It's been a long time since I've written here....

No one really reads this one. I think that's a good thing. 

Today I am processing. Today, there is grief.

My country chose a racist, misogynist, megalomaniac to lead our country for the next four years.  

The last year has been really, really good for me. I have learned things I didn't know I needed to learn, and I had more peace in my life than I've ever had. If there has been a theme, I suppose it has to have been acceptance. Maybe looking for the lessons?

I think there will be another post for the rest of this year. Right now, here, I am processing, and looking for a way forward. I know what that way is. In uncertainty, we control the things we can. 

1. I will pay off as much of my debt as I can before this administration leaves
2. I will focus as many of my resources as possible on working on and completing the off-grid compound.
3. I will make comprehensive materials lists and anything that needs to be purchased from China, we will buy it now before any tariff's can come in to play.
4. I will work towards divesting myself from the dystopian nightmare

And yet, even my angst has so much privilege in it. This came across my feed this morning, and it's absolutely true:

From Nishant Shah:

“As somebody who has lived in, negotiated with, been persecuted by authoritarian governments, here are four things to set as a reminder against the onset of despair; remembering over and over again that despair is the privilege of those who can afford it.

1. An election is only one of the many ways by which care is organised and managed. If the electoral mandate goes against your own, it doesn't mean that there is no way forward. It merely means that a rights-based, process driven, formal approach has been blocked but there are always avenues through which things you care about can be mobilised.

2. You have not lost. Elections might appear as competitions but we need to change that narrative. Elections are about seeing what a majority (however flawed that concept might be) believes is the right way of governing collectively. If you do not align with this majority, it doesn't mean that you have lost. It means that you have work to do, to make sure that you work together for things that are important for you and for them. 

3. If you feel that the system has failed you, remember that systems have always failed people. If you feel it is happening to you for the first time, it means that you have had privilege which is for the first time being threatened. If you always felt that you were attacked by the system, know that people before you have lived through this, thrived, and found other ways of finding care. If all of us took the time to process our emotions towards caring for others, it will develop its own momentum. 

4. You are not alone. This is no unique. It is not exceptional. Your narrative of what your country or people believe in and stand for, might have been challenged but this has happened before. To many others. Reach out. Within and outside, for others who share your experience and your grief. We will hold you while you figure out the next steps, but you are not alone.

My heart is with the people who are going to be severely and disproportionately impacted by the new mandate of the US elections. My head is with the people who I trust and know will make the changes to ensure the protections of those who will be most affected. My head and heart are with everybody who realises what a global shift this is going to be, but how it also marks another milestone in the swing towards futures that we dread.”

I just keep thinking, with the above, of my black friends and them shaking their heads at us, or my Native friends who are like, "Yeah, Americans lie and they don't know how to keep their agreements. And yet, we hope for better...."

I don't know what we deserve anymore. Maybe we deserve nothing. Maybe we deserve what we get the next four years....

There is no Peace.

When Self-Care Is an Act of Defiance...

Jibaro Soy by Mark Rivera - coming soon to Fourth Street in Downtown Reno!

 I was afraid this was going to happen.

I've crafted this amazing life. I've been hustling so long to keep my life and the way I like to live viable and support my family, I am now committed to these things, these people. Now, they depend on me, and I've made a commitment to them that I will trade my labor and time to help and ensure that their businesses are successful. 

Sometimes, I don't want to. There, I said it.

That isn't really real. That's tired real. I feel so very honored that there are people who trust me enough to allow me to do this and work with them, so they can be successful. This is the way for the future, I am sure. I have noticed in recent years there are SO MANY people that have to be scrappy and work multiple jobs, just to survive. That is so, so wrong. I wonder if people who worked 30 years to get a pension and were able to survive back in the day know how fortunate they are? I know people now who say they will never be able to retire. Some work only for benefits/health insurance.

This weekend, I spent an amazing time, helping produce an event for some of the most amazing minds in my sphere, who create the event I have been a part of for more than 20 years, Burning Man. I am a part of those people. I used to be a part of those meetings, but I'm okay supporting them now in a way that seems meaningful. That way is managing volunteers and somewhat "hidden" aspects of the event, to allow the production staff to focus on....the production. This is what I WANTED to do....

That meant a full week of work last week, taking the last two days off of work as annual leave for the day job, but working no less hard, and physically harder than I do most days in support of this event. I knew it would be rough because by Sunday, I was TIRED. Those tend to be long days...starting somewhere between 5-5:30am and not ending until after 8 or 9pm and if I was a bigger party girl, I'm sure I could have found things to do far into the night, but that life no longer really calls to me. 

Monday morning dawned and I knew I was exhausted. I didn't exercise because I literally woke up tired. LOL. In that soul-weary way that you do when you've worked hard, and also feel good about things. Then, all the things I'd been putting off came home to roost. There are some work things I'd been procrastinating on...mostly writing my own annual review, which I've been salty about all year because of some things that happened near the end of the year that made me feel like larger powers don't know what my department is, they don't know what we do, and they have little respect for us...until something happens and we can't work well or efficiently and then there is hell to pay. F that, and yet....four more years until retirement.

This post is all over the place. I haven't posted in awhile and I need to maintain the self-care and clarity of thought that comes from committing my thoughts on to "paper", be that virtual or actual, because it allows the energy out, and allows me to let go of it, to move on, to process in a way that I can't do while it's all still just in my brain, ruminating around up in there.  

Anyway, my heart is full...the group of volunteers who stepped up to help me with this thing kicked so much major ass, they were super impressive. They showed up, on time, and gave of themselves because it's their community too.

Yesterday afternoon, so many things blew up! I had made a commitment in the morning to attend a dance class that I love to attend, but I was also tired tired tired. A friend who's business I am helping in addition to an event production company I help both had crises at the end of the day. Thank you, universe, for putting those things in front of me, with "THIS HAS TO BE DONE NOW", because as with many things in life, sometimes the biggest part of success is showing up and being present. By the time I was driving to get my meds last night after 6pm, I exhaled and thought, "Thank you, Universe. For putting these things in front of me and forcing me not to go to dance class today. You knew I was too tired. You had my back..."

Now, future endeavors dictate that I figure out how to get there without the Universe's help and say "thanks, friend...I would love to go to dance class, but I need some rest. I'd LOVE to do all the things, but I am one human and one body, and today, this body needs rest."

I got up this morning feeling like recovery is happening. I worked out, I had coffee. I breathed deeply and welcomed the day. 

Peace.

Grief is a fickle mistress...

Today feels like a big 'ole ball of emotional train wreck.

Good news (there is almost always good news haha) - Two snow days and a looming 3 day weekend for MLK day, and it feels like mini-vacation with five days off! Woot!

I just sent Dan off for 10 days in Florida to visit his friend Pam, have a bit of vacation, and get paperwork hopefully completed for a Jeep we bought from her a couple of years ago. In other Dan news, he FINALLY saw a doctor who SAW who he is and received an upgrade to his disability rating. January saw the start of that new retirement check and it was a much needed relief for me. 

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to a wood chipper destroy a tree in our next door neighbors yard. Dan had mentioned to me recently that the tree was dying and needed to be removed. We had talked about...the original owner of that home, Mrs. Priest, I am sure she's gone now, but I'm sure she's twisting in her grave. She kept such a beautiful yard! They were a very traditional family, perhaps the only I remember growing up, where Mr. Priest went to work every day and Mrs. Priest tended the home and garden. She always had immaculate flower beds, neatly trimmed and seasonally appropriate. kept the edging in her flower beds trimmed with the utmost care, and mowed her lawn every week with a push hand mower. They were Renaissance people. She never drove, and she always wore a dress, never pants. At least three times a week, she would walk to church at St. Alberts, the Catholic church a couple of blocks from our street. 

I KNOW, with the logical part of my brain that everything has a life, a life-cycle even, and likewise, that everything dies. However, what happened today feels like another thing that is a part of my history that will just be gone. When I looked outside and saw them chopping up that tree, I just started crying. 

In many way, I feel like I am literally cleaning out my life, my house, my existence. In some ways, as I get older, this is inevitable. I keep telling my son that I don't want to leave a mess for him. Part of this, I think, is natural, as we get older. I am in my mid-50's. I try to live healthy, and hopefully I have many more years ahead of me, but the bottom line is, if I live as long as my mom, I have 22 year left. The clock is ticking and I have so much living still to do! There is lots and lots and lots of grief, feeling, and loss to unpack and process!

I just read something that resonated deeply with me. "I am in a humbling process. The root of the word is 'humus' -- the rich material of leaves and exoskeletons and waste all lovingly broken down by mycelial and microbial action into the sweet, fertile darkness of soil (mis-typed soul...coincidence?) that births life on this planet. 

I am welcoming the humbling process as I bathe my true self in love and give myself the time and space I need to truly thrive in deeper ways." FG

That's all, today.

Peace.

 

As 2024 Begins....

 Like, I was ready to see it go, but man, 2023 was a good year for me. A year of realizations. 

There is so much hope! 

I really hadn't realized how sick I had allowed myself to get or be. I think in some ways, we need to be obligated or should seriously take stock of ourselves like, I don't know. Yearly? Every five years? Realizing how much of myself I had subjugated? Lost? Forgot to realize or analyze if something is working for your highest good?

I hadn't realized how MUCH of myself I had hidden, made smaller, to make other people happy. How much I had "let things go" to keep a sense of peace that didn't exist anyway. Realizing the ways in which I was being horribly codependent because, once again, I wanted someone I loved to be happy. 

In essence, seriously, fuck all that shit, man. 

In the end, it doesn't matter when it happened, how I noticed, or how long it took. What matters is that now, I am the FUCK AWAKE, I am all about it, and I am now living MY life, for ME!

Today, I am finishing a rad new tattoo I am working on. Crow has been in my life for awhile, and has been calling me....cawwwwwing at me to wake the fuck up!

Thank you, Crow. Thank you, to that therapist I went to a couple times on my employee assistance program, who when I told her part of my story, she looked at me agog and was like "Grrrl, you got some stuff to work on." I think that was my first clue. I mean, holy fucking shit, I thought it was all my fault! I must be a terrible person because my child thinks I am. What did I do? I was firmly ALSO in victim mode and stuck high up in that drama triangle. 

At this moment, I have a firm sense that everything in my past has led me to this place. Has led me to the part where I am ready to claim my life for ME and claim all the happiness I can suck out of the time I have left. 

This year, I am making a commitment to getting to know myself better this year. I am paying more attention to astrology and planetary alignment, and also tarot cards, divination and having a stronger sense of spirituality. I ordered some shelves to be able to create an altar in the main room of my house. I purged an old curio cabinet that came from a ranger friend who passed away. It was a good piece, but had gotten broken and was just holding stuff with a bunch of emotional baggage. Now, it's gone!

My yearly horoscope themes this year are HEALING (first quarter), Focus (second quarter), Connection (third quarter) and Courage (fourth quarter). We will see how these continue to play out. 

Goals for this year include:

• CONTINUE THE PURGE! 
• Bring the whirlwind of the upstairs space to the downstairs space. Purge clothes and personal belongings. The goal here is to LIVE TINY. Get ready for the bus. Only keep those things that continue to serve us.
• Finish cleaning out the garage
• Purge the attic and get anything out of there that no longer serves us. Can we turn this in to living space?
• Continue with the process for the back yard.
• Be able to use the outside/porch space as additional living space
• Journal a minimum of once a month, with a goal of once a week. Have both paper and online journals in a few different places =)
• Make a commitment to quarterly revisit where I am and if anything needs to change. 

And, here's me....exhausted, after having made 8 dozen cookies for my long-time cookie exchange. Like so much of life, once the thing is done, it's awesome and you're glad you did it, but slogging through to get there feels Herculian, until it's done =) 

Peace.

I am

 

Found this amazing song by "Satsang". Okay, it's from 2016, but new to me...

When I no longer fear the unknown

'Cause I know what I am here for

I keep on troddin' on my own path

Keep on learnin' from my present and past, yeah

When I no longer need validation

'Cause my story is long and I'm patient

I know that I have lessons to learn

Keep my eyes open, each step I earn, yeah

No need for me to feel alone

'Cause I got a place that I call home

Every single road traveled, every single new place

I come back home, they accept me with grace, yeah

When I know that I was meant to be here

And I know that I was born into fear

But I will stand tall in the lion's den

'Cause I know in my heart I am one of them

That there are lies in the facets of everything that we see

That are telling us to be scared, when all we ever are is free

I'm letting go of the things that don't serve me no more

'Cause I am holy, and sacred

And righteous, and true, and I deserve to be here

And so do you

Said, "I deserve to be here"

But I'm in a constant transition, constantly changing vision

Story never certain, there is always a revision to be made

When I think about the demons I have slayed

I am not afraid of confrontation in vain

To the people that seek evil, not as peaceful as I look

But a warrior at heart, so precaution must be took

When I'm trying to give in to the lessons that will soften

My ways and means are changing, 'cause I talk to spirit often

Tell me to stay sharp, tell me to stay present

Tell me to ignore the fools and focus on ascent

Well, I said, "I will starve my ego, and I will remain strong

I will make mistakes, and I will often be wrong"

Well, I'm perfectly imperfect, and I'm only here to learn

And all the evil on the path gets burned

I said, "I'm perfectly imperfect, and I'm only here to learn

And all the evil on the path gets burned"

That there are lies in the facets of everything that we see

That are telling us to be scared, when all we ever are is free

I'm letting go of the things that don't serve me no more

'Cause I am holy, and sacred

And righteous, and true, and I deserve to be here

And so do you

The pressure always comes from the outside

Try not to let it in where I reside

Well, this is my heart, my home

My choice, my love, my life, my path, my voice, yeah

Within my heart grow with each step

Stand firm in where the path goes next

Well, I know that where it goes is where I need to be

The more lessons rained down, more blessings I see, hey

See there are lies in the facets of everything that we see

That are telling us to be scared, when all we ever are is free

I'm letting go of the things that don't serve me no more

'Cause I am holy, and sacred

And righteous, and true, and I deserve to be here

And so do you

At the end of 2023....

 I realize I've been woefully neglectful of this blog. And yet, it's meaningful for me. Life has changed so much. Estrangement, Growth, Movement, Re-Prioritization.....in the five years since I've written here, the life I have now, doesn't seem to resemble much the one that was all those years ago. And yet, it does.

SO, here's a little glimpse into the now, and then I'm going to go back and do yearly reviews for 2018-2022, then 2023, and perhaps, I shall keep writing here. I came to this when I left OpenDiary, and now I am back there too, for less public things, but at the end of the day, all anyone wants is to be seen, and to feel like their life matters/mattered.

I took a recent trip to New Orleans and it was magical!

There is so much to fall in love with in New Orleans! While I was there, in a week, we walked 44 miles, which I am very proud of....even AFTER taking a spill on the sidewalk and twisting my ankle. And I came home with new art:

I'm adding to it already, which I think totally triggers my partner, but hey, I do what I want hahaha. The adding is a lesson to me that I have good ideas and if I have one, I should act on it when I have it, otherwise someone may take the idea, and then I will feel sad. hahaha....Nothing that can't be overcome, but a good reminder, no doubt =)

Crow has been showing up a lot in my life, and that's what will be immortalized on my body next. Lots more to say, but nearly out of time. 

Peace...for now. 

2023 October, New Orleans

 Well, I'm kind of sad. I sort of use blogging to remember and chronicle my life. I had written out a big long post on another site, it saved a bunch of copies and they disappeared when trying to clear them out. I think that platform might not be overly stable, anymore, and is hardly if at all supported, so I think it's truly time to move things here and use this as my "system of record", as it were. I am going to endeavor to recreate that post. I'm SO GLAD I kept all the pictures I used in a separate folder. Woot!

Here we go....

This is my friend Lisa. She is one of my best friend. I'd never been to New Orleans, but it's been on my list for a long time....

This is us looking cute on the plane in our witches hats. I think we both like to do things to draw attention to ourselves, EVERY day and EVERY event is an opportunity to be unique!

We take a weekly dance class and often attend arts and other events with a wonderful human who has a house in New Orleans, and she let us rent it while we were there. Here's the front door of our cute little NOLA home, and my bed:

We stayed in what is called "Uptown", right off the St. Charles street car line. The neighborhood was adorable and we had SO MUCH FUN walking around! New Orleans sure knows how to do Halloween! I don't have a huge tolerance for drunks or drunk people, and I don't hang out in bars, so it's unlikely I would ever go during Mardi Gras, but I can sure appreciate Halloween time there!

Here's a pic of our cute little neighborhood and some art we saw:

This is one of the houses we passed by the first night. There was SO MUCH of this, throughout New Orleans. Also, so much art honoring the Jazz roots of New Orleans. This was a power box we passed by on one of our walks, the second pic:

On the same street where we stayed, there was this adorable little coffee shop. We never really went inside, but they, too, decorated super cute. It was slightly weird to see such vibrant flowers in October when in Reno, most everything is brown by October LOL:

That first night, we walked to a nearby steak house. We were there at happy hour, and met Tommy, who's been shucking fresh oysters at this restaurant for over 30 years. He was friendly and it was the beginning of many culinary delights.

The first night was just enjoying our space and sort of making plans for the rest of the time, or at least for the next day =) . We got up the second day and went to have beignets. As my friend said, "If you want to go to Cafe Dumonde and have that experience we can do that. They serve A LOT of people, so they make them ahead and they sit under a heat lamp. OR, we can go to this delightful little coffee place near our house and have them made fresh there." I chose option 2, and it was glorious! I didn't know what Cafe Au Lait was, but it was also delightful. I tried chicory for the first time this year and while I am still a huge coffee fan, this, with the steamed milk, is very good. 

(LOVED this art in the coffee shop. We indeed, had a beignet of a day =)

Maybe I was just receptive....of maybe I have been embracing a new era of optimism and even more sickening positivity than normal, but to me, the New Orleans sign game was on point.

Now, just some probably nerdy pictures of things that appealed to me as we started to walk down in the French Quarter.

Amazing art in the Voodoo Two bar as we were            I swear I've heard of this place.

walking down the street.

I was pretty sure I would be in love with this place and this first tasting absolutely confirmed it! I don't care if we only visited the most tourist-trappy places possible, it was still amazing for me. 

We then went to the Vampire Cafe, and then the gift shop. SO COOL!

The food, though, was also delightful, BIG bonus. When we went to the Vampire Cafe shop, I found a series of books that was from directly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It was so hard for me to imagine the devastation and all that happened because now, all these years later, you couldn't even tell. Next time I go, I may need to make it a point to do a Katrina tour. I didn't want to be depressed, but I would hope whoever gave it would have pictures. I am sure they are possible to find, and this could be a future endeavor, for sure. The series, again, is about vampires, witches, and supernatural folks, oh my. 

Just sayin'...I knew I'd find kindred spirits here too. LOL

So, while we were walking down the street, near the waterfront, we saw what was clearly, some sort of video shoot happening. This was the dapper scene we saw:

We kept seeing them down in the French Quarter, so I finally stopped and asked what they were filming for because it was such an unusual costume. I was sort of hoping for some low-key awesome super hero thing. No, it was for the NFL and I didn't pay attention to whether or not the footage even got used. Apparently the Saints were playing the Jaguars. LOL This made me laugh a lot. 

We did SEE Cafe DuMonde, we just chose not to eat our beignets there

The mighty Mississippi was majestic and beautiful. Seeing the paddle boats was great. This was something we didn't get to do this time, perhaps another time....

Next is another awesomely decorated house and a very cool map of New Orleans

I am the first person to admit that I am a giant nerd. In the last couple years, I watched "The Originals" which is good, old-fashioned vampire stories. When I went to Texas last year, the person I was there visiting was watching this show and it TOTALLY sucked me in. I don't honestly remember what episodes I saw with her, I kind of blocked it out because I am that weird human who has to watch something beginning to end =) The family featured, called the Michaelson's, are the original vampire family, hence the name of the series. There was a subsequent series called Legacy that was also very good, I thought. At any rate, much of "The Originals" took place in New Orleans and it's one of the things that I most wanted to see. I am also an old-school Anne Rice fan, so I also wanted to see Lestat's house. The "ghost tour" thing seemed a bit creepy to both of us, so instead of that, Lisa and I went on a "True Crime" tour. It was "meh" and I won't do that again. We thought our guide was going to be amazing because he was a professor, but he wasn't all that. At any rate, I present the Michaelson Mansion and Lestat's New Orleans House (the guy with the eye patch in the first photo was our guide):

Then we heard a story about a house where there was a widow who ran the house after her husband died and she was apparently a really awful human. She killed and tortured a lot of slaves and was generally a terrible person. At some point, Nicholas Cage bought the house, but no longer owns it. It was also the place where they filmed American Horror Story: Coven. I haven't watched that. I'm not sure I will....a part of me likes AHS, another part is really freaked out by it. It's called the LaLaurie Mansion and if you want to learn about the heinousness, here's a place to look: LaLaurie Mansion

A perfect New Orleans French Quarter picture....with the moon

So, let's talk a bit about the Street Car. We did have issues one night, the night of the big Halloween Parade. If the next car is coming towards you and it's full, they slow down long enough to tell you you'll have to catch the next car, and they don't stop. This is problematic if you are trying to go somewhere, so that night, we took a Lyft. AND...the street car was still an amazing bargain! We paid $15 for an unlimited 7 day pass, and this pass allowed us to ride all Street Cars, all busses and ferries! We were making money after the second day! The next day, we went to City Park, wanted to see a graveyard, ate more awesome food, bought pralines and snowbliz's, and went back down the Quarter at night. 

Spanish Moss is so pretty! The way it hangs, it's sort of spooky and ethereal!

Here's the very sad story that totally caught my imagination on this headstone, pictured above: "This monument is erected to the memory of James Gallier, architect, of New Orleans, born at Ravensdale, Ireland July 24, 1798.

By his son, as a tribute to his genius, integrity and virtue.

And of Catherine Maria Robinson, born at Barre, Massachusetts, wife of James Gallier. 

They were lost in the steamer Evening Star, which foundered on the voyage from New York to New Orleans, October 3rd, 1866. (I actually thought the lower case d was a weird carved o, meaning it would be the 30th, but when Googling, I saw it was the 3rd.)

After Googling, I discovered there was a horrible hurricane. At the time, it was the worst maritime disaster in America's history. Wow. If you'd like to read more about this shipwreck, you can find stuff here: Freepages - Evening Star Disaster

That night, we found this house we'd seen, that Lisa had been looking for, where there are HUNDREDS of skeletons, and they are SO FUNNY! They all have signs and the puns are SO GOOD. Here's an example

Here are the amazing humans we got Pralines from. We wanted to find the small, out of the way place. Clearly, this place is still way famous, but they were nice and wonderful and the pralines were yummy:

Now, the Snobliz, was truly a unique experience. Apparently, New Orleans is famous for its shaved ice. However, the place we went, Hansen's Snobliz, apparently, the man created a new machine, and held the patent for it, so HIS is unique and man is it delicious! Another thing....I had never thought that one could pair sweetened condensed milk with fruity flavors, but I did and it was amazing. Lisa had chai and some coffee flavor, I had blueberry, I think Strawberry or something pink, I don't actually remember, with the milk. OMG!

And....New Orleans is a perpetual party! Later that night, we went BACK down to the Quarter, and like, this was straight up either a Tuesday or a Wednesday night, and there were tons of people on the streets

The next day is where things took a bit of a challenging turn. We were walking back to the Uptown Coffee place, to have yummy fried dough and coffee again. Let me tell you, New Orleans streets are no joke. Because of all the beautiful trees, those tress have compromised many sidewalks and many are cracked with tree limbs making them uneven and super hazardous. My dumb ass, however, tripped not even on a tree root, but rolled my ankle not paying close enough attention, on a sidewalk just walking down the street. I fell HARD. I didn't hear anything pop or seem like it tore, so I sat there for a minute and then thought "Well, I can let this ruin our time, or I can just get my ass up and make the best of things." We'd been walking a TREMENDOUS amount during this whole week, Lisa and I seem pretty well matched in this way, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Not going to lie, there were some uncomfortable moments. We got our coffee, and by the time we hit the Street Car, I knew when we got off, where there was a CVS, I was going to be stopping to get some ibuprofen and an ankle brace. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!! I looked up CVS and was able to find what was in stock at the store we were going to, so I'd know if we had to travel very far or I could get my needs met relatively easily, right across from the Street Car. 

Also, this day was going to be our BUSIEST DAY because we were headed to the Treme Fall Festival, wanted to participate in the Second Line parade, do way more walking around, and then the parade was that night! I got the brace, took some ibuprofen and walked around for a little while, but before we could make it towards Treme, I was hurting pretty good, so we decided to Pedi Cab! Another adventure! Below is the scantest picture of the slightest bit of carnage that doesn't do justice to how awful I felt for a bit, but there was no way I was going to let this ruin my time in this wonderful place. What does it say about me that when I first fell, one of my first thoughts was "OH NO!!! NOT BY BEE SLEEVE!! NO SCARRING!"

I had been unaware of much of the history of black people and slaves in the Treme district and New Orleans before I went there. Treme' is the oldest African American neighborhood in America. Because Louisiana did not become part of America until the Louisiana Purchase, the black culture is rich and diverse. Additionally, many of the folks who were slaves there were from a particular area in Africa and were able to stay together to a much greater degree than many other places in the South. I loved and hated learning about all that history. It still astounds me that folks ever thought it was okay to treat other humans as property.

Powerful imagery. If you want to know more about Treme', Google it, here's a small place to start. 

There is Jazz history everywhere, this was in a window near the Festival. The Goddess below was dancing in the Second Line. Such beautiful costumes, colors and I'll tell you what. The pure joy on the faces of dancers and celebrants. I really appreciated seeing it and getting to be a very small part of it.  

Later that night was the parade. Just like Burning Man ruins fireworks forever if you encounter them somewhere else, I'm pretty sure I'll never have a parade experience that can ever equal what happens in New Orleans. And these are considered "small" compared to Mardi Gras. It's insane, celebratory, frenetic, frenzied, chaotic, beautiful, bawdy, raunchy, and all the fun!

The bottom picture is one slow, hurt, not very committed to swag person's haul for one tiny parade. These folks are serious about both their partying and their parading. 

The next day was a special quest! Lisa and I had talked about and decided we were going to try to find a place to get matching New Orleans themed, sort of, tattoos! We walked down into the Garden District, another beautiful and captivating area of New Orleans!

Garden District!

I found a familiar! This kitty was a-mazing!       This really says something about the grit of this place! 

The new tattoo!                                                                        I LOVE that we went to New Orleans and                                                                                                    saw a sticker from a Reno store! Junkees!

This was taken the next morning and sent to my coworkers at the school where I work. It was to demonstrate to them that people park bad in places other than Nevada. Please look at ALL that's going on in this picture....and it, also, was coincidentally outside a school hahaha

This is an amazing moon picture that was taken from our bathroom window at our house, by Lisa. I got her and told her about it, but the photo mojo is all her

Monday was all about outlying areas, the swamp, gators, and visiting a plantation. Those air boat drivers are INSANE. I got to hold about a four year old gator. Dude just chased the thing and plucked it right out the swamp. "You gotta have healthy respect for them, but they just big 'ole swamp puppies." Quote of the vacation, likely.

Before we got our van to take us on all these adventures, we had to arrive at the Hilton, where it was to pick us up, but of course we were early, so we were looking for something interesting. Down a literal alley, we found this Antidote juice and coffee place. I LOVE the entire message behind this!! SOBER LIFE!!

This is where we went to catch the air boat, on the way out of the docking area, and more beautiful Spanish Moss. 

Here's my gator picture (look at that smile!) and the other air boat. I think we saw like seven or nine gators, which they said had been a record for the season! Yay us!

We went to Oak Alley. It was impressive. I got different pralines there. We had a mint julep. The tour was fun. I have a hard time with this just because the disparity really gets to me. I had the same experience when I went to the palace of Versailles in France. Meh. It was a nice house. And people were treated brutally to take care of it. I don't have much else to say. 

I might come back and flesh this out later, I might not. What I KNOW is this is the longest thing I've written here in a very, very long time, maybe since I transferred everything. LOL

Peace!