Ok how tired are you going to be of me y'alling here and y'alling there and y'alling everywhere?!  Well too damn bad..the shit is contagious or bananas if your Gwen Stefani.

So..where to start??  First off, for those of you waiting on pins and needles with fingers crossed...the deed is done!!! We closed on the New Orleans house last Friday...WOO!  Yes it's true, we are official land barons!  And scared shitless!  But hey...at some point you just have to take the plunge.  You can prepare to your heart's content, but when the right thing comes along you just have to go for it.  Or at least I do. 

Piccies here:

http://www.greysangel.com/nolahouse/FrameSet.htm

It's a two bedroom Victorian Camelback with a 1 br apartment in the back.  We have a deck, a balcony and some fruit bearing trees.  We are in the Marigny Triangle and for the first time in my life I will not be a commuter...I will be in the heart and pulse of a real neighborhood that I love.  We are on the corner of Frenchmen..the pulse of the Triangle.  We have a park two blocks away and the French Quarter 4 blocks away.  We stroll down the main street filled with soulful music and the sweet smells of praline and french roast.  Everyone looks like they just came out of a 15 minute shopping spree in a thrift store.  Everyone has a bicycle.

Why New Orleans? Well the easiest answer is why not?  I have so many times extolled on the virtues of New Orleans.  Sadly, I do not have a fancy blog where I connect topics with "tags" so if you find me repeating myself just skim on by.  There are so many reasons, and I think even more reasons post Katrina.  But at the heart of *our* reason is something that happened over this past weekend when we were there closing on our place.  Everyone we talked to congratulated us ...especially the marigny locals who were quick to point out what block they lived on.  We met a bar tendress of the local Irish pub, we met a bar owner of this very cool Russian lounge just on the fringe where the quarter meets the marigny.  We met the owner of Electric ladyland tattoo and finally we met our next door neighbors who popped by our open door when we were busy cleaning our fingers to the bone.  We were welcomed with open arms by everyone and given referrals and references by Phillip and David from Royal Courtyard BB where we have stayed in the past.  They are our neighbors now too.

Not since college have I really felt connected to a place.  In music school, it was the music that was connecting us as well as that tender age of finally leaving home and carving out a true place as an adult.  With NYC I never had that luxury.  And yes, I can easily say it's the NYer attitude I don't like, or blame it on feeling I missed out on the true NYC experience never having lived in the heart of Manhattan.  And a friend also mentioned the possibility that I was never open to accept NY..that I came here to sing and never gave it a chance as a place to lay down roots.  It could be all of those and then some. 

At the end of the day, New Orleans calls to us and has done so since we got married in 2000.  New Orleans is 100% female...all mystery and history.  She's a well worn and weathered gypsy who has seen and done it all and still has some charms up her sleeve.  She's decadence and deterioration, exotic and earthy, faded glory and yet still so much promise.  Passion pours out in food, in music and in art.  People sigh and cry over politics and poverty, but they also know that it isn't any better anywhere else, and they may as well live with it and try to make their way in it all.  In New Orleans, money doesn't make a man, experiences do.

The craziest reaction to our plans has been actually a similar thought from a couple of people along the lines of "wow, it's really cool that you are doing what you want to do".

Um....(insert scooby rrrughnh?!)  isn't that one of the few joys of aging and being an adult?  I have kind of always done what I wanted to or what I set my mind to so this is not something new for me.  And I find it kind of sad? depressing? strange? that other people wouldn't live like this as well.  I'm not saying there aren't prices to pay for forging ahead and doing what you want to do.  I mean, most married folk have kids.  Most have found their "home" by now and have put down some roots and accumulated a group of like minded friends etc.  Chaz and I don't have kids and haven't really lain down any roots...or none that would keep us grounded in one place.  Which is exciting and isolating at the same time. 

I hope New Orleans is "home" for us...or at least the next leg of our journey together.  Chaz says it may not be our final stop (he knows I've got the wanderlust), but it's going to be a fun one.  I spent my NYC years getting depressed, getting fat, getting my shit together, getting married, getting healthy.  While I've had fun, I've also worked a lot and grown up a little too much.  I feel it's time to let my hair down and be the person I wanted to be in my 20's that somehow I didn't quite have the guts and/or expressive tools for.  We're ready!

I wish you all a happy happy holiday.  It's just Chaz and I and the puppies today and I'm feeling less than fresh with a post stress cold knocking me for a loop.  But it's ok.  We have each other.  We have the promise of the goals and dreams we have for ourselves.  It's time to pull out last year's New Year's post and see how I did.  Like Tim says, Make it Work!!! I intend to...life is too short not too!