Dear readers:
Having come to the obvious conclusion that I don't have time to keep up two blogs, and having realized that I want to write about more than just theatre and post-K rebuilding, I have created a BRAND NEW BLOG that will encompass all of the above and then some. So please join me at http://trinanola.blogspot.com/ and I will hopefully reward you by posting much more frequently, since I'm no longer restricting myself to two topics.
See you there!
Your favorite Katrina survivor whose name is not short for Katrina,
Trina
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Thursday, November 08, 2007
another lengthy hiatus, with good excuses
i know. i am the most pathetic excuse for a blogger ever. my friend erika has a day job and an infant and still manages to post with impressive frequency, sometimes more than once a day. and her blog is extremely entertaining, to the extent that it is the only blog that my husband reads regularly.
yes, husband, i got married a week and a half ago, which is reason #1 i've been AWOL. reason 2 is that on top of my full-time job, i am teaching two ballet classes at tulane this semester, which means i teach 4 times a week, and i have to actually grade them and give them written tests and stuff, which is quite time-consuming. and reason 3 is that my boss left to take another job so i have now been bumped up to director and am trying to figure out how to run my office. and reason 4 is that, bizarrely and horrifyingly, another dancer friend of mine-- this time my good friend sarah, who came with me on several of my trips to the hospital to visit joseph-- suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery. and i just couldn't handle writing about yet another dancer friend having brain surgery. and it was just too surreal to see her in the hospital with tubes everywhere and a head full of stitches, just a couple months after the two of us saw joseph in the same state. but she is recovering really well-- she was at my wedding, and she looked fantastic. so now i can write about her because i know she is going to be okay. and thankfully, she has health insurance.
we are about 90% done with our renovations at this point. we actually have walls and ceilings and lights downstairs. no drywall; our experience hauling insanely heavy sacks of the soggy stuff led us to opt for something called, i think, beat board? beet board? eh, i don't know. at any rate, we also did a pretty major drainage project to fix some flow issues that were causing us to get some water in the basement (first floor) during heavy rains. we had one sort of standard downpour after the project was completed, and our new drainage worked quite well, and we were pleased.
then, the monday before our wedding, we had a not-so-standard downpour that lasted for about 24 hours and dumped 9 inches of rain uptown. and for the third time since katrina, our street flooded. and when the street reaches a certain level, there is simply no where else for the water to go but into our basement, so eventually we had about three inches down there.
sigh.
my next door neighbor commented on the unprecedented frequency of these flooding rains. she's been in her house for years and has never seen anything like it. climate change, anyone?
the ever-mercurial weather gods did give us a perfect weekend for our wedding-- sunny, a little cooler than usual but not too cold, just beautiful. and we honeymooned in st. lucia, where we did have some rain here and there, but we luckily managed to steer clear of hurricane noel.
and now we're back, and the temperature started dropping, so we tried to fire up the heat, only to discover that for the thirty-seventh time, we have low gas pressure because there is WATER IN THE GAS LINES AGAIN. i don't know if it's from the recent flooding or still the same katrina water that's being pushed around, but i am pissed. grrr.
but... our house is really starting to look so nice... chris's dad and his dad's girlfriend laurie, who owns a high-end window treatment business, did all of our upstairs windows as a wedding present, and they look amazing. and i can't even remember if i wrote about this yet but i finally bought the piano that i was supposed to buy for my 30th birthday two and a half years ago. and we have piles of wedding gifts, more than half of which we haven't even opened yet, and it's so weird to have all this nice stuff all of a sudden. it kind of freaks me out.
and the streetcars are finally running again on st. charles. only up to napoleon, but still.
so, time to call entergy again and get those gas lines pumped out.
yes, husband, i got married a week and a half ago, which is reason #1 i've been AWOL. reason 2 is that on top of my full-time job, i am teaching two ballet classes at tulane this semester, which means i teach 4 times a week, and i have to actually grade them and give them written tests and stuff, which is quite time-consuming. and reason 3 is that my boss left to take another job so i have now been bumped up to director and am trying to figure out how to run my office. and reason 4 is that, bizarrely and horrifyingly, another dancer friend of mine-- this time my good friend sarah, who came with me on several of my trips to the hospital to visit joseph-- suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery. and i just couldn't handle writing about yet another dancer friend having brain surgery. and it was just too surreal to see her in the hospital with tubes everywhere and a head full of stitches, just a couple months after the two of us saw joseph in the same state. but she is recovering really well-- she was at my wedding, and she looked fantastic. so now i can write about her because i know she is going to be okay. and thankfully, she has health insurance.
we are about 90% done with our renovations at this point. we actually have walls and ceilings and lights downstairs. no drywall; our experience hauling insanely heavy sacks of the soggy stuff led us to opt for something called, i think, beat board? beet board? eh, i don't know. at any rate, we also did a pretty major drainage project to fix some flow issues that were causing us to get some water in the basement (first floor) during heavy rains. we had one sort of standard downpour after the project was completed, and our new drainage worked quite well, and we were pleased.
then, the monday before our wedding, we had a not-so-standard downpour that lasted for about 24 hours and dumped 9 inches of rain uptown. and for the third time since katrina, our street flooded. and when the street reaches a certain level, there is simply no where else for the water to go but into our basement, so eventually we had about three inches down there.
sigh.
my next door neighbor commented on the unprecedented frequency of these flooding rains. she's been in her house for years and has never seen anything like it. climate change, anyone?
the ever-mercurial weather gods did give us a perfect weekend for our wedding-- sunny, a little cooler than usual but not too cold, just beautiful. and we honeymooned in st. lucia, where we did have some rain here and there, but we luckily managed to steer clear of hurricane noel.
and now we're back, and the temperature started dropping, so we tried to fire up the heat, only to discover that for the thirty-seventh time, we have low gas pressure because there is WATER IN THE GAS LINES AGAIN. i don't know if it's from the recent flooding or still the same katrina water that's being pushed around, but i am pissed. grrr.
but... our house is really starting to look so nice... chris's dad and his dad's girlfriend laurie, who owns a high-end window treatment business, did all of our upstairs windows as a wedding present, and they look amazing. and i can't even remember if i wrote about this yet but i finally bought the piano that i was supposed to buy for my 30th birthday two and a half years ago. and we have piles of wedding gifts, more than half of which we haven't even opened yet, and it's so weird to have all this nice stuff all of a sudden. it kind of freaks me out.
and the streetcars are finally running again on st. charles. only up to napoleon, but still.
so, time to call entergy again and get those gas lines pumped out.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
tell me when i can breathe
yes, it's that time of year when we all collectively hold our breath. the national hurricane center calls the peak hurricane season ASO, for august-september-october. so... we made it through august. could last year's luck possibly hold out? or will our house projects and wedding plans be sidelined by humberto, jerry or... karen?
only time will tell. so i won't be breathing for a while. hence the slightly blue pallor.
only time will tell. so i won't be breathing for a while. hence the slightly blue pallor.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
8/29
i actually did not post on august 29, 2006; it was during one of my several-month hiatuses from this blog. but since i've been writing lately, i feel it would be remiss of me not to post at all today.
i'm just going to make a couple short lists of some of the good and bad things that have happened in my world over the past several months. i'll start with the bad things, so as not to end on a depressing note.
BAD OR NOT-SO-GOOD THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED RECENTLY
1. one of the few local politicians that any of us had any respect for let us all down.
2. crime continues to be a major concern. a friend of mine got shot in the head a couple months ago.
3. the streetcars are still not running on st. charles.
4. the saenger and mahalia jackson theatres are still not being repaired.
5. the jerkoff who lives two doors down from me has STILL not gutted his house.
6. my next-door neighbor, julie, got nothing from the road home, despite the fact that neighbors with very similar situations got decent-sized checks. she's still wading through the appeals process.
GOOD THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED RECENTLY
1. i finally bought a piano! woohoo!
2. we renovated the upstairs bathroom!
3. we finally have a curbside recycling service!
4. cote sud restaurant reopened!
5. my friend meredith is finally moving back into her house on octavia street this weekend!
6. i got my katrina-axed adjunct professor position back in the tulane dance department and i'm teaching two classes this fall!
7. hurricane dean decided to steer clear of NOLA! (this was of course not such a good thing for the yucatan peninsula.)
well, what do you know: the list of good things is longer than the list of bad things. let's hope that trend continues.
i'm just going to make a couple short lists of some of the good and bad things that have happened in my world over the past several months. i'll start with the bad things, so as not to end on a depressing note.
BAD OR NOT-SO-GOOD THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED RECENTLY
1. one of the few local politicians that any of us had any respect for let us all down.
2. crime continues to be a major concern. a friend of mine got shot in the head a couple months ago.
3. the streetcars are still not running on st. charles.
4. the saenger and mahalia jackson theatres are still not being repaired.
5. the jerkoff who lives two doors down from me has STILL not gutted his house.
6. my next-door neighbor, julie, got nothing from the road home, despite the fact that neighbors with very similar situations got decent-sized checks. she's still wading through the appeals process.
GOOD THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED RECENTLY
1. i finally bought a piano! woohoo!
2. we renovated the upstairs bathroom!
3. we finally have a curbside recycling service!
4. cote sud restaurant reopened!
5. my friend meredith is finally moving back into her house on octavia street this weekend!
6. i got my katrina-axed adjunct professor position back in the tulane dance department and i'm teaching two classes this fall!
7. hurricane dean decided to steer clear of NOLA! (this was of course not such a good thing for the yucatan peninsula.)
well, what do you know: the list of good things is longer than the list of bad things. let's hope that trend continues.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
wasps
i recently discovered an enormous wasp's nest up in the corner of our screened-in porch. chris bought some anti-wasp spray and ambushed the nest at dusk, as the can instructed. the next day i hosed off as much of the nest as i could, then took a giant sponge to the rest of it and scrubbed until the sponge disintegrated. i got most of it off, but not all.
well, a couple days later, i notice a wasp buzzing around the remains of the nest and it appears that it has been resurrected. it's like a wasp death star being rebuilt on our porch.
i am annoyed, since we have a list a mile long of stuff that needs to be done on and around the house. but i also can't help but feel somewhat sorry for the wasps, who are after all simply trying to do the same thing we are: rebuild their home after seeing it flooded by outside forces.
yesterday i helped set up for the tulane reading project keynote lecture, entitled "Linking Slushy Greenland to Swampy Louisiana: A Bumpy Ride into the Greenhouse Future?" every time i listen to a lecture or read a book or see a movie about climate change, it reinforces how small and insignificant we are in the larger scheme of things. our efforts to rebuild our home are no more meaningful or important than the efforts of the wasps, however complex our home may seem in comparison to their muddy little death star. which can be either depressing or liberating, depending on how you look at it.
well, a couple days later, i notice a wasp buzzing around the remains of the nest and it appears that it has been resurrected. it's like a wasp death star being rebuilt on our porch.
i am annoyed, since we have a list a mile long of stuff that needs to be done on and around the house. but i also can't help but feel somewhat sorry for the wasps, who are after all simply trying to do the same thing we are: rebuild their home after seeing it flooded by outside forces.
yesterday i helped set up for the tulane reading project keynote lecture, entitled "Linking Slushy Greenland to Swampy Louisiana: A Bumpy Ride into the Greenhouse Future?" every time i listen to a lecture or read a book or see a movie about climate change, it reinforces how small and insignificant we are in the larger scheme of things. our efforts to rebuild our home are no more meaningful or important than the efforts of the wasps, however complex our home may seem in comparison to their muddy little death star. which can be either depressing or liberating, depending on how you look at it.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
uptown morons
as i walked back to my car from ballet class this morning, i saw a yard sign: "NO CHARITY/LSU PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL AT DEPAUL." i came very close to banging on the sign owner's front door and smacking him or her upside the head.
anyone with any sort of grip on the reality of post-k NOLA knows that one of the biggest problems we're facing is the dearth of psychiatric services. if mental health care were more accessible, we'd hear less horror stories about the actions of people whose already fragile mental states have been totally cracked by the stresses of daily post-K life. from the respected times-pic photographer who led police on a wild chase and begged them to shoot him, to the typical-quarter-resident-turned-total-psychopath who killed and cooked his girlfriend, to this random construction worker who came to town a month ago and randomly slashed two strangers at a bar this week, there are clearly a large number of people who are in serious need of mental health care and aren't getting it.
but god forbid we should open up a psychiatric facility at an existing uptown mental health care center that might allow poor people to access its services. not in our backyard. depaul should obviously be reserved for the drug-addicted debutantes and suicidal soccer moms who at least know how to keep up appearances.
some of the well-heeled folks in the sliver by the river have managed to remain so blissfully ignorant, it's truly mind-boggling.
anyone with any sort of grip on the reality of post-k NOLA knows that one of the biggest problems we're facing is the dearth of psychiatric services. if mental health care were more accessible, we'd hear less horror stories about the actions of people whose already fragile mental states have been totally cracked by the stresses of daily post-K life. from the respected times-pic photographer who led police on a wild chase and begged them to shoot him, to the typical-quarter-resident-turned-total-psychopath who killed and cooked his girlfriend, to this random construction worker who came to town a month ago and randomly slashed two strangers at a bar this week, there are clearly a large number of people who are in serious need of mental health care and aren't getting it.
but god forbid we should open up a psychiatric facility at an existing uptown mental health care center that might allow poor people to access its services. not in our backyard. depaul should obviously be reserved for the drug-addicted debutantes and suicidal soccer moms who at least know how to keep up appearances.
some of the well-heeled folks in the sliver by the river have managed to remain so blissfully ignorant, it's truly mind-boggling.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
the only people for me are the mad ones
well, now that i'm taking a little break from the stage to deal with the house and the wedding and other normal-human-being stuff, i figure i might as well fire up the old post-k blog.
i haven't written in so long because i really have been ridiculously busy, and i just haven't had time to deal with the house, and sometimes the things i wanted to write about in this blog were too depressing. so i've been writing in my more lighthearted theatre blog. but i'm going to give this one a go again.
there's a hurricane out in the atlantic right now, and it's heading for the gulf. the hurricane is named dean. coincidentally, this month marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of jack kerouac's seminal book about sal paradise (kerouac) and dean moriarty (neal cassady). as david gates wrote in newsweek, dean/neal "was the con man, sociopath and holy fool who urged Kerouac to take to the road." wouldn't it be strangely appropriate if hurricane dean sent us all on the road once again?
here's hoping he doesn't.
i haven't written in so long because i really have been ridiculously busy, and i just haven't had time to deal with the house, and sometimes the things i wanted to write about in this blog were too depressing. so i've been writing in my more lighthearted theatre blog. but i'm going to give this one a go again.
there's a hurricane out in the atlantic right now, and it's heading for the gulf. the hurricane is named dean. coincidentally, this month marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of jack kerouac's seminal book about sal paradise (kerouac) and dean moriarty (neal cassady). as david gates wrote in newsweek, dean/neal "was the con man, sociopath and holy fool who urged Kerouac to take to the road." wouldn't it be strangely appropriate if hurricane dean sent us all on the road once again?
here's hoping he doesn't.
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