Flood

Woke up today to a torrential downpour with lots of thunder and lightning. It sounded pretty awesome, and it was nice to lay in bed for a few and listen to the rain. Then we got up and saw this out the front door.

Youch. That's supposed to be a road. Luckily the larger street at the end of our block is high enough that it didn't have any standing water. No, it just ran right off onto our block instead.. It was seriously about a foot deep, and came right up over the sidewalk. Kelly had to wade through it to head out to work. Blegh. What's really amazing though, is that about an hour later it was all gone! The rain stopped and it all drained right away. I just hope this doesn't happen every time it rains..

Once I was able to leave the house I headed over to Borders to do some research among the cookbooks. With all my cookbooks at home I am without my reference section, and I now find myself very much in need of it as I have a rather fantastic job opportunity presenting itself for which I need to bring my best to the table! Literally. :) This is not a sure thing, but the position I'm interviewing and trying out for starts as a regular production role and then takes on more and more responsibility until taking up the reins as pastry chef. It may be kind of out of my league, but I might as well give it a try. In at the deep end, right? But really this would be a very cushy situation in which to learn how to really be a pastry chef. I've got a 4-day trial later this week, for which I'll be studying up on all the skills I think I may need to call upon, so cross your fingers!

This city has a lot of entertaining wildlife. Here and there you find these little lizards, anoles, sunning themselves on a fence or a rock. I always try to get close to them, but they're very wary and disappear in a flip of the tail and with hardly the rustle of a leaf to betray their passing. I found one halfway through shedding his skin the other day and tried to get a picture. But of course he ran away when I got in too close.
I think I may have stepped on one yesterday. I'm not sure, but something very wriggly came between the arch of my foot and my flip-flop, and I jumped about a foot in the air and performed a series of convulsive karate kicks to dislodge it. Hopefully he was flung to safety and not smashed..

I was recently waiting for the bus and a flappy awkward movement in a small tree next to me caught my eye. Glancing up I saw a ring-necked dove and her two half-grown fledgelings perched about two feet above my head. I could see their abandoned nest a couple of branches away. The chicks had certainly outgrown it, but they weren't very sure of their footing on the tree branches yet. The mother didn't seem perturbed by my presence. One of the chicks stretched his head down and peered right at me for about 30 seconds before shuffling around to sit closer to his sibling. This is the best picture I could manage with my phone.

I like this city.

Home Sweet Home (almost)

It feels good to have a home. Of course, visiting parents will always be "going home", but it's exciting and satisfying to be building our own home down here in New Orleans, especially after so many months of wandering without a homebase. It's a pretty slow process given we don't have a lot of extra cash lying around to spend on redecorating. But with every small new piece we bring in, every wall we paint, every shelf we fill, it becomes more and more our home.

So far we've got:

a bed
two nightstands
a desk
1 chair
a small dresser
a small couch
a kitchen table
3 kitchen chairs

And clocks! Kelly loves clocks, and we've got two cute ones so far.


Considering we've got 4 rooms plus a kitchen and a bathroom to fill, it's still mostly empty space. The apartment is half of a small house, running long and narrow front-to-back (shotgun, railroad, whatever). From the front door our rooms will go: living room; bedroom; guest bedroom; bathroom; dining room; kitchen. We've put up some great colors - red, blue, green. I think by the time we get done with it this apartment is going to be awfully cute. Patience is not one of my virtues, however, and I would really just love to have it all done and ready for use!

With my copious free time I've been getting to know this new city block by block. Of course, much time is spent researching possible jobs and bicycling from one bakery/hotel/restaurant to another in hopes of landing some sort of interesting position. But that can only take up so many hours in the day. So I come up with a billion little errands I need to run or things to do around the house to keep myself busy (read: away from Netflicks). I found a pretty awesome bike for cheap on Craig's List, which is where most of my life seems to have been acquired. Despite the already oppressive heat - 87 and muggy in May?? - I ride miles around this city's rough, potholed roads. Unfortunately this means I show up everywhere pouring sweat, but a paper towel folded into a small square and kept in a back pocket helps to maintain some semblance of composure.


Our neighborhood, the Garden District, is very bike friendly as most of the roads are residential and little-trafficked. In fact, most of the city is accessible by bike as there's not a hill in sight! Quite a change from San Francisco. However, despite the absence of snowy icy winters, New Orleans has some of the worst roads I've ever seen in a developed country. Like, seriously bone-jarring bumps and sinkholes and cracks. Kelly tells me that once upon a time all states were given leave to determine their own legal drinking age, with the stipulation that those who established it at less that 21 would miss out on federal funding for road development. Of course New Orleans placed itself in this latter category, and has apparently not been able to recover since. Too bad my bike doesn't have shocks.


The residents here are about as different from SF as you can get. Though I spend most of the day on my own, there's no shortage of conversation. Every cashier, fellow bus-rider, and pedestrian you meet is likely to call you either "baby" or "sugar" within the first sentence of your exchange. Old men sitting on their stoops call out to me as I ride by, not with lewd remarks but with greetings. It's amazing how making eye contact with people as you pass them on the sidewalk, and giving a little nod or smile of "hello", makes you feel intimately part of the New Orleans community. I think this city's already hooked me, and I think I like it.

I guess I'm turning Southern. Next thing you know I'll be sitting out on my porch swing in the heat, sipping sweet tea and chatting with my neighbors. Wait - I already do that! :)