people who haven't ever experienced Mardi Gras may not realize is this: it is an actual holiday. The banks shut down. There is no mail. And the traffic is awful. So you have to have your supplies ready.
It has been too cold to go to any parades so far, but I hope to make it to something eventually. Tuesday morning the St. Anne parade starts a few blocks away as residents march into the Quarter. But like everything else in New Orleans, there are now factions involved: those who want to begin at the traditional point on Clouet in Bywater, and those who want to reroute the parade with a Marigny starting point. Again, the fact that every effort in the city becomes ego driven rather than anything else is exhausting.
Anyone have a job for me out there??
Meanwhile, I spent Friday running pre-holiday errands: the bank, the bills, groceries, drug store, dog food. Anything I might need in the next week. What people who haven't ever experienced Mardi Gras may not realize is this: it is an actual holiday. The banks shut down. There is no mail. And the traffic is awful. So you have to have your supplies ready.
It has been too cold to go to any parades so far, but I hope to make it to something eventually. Tuesday morning the St. Anne parade starts a few blocks away as residents march into the Quarter. But like everything else in New Orleans, there are now factions involved: those who want to begin at the traditional point on Clouet in Bywater, and those who want to reroute the parade with a Marigny starting point. Again, the fact that every effort in the city becomes ego driven rather than anything else is exhausting.
Anyone have a job for me out there??
Comments
I was looking for an email for you because I just heard your Fresh Air interview (the replay of it) and I'm just overcome with gratitude. I'm the grateful caretaker/parent (always afraid of sounding like a crazy dog person, but parent-soul mate is probably the most accurate...) of a pit named Stella. She and my other two dogs (all 3 are rescues) are consistent beacons of light, truth, unconditional love, and marshallers of a slower pace in a crazy, sometimes stressful world. I suspect you know this to be true in your own life, with your own canine family. Anyway, I wanted to just send a quick note to thank you for speaking up (so eloquently, so accurately) about this wonderful, misunderstood, often abused (in every sense) breed. Pits are just, well, for a really verbal person, I'm left speechless in my attempt to describe their sweet, pure, desperately affectionate personalities. They're the things that Cole Porter wrote lyrics about! (the tops, etc.) I never hear anyone defending them publicly and, as you alluded to, I often hear disparaging, sound-bite related negative inaccuracies instead. So very, very many of them homeless, so very misunderstood. Anyway - on behalf of Stella and her non-pit canine siblings Blanche and Stanley, thank you! (p.s. I heard a rumor that the woman touted as the "first face transplant" from a few months ago was being reported as a victim of dog mauling, in which a pitbull was falsley described as the culprit; in fact, I *believe* it was a lab - have you heard anything about this? (You mentioned your next book might investigate cultural constructions and the discourse surrounding pits - just an idea.) Anyway, my first and last fan letter/email. Oh - my dear friend teaches American lit at Tulane and they may be hiring - you mentioned on your blog a need for employment - have you thought about Tulane? Good luck and thanks again for your great work,
Bailey
My email is listed at the top of the page...
Thanks!