They say you can never go home again......HA!

 My first strategically planned visit back home to NOLA was Easter weekend 2011.  As any good Irish Catholic girl knows, on Good Friday Ya gotta walk the 9 churches!!!!!! Elizabeth Gilbert may "Eat, Pray, Love" her way to clarity and bliss, but in the Irish Channel,  it's more like "Pray, Drink, Sleep" (not necessarily in that order). I got off of the plane at 11 PM on a Wednesday night, starting point being a blistery cold day in Portland, Maine.  Never had I been so happy for that humidity slap right on the tarmac! Y'all know what I am talking about...... Proceeded to rental car place. Keep in mind the time...now about 1130PM.  I happily picked up my Ford Focus and began driving on the I-10 toward Old Metairie. with ALL the windows down. blaring 92.3 FM. my head out of the window. mouth open like a damn dog. singing. loudly.  What the hell?  I don't like it here, it's hot, it's sticky, it's a fishbowl for God's sake. Why am I so..... dare I say it,  HAPPY??? Oh, crap.  

Like ALL of New Orleans, I have a huge family tree. Some are displaced, but for the most part, all of the branches are intact within the metro area.  It's hard to be one of the displaced. New Orleans is a unique place to grow up. As a true New Orleanian trying to integrate into another society it can be very frustrating; like a book placed purposely on the wrong shelf.  You might fit it into the case, but the binding and materials do not match up. No matter how hard you try to ignore it, or make it fit, it just stands out. Everywhere I go seems to be too "Vanilla".  And I do not mean the color, I mean the FLAVOR. We are used to "Rocky Road, maybe a little "Pralines -N- Cream",  but VANILLA??? NOT so much.  In Nola you can let your freak flag fly high as a kite. on a Sunday. at noon. That's just how we roll. "Go big, or go home" right?  We are the "Big" Easy for crying out loud!  Small and simple just do not compute. For example: A big hurricane, CHECK. A big SuperBowl win, CHECK.  And an even bigger SuperBowl Ring, CHECK. (yes my daddy does have one, thank you very much).  

So how does one marry the coexistence of a past life lived in up all night jazz clubs while downing cool cocktail concoctions with a mundane and restrained existence in a small German town???...... stay tuned for more, but until then ..........LAISSEZ LES BONTEMPS ROULER Y"ALL!!!