Today’s the Fourth Anniversary of Katrina. And four years ago today, I was driving on a hot Interstate somewhere in between Houston and San Antonio, disconnected from the news and hoping that landfall had left my home standing.

Four years ago today, I was checking into a hotel in San Antonio with my husband, son, 2 dogs and 2 cats. The news that night was kind to New Orleans, we even saw the guy from La Madeline’s delivering pastries in the Quarter so they wouldn’t go bad. No electricity, but no flooding either. Yet.

We couldn’t get any news about our town North of New Orleans, and that worried me. But eventually my husband got in touch with the Parish President and he said things were bad, not as bad as New Orleans, but under control.

Four years ago today, I didn’t know if my house was standing. I didn’t know if my father-in-law was alive (he stayed). I didn’t know if my neighbors were ok, many of whom stayed.

Four years ago today, I couldn’t call anyone on my cell phone, even my husband who was sitting across the hotel room from me on the opposite bed.

Four years ago today, I went to bed thinking Katrina might not have been that bad.

When I woke up the next morning, we checked the news briefly, early and then kept it off….it was better for kids not to hear the constant coverage, even though it was killing me. I was a news addict for cripes sake.

We headed out to do the touristy thing in San Antonio. The Riverwalk was fantastic, we had lunch down there at a fun little Mexican restaurant and decided to take the boat tour.

On the boat, the driver asked everyone where they were from. Not thinking, I said “New Orleans”

The crowd gasped, “Ooooh”

I knew right then, whatever it was, it was NOT good.

The people clamored, they wanted to know what we knew and if we were ok. I had to ask. I had to know what they knew. And then I heard it…

“The looting in New Orleans, complete chaos, a social meltdown of biblical proportions”

I was so ashamed.

We headed back to the hotel immediately. I had a knot in my stomach. I turned the news on. And soaked it all in.

The levees broke. The National Guard was called in. People were being rescued from their rooftops.  People were dehydrated and dying on the overpasses. Nagin was in hiding.

For days, I searched the Internet for any information on my neighborhood. I finally found someone in a forum who had been in my subdivision. The area took about a 60% hit from Katrina, about 60% of the homes had our big, beautiful pine trees sticking out of them. Roads were impassible at first but residents were clearing them gradually. And residents were arming themselves and manning the guard gates so no one could loot our homes.

Then my husband finally got through to the State Police, a friend of his that worked there said he’d go check our home. I was on pins and needles. It was the longest twenty minutes of our ordeal. The devastation I had seen and heard of was unbelievable.  Firstbourne, who was 4 years old at the time, kept asking me if his stuffed animals were ok. I didn’t know how to answer him. And I didn’t want to know on some level.

“It’s ok…ok. Just one branch. Ok.” Was all I heard him say. One side of a very climactic conversation, it was all I needed to hear.

My home was spared. Who knows how come. All my neighbors sustained major roof/home damage, but by the grace of God, we had only one branch poking through our roof. All of our 15 plus pines stood tall. It was only the beginning, but at least we had a home to return to.  I was so grateful.

As the days wore on, we learned the fates of many were not so fortunate. We did not have electricity for weeks. Cable…hah, months without internet and tv. When we finally returned home, we got real intimate with our DVD player, let’s say.  Minor inconveniences.  Lots of lessons learned.  (There was much good in the months after Katrina, but that’ll have to be for another post.  This one is already too long as it is.)

The traffic was horrendous. When school finally started, a trip that used to take me 10 minutes to get my son to school, took almost an hour. Our area absorbed a large number of New Orleans residents, as did Baton Rouge and all the surrounding areas. These are small inconveniences. And we learned to have more patience than we ever thought possible.

One year ago today, we relived the experience by having to evacuate for Hurricane Gustav.  We had panic in our hearts.  We had learned some valuable lessons.  And we were more prepared…frightened…but prepared.

Today, I am grateful I didn’t have to watch the weather channel or the news, but I got to enjoy the day with family and friends and watched some football!

Sounds almost lewd, doesn’t it.

Ok, so I’m trying to get back into blogging and I’m totally stealing the Lefthander’s day to help me out.

As a Southpaw, and let’s be honest, I’m also ambidextrous….cuz who doesn’t like to throw that big word around…things are not always unawkward.

Lefties get a bad-rep. I really don’t care. I finally found a refrigerator that opens to the left. (Sub-zero, you are my friend) I totally have blown off ironing and I practically own stock in Fiskars because they rock the left-handed scissors for real.

At times, I’ve blamed my left-handedness for things I didn’t want to do. It comes in handy with the ironing. That cord and board always screw with me.

Learning to feed my son, when he was an infant, was probably the most awkward thing I’ve done. And try teaching a right-handed kid how to tie their shoes. Oh forget it.

I grew up just after the whole “you must be switched” if you are left-handed. Both my parents were switched. They encouraged me to stick with the lefty thing. Tennis was fun as a kid, cuz my backhand was my front hand, until my instructor caught me changing hands. That’s a no-no….but it was working.

Nowadays, there are stores just for lefties…And I think that’s just a huge gimmick. Just like International Lefty day. But hey, I’m lefty, so let’s celebrate. (start throwing confetti, I’ll get the champagne!)

So lucky ambidextrous chick that I am, I have learned to play tennis the right way….I golf right handed because it’s just insane not to…and I can even take legible notes with my right hand…because after all, my left hand gets tired…and needs its beauty rest.

I read somewhere that lefties are more inclined to be technological. So if that’s true, they why is it so hard to find a left-handed mouse. Oh sure, I can order a specialty one, but I can’t walk into Lest Buy and pick one up. Just sayin’ I mouse left.

I’ve been tagged by the lovely and wonderful Perptacular for this Photo tag!! It’s fun, and I got to see my photo in a different light because of it.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your picture files
2. Go to your 6th folder.
3. Go to your 6th picture.
4. Tell us about it.
5. Tag 6 friends to do the same.

Hawt Hallapeno Happiness:

Jalapeno Cows on Parade

I took this photo in Boston the summer of 2006. My son and I took an end of summer jaunt to visit my cousin who recently graduated from Johnson and Wales cooking school. Our trip was full of surprises. We left NoLA on the “morning “ the FAA implemented the lovely “No Liquids Rule” That made for fun traveling with an almost kindergartener. Oh yeah, they confiscated a bunch of stuff. TSA was all in a fit. I apparently tried to smuggle a Diet Coke thru security. Then due to the craziness of the Liquids scare, our suitcases never made it to Boston. Oh joy of joys, being on a plane all day, nearly missing our connecting flight at JFK and having *NO* food for my lil one, just to make it to our destination and not have a change of clothes or pj’s. Yep, those TSA bleeps never traveled with kids, I am sure of it, or they’d never had made that awful terrible rule. So we spent several hours waiting for luggage to arrive in Boston. While we waited, we made the best of our adventure and my cousin took us to tour downtown Boston, ate at Legal Seafoods (Yummm!) in the Prudential building (gorgeous) and afterwards strolled up and down the historic streets of Newbury and had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. This photo was taken that evening. I have been a huge fan of Cows on Parade since I saw them in Chicago back in 1999. I first saw them on Michigan avenue and thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Dog Cow positioned outside Neiman Marcus on the Magnificent Mile. So it was a real treat and a surprise to see them in Boston. Had our travels gone as planned, we might not have gotten to enjoy them. I believe this Jalapeno Pepper Cow was located right outside Niketown. Good memories, Thanks again, to Perptacular, for giving me the reason to look back on them.

Oh and I happened to find this pic from my first Cows on Parade:

Blue Dog Cow - Chicago 1999 Cows on Parade

ps. Our luggage didn’t arrive for two days. Two days! Since our trip was only 4 days long initially, we decided to extend it and shopped til we dropped.

So onto the tagging business:

I’d love to see what the other photography nuts out there have to share, I don’t want to double tag anyone, so if you haven’t already done this, consider yourself tagged.

1. Drinking buddy of the year
Cindy and Lesli

2. Lifetime Service Award (longest friend)
Tammy

3. Newcomer Award (newest friend)
All my new plurk friends!  I love you all!

4.  High Point of the Year
Seeing Tammy at Thanksgiving.

5.  Low Point of the Year
Learning that my BFF Tammy has breast cancer.

6.  Best Holiday
Christmas.

7.  Your Song for the Year
Well, thanks to iTunes and its ‘most played’ feature, Party Like A Rockstar by the Shop Boyz, tho I don’t remember listening to it that much.

8. Movie of the Year
I’m not much of a movie-buff, but movies I saw and liked, War Inc. great flick..John Cusack, Sex and the City, yeah, I know.  Shut up.  And Righteous Kill.  Have yet to see the new Bond movie, and Indiana Jones.

9. Most Memorable Moment of the Year
There were many memorable moments, but I’d have to say it’s a close 3-way tie between taking my guys to see my hometown for the first time, our Snow Day in December and having front.row.center.seats at Eddie Izzard’s show, Stripped, for our anniversary vacay.  Oh and seeing my son’s face the first time he looked through his new telescope, being able to share my love for the stars with him is one of the highlights of my life.

10. Best Laugh of the Year
At the moment I can’t recall a specific laugh event, although the holidays this year were filled with much joy and happiness, more so than the previous years and for that I am really grateful.

11.  Whom did you spend Valentines with?
My lover ~ my friend ~  my husband and my Aunt who’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day and my son.  We got to spend my Aunt’s birthday with her shortly after she lost her sister.  It was truly special to be with her this year.  Alex gave her a stuffed animal named “Valentine” and we ate at this wonderful restaurant, Black Woods and had the best table in the house with a breathtaking view of Lake Superior.

12.  Best Relationship
The one with my husband and my son.  We have a beautiful family and I’m so grateful for it everyday.

13.  What were you for Halloween?
A stockbroker for Bear Sterns, hubby was a werewolf and firstbourne was Jango Fett.

14. Restaurant of the Year
Mr. D and I thoroughly enjoyed our date nights on CCD nights at Coffee’s Boiling Pot.  Delicious seafood and the best crab claws in the South.  And nice big glasses of vino.  Mmm.

15. Book of the Year
World Without End, Ken Follett

16.  Best Decision Made This Year
Mr. D quitting smoking (even tho I had no idea he decided to it, I’m so grateful he did it and it’s been such a good thing for our family)

17.  What are your plans for next year?
Travel, school and hopefully lots fun and good times.

18. TV Show of the Year
That’s a three-way tie between Burn Notice, Californication and Entourage

19. Most Loyal Friends
You know who you are, and I’m truly blessed to have you in my life.

20. Biggest Change of the Year
Second Grade has been a change for us, as we’ve not been blessed with the magic we have been so lucky to have had in prior years.  Also, painting the spare bedroom was huge change/challenge for many reasons, which I won’t go into here and now.

[Apparently I didn't publish this post when I wrote it before Christmas, so it's a little out of order. Oops!]

The year’s big shopping day for firstbourne actually included, you guessed it…firstbourne. As we drove across the lake, I kept thinking to myself, ‘I am so screwed, I am so freakin’ screwed. “How am I gonna shop for a 7 year old while he’s with me?” The words -EPIC FAIL- flashed like a neon sign in my brain.

About half way across the 26 mile bridge separating me from the mall, firstbourne curls up with his pillow and says, “I’m just gonna rest for a bit.” Now don’t get too excited, because this child NEVER sleeps in the car anymore. Hardly never, ever, ever. So I thought nothing of it.

Minutes later, we hear the soft rhythmic breathing of a…drum roll….sleeping seven year old. OMG! It was 6:30pm. What the… My first thought was, oh no, he’s sick. Seriously, he doesn’t sleep in the car. We were completely caught off-guard.

We arrived at the Toy’s R’ Us. Boy still asleep. So we took turns shopping. We both figured we could knock out the “toy store” before he woke up. He sat up at one point, said something and flopped back down in his pillows. thatwasclose. Whew. We did it.

Off to the mall. At this point, we figured if he slept anymore, he wouldn’t sleep that night, so we tried to wake him. (This goes against parenting policy rule #1…You wake ‘em, you take ‘em. But at some point, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.) And we tried to wake him. No.such.luck. The boy was out. So off I went, into the mall, alone, to conquer and purchase.

I returned after I could no longer carry the shopping bags in my arms to a still-sleeping boy. Now, I’m getting a little concerned. It’s around 9:30pm. I’m hungry and tired. And I’d like to go sit down somewhere and enjoy some PF Changs dinner. Let’s just cut to the chase, it didn’t happen. We drove around and finally happened upon a Popeye’s chicken so we got a “little snack.”

Then it occurred to us that the Copeland’s light display was up and not too far away from where we were. Seeing as how it’s the last year they’ll be doing it, we definately wanted to go. (R.I.P. AC) So off, in pursuit of gawdy bawdy light displays, we headed to Transcontinental Drive.

As we waited in the extremely long line of traffic, I happened upon a delightfully unsecured internet connection, bliss at last. Seriously, I need help. Firstbourne is still zonked out. And yes, we still tried to wake him, to no avail.

Sleeping Beauty

At some point, the Mister and I decided if firstbourne was going to sleep the whole time, we were getting a free quasi-date night so we made the most of it. We really wished he had been awake to enjoy our adventures, but it was a blessing in two ways. a) Shopping turned out NOT to be the epic fail I thought it would be. b) we got a little quality time together over the holidays that we don’t usually get.

Coffee and Beignets

We stopped at Red Lobster and got take out. Yep, we still couldn’t wake the boy. Since it was such a beautifully warm night, we headed to Morning Call and enjoyed some cafe au lait and beignets to finish off our evening.

Morning Call and Lakeside News

By the time we got home, it was after 1am and as my hubby was carrying a sleeping boy up to his bed, he stirred again. Then he jolted awake and proclaimed, “Mom, I slept for an hour” (Shhhh, we’ll never tell. He got 6 wonderful hours of sleepus uninterruptus and fell back asleep shortly thereafter. Again, another close call, he could have been awake all night.)