Being Home
I wrote this yesterday, and when out walking down Oak street to see if the Ace Hardware store was open, I found out that Rue de la Course was open. So here I am.
It is now Tuesday Nov. 1st. I have been back in NOLA since Friday. The trip home started around 9 on Friday morning, and went for the most part smoothly. Liza didn’t like being in her crate, or the car so she let me know, with 2 hours of meowing. Very loud meowing. I eventually let her out of the crate and she would settle herself either on the floor behind my seat or back in the crate, with the door open. Around the time I hit Alexandria, LA I noticed that the car was running a lot warmer than it had been. I stopped at a gas station and with some help from some nice guys (they worked with Coke and had just left NOLA) they helped me add water and coolant to the car. One of the guys noticed that the radiator cap wasn’t that great. So with some directions I was able to find an automotive store, purchase a new radiator cap, and an hour later I was on the road again. The car ran fine until I hit Baton Rouge. It would have run fine through there as well, except I hit BR at rush hour. And if you didn’t know, BR has almost tripled in size since the storm. To make it from one end of the city to the other, it took an hour where we were going maybe 5 mph. It reminded me of the trip OUT of NOLA. Although a tad bit faster. The car was starting to run hot again, since I was just sitting there. Once I got to an exit, I pulled off, got some gas, some food and let the car sit for awhile. I hit the road again around 7 and made it home at 8. 11 hours later I was home. I had gotten a call from my friends Roger and Elyse when I was crossing the lake. They told me that they were going to Maple Leaf. Brotherhood of the Groove was playing, and with the cover fee, you got a free ticket to the NOLA portion of Voodoo. How could I pass that up?? After unloading the cat and the car, I headed out to the Leaf for a few hours. It was fantastic to get to see Roger and Elyse finally. There was a fair amount of people out, a bit more than a few weeks before. I really realized I was home as the music was playing and we were dancing away. At the set break, I called it a night and headed home to sleep. I was suppose to meet with a FEMA rep at 9:30 on Saturday, however, he came on Friday to meet with Kristen. Since we were both on the lease, she was able to sign the paper work for me. So after sleeping in a bit, I started the fun task of unpacking and trying to make my room look normal again. I had moved furniture away from the windows before leaving, among other things. Kristen and I headed out to Voodoo around 4. By the time we got there, they weren’t even taking tickets anymore. We caught some of Cowboy Mouth’s set. They had started a bit late, and Bonerama was suppose to be starting at 5, so we saw about 4 songs. We then walked over the WWOZ stage, and I said to Kristen "That’s not Bonerama on stage setting up" Turns out it was Big Sam. That stage was running about a set behind. However just off the side of the stage was Roger, Elyse, Craig, and Mark. Kristen got to meet all the guys as they all eventually came over to where we were. It was her first time seeing the guys play live. She said she LOVED it!! It was amazing to be at the first NOLA show that Bonerama played. It was a short set, but it was fantastic. The day couldn’t have been any better. Weather was fantastic and everyone was very happy to be there. Even the military helicopters that flew over didn’t really have any effect on anyone. After the gig, we hung and talked for awhile, then Kristen and I headed home and collapsed. We had a few people staying with us that night, so we got to entertain them for a bit. I had been planning on going out for a bit on Saturday since there was a lot going on music wise. However I was too tired to do that. I didn’t get to see Adam and Carrie either, they spent most of the day dealing with their storage unit and decided to just start heading home. I was bummed that I didn’t get to see them, but totally understand they had to head out of town. Sunday morning started early, as our guests got up early to head out to their house to start cleaning up. They had just gotten home for the first time the day before. I headed over to Roger and Elyse’s for dinner before the Bonerama gig at the Maple Leaf. They live a block and a half away from the Leaf. A few of us headed over to the Leaf and enjoyed a set by the guys. They normally play two sets, but it was a small crowd. A bit smaller than it had been on Friday night, but since it was a Sunday I wasn’t all that surprised. I would guess that there was maybe 50-75 people there at one point. The last time the guys played the Leaf was about 2 weeks before the storm. It was kinda surreal to see them on their "home turf" since 9 weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I was going to EVER get to see that again. I even sold some merch for the guys that night. Normally I have the merch towards the back by the sound booth, but I decided to move up to about half way in the room. Yesterday, I did read through the Sunday job classifieds, and then went out to try to find some wireless. I had heard Coop’s had free wireless, but it wasn’t connecting on my computer. I heard from Katja when I was finishing up lunch and they had wireless at their house. So I headed over there and ended up chatting most of the time I was there, and gave Katja her birthday presents. I got online for about 20 mins and applied to a few jobs. By then it was time to head home. The boy needed to use my car for a few minutes, which he ended up getting a flat tire. We didn’t notice it until we were getting ready to leave for d.b.a we had to borrow my roomie’s car for the evening. Frenchmen’s street was HOPPING. The energy was amazing down there. I set up the merch right in front of the stage, this was Bonerama’s first gig EVER at d.b.a I saw my co-worker that I had evacuated with, among several other people that I hadn’t seen in awhile. By the time the guys started playing? The room was PACKED. Wall to wall people. Everyone was dancing, and yelling, and just having an amazing time. I hadn’t seen energy like that at a Bone show in a long, long time. Only 2 of the guys really dressed up in costume. Matt and Mark. Matt was Harriet Miers, with a sign pinned on his tummy that said George W. Jr. It was freaking hysterical. Mark, well he was hippy/glam. Velvet and leather. The hat with the flower was a nice touch. John Boutte even got on stage at one point and sang with the guys. All too soon it was over.
When the boy and I left it was after the 2 AM curfew. We had to go through a military checkpoint to get home, and just across from the park, there was a few military cars for another checkpoint. When we got out of the car, a cop car came by and made sure we knew we had to be inside since it was past curfew. On one hand to see all the security. Almost reassuring. On the other, its "Holy crap, the military is here, by my HOUSE" In fact as I have been writing this a humvee/jeep went by my house filled with military. Its very odd. Today I am homebound until my roomie can give me a ride to a tire shop. The spare, well the tread on that is ripping. So I am tire-less right now. That’s okay. I needed to get some rest after 4 nights of dancing my ass off. I may have worked off a 1/4 of the food I ate in TX. I am sooo glad to be home. The city is trying, at least the citizens in the city, are trying to get life back to normal. In some ways its happening. In others, it will be a long time before the city feels right. There are some areas I drove through yesterday and was shocked by the damage. And those weren’t even the worst areas!!! This post has been more about the fun I have had since being home. In most because I want to show people how life is being restored here in the city. Its weird to be here, but at the same time I am so happy to be home. Hopefully I will have the tires fixed tomorrow and I can get out to a coffee shop on Magazine and post this, as well as do some more job hunting. NOLA is alive. She will survive.
I wrote this yesterday, and when out walking down Oak street to see if the Ace Hardware store was open, I found out that Rue de la Course was open. So here I am.
It is now Tuesday Nov. 1st. I have been back in NOLA since Friday. The trip home started around 9 on Friday morning, and went for the most part smoothly. Liza didn’t like being in her crate, or the car so she let me know, with 2 hours of meowing. Very loud meowing. I eventually let her out of the crate and she would settle herself either on the floor behind my seat or back in the crate, with the door open. Around the time I hit Alexandria, LA I noticed that the car was running a lot warmer than it had been. I stopped at a gas station and with some help from some nice guys (they worked with Coke and had just left NOLA) they helped me add water and coolant to the car. One of the guys noticed that the radiator cap wasn’t that great. So with some directions I was able to find an automotive store, purchase a new radiator cap, and an hour later I was on the road again. The car ran fine until I hit Baton Rouge. It would have run fine through there as well, except I hit BR at rush hour. And if you didn’t know, BR has almost tripled in size since the storm. To make it from one end of the city to the other, it took an hour where we were going maybe 5 mph. It reminded me of the trip OUT of NOLA. Although a tad bit faster. The car was starting to run hot again, since I was just sitting there. Once I got to an exit, I pulled off, got some gas, some food and let the car sit for awhile. I hit the road again around 7 and made it home at 8. 11 hours later I was home. I had gotten a call from my friends Roger and Elyse when I was crossing the lake. They told me that they were going to Maple Leaf. Brotherhood of the Groove was playing, and with the cover fee, you got a free ticket to the NOLA portion of Voodoo. How could I pass that up?? After unloading the cat and the car, I headed out to the Leaf for a few hours. It was fantastic to get to see Roger and Elyse finally. There was a fair amount of people out, a bit more than a few weeks before. I really realized I was home as the music was playing and we were dancing away. At the set break, I called it a night and headed home to sleep. I was suppose to meet with a FEMA rep at 9:30 on Saturday, however, he came on Friday to meet with Kristen. Since we were both on the lease, she was able to sign the paper work for me. So after sleeping in a bit, I started the fun task of unpacking and trying to make my room look normal again. I had moved furniture away from the windows before leaving, among other things. Kristen and I headed out to Voodoo around 4. By the time we got there, they weren’t even taking tickets anymore. We caught some of Cowboy Mouth’s set. They had started a bit late, and Bonerama was suppose to be starting at 5, so we saw about 4 songs. We then walked over the WWOZ stage, and I said to Kristen "That’s not Bonerama on stage setting up" Turns out it was Big Sam. That stage was running about a set behind. However just off the side of the stage was Roger, Elyse, Craig, and Mark. Kristen got to meet all the guys as they all eventually came over to where we were. It was her first time seeing the guys play live. She said she LOVED it!! It was amazing to be at the first NOLA show that Bonerama played. It was a short set, but it was fantastic. The day couldn’t have been any better. Weather was fantastic and everyone was very happy to be there. Even the military helicopters that flew over didn’t really have any effect on anyone. After the gig, we hung and talked for awhile, then Kristen and I headed home and collapsed. We had a few people staying with us that night, so we got to entertain them for a bit. I had been planning on going out for a bit on Saturday since there was a lot going on music wise. However I was too tired to do that. I didn’t get to see Adam and Carrie either, they spent most of the day dealing with their storage unit and decided to just start heading home. I was bummed that I didn’t get to see them, but totally understand they had to head out of town. Sunday morning started early, as our guests got up early to head out to their house to start cleaning up. They had just gotten home for the first time the day before. I headed over to Roger and Elyse’s for dinner before the Bonerama gig at the Maple Leaf. They live a block and a half away from the Leaf. A few of us headed over to the Leaf and enjoyed a set by the guys. They normally play two sets, but it was a small crowd. A bit smaller than it had been on Friday night, but since it was a Sunday I wasn’t all that surprised. I would guess that there was maybe 50-75 people there at one point. The last time the guys played the Leaf was about 2 weeks before the storm. It was kinda surreal to see them on their "home turf" since 9 weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I was going to EVER get to see that again. I even sold some merch for the guys that night. Normally I have the merch towards the back by the sound booth, but I decided to move up to about half way in the room. Yesterday, I did read through the Sunday job classifieds, and then went out to try to find some wireless. I had heard Coop’s had free wireless, but it wasn’t connecting on my computer. I heard from Katja when I was finishing up lunch and they had wireless at their house. So I headed over there and ended up chatting most of the time I was there, and gave Katja her birthday presents. I got online for about 20 mins and applied to a few jobs. By then it was time to head home. The boy needed to use my car for a few minutes, which he ended up getting a flat tire. We didn’t notice it until we were getting ready to leave for d.b.a we had to borrow my roomie’s car for the evening. Frenchmen’s street was HOPPING. The energy was amazing down there. I set up the merch right in front of the stage, this was Bonerama’s first gig EVER at d.b.a I saw my co-worker that I had evacuated with, among several other people that I hadn’t seen in awhile. By the time the guys started playing? The room was PACKED. Wall to wall people. Everyone was dancing, and yelling, and just having an amazing time. I hadn’t seen energy like that at a Bone show in a long, long time. Only 2 of the guys really dressed up in costume. Matt and Mark. Matt was Harriet Miers, with a sign pinned on his tummy that said George W. Jr. It was freaking hysterical. Mark, well he was hippy/glam. Velvet and leather. The hat with the flower was a nice touch. John Boutte even got on stage at one point and sang with the guys. All too soon it was over.
When the boy and I left it was after the 2 AM curfew. We had to go through a military checkpoint to get home, and just across from the park, there was a few military cars for another checkpoint. When we got out of the car, a cop car came by and made sure we knew we had to be inside since it was past curfew. On one hand to see all the security. Almost reassuring. On the other, its "Holy crap, the military is here, by my HOUSE" In fact as I have been writing this a humvee/jeep went by my house filled with military. Its very odd. Today I am homebound until my roomie can give me a ride to a tire shop. The spare, well the tread on that is ripping. So I am tire-less right now. That’s okay. I needed to get some rest after 4 nights of dancing my ass off. I may have worked off a 1/4 of the food I ate in TX. I am sooo glad to be home. The city is trying, at least the citizens in the city, are trying to get life back to normal. In some ways its happening. In others, it will be a long time before the city feels right. There are some areas I drove through yesterday and was shocked by the damage. And those weren’t even the worst areas!!! This post has been more about the fun I have had since being home. In most because I want to show people how life is being restored here in the city. Its weird to be here, but at the same time I am so happy to be home. Hopefully I will have the tires fixed tomorrow and I can get out to a coffee shop on Magazine and post this, as well as do some more job hunting. NOLA is alive. She will survive.
2 Comments:
So they are doing a clean up thing at city park this weekend...wanna come down for that? You could come down for thanksgiving, bone show, and I should have hot water by then!! LOL
Now THAT is tempting. I think my mom would disown me if I ditched the family for Thanksgiving!
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