Cold Spaghetti

Strike a pose — there’s nothing to it — VOGUE! 

Will plays in the pool shower as Aunt Gwen pulls the cord, St. Simon’s Island. 

Hot, preggers, and on the town. Gwen and I on St. Simon’s Island. 

I was incredibly moved by this personal account of a conference attendee who was trapped in the city following Katrina.

Two thoughts:
1. The people left in New Orleans had a single job to do in Katrina and in its aftermath: to perish. I firmly believe that this disaster is a powerful example of government endorsed and encouraged genocide.
2. The fact that this is unbelieveable is obvious. But what is upsetting is that it is not unacceptable. People will shake their heads and say that this situation boggles the mind — but that is all they will do. This should not be unbelieveable, it should be unacceptable. None of us should be satisified. However, who is actually willing to rock the boat or challenge the government (now working to make us all forget the situation and confirm a racist, sexist, homophobic maniac to the position of Supreme Court Chief Justice.) It is so much more pleasant to forget, blame those who “didn’t leave”, and go back to life in a simple, privileged bubble.

Will gives a goofy grin to Uncle Skip — he is so excited that they have taken him outside to play on the playground!

1. Find Uncle Skip, grab his finger and pull it until he follows. Go to where you want him to sit and pat the seat until he sits there.
2. Find Uncle Skip’s guitar. Pick it up and drag it to Uncle Skip, making sure to hit as many objects as possible in the process.
3. Hand Uncle Skip the guitar. But take away his pick so that he has to strum with his finger tips. Extra points if you can throw the pick in the hole of the guitar.

We owe thanks to many who have been sending us well wishes over the past week. Thank you for your emails, comments, assistance with links, and generally caring about our well-being and that of our city. We hope that we will stay in your thoughts in the difficult months to come, as we try to rebuild a temporary home and remain connected to our chosen one.

At this point, we have no idea what our needs are and have a hard time knowing how or what we could use in terms of help. Hearing from family and friends helps to connect us back to the world, which is helpful because we are in a constant state of feeling misplaced from our home and community. There are so many who truly have lost everything and so much damage to repair in our city (both physical/structural damage as well as social/political). Honestly, we are thinking more about what we can do to help others than about what others can do for us.

One of our neighbors is returning home in a few days to work in a hospital on the West Bank (across the Mississippi River from where we live in Uptown). He has a key and will be checking our house thoroughly once he is able to return to our street. We hope that he is able to visit sooner than later and can only wait for his report to hear the details of what we face on that front. We still have some friends who are currently unaccounted for and our thoughts are often filled with hopes and prayers to their well-being.

We need some happy thoughts here, so here are some thoughts on Will:

– It is impossible not to feel completely blessed when you are around him. He brings joy to everyone.
– His favorite food is Quaker Instant Oatmeal Peaches-n-Cream flavor. (And Cheetos.)
– Playtime in the pool means going up and down the stairs, in and out of the pool. And saying “hi!” to everyone at the pool a few times a minute.
– His separation anxiety is a bit heightened without me around. This is really the only place where he is showing strain from all the change and difference around him. In other words, he is doing great.
– Instead of saying “yes”, he giggles and says “oh-kaaaay.”
– He is now drinking juice. Before he only drank milk and sometimes water. (Don’t worry, he only drinks it sparingly.)
– New words: octopus, seashell, Dorothy (ie: the dinosaur from the Wiggles), sky, moon, need help.

We are still in St. Simon’s Island, GA. Will is asleep with Aunt Gwen. Paul and I came to the King and Prince for email and to check on images of our house.

I particularly liked Violet’s post about the hurricane. I think it summed things up well. As far as other political news, I’m all about Ray Nagin for President.

We’ve had very little news over the past two days, which has been a good thing and lessened our anxiety a bit. It is very difficult to handle the news and not feel completely at a loss. What can be done? To me, I feel like this is what happens during a disaster within a seriously socially segregated society. New Orleans embodies our country’s culture and heritage: the grandeur and wealth, the art and music, and the classism and racism. Those factors play prominent roles in any dealings with the city, events of disaster included.

On another note, we’ve spoken with two more of our neighbors: they are well and safe. No specific news about our house, but the picture makes us feel good (no huge pieces of roof missing.) Also, we got third hand that the media is really playing up the tragedy of the city and not showing any positives (which was felt were a lot). This source also felt that rebuilding Uptown would not be as dire as portrayed on the news.

Paul still has a job; I do not. It was announced this morning that Tulane is closed for the fall term. As a PhD student done with classes, that doesn’t leave me many options to continue my program as planned. I was preparing to sit my comprehensive exams in October and have been truly working hard for this date. (So much for all that work all summer!!!) I have no idea what will happen next. The conferences I was suppose to present at are now both up in the air (one, the big American Public Health Association conference was going to be in New Orleans… the other, in Chicago, I needed funding from Tulane to attend). So, the professional outlets I’d be lining up for the past year are suddenly shut. I’m not ready to begin a disseration and not sure of what my doctoral program timeline will look like anymore. The thought of going overseas and working for awhile is the most tempting on our plates. What, how, and where is very uncertain. There is a possibility of a job in India (which would be wonderful) but we’d have some logistics to work out. The bottom line is that we’re just not sure. Although it sounds like a contradiction, so much uncertainity can really feel stifling.

Our neighborhood, acquired from NOAA. The large building to the left is Whole Foods. Directly behind Whole Foods are the Arabella Station homes. Joseph Street is the long street running the length of the image. Our house is to the left of the house with the pool — if you can make out the kidney-shaped pool. We’ll post more later when we get a better idea.