Christmas 2005 - Part 1: New Orleans

My Christmas trip to visit my father, now in Austin, also included a few days in New Orleans, to see for myself the devastation that has befallen my hometown. I have to say that images on television or magazine articles don't fully convey the magnitude of destruction here.

While I've taken some video and photographs, they, like those from CNN, will only give another 2-D visual perspective of what has happened here. It was only when I stood on the streets of my old neighborhoods and looked around at the height of the watermarks on the houses that I really got the true sense of what has occurred. I stopped at a friend's house in Lakeview. For miles, this part of town boasted some very nice upper middle-class homes; now detroyed and uninhabitable. At his house, I had to hold an 8" stick over my head to touch the waterline left by the flood.

The repair is slow to start. There are signs posted at every major intersection which advertise home demolition, contracting, mold removal, etc. There's still no electricity in the hardest hit areas, so most major intersections don't even have red lights, only 4-way stops signs.

There are many other areas that are similar, if not worse. I didn't even try to go into St. Benard Parish, as I had heard that it was off limits to sightseers. We stopped to see an aunt who lives on Magazine St., near Jackson Ave. She had over $50k damage to her roof, but no water damage. Apparently, near the river is higher ground, but as you move across St. Charles Ave., it deepens quickly.

I also didn't venture to Metairie; traffic jams are to be avoided. Traffic also prevented us from driving across the lake to view the area where my uncle's house was completely blown away. We heard that a lot of the local population has temporarily relocated to Covington and St. Tammany, commuting in and out of town via the 24 mile Causeway.

A gleam of sunshine in all of this was on Pine St., near Audubon Park. Not only was the home of my first 8 yrs minimally damaged, but the Audubon Park golf course was open, with a few golfers attempting to put aside their troubles and find comfort in its serenity.

I returned to Austin on Christmas Eve, and have had some time to digest all that I saw. Though there is much to consider, my first conclusion is that it will take a few years for New Orleans to rebound, and I am optimistic that the spirit of those folks can't be broken so easily.

See ya'll soon!

Have a wonderful holiday!!

Happy Holidays!




Stay Warm & Toasty -- (and in L.A., it will just be from the weather, not a fireplace!) :)

Birthday Celebration

Is it possible to abuse a birthday WEEK? Well, I didn't. But I had a fun birthday on Saturday anyway! I thought I'd share some details with you just incase you got tired of surfing the Internet. John and I started off our day by visiting the Eagle Rock landfill. The reason to that is because we had to haul away some crap from the house, to make way for the subcontractors to do their job properly. Its amazing how much money you can save if you do the work by yourself!

I had a nice lunch with my girlfriends in Silverlake. We spent hours reminiscing about our high school days. It's been 16 years since we last got together! After that, John took me out to a restaurant in Malibu. It was a complete surprise, but many of my friends showed up and I can't even thank Jenn enough for organizing this shindig! Does the funny looking Japanese guy look familiar?




And, more pictures here! (Courtesy of Jenn Yee)

Oh, and Happy Birthday Shout Outs to Morgan Kaiser, Roy Shin and Leah Ignacio! I'm so glad we're all turning 21!!!!

Maintenance in the house

Well, well, well... I haven't looked closely, so maybe I'm the member with the unique distinction of being FIRED rather than quitting or being laid off. Y'know how I've always embraced being the outrageous outsider and all, heh. :-)

I screwed the pooch and they canned my ass because I'd already been given my "last and final warning" for the dead pager debacle a few months ago. That's pretty much the whole thing in a nutshell. I'm not bitter, and in fact I don't really have any strong feelings at all about not having a job.

I'm still alive, and this is definitely not the worst thing that has ever, or will ever, happen to me in my life. I'll survive like I always have... and maybe the next job I have will be something I totally love, or will be at a company or organization that makes a positive difference in people's lives. We'll see!

I love you all - and I'll miss you. Jobs are just jobs; it's the people we work with that make it a joy to show up. Thanks for making my 6 years at WBOL joyful!

Visit my blog at http://obnoxiousbitch.com and feel free to argue with me if you're so inclined. :-) If I don't find a job soon, I may put up a PayPal donation button there, so if I entertain or educate you in some way, or even if I piss you off (hehehe), feed the kitty! ;-)

Be Careful Out There!!

With the holidays... comes the chaos of people in a hurry.

This was probably due to stupidity rather than holiday rush, but on my way home on Thursday, I saw an ugly accident - and it happen only a few cars away from mine.

As I was merging into the 170 from the 134, I saw a black sedan zooming dangerously fast on the left-most lane. With the cars starting to back up ahead, I figured this idiot didn't have much room to continue their reckless driving - but I was wrong. A few seconds later i saw that same car begin zig-zagging around braking cars... still going extremely fast. (As if he/she was racing, but no one was racing with them!) The next second i saw a car spin and hit the divider... sparks shooting up from the impact... and then that car spun around and darted across 4 lanes of the freeway. The car on the right-most lane couldn't stop in time and hit the spun out car - liquid pouring onto the highway from the front.

Luckily everyone else had slowed down to a crawl as they saw what was happening and only about 4 cars seemed to have gotten involved. I can't tell if the stupid car was one of the 4 cars pulled over... but I sure hope they stopped at least and took responsibility for their actions.

It only takes one Idiot to cause an accident... so just be as careful as you can!

Take it easy out there and be SAFE! :)

Rollcall, RC!

RC here! Thought I'd chime in and let everyone know what's been going on, but there's really not much. I've got a few irons on the fire for employment, but I've not had this much time off in over 20 years, so I'm playing a LOT of golf! :)

In the next few weeks, I'm planning to travel back to New Orleans to check in on friends and family, though to see my dad, I'll have to go to Austin. He's doing fine there, and being so close to my brother there is a brighter side to all that madness.

N.O. is still so much my home, and I'm really drawn to make an effort to help out with its restoration. I don't know exactly what that will entail, but I'm sure I'll have a clearer picture after I've been there and had a chance to see the devastation first-hand.

Until then, I'll keep working on my golf game and do some interviews. Keep this blog alive. I think it's great that we take our friendships with us, after leaving WBOL.

P.S. Last Tuesday, I had a great lunch at the lot with Rachel, Sammy, Roxanne, Morgan, Lisette, Jason, Lauren, and Adam. It felt real good to be around them again. Hopefully, there will be an opportunity to see some of you guys soon, too!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a prosperous New Year to all!

......................rc