marathoner452

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My plane leaves Sunday for Baltimore via Dallas and while I would love more than anything to stay in New Orleans for, oh, say, another couple months, now I have a definite date for coming back here for good. Fall semester classes start August 20th, I believe. No longer do I have to say that I have every intention of moving here, or that I plan on moving here, or whatever. If I can find the money and a place to live, I will be living in New Orleans in 6 months. That's about the best feeling in the world, being on my way to making this dream reality.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: 6030 St. Claude, New Orleans

That's what one of the residents said to me this evening after I found him some of our "Yankee" red beans and some biscuits and greens. Apparently "Yankee" beans have too many veggies. (As a general rule, the people who live here like their meat and you know someone's a volunteer if they ask for the veggie version.) This is the same resident who jumped on the serving line to help me out with the barbeque last Sunday when most everyone else ran off to the Bacchus parade and 150 residents showed up for burgers and hot dogs. Not that I can blame them for leaving; I wanted to go to the parade too.

The hardest part about being down here will be leaving Sunday. I would love nothing better than to stay here for another couple of months, but I gotta get back home, I mean, to Maryland, so I can keep working so I can move down here for good in August. In the middle of hurricane season no less. I'm the crazy one who wants to move down here and teach and falls more in love with this city every day she's here. It's delayed gratification. I just have to wait longer than I'd like to and I'll just keep telling myself that until I believe that's a good enough reason to leave. Call me at the airport 10 am New Orleans time on Sunday to make sure I'm getting on the plane or I'm liable to stay put right where I belong.

Sugar Park on Saturday night as a going-away present? :-)

Current Mood: loved
Current Location: 6030 St Claude, New Orleans

When I got the last seat on the plane in Chicago, last stop before New Orleans, the woman I had had to climb over turned to me and said, "Where have you been? We've been waiting for you." Welcome back to New Orleans, how was your vacation, it's been way too long and we've been waiting for you.

I took a much-needed almost day off yesterday. I pulled a muscle either having too much fun on Mardi Gras or lifting too many boxes of orange juice and cambros of chicken alfredo. So instead of chopping squash and strawberries and potatoes and serving all of the above to hundreds of residents and volunteers, I spent most of the day in bed reading Soul Kitchen and most of the night taking a real shower and hanging out at Sugar Park until 1 in the morning. You need a change in scenery every once in awhile. It's not going to do anyone any good if I get burned out from hearing so many "I was there when the levees broke and I was in the Superdome for 6 days" stories. I think the breaking point was the gut I went on a few days ago. The downstairs of this man's house had already been gutted, but then the roof leaked into the upstairs bedroom where he and his wife went to escape the floodwaters when the levee broke. Had to be a major trigger for him. We threw debris, his books and clothes and magazines and carpet, out the window that he climbed out of to be rescued. He showed us how high the floodwaters were, where neighbors of his lived who didn't make it. When I needed a break pulling insulation out of the ceiling I just stood by that window and tried to imagine 125 mph winds and 14 feet of water instead of a beautiful sunny day. Fortunately, here and now the sunny days win most of the time.

I want to hear the stories, need to hear the stories because the residents here need someone to listen and to care and because people back in Maryland need to get as angry about this as I am, as invested in the future of New Orleans. But sometimes it's too many stories all at once and you need a break. Now I'm ready to get back in the game. Perfect timing because tomorrow night's red beans and rice. Of course it is, it'll be Monday in New Orleans.

So life is for living and right now life is good. It's not always easy, but I'm where I need to be.

Current Mood: living in the moment
Current Location: 6030 St. Claude, New Orleans

Current Location: Lower 9th Ward, NOLA

...WINTER STORM WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON...

THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

LOW PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP OVER TEXAS TODAY. THE LOW WILL MOVE NORTHEAST INTO THE TENNESSEE VALLEY ON TUESDAY AND INTO THE OHIO VALLEY TUESDAY NIGHT. MEANWHILE...A SECONDARY LOW WILL DEVELOP EARLY WEDNESDAY OFF THE COAST OF THE CAROLINAS AND MOVE UP THE EASTERN SEABOARD WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. THE COMBINATION OF THE TWO LOW PRESSURE SYSTEMS WILL SPREAD A VARIETY OF WINTRY PRECIPITATION INTO THE REGION FROM MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT WINTER PRECIPITATION CONTINUES FOR THE MID ATLANTIC TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT. LATEST INDICATIONS CONTINUE TO SUGGEST WARM AIR A FEW THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE SURFACE WILL BE DRAWN INTO THE SYSTEM TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...CREATING THE POTENTIAL FOR A SIGNIFICANT FREEZING RAIN EVENT AS SURFACE TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN BELOW FREEZING.

AT THE TIME OF PRECIPITATION ONSET... LIGHT RAIN AND SNOW WILL DOMINATE OVER NORTHERN AND CENTRAL VIRGINIA...THE EASTERN PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA... THE POTOMAC HIGHLANDS AND LOWER SOUTHERN MARYLAND. PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING IN THE HIGHLANDS AND SPREAD EASTWARD. THE PRECIPITATION TYPE IS EXPECTED TO CHANGE OVER TO SNOW AND SLEET TONIGHT. ON TUESDAY...SNOW AND SLEET WILL CHANGE TO FREEZING RAIN OVER MOST AREAS BY THE AFTERNOON. OVER LOWER SOUTHERN MARYLAND...FREEZING RAIN MAY CHANGE OVER TO ALL RAIN LATE TUESDAY NIGHT.

SNOW AND SLEET POTENTIAL OVERNIGHT MONDAY INTO TUESDAY COULD TOTAL ONE TO TWO INCHES BY TUESDAY MORNING IN THE POTOMAC HIGHLANDS WITH AROUND AN INCH EXPECTED ELSEWHERE. TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS OF FREEZING RAIN ARE LIKELY ACROSS MOST OF REGION. TEMPERATURES ARE FORECAST TO REMAIN BELOW FREEZING FROM MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING...WITH THE EXCEPTION OF LOWER SOUTHERN MARYLAND.

THOSE WITH TRAVEL PLANS...DECISION MAKERS...AND PLANNERS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR FORECASTS FOR UPDATES. ACCUMULATING FREEZING RAIN WILL CAUSE TRAVEL PROBLEMS AND POWER OUTAGES.

It is NOT allowed to snow until my plane leaves for New Orleans via Chicago. If Maryland goes without more than an inch of snow at a time all winter then gets a major snow on the one day I need it not to snow, then I will be ticked. Not that I can actually do anything about it.

How much snow does it take to ground an airplane?

UPDATE: As of Wednesday, February 14th at 10:30 pm, I am leaving Friday at 6:50 am from Reagan National in DC and arriving in New Orleans at 10:55 am. That's the earliest the travel agent could get me out of this frozen mess of snow, ice, sleet, and freezing rain. My consolation is that it's gotta be warmer than this in New Orleans during the winter so this'll likely be the last winter storm I have to experience since UNO received my application on Tuesday.

I will be flying down to New Orleans on Wednesday, February 14th and coming back to Maryland on Sunday, March 4th. I'll be working with Emergency Communities at their Lower Ninth Ward site. Invitations to get off the site for an evening to see the rest of the city are welcome. :-)

I've also taken on responsibility for planning a Gulf Coast volunteer trip for members of my church this summer, probably mid-July. We'll most likely be staying at Camp Victor in Mississippi for about a week, but I'm still working on the details. I had a long talk with the high school workcamp coordinator, and the plan is to make this a regular trip for members of my church-every few months or so, starting with just a few of us and building momentum from there.

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Entries tagged with nola trip february 2007

2 days until I leave, 6 months until I can stay in NOLA

"Why do all the coolest cucumbers have to leave?"

"Where have you been? We've been waiting for you."

learning as much as I'm helping

Voice Post

good food and good conversation make the world go 'round

back to New Orleans just in time for Mardi Gras

snow, snow, go away

Emergency Communities + Gulf Coast Trip #4

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May 2010

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