Louisiana:: My Heart

New Orleans. What can I say? How can I pay tribute to this chapter in my life? No photo story, no words. There are too many photos, too many words. So much has happened in our short time as residents. 

We began our marriage here... and if you told me two years ago when I pulled into town that I would be devastated to move away, I would've laughed at your insanity. This wasn't me, or so I thought. We arrived July 2nd and the heat slapped me in the face. I hated it. I was scared. This was a place I had no interest in becoming acquainted with. Crime, bugs, a REALLY foreign culture. It stung. It wasn't home. I was in hell. We had no air conditioning in our car, which certainly didn't help my mindset. I rolled up wet wash cloths, froze them in a freezer, and took them with me in the car on job interviews. My husband kept telling me it was character building.. I wanted to shove all my character down his throat. We had our home broken into. "This would NEVER happen in Redondo Beach! These people are savages!" I wanted to go back to the West. I didn't get the appeal.

Then one day, you accept the heat. It's hot. You sip a daiquiri, and get over it. The bugs get used to you, they stop biting so often. You buy new stuff to replace the stolen items. You start working. You go for bike rides at night, you realize the night air is magic. Somewhere between that July two years ago and today, I fell in some kind of crazy love with this place. The bayou, Cajun Country, Louisiana. The air, the people, the food, the music. There is something really special going on.

Tonight I sit in our beloved home-- my last night in New Orleans. The house is all but empty, and I have all my memories of Louisiana in my heart. We began our marriage here. I endured a pregnancy and had my son here. The first time I looked in his face was here. He is a Louisiana boy. WOW! Sometimes I grew weary. It was challenging. Somehow though, I a,m leaving with deep affection and nostalgia for Louisiana. I feel like this place is a country song, it's young love, it's a summer night, it's a trombone solo on a quiet street, it's a party, it's a young family, it's home. Louisiana, I love you! WHO DAT!!!


Tomorrow morning we begin a new adventure.. stay tuned!

Ridin' on the City Of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday mornin' rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the south-bound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passin' trains that have no names
And freight yards full of old black men
And the grave-yards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning America, how are you?
Say don't you know me, I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City Of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five-hundred miles when the day is done

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels grumblin' 'neath the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters, and the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpet made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep, rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Good morning America, how are you?
Say don't you know me, I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City Of New Orleans
I'll be gone five-hundred miles when the day is done

Night time on the City Of New Orleans
Changin' cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway home, we'll be there by mornin'
Thru the Mississippi darkness rollin' down to the sea
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train has got the disappearin' railroad blues.

Goodnight America, how are you?
Say don't you know me, I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City Of New Orleans
I'll be gone five-hundred miles when the day is done