My First Trip To New Orleans

I arrived home sweaty, stinky, covered in Sharpie marker (don’t ask) and completely unused to the amount of activity that this trip provided. Boy was my husband so glad to have me home!

This was one of the more amazing experiences of my life, and mainly due to the people I have met as a result. I had a jam packed itinerary and still only saw a fraction of what I wanted to! You can read some more about this trip, some new things I learned, and what the whole shebang was about over here. I want to thank all the individuals and organizations who made this possible, as well as the film crew who followed along.

New Orleans has realized it has to go beyond just marketing 4 blocks of the French Quarter, and this entire project was just another piece of those efforts. It is still very much a pirate town with the old aristocratic hold overs; lots of new things are being done, while at the same time a lot hasn’t been done if you drive through areas where a house might still have a boat through the roof! The devastation is still palatable. It has been described as the wild west right now for several new industries (film, medical, tech) and new people are moving there, but, I was warned by several individuals in the arts and/or economic development who had left recently that I’ll probably feel the sting in 3 years or less. They could all take it for a few years but got fed up, worn out, frustrated, scarred and had to cut their losses and move elsewhere. It’s a very hard city to live in, in ways that are different to how harsh NYC or L.A. can be, so I think it takes a certain type of person to be able to handle it. At the same time — I think I might have mentioned in the film —  it felt like what London in the 1960s was probably like. It has risen to the number 2 slot for most film production outside of Los Angeles, and a 2.2 billion dollar medical facility is under construction — which for me, that’s kind of important being that my medical condition is going to always trail me. Over all the city seems like a good fit for me; the question of how long I would stay is another issue since I have a bad habit of getting bored or frustrated and moving places. I think it is funny nothing seemed all that strange to me in New Orleans. One big art school is how I would describe it.

I’m sorry this is going to be a somewhat heavy photo post, but I’m under the gun: I leave to fly back to New Orleans tomorrow! Yes, bringing the husband along to see what he thinks.

Other things:

– me and humidity don’t get along, because OH MY GOD MY HAIR.

– Talking to the homeless as well as people part of the whole Entreprenuer Week programing of “come drink our Kool Aid” was a good balance.

– No really, the homeless are super nice in New Orleans

– I feel safer in downtown NOLA than I do in downtown Cleveland or Los Angeles.

– Kermit Ruffins joining a little dance party in the middle of the street, while blocking traffic, and a band covered Nirvana inside the one club? Yeah, that was awesome.

– If you lose a 2 karat diamond from your wedding band on Frenchman Street, chances are a friend will find it in a dirty crack the next morning and return it to you (true story).

– I have talent: I can spot the back of Samuel L. Jackson’s head courtside at a Hornets game while I’m up in a suite. *eagle eyes*

– Super Sunday was amazing, and the fact people could sell liquor out of their trucks and nothing got out of hand was astounding. Anywhere else there would be fights and vomiting all over the place (oh hi Boston).

– Keep reminding yourself you are in America, because many times, it doesn’t feel like it.