It's Late but Not Too Late

Thanksgiving was truly one to remember. Seeing my nephews grow taller than me and my nieces grow smarter than me thrills me to no end. Kerri and Jake did not stand out like I had feared, especially since there were some other folks there that I had never met. Everyone was just there to have fun. Perhaps the highlight was watching my family play scrabble and do kareoke. That was a moment that reminded me of where I come from.


I am from New Orleans, LA, pre-Katrina. I am a relic. I am not a native of this modern, insular, bitter-but-happily-drunk New Orleans. I am a native of the old, insular, happy-but-bitterly-drunk New Orleans.

For me, gone are the days of going home and settling into my favorite hometown bar and catching up with the bartenders and all the regulars that knew me as I knew them. Most of those people are gone. In fact, now that I think about it, all of them are. To put a finer point on it, the final night of my visit, around 3:30 in the morning, I found myself in the middle of Molly's on the Market, defending tourists and lambasting the bartender for having a snotty, locals-only mentality. At one point, earlier or perhaps much later, I angrily flipped through the jukebox, chiding some of the newer (and some older yet annoyingly still remaining) selections through clenched teeth, loudly questioning whoever was in ear shot whether they truly liked Lyle Lovett. I did not grow up in modern New Orleans, and now when I visit, I feel like a full-blooded tourist because I am viewed as one; even by some of my closest friends. I also learned how angry Lyle Lovett apparently makes me.

It's simple evolution. Everyone is changing. I'm changing, the people I formed my world views around are changing and of course the city itself is physically changing. Things that were new and exciting after Katrina, like dance nights and restaurants and coffee shops, are already referred to with a noticable yawn. Naturally, talking about Katrina at this point is like discussing the cultural importance of Monica Lewinski. Sure, it made things different, but now, to the city's current residents, it's time for normal, everyday life. They're settled and kinda bored. Which is good. That's how it was for me when I lived there (until I became restless and bored). That's how you're supposed to be in order to retain your sanity. Now I am back in Austin. I am settled and I am bored. I get it now.

But the things I truly love about New Orleans have not changed, and I hope they never will.

Update: I watched Brian Regan's "The Epitome of Hyperbole" over the weekend. Highly, highly, highly recommended. Probably his strongest special yet.

Update 2: I switched the couches in my livingroom around. It's like moving into an entirely new apartment! Now what?

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Now playing: Thelonious Monk - Epistrophy
via FoxyTunes