christmas eve on the creole queen, and a taste of celebrity

the weather didn't bode well for bonfires or river cruises as we drove out to the docking site in st rose. as we started rolling down the river, sheets of rain pelted the windows. we were initially sat at one table next to some beer-drinking folks, but then the hostess realized she'd made a mistake and we were moved to a table of people who, we later learned, were a family of insurance adjusters. my friend sherie's sister monica was sitting at a table nearby. there was a trad jazz band playing called new orleans spice; a few hors d'oeuvres were passed around, but not quite enough to offset the open bar.

eventually the rain cleared up and chris and i walked around the upper decks. it was actually pretty warm out. judging from the accents we heard, we had some real live cajuns on the boat.
every time i crossed paths with one of our former neighbors, he lamented the fact that we'd been replaced by some "church people" who had their bibles out and were playing some sort of religious card game. the more beer he drank, the more impassioned were his lamentations. finally, when the buffet dinner was served, our former neighbors got rather argumentative when they, like us, waited until everyone else had been served only to find that there was no more rice, seafood pasta, or bread pudding. they made a small scene, demanding to see the chef and the captain, while we rolled our eyes and ate our gumbo over jambalaya instead of plain rice. not a bad tradeoff, though i was a little disappointed about the bread pudding.

so this is where the story gets good. chris & i were sitting at our table, which was some distance from the band, so we only half heard the bandleader's announcement that a couple of ladies had brought in a song that they'd printed off the internet, and that they were going to try to play it, though the banjo player didn't know the chord changes. we heard him say something about "post-katrina christmas," and chris said "what if it's your song?" it dawned on me that it really conceivably could be, but i said nah, no way. but sure enough, the band started playing, and the bandleader sang "on the first day of christmas my true love gave to me... the power turned back on by entergy." holy crap! it was indeed my song. i knew it had sort of made the rounds, but this was really something else. i explained to our tablemates that i'd written it, and wondered whether i should go tell the band that i wrote it; i figured no one would believe me, but chris and our tablemates encouraged me to go tell them. so as the song ended, i crept up to the bandstand and found the two ladies who'd brought the song in. they'd actually printed it off my blog. i told the bandleader the story, he announced it to the crowd, and i skulked back to my table, blushing.

later on in the evening, after seeing the bonfires (very pretty, and only a few seemed a little damp from the earlier rain), the band announced that they'd had several requests to play the 12 days of post-katrina xmas again. i said what the hell and went up to sing it with the band. of course, i'd never actually sung it before, and i didn't realize how hard it is to say "seven sacks of sheetrock," especially after two bloody marys and three glasses of wine. but eventually i got the hang of it.

after my performance, the kids on the boat were very impressed with me. one nine-year-old music mogul-in-training in a skull cap and baggy pants offered to buy the lyrics for $5, but i turned him down. a little girl came up and asked the address of my blog for her nanny, but confessed that she'd never be able to remember it, so i went and wrote it down for them. i posed for a picture with one of the ladies who brought the lyrics in, and received many compliments from other passengers. it was hilarious.

of course, i made sure to tell everyone that we STILL haven't gotten the power turned back on by entergy.