Mardi Gras 2017

Oops I did it again...
I didn't post.

But seriously.  The past two months have been wild.  We closed on a house and moved.  My father-in-law had a bad stroke.  Dave and I started coaching again.  Mardi Gras arrived.  Every minute seemed to be spoken for before it arrived.

We have survived and are looking forward to some low-key days, even just for a second.  Here are just a few pictures of the Mardi Gras season to catch up on the blog.

Mardi Gras 2017!

 Algiers Point Parade with my family and all of the kiddos.  Have I told you how awesome my neighborhood is?

 Krewe Du Vieux with long time friend Becca, Phyllis and Dave

 Nyx Parade 2017- I brought home two elusive Nyx purses!  Thanks Carole and Hilary!

 Muses 2017....we got a much sought after Muses shoe!!!  Gracias Nadine!  So awesome!

Off to Endymion as a family

In my happy place and wearing funky clothes. :)

Fat Tuesday in the Quarter- Mother Forker and my friend Bella/Cotton Candy 

So we had great costumes this year- funny and smart.  We were "Meet the Forkers."  We had clean and dirty forks (ex:  clean forks- May The Fork Be With You, Fork In The Road.  Dirty forks- Mother Forker, Cluster Fork, Who Gives a Fork.......)  The were Out-Forking Standing!  

At some point during Fat Tuesday, I was walking in the French Quarter, watching insanely excessive partying, partying a bit myself, and I had the most sobering yet funny thought:  "OMG- it has just hit me why I cannot get in shape to race.  Look at me!  I am parading through the Quarter as a fork!!!  No wonder!!!!!"   It was a funny realization.  I have my work cut out for me, and I will have to slow down my extra curricular life a bit if I ever want to race again.  Being back in Nola makes me feel 20 again...more on that in another post.  But my world is certainly different here than it was for the past 10 years in Memphis.  

This was Isla after about 3 weeks of Mardi Gras partying.  I swear I felt the same way- otherworldly overstimulation followed by happy exhaustion.  

Marching for YOU Part 1

In no way do I want to turn this into a political blog.  I don't identify with any strong political party or ideology.  I just love people.  I am going to continue to document my recent experiences, as I always do.

I want to start this post by telling you about my recent experience with Dave's grandfather, our Pop Pop, who is 93-years-old.  About a month ago, we brought Pop Pop to the WWII museum.  Do you remember that war?  It was 1939-1945...only just over 70 years ago.  Not a long time, right?  Pop Pop is a WWII veteran.  And by veteran, I mean that he was a Naval Aviator, as well as Naval Intelligence later in life.  He flew in this war.  He didn't test planes here in the states, he flew IN the war.  He was the pilot, as well as the man that controlled the torpedos.  He had a radio control man to his rear/side right and a gunman to his rear.

So when you walk into the WWII museum and you are a vet, you get a special badge which marks you as a celebrity.  Pop Pop had many, many people come up and thank him.  When we went to the theater to watch the movie with the museum, Pop Pop was announced and given a standing ovation.

I want you to reflect on this, as I did in these precious hours with Pop Pop.  There was a great war against tyranny that has living survivors.  That means this war was so close to our lifetime it is still part of living human beings.

During this time there was also great sufferings and travesties of populations due to racism.  There was a lot of looking the other way and there was a lot of denial.  There was also a LOT of support for two very horrible human beings in Germany and Japan.  Recently our bookclub has read several time piece books around WWII.  I am learning more than I ever did in school about this horrible time.

Let me remind you again- this was only 70+ years ago.  As most of us are between the ages of 30-50, 70 years doesn't seem that long, now does it?  There was horrible, horrible, horrible tyranny only 70+ years ago with the rights of many, many people taken away very slowly and in a way that was unnoticeable to an entire world.  Let that sink in.  There were millions of people being slaughtered, and the rest of the world didn't know it.

I hope we can all agree that leaders matter and people matter.  We can also agree that we are not exempt and we don't get a pass just because we live a few years later in the history of human kind.  It is not as though these sort of things can't happen to us.  There is nothing about the advancement of humankind that says you can't make mistakes and can't repeat mistakes.  The point is NOT to repeat mistakes, but we certainly can.  What an insult to people like Pop Pop and all of the men and women of that generation who fought for our freedom if we choose to think otherwise.

None of this is to say that I see impending genocide in our country by the millions.  But I do simply want to state that went I spent this day with Pop Pop, the impact was so great that I couldn't help but feel very close to this period of time.  I left with a great understanding that my past 38 years of life and many others have been extremely sheltered, and it might make our generation think things like this would never happen now.  It would be a mistake to think that way.

A Home in New Orleans

After being completely debt free including the house for approximately two months which felt amazing (sold our home in Memphis and did not owe anyone a thing in the world), we are now house poor the proud new owners of a house in the Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I felt a slight bolt of fear yesterday as I signed the papers to my life away, but it is eased a bit with my two new views.  

 The view of the Crescent City Connection bridge from my back porch 

The view of the French Quarter from my front porch

Buying in New Orleans is tough, although I am sure many people from cool cities can say the same.  The market is a sellers market, and prices have tripled/quadrupled since we lived her 10 years ago.  My old uptown condo on St Charles is worth almost 4 x what I paid for it in 2001.  I sure do wish I still owned it!  Dave and I were feeling a bit defeated that we would not be able to live in an area we liked.   We quickly understood we would not be able to live uptown again because we couldn't afford it.  But, we were surprised at how many other areas we could no longer afford.

In the end, we didn't look much further than Algiers Point.  It is the 2nd oldest area in New Orleans (the first being the French Quarter).  Many of the houses here, including possibly ours, pre-date the civil war.  There was a great fire in this area in 1895 that wiped out most of the neighborhood, but the fire actually stopped at our street, and so our house may be one of the oldest around.  I am going to have to go dig in the historical archives and give some updates later.  This site has a sad history in slavery, serving as a holding area for slaves coming from other countries coming up the Mississippi to be ferried across the river to be sold.  It is also an area that was occupied by Confederate and Union Soldiers at different times.  There is a guy that digs up Civil War artifacts all of the time not too far from my house.  

Algiers Point has won the Curbed Cup for the city of New Orleans for best neighborhood 2 years in a row.  

Our neighborhood is mostly amazing.  There are many, many young families here.  Lots of free-thinking people, which appeals to Dave and me.  On any typical day I have spend time with at least 5 different neighbors.  I can't think of many days where I have not been involved in some sort of community activity.  

We are 2 blocks from the ferry to the French Quarter, so for $2 and 5 minutes of your time, you can end up on Decatur, ready to party without driving.  We have the Confetti Kids Organization, our own public library, 2 parks, an art center for kids, and 3 bars (of course) within a few blocks.  I now have reading nook in a loft (yes!), a screened in back porch for relaxing nights, and a bunch of fruit trees- grapefruit, oranges, lemons, kumquats, and plantains.  Ready to visit me yet?

Give me a couple of months, and then a bed will be open and ready.  All friends welcome!