Disaster Free Birthday

I was one of those teenagers who clung to her little girl things, and when I was a freshman in highschool, I had a pet snake made of blue clay. I named him Ike, and Ike was about an inch long and very skinny. I had to keep him on the back of one of those buttons people wear for school spirit. People were always telling me, "He's too little." I've actually been thinking that if I were to have a son, I would name him Ike. Last night, a beautiful brown moth flew through the window and hovered on the wall over my computer desk. I called Josh in to see it, and as he started to shoo it out of the room, I stopped him. I named him Ike and prayed for him to leave. It looks like I might break the curse this year and actually have a good 9-11 birthday. I think I had a blast two years ago in Mimi's, but I remember very little of the occasion. So I'm going to Vaughn's Thursday night. All ya'll working folks out there, I understand if you can't make it. I am going to have a housewarming/birthday party for me and Josh (9-11 is his birthday too) in about two weeks, when we hopefully have power.

 

Serenity

So I went and met with some people tonight and we talked about how we felt about our reactions to the storm. A lot of people expressed distress that they'd evacuated because other people had begged and badgered them to. There was an overall consensus that those of us who stayed were choosing to have confidence in ourselves and be true to that and risked making our loved ones very angry, and now felt guilty and ashamed. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I feel like shit b/c I feel like everyone who urged me to evacuate is disappointed in me, or didn't think I could cope with staying here, or thinks I'm a selfish idiot. I'll never know what I could have coped with if things had been worse. I am going to say that I did stay on ground that did not flood during Katrina, so if the same areas that flooded had flooded this time, my generator would have functioned differently than the generators owned by people staying in areas that flooded. Maybe I was crazy for thinking that if an area didn't flood during Katrina, it wouldn't flood during Gustav. That's the logic most of the people who stayed who I've been interviewing followed. I'm glad that those of you who evacuated are having a great time out there enjoying whatever vacation spot you've landed in, and I really mean that. Maybe the fact that I was on vacation for the past 2 months made me hesitant to see this evacuation as a vacation. I stand by the fact that I couldn't have handled evacuating. My car wouldn't start on Sunday. I could not have carried 3 animals in Andrea's truck. Those are coincidences; I'd already decided to stay. One thing I can take away from this experience is that I need to go to therapy about evacuations I experienced in a certain toxic 5 year relationship. If you want to know why I'm afraid to evacuate, ask him if he's sober enough to answer you. The main point that everyone I met with tonight at 8 p.m. and everyone who I interviewed agreed upon is that it is not fair to yell at someone for staying, to ream someone out for staying, to accuse someone who is staying of causing you stress that you don't need. That is something for a person to discuss with a therapist. It is not my fault that certain people had nothing better to do than blame me for contributing to their stress. I am not talking about Joe or Sarah or Matt here, whose comments were brief and came from love and concern and not anger. I am speaking for everyone who chose to stay here who didn't need to hear it from everyone who was watching CNN news or suffering from whatever affliction prevents them from staying out of other people's lives. It does not help to browbeat a person into evacuating. Some of my friends who evacuated because they were yelled at and blamed for others' anxiety are a mess now. They're either not back yet or here, crying and breaking down that they are more anxious than ever. They may be ingesting certain beverages that are deadly for them. People make their own choices, and I am not blaming anyone who evacuated. I am not sitting here thinking I was smarter than anyone else. I was just lucky that it wasn't Nagin's "Mother of all storms" and that I had my wits together to prepare for the storm. The fact that my parents supported me speaks volumes b/c they actually listened to my plan instead of telling me I was putting the life of a rescue worker at risk. So for all of you out there who reamed out those of us who stayed, who yelled at us and belittled us and made us cry from anxiety, please try to keep the focus on yourself next time. It did not help. Whatever calm reaction/behavior the people who stayed held onto was in spite of the blame and anxiety of other people. I hate this blog and I hate the way I've been writing it because I'm so afraid of f*&king offending anyone who yelled at me about staying that I have barely put any of myself into it. That's my issue, and I can only correct it by getting some distance. An actual article is to follow this. Welcome home.

WORD OF THE DAY

Lootering: loitering around with the intention of looting? ABC news reports that it's a good thing that Mayor Nagin lifted the midnight return rule because according to Nagin, homeowners need to protect their own properties from looters who are organizing in groups. Also, groups of contractors are waiting outside the city to come back in and steal copper and appliances from homes they recently renovated. Yes, the NOPD and National Guard are still ready to protect all properties from looters, but if you see anyone "lootering" or looking suspicious, call 9-11 immediately. Can he even tell if he's taking his foot out of his mouth or shoving it further in?

COME ON HOME!

ACCORDING TO NOLA.COM, ALL CHECKPOINTS HAVE BEEN LIFTED DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WAITING TO COME IN, SO I GUESS IT'S JUST THE TRAFFIC YA'LL HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT.

Local Update

My friend Laura came back early this morning after driving in traffic all night. She got in through Jefferson Parrish by coming over the Causeway and then taking the back roads to Riverbend. She lives a few blocks past The Maple Leaf, and she has power. I heard on the radio yesterday that The Maple Leaf did not have power (when they were inviting people to drink warm Budweiser and were powered by generators), and I'm going to drive around and see which neighborhoods have power and which do not. She said people entering Orleans Parrish directly are being turned away. In Markey Park on Piety, we heard rumor that there were MRE's and vodka at Spain and Rampart, but a nice National Guard officer who called Josh "Sir," went and checked and said that no help/comfort stations have been established yet because no one is allowed back in the city. I met a total asshole at the park too. He grabbed my press pass and said I didn't need it and should have made it dirty and that I should have been interviewing him as he surveyed "The Bank." I told the rule was that if you stay, you can't be al asshole. I'm going to drive around soon and see what's going on as far as power goes.

Man Falls Down Leaving Country Club

Apparently, the cops aren't only getting their information from the news; I saw them huddled around the corner store on Dauphine right before Vaughn's (not open) as I drove back to Poland Ave. I saw no signs of flooding on Kentucky or Japonica or under the St. Claude or Claiborne Bridge. I took some pictures that I'll upload soon. I took Poland all the way to Tonti and didn't see any signs of flooding, and it started raining pretty hard while I was driving. On the way back down Poland, I saw a convoy of NOPD/National Guard vehicles crossing the Robertson Bridge into Holy Cross, so apparently it's okay to drive over there. I obviously have no idea what they were doing and didn't want to find out. Driving back to C's house on Royal, I stopped behind a pick-up truck at Louisa and Royal. An older man had walked from the direction of The Country Club (which according to local weird C.I.A. Mike is open) and fell down on the curb. He didn't fall in a way that looked dangerous. It was more the kind of stumble a very drunk person makes. The truck in front of me drove away, and I rolled down my window and asked the guy if he was okay. "I can get up now," he slurred, and sat there in the pouring rain. I did not give this man a breathalizer test, so I am not going to say he was drunk, but he appeared to be very drunk. Now that I don't drink, it's not that I think people shouldn't be drinking, but drunk people do careless things all the time. I've noticed that the Phoenix and Smitty's are opening, and these people are eventually going to stumble home. I hope somebody's watching over them, because I'd hate to be drunk here now. I can't imagine being drunk or even drinking when things are this serious. So maybe that was the little voice that urged me to stay - my sobriety? I can also see how an officer of the law would be really annoyed to have to stop to help a person b/c he was so drunk he fell down. So people in New Orleans who are drunk: you might want to stay at home. The cops aren't exactly being nice, but they're not in the mood to help anybody.

Hi Jenny Jams

I'm glad you actually motivated me to drive back there (I was a little scared to). You can rest, I saw no signs of flooding at all on Kentucky or Japonica or Poland. I drove all the way to Tonti before I saw some power lines down and turned around. Definitely no flooding there. When I figure out how to put pictures on here, I'll upload some.