And the fun never seems to stop here in New Orleans. Just after we are finished dealing with one storm, here comes another.

There's a whole different type of fun going on over here. I'm glad Aaron's back, and in such swanky new digs.

 
Today at work I overheard a woman's cell phone conversation. She was actually a very upper class woman with her two darling children who had stopped in to get lunch. As she was walking away from the counter I heard her say:

"The poor thing. The guy held her at gunpoint and made her empty out her purse and then threatened to kill her." In the same breath, she non-chalantly followed that statement with: "Oh, you know how it is."

May I never have to live in that woman's world.

 
Things to do to entertain yourself when you're cooped up inside due to a tropical storm:

1. Read

2. Download music and burn countless numbers of CD's

3. Redesign the blog

 
Despite the fact that I live in New Orleans, one of my favorite sounds is rain. I absolutely love it. Don't ask me why, I just do. If I was ever on Inside The Actors' Studio, I would answer the question "what sound or noise do you love?" with "Rain."

Just thought I'd throw out that little fact since that's all it's doing right now.

 
There are people in this world I will never understand. I accept that. What I have trouble dealing with is the fact that many of these people seem to patronize the places where I work. Take for example a brief encounter that happened at 3:35 this afternoon. Keep in mind that it had been raining since last night and by this time the streets had started to flood.

Customer: What time do you close?
Me: At four.
My Internal Monologue: Why do you even need coffee? Go home, asshole .

Cust: Are you serving dinner later?
Me: Sir, we close in 25 minutes.
My IM: No you fucking dolt. We aren't serving dinner. We actually would like to get to our own homes before the streets are impassable.

Cust: Oh, well I guess I'll just get something now, then.
Me: Sure, what would you like?
My IM: That's right. Get your food and get out. And I'm not giving you the option of getting it for here.

Cust: I'll have a chicken caeser salad. And can I get that quickly because the streets are starting to flood.
Me: Sure thing. It will be ready shortly
My IM: Of course the streets are starting to flood, you fuckwad, we're experiencing a tropical storm. It's helpless, lazy people like yourself who kept this place open to begin with today. Why can't you just make yourself a goddamn sandwich?

I honestly don't understand people like that. Essentially the coffee shop was closed by 3:30. All we had left to do was dump coffee. We hadn't even had a customer in almost an hour. Why this man needed a chicken caeser salad i honestly don't know. And I am afraid that if I found out the real answer to that question I would be compelled to rip off his arm and beat him to death with it.

What people need to understand is that those of us who work in the service industry are there to serve you. But, you shouldn't ask for a ridiculously unreasonable request or treat us like shit. We will seek our revenge, we promise. And more than likely, you won't even realize it.

 
The streets have started to flood and everything seems to be closing if it hasn't already. Basically I plan to be watching a lot of movies and rading a lot over the next day or so. There is nothing to do and nowhere to go. And seeing as how my internet connection is currently running somewhere between extremely slow and non-existent, don't expect much in terms of updates.

 
I'm off to work. I get to serve crazy people and their children coffee and food. Lovely. Hopefully I'll be able to get home this afternoon when I get off. I fyou don't here from me for a while, don't fret. It's just the power going out.

 
It raining. A lot. Last night there was actually a glimpse of fall weather. It was cool and breezy. Of course, when the weather turns like that in September here, it can only mean one thing. And it's not good. Schools have been cancelled for the rest of the week in most of the city and many people are off of work. Of course, I am not. As it stands, the coffee shop plans to be open tomorrow as well as Thursday. That's right - Thursday, the day that the heavens open up and destroy New Orleans with a fury that hasn't been seen since Noah and the Ark.

I'm just trying to figure out if I'll be able to go to work tomorrow. There's already started to be some light street flooding here in the Ridge. Of course we flood when someone spits so I'm not surprised. I figure I'll be able to get to work tomorrow, but there is a question of whether or not I'll be able to get home. I'll guess I'll just have to beg one of my SUV driving friends to come get me as I watch my car float down Metairie Road. Thursday I am off and avoiding the phone like the plague. I have no desire for someone to beg me to come to work even though the power is out. Because if we are open on Thursday, I guaranty you that there will be people stupid enough to come and get a cup of coffee. And to those people, I hope your cars get swept up in a torrid rush of flood waters and you drown.

 
I would just like to say that I love New Orleans. It is a city that I have a unique love affair with. One that I can't explain, but that will probably continue throughout my life. One of the things that I find at once to be both fascinating and frightening about this city is that we are constanly in danger of total destruction.

New Orleans is a city that is, on average, 6 feet below sea level. Essentially, it is nothing more than a big bowl. The city is basicaly built on drained swamp land. This of course , results in a city that slowly sinks. Not as a whole but, parts of it do. I know countless numbers of people whose houses sink considerable amounts each year. We are surrounded by a unique system of levees, which are there so that New Orleans is not flooded by the Mississippi River.

Honestly, all it would take is for one of the levees to break (which isn't likely) in the spring when the river is high, and the city would be inundated with water. As it is, it's something everyone here is quite used to. I know how to properly drive a vehicle through floodwaters. I also know how to hang drywall, having done it on numerous occasions when homes flood. I am quite used to seeeing house after house with rolls of wet carpet and piles of mildewed drywall outside to be picked up by the garbage trucks.

And now that Isidore may be moving into the Gulf, another possibility for destruction looms near. All it would take is for a large hurricane to come up the mouth of the Mississippi River and it would no longer be a question of evacuating, but having to change your mailing address. The water from both the river and Lake Pontchartrain that would spill into the bowl that is New Orleans would be catastrophic.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why life in this city is the way it is. Maybe the realization that we could easily be wiped out any minute is why we aren't always in such a hurry. We know that each day needs to be savored and enjoyed because it could be our last. We have festivals and celebrations almost constantly because we realize that our life and culture should be celebrated now because we could be quickly mourning our loss of it. New Orleans is a city that seems to flirt with death everyday, and it seems that for now, death is willing to let us slide for one more day.

 
Finally. LEGO's for adults. If you're a complete dork, like me, and always wanted to somehow combine playing with blocks and social theory, here's your chance. Go and get some LEGO theorists. I want the Michel Foucault with the San Francisco S & M Dungeon.

 
I recently purchased both Legend and The Dark Crystal on DVD. Both of these are movies that I remember fondly from my childhood, though upon recent viewing, I don't know why.

Both of those films, like many others from my childhood, are incredibly dark. When I really thought about it, I watched some really fucked up movies as a kid. I grew up watching movies like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Dick Tracy. All films that were incredibly dark and probably not really suited for children. But the one that takes the cake from my childhood is the Sesame Street classic Follow That Bird. Talk about a film that could fuck a kid up. Big Bird is evicted from Sesame Street, and then taken in/kidnapped by a traveling carnival. When Big Bird, who has been painted blue, is sitting alone in a cage in the dark, despondently singing "I'm So Blue," I'm not sure it's possble to avoid the emotional scarring. Didn't the people at the Children's Television Workshop think we had dealt with enough when Mr. Hooper died? Did we really need a depressed Big Bird too?

I guess that these films, in a way, made me the person I am today - a jaded, cynical, bitch. I mean, really, I watched The Fox and The Hound as a child which is quite possibly the most depressing Disney cartoon ever made. What were my parents thinking?

 
Seems like everyone's coming back.

 
Last night should have never happened. Any of it. I should have stayed home in my bed. Last night I fucked a lot of things up. Badly. Things need to be repaired if they can be. I'm not talking about quick and easy repairs, these will take work and time. I just hope that whatever happens, people realize that I am the one responsible and that nothing gets taken out on anyone else.

I should have just stayed home in bed

 
Why should I even post today? I could black out my blog or just leave a simple and meaningful quote. Whatever words I may have will seem inadequate, but yet I feel the need to put them out there, if only for my benefit.

I'm posting mainly because It's one year later and still, it's an event that I can't seem to wrap my head around. The death of so many by so few in such a small time is completely overwhelming to me. I can't even seem to pin down how I feel about it. Am I overcome with grief? Do I want vengeance? Am I angry? Do I blame the terrorists? Do I blame the U. S.? Do I look for the good to come out of this?

Sometimes I feel all of these things and other times, like today, I just feel numb. I'm not sure what or how to feel so I just feel numb with the realization that the world will never be the same. That is both a good and bad thing, but I am not sure that I wanted that change either way, and definitely not at that cost.

 
Does anyone know what happened to Jerwin? When I try to go to his site I get re-directed to 123cheapdomains.

 
When normal epople go to a bar they go to have a drink or meet friends or even make new aquaintences. James and I, though, do not go to bars for such purposes. Instead, we go so that our bartender can get us to take him to the Westbank to buy supplies for his new Burmese python. Of course, in return, we get a night of drinks on the house, so it isn't all that bad. Regardless, I'm fairly sure that this can only happen to us.

 
It's official. Today was my honest-to-god last day at my job. It was supposed to be Wednesday but the boss forgot and begged me to come in today so he wouldn't be ridiculously shorthanded. I really didn't want to, but then I realized that since I'm on salary, I'd get paid for both yesterday and today, even though I didn't work yesterday at all. And I didn't even work a full shift today. Basically, I got a shitload of money for 6 hours of work. But now it's done and I am taking it easy for the next few days.

 
How's this for fucked up? Today was the last day at my job and my boss comes in this afternoon and asks me what my avaiability is for next week. He completely forgot the brief conversation we had last week when I told him my last day would be today. It's a wonder why I quit in the first place.

 
What I Did With My Labor Day Vacation Part II

The next morning when we awoke, we decided to go get breakfast. We had to settle for Shoney's because nothing else was open. Sundays in Ruston are god's days, make no mistake about it. Shoney's was fairly uneventful except for our waitress, cindy, who apparently liked showing off her homemade tattoo of a heart with an arrow through it. There was that and the fact that I have never seen so much white gravy in my life.

After my weekend in Ruston, I was eager to get back to the land of sin and debauchery that is New Orleans. I was at a friends party where we decided to throw Andrew in the pool. After picking up Andrew, we were nice enough to empty out his pockets and remove his shoes. Of course, as I am standing on the side of the pool, about to throw him in, someone chose not to afford me the same courtesy. So in I went with my phone, my leather wingtips, Andrew's watch and Andrew's keys and alarm. What a fine way to end my weekend. Of course, if anyone tries to call me, it would be good if you left your number as well, seeing as how all of those are lost as well. On the upside, I get a new cell phone for free.

 
What I Did With My Labor Day Vacation

Early Saturday morning, at a time that I rarely see, I left the house with my mother and brother to make the long 5 hour drive to Ruston. That's right, I left New Orleans during the biggest gay holiday, to go to the bible beating lands of north Louisiana. We went to bring my brother up to school. An experience that I will not soon forget.

Let me begin by saying that Ruston is tiny. And very Christian. Namely, not my kind of town. While the entire trip left an indelible mark upon me, I will only regale you with a few tales.

My brother decided to build a loft for his bed to get it off the ground and to give him more space in the room. So we make a trip to the local True Value to buy some 2x4's. We were informed by the random man sitting at the front of the store that they had no 2x4's and that we would have to go to "Muhn-row" in order to get wood. Luckily, this individual felt that he should ask Mr. B (I'm not making that up) if they had any wood anyway. Turns out they had just the right amount. Of course we needed the wood cut. After a brief conversation we were informed that they had a "good cuttin saw" out back and they would do the job for five dollars. Of course, we were slightly wary when the man cutting the wood had his arm in a sling, but he seemed to escape injury free. So off we went to finish building the loft

 
I could just post about my weekend thus far, but seeing as how the pink eye is causing my right eye to begin to swell shut, it would just be to dificult to type. I'm going to put drops in my eye and go to bed. Tomorrow when I can see I will post about my rather odd weekend.