You don’t have to.
February 7, 2010
Believe dat
In a few hours, the New Orleans Saints will play in their first Super Bowl. When they won the NFC Championship game two weeks ago in overtime, the city erupted in pandemonium. There were fireworks, cheering, horns honking, people screaming in the streets. Grown men crying. If they win tonight…well, I can’t even imagine.
So this must mean the Saints are the soul of New Orleans. At least that’s what the media has proclaimed over and over as they tell the story of how much the team means to a broken and battered city. Even Gregg Rosenthal, NBCSports.com writer and Tulane University graduate has more or less positioned himself as the outside expert on the city in his recent columns, wrote: “The team is the heartbeat the city, of everyone you meet.”
By that logic, everyone in the city would drop dead if the Saints no longer existed. There’d be nothing left to live for. There’s nothing else keeping this city alive. Apparently he’s forgotten the distinct local flavor that permeates the humid air. The joie de vivre of every day living here. The culture, the history, the brass bands and cuisine. None of this is contingent upon our football team.
But here’s why we love them, and here’s why they’ve made such a great story that writers like Rosenthal are compelled to make sweeping statements: Because the team reflects our underdog experience, because the team has similarly risen from the ashes, bounced back from adversity. Because our love for the Saints reflects our welcoming attitude towards outsiders. Because a winning football teams gives us another reason to party–not that we need one, but we’ll take it. Because guys like Drew Brees have given back to this community. And because we’ve waited a really, really long time for this.
You’ll hear a lot about the Saints’ story, the city’s story, today. But make no mistake: The New Orleans Saints are not the heart and soul, the lifeblood, the heartbeat, the whatever, of this city. The people are.
February 1, 2010
My 3 best kept travel secrets
Julie Schwietert Collazo recently “tagged” me to participate in the Tripbase Best Kept Travel Secrets Project. So here we go:
1. Erice
Sicily
I don’t know of too many places where you can eat gelato next to medieval castles on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Erice is a stone fortress high above the city of Trapani, where you can take a cable car ride to the top of the mountain. It’s got a bit of a touristy feel, with souvenir shops and a self-guided walking tour map, but I thought it was worth the ride.
2. New Belgium Brewery
Ft. Collins, Colorado
Not only does New Belgium have great beer, but they’ve also got a free brewery tour (with free samples!) and an environmentally-friendly business. They encourage bike commuting, use wind power, offer spent wheat for feed, and even have compostable cups. Plus, their office has a slide.
3. Ballard Farmer’s Market
Seattle, Washington
Everyone goes to the Pike Place Market when they visit Seattle, and I’m here to tell you they’re wrong. Pike Place is horrendously crowded; even though they sell a fascinating array of regional produce and other staples like king crab, you can find the same things at many of the neighborhood markets–and you can usually get a much more reasonable price. In Ballard, a fishing neighborhood of exposed brick and cold beer, you’ll find a festive market: folk music, families with dogs, wood-fired pizza. It’s often crowded, but much less so than Pike Place. And it’s so much more authentic.
I’m nominating these 5 bloggers to share their top 3 travel secrets on their blog:
Alexis Grant: Aspiring Author
Todd Wassel: Todd’s Wanderings
Suzzanne Westover: Own Up to Being Grown-Up
Catherine Ryan Howard: Catherine, Caffeinated
Michael Hodson: The Mobile Lawyer
January 22, 2010
Mardi Gras Survival Guide
Natives of cities like Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans seem born with Mardi Gras survival skills—what to bring, where to park, where to pee. Newcomers to Mardi Gras in the Gulf South are at a disadvantage, but this guide should level the playing field come parade time (February 16th this year).
Start Early
Mardi Gras may be about indulgence and debauchery, but you’ve got to be serious about your preparations. Die hard revelers actually sleep next to the parade route overnight or bring their frat buddy’s beat-up couch out to the median. This isn’t entirely necessary, but you should still get out to the route early to avoid some traffic and to secure a good spot. Use a tarp or blanket to stake out your space.
January 19, 2010
Kayaks and hair metal
Despite having shipped my shiny bicycle from Seattle and tooling around on it a couple times, I hadn’t been on a serious ride since…September? Ruptured spleens will do that to you.
Blinky Superflash: The best of 80s hair metal.
I joined up with the local bicycle club here and–now that the air is no longer cold enough to rob unsuspecting people of their phalanges–I went on a ride Saturday. The description online noted the route is “slightly hilly,” the meaning of which is quite different in south Louisiana than in western Washington state. I have a feeling that if I ever face an actual hill again, I will be quite frightened to go down it. Flashbacks may ensue.
Anyway, the ride was perfect. I did about 30 miles at a very reasonable pace, which isn’t much of a feat for big bike heads but was just what I needed to feel comfortable on the bike again and get some exercise and fresh air. The ride consisted of some pleasant creek crossings and plenty roadkill sightings. Being on a bike brings you startlingly aware of a lot of things you otherwise may not notice in such detail: terrain, the curves and cracks of a road, the fresh-manure smell of the country air, the gentle flow of small rivers, and the snarl of smashed possums.
There were a few busy highway crossings, and I was happy to have my fantastic tail light, the Blinky Superflash, which maker Planet Bike named after history’s most underrated hair metal band from the 1980s. Or so you would think.
One thing I didn’t expect when I became self-employed is that I’d forget holidays like MLK Jr. Day exist to the rest of society. When I remembered it was a holiday, I delightfully gave myself a day off. It’s fun to surprise yourself this way. A MeetUp.com group I joined hosted a kayaking trip near Pearl River. The weather and the company was pleasant, although I’m paying for the 8 mile paddle with some pretty sore shoulders today. For all the years I’ve lived in the New Orleans area, I had never paddled the rivers and bayous around here until recently–and probably didn’t realize they exist. How lucky we are that they do.
Cypress knees remind me of gnomes.
January 8, 2010
New beginnings
Now that’s not something you see too often around here.
Yesterday morning, I had to scrape ice off of my car’s windshield. The fountain froze solid, as did the puddles in the driveway. This might not be very cold to people in, say, North Dakota (are there even people in North Dakota?) but it certainly is here.
The ice on my car's windows one frigid morning.
Word on the street is that the deep freezes we’ve had the last few nights will wreak havoc on the strawberry crop. My first thought was, I hope Abita can still make Strawberry Harvest Lager.
I’ve finally started looking at apartments. It’s kind of a crazy process. I have to weigh the odds that a decent place will get scooped up while I’m looking for the “perfect” place. Or that I’ll settle for a place that’s livable and then, two weeks later, something better will open up. I’ve seen 3 places so far that are fine, each with certain positives and some drawbacks to weigh against the others. The stress of having to choose makes my spleen hurt. Seriously.
It’s also exciting to envision my life in each of these places, to think of how I’ll arrange my furniture and what pictures I’ll hang where. What meals I’ll cook and what movies I’ll watch. The memories I’ll make. The blank canvas of an empty apartment holds so much possibility.
Hopefully I won’t screw it up.
January 1, 2010
Resolution, schmesolution
I resent this New Year’s Resolution business. It reminds me too much of high school religion class when we were forced to sit in a circle and divulge any number of things. This kind of abomination is what happens when you go to an all-girls Catholic high school. Usually these sharing sessions involved “special intentions,” prayers you wanted to say for someone or something. Some teenage catastrophe like losing your calculator. Or we’d have to share what we thought a certain song’s lyrics had to do with a certain Bible verse.
Pardon me while I vomit.
This is almost like a New Year’s Resolution. Ok, maybe not, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my Catholic school days and that was bugging me.
Anyway. I don’t like the idea of making a promise to myself just because it’s the time of year when everyone else is. Besides, I continuously make little resolutions to myself. Throughout the year I’ll set small goals or start new projects. For example, I’ve noticed since moving back home that I’ve stopped seeing things through the wide eyes of a tourist. In Seattle, there was so much to learn about and so many places to explore. Turns out, there are just as many opportunities here but when you’re already a local you tend to get settled in your routine. Your surroundings can become too familiar to inspire exploration. But I hope to change that for myself.
I think that by making these little resolutions all year, I miss out on the inherent flakiness of New Year’s resolutions. Like people who buy a gym membership in January and quit in March.
Those people suck.
I do enjoy the gentle hum of promise in the air this time of year. I don’t partake in much reflection (see above complaint) but I do enjoy this fresh-start feeling. A new year, a new decade, and hopefully new opportunities. Huzzah!
December 11, 2009
Snow!
Last year, it snowed a whole bunch at home in Louisiana before it snowed at all in Seattle, and I was reallyannoyed. I mean, how often does it happen that snow blankets Louisiana? So I sulked about that for a while, and then Snow-opolis ‘08 happened and I almost couldn’t get to the airport to fly home for Christmas. Be careful what you wish for, eh?
It happened again this year, although with less fanfare. The snow only fell for a few hours at night last week, and it melted by the time I woke up in the morning. Since you can’t really take pictures of snow in the dark, this was my best shot. I stood outside for a while, completely under-dressed for snow, shivering in idiotic delight at the big, fat flakes floating to the ground. When this kind of thing happens here, it really is something of a miracle, even if it doesn’t stick around for too long. You gotta take what you can get, because it might not happen for another 30 years. Seriously.
December 9, 2009
The gospel according to Theo Chocolate
Chocolate lovers beware: the factory tour at Seattle’s Theo Chocolate is dangerous.
The four-year-old factory plies visitors with so many samples before, during and after its hour-long tour that if you’re not careful, you’ll leave with a serious stomach ache.
When you finally recover, it’s likely you’ll never buy another kind of chocolate. Next to Theo’s environmentally and socially conscious (and delicious) chocolate, everything else seems mediocre.
