This is a picture before our last move, although we didn't know we were moving at the time. It is the day after Hurricane Katrina, and we were staying about 400 yards from a levee with Dave's mom. In the picture, you will see a barge banked on the levee. The water rose so high at this part of the Mississippi, it literally banked barges. It was wild to see in person. Of course we are smiling, because we have no clue what is going on in the rest of the city due to loss of power (no TV, no telephone, no nothing). We drove up to Memphis later that week until power came back to the city. Power returned, but we didn't.
There is a saying in New Orleans: "The longer you live in New Orleans, the more unfit you become to live anywhere else."
A true story:
Recently I was running by myself, and I started planning my last minute Mardi Gras outfit. All I had to do was think to the attic and put together an outfit in my mind from my trunk of party/costume clothes. I decided I would wear some shiny pants that were in there. They were maybe 12 years old, just sitting in a box waiting to make an appearance again. I also had a pair of shiny pants for Isla, so we could wear shiny pants/tutus and be twinkies. Perfect! And then it hit me...
Memphis people don't wear shiny pants. You just don't go about your day and see someone in costume, on a Wednesday, for no real reason. And this made me sad. I am a girl that likes to wear shiny pants. I was doing a long run and feeling really sad inside. I had a bit of an existential friend crisis over this, and came home to tell Dave about it. I went on and on about how no one wears shiny pants in Memphis, and maybe this was not home.
The same day, we drove to New Orleans, and BAM. The first person I saw in the city had on shiny pants. Then I saw 1,000,000 pair of shiny pants. I saw men, women, girls, toddlers....all in shiny pants. I had found my people. Dave had been applying for jobs at this time, and we felt we were close to possibly moving back to Nola. Shiny pants were our sign that we would be happy to move back.
SHINY PANTS! (and tutus :)
And now, almost 11 years later, we are heading back to Nola. It has been a long journey to get here.
Moving a family is not easy. Dave's start date got changed without notice, and we had a lot of "jobless" stress for a bit as he had already give notice to his other job. I don't have a job in Nola yet, as I am going through the reciprocity process with my PT license, which takes a while. The house we were going to rent somehow got rented out from under us. We only have one car and need two. All of a sudden Dave found out, today, that he was needed in New Orleans for good...on Monday. Packing? Selling house? Hey-o!
But when change is welcome and good, stress is manageable.
But training has definitely been cut back over the past few months as we have prepared for this. The timing is not horrible, because I will just run Boston and then take a good break to move the family and get our lives in order there, while recovering for 26.2. ( I am determined to really recover this time). Triathlon definitely is on the back burner, as I can't train in the early mornings now. But, we will focus on things are they fall in the order of importance, and right now that is getting us moved.
Next week is packing and traveling for Boston. It is stunning to believe that it is here....13 years after my first marathon.
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