new orleans new year

the 5th of january will mark my one year anniversary of living in this city. it's the longest amount of time that i have lived in any place since i left chicago in october 2008. eight months in seattle, three back in chicago, another four in tennessee. (does that add up? the cost of moving sure does.)


this is a beautiful city, with the most accolade-deserving trees that i have ever seen/climbed. the weather is usually beautiful. the people are especially friendly, generous, and helpful. the architecture, the cuisine, the music. there's a lot that i miss about chicago, but at this particular season, new orleans trumps it hard.


there was plenty of heartbreak in 2010, but most of my pangs were self-induced; i can take responsibility for my choices. i spent a disproportionate amount of time feeling bleak, but there were brilliant flashes of good fortune. my beloved seattle roommate, ilana, moved to nola right after i did, as did one of my favorite people of the last eight years, devlin. because they are here, the city is so much more beautiful, in that i can share it with them. i became friends for real with dave hedges. i've made friends with some excellent people since moving here, too: sunny colin, hilarious esther, wry david, keen rebecca, picayune davitt, and partyboy bowen. i was luckily offered a job that i would never have been bold enough to apply for, and i'm really fond of the people that work there.


many friends came to visit in the last year: joanna, eric lab rat and sarah, my mom, yonina and wil, my uncle, maria, ray and saunia, noah and quin and spector, thea, margaret, julio. it is wonderful to live in a place that folks want to visit, and hopefully 2011 will include many more such opportunities to play host.


having moved so much in a short span of time, i did not feel certain as to my tenure here, and i had even been bracing to switch cities again this spring, but reasons to reinvest asserted themselves. i get to spend more time with the suicide oaks in city park and the zebra-ducks in audubon. i will eat better and dance more and maybe armstrong park will re-open. maybe i will live in a 4th neighborhood (i'm on my 3rd, currently). i want to connect more with the moment and better navigate my bouts of extreme homesickness.


in some ways, this city is a dream of the past. for me, there is a succor here. the remote viewer project (which envelops this blog) has something to do with lifting memories to the light, or submerging myself in them. the humid breezes here are a balm and an agent of [transformative] decay. i am in a good place for listening to what people say, and what they don't; for reading symbols and for watching fireworks on the mississippi.