Knowing What it Means

Most of the time, I try not to think too much of New Orleans. It was the first place that really, really felt like home for me. When I first visited the city to see my future school, my first glimpse was of the skyline shimmering across the bridge from the opposite side of Lake Pontchartrain, and even though I'd been in the car for about 22 hours, and awake for about 36, I was suddenly, totally awake. Although my second wind only lasted until I fell asleep mid-sentence (really) only 7 hours later, the next few days convinced me that I didn't want to leave. In fact, had I been able to I would've rented an apartment right then and happily paid UPS to ship all of my belongings to me that very day. Unfortunately, in real life people cannot just move at the drop of a hat, but I spent a very happy, sweaty, gluttonous three years there not long after that day. My golden years be damned, because that's what it's really about. This is why I try not not to think of it too much, because missing a home like that is almost painful. So why am I writing this? Several reasons:

(1) my two bestest friends are going there next weekend for the first weekend of Mardi Gras, and I would love nothing more than to hop the next plane out of here and spend the weekend hollering for beads and eating crawfish (OMG, crawfish...I think I just drooled on my keyboard a little bit...if anyone knows of a place to get them in DC or its neighboring environs I will kiss you).

(2) the weather here is amazing right now, actually New Orleans-like aside from the fact that it gets down to the 30's at night. In the past, the first warm days of spring always made me long for the beach so much that I could practically smell the saltwater. Now added to that is the desire to spend most of my day lounging on the levee, drinking daiquiris and pretending that I have nothing else to do.

(3) my friend Abbott's facebook profile picture - sounds like an odd trigger, but it's from our graduation brunch at the Court of Two Sisters, just a month before I had to pack up and move. I may complain a lot about having gone to law school - there are loans, and I'm still looking for a job, and all in all it may not have been my smartest move, but our class managed to drink an established New Orleans restaurant out of champagne by noon, just sitting under our umbrellas enjoying each other's company for one of the last times, and I won't ever regret getting to know those people for three years.

And now, to get over my bit of homesickness, I think I may need my third glass of wine, and yes I know it's ony 5:00, but in NOLA it's been cocktail hour for quite a while now, so drink up.