Strange Exchanges No 1

Strange Exchanges

It's no secret that the city of New Orleans is full of odd and colorful characters. This is part of its charm. Unlike many other cities of similar size, people are generally unafraid to speak to one another on the street. . . sometimes against what others would call better judgement, but in the City That Care Forgot, what use is there for better judgement, anyway? I love being a pedestrian here for that very reason. I'm always coming across these little moments that seem too fictional to be true -little gems of exchanges between people, sometimes even between myself and others!

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No 1

"Ring My Bell"

On my way to the Faubourg Marigny one day, I was walking along Lower Decatur, when a woman on a bicycle passed me by on the sidewalk. She had a dazed expression on her face and was riding very slowly, as a child does when she's first getting the hang of the whole two-wheel thing. With a sudden burst of excitement, she pounded the bell on the handlebar three times. The woman looked up at me and smiled, then laughed hysterically.

" I just have to do that sometimes, " she said, in a very matter-of-fact manner.

Awareness, With a Crispy, Crunchy, Existential Coating

Lately I have been making a (less than stellar) effort to be more accepting of my own feelings, rather than trying to fight them or change them or making myself feel bad because maybe they're not the "right" feelings for the situations. (Shouldn't I feel this way and not that way?) So lately, when all of those feelings get all gnarled up like rubbernecking rush-hour traffic, I have been conscientiously stopping and acknowledging each individual feeling and letting it just happen and pass through me. I mean, really, if I can act and allow all kinds of feelings that are in ways mine and in ways not mine flow in and out of me and be real, why can't I give my own, every-day feelings the same common courtesy? It shouldn't be some kind of luxury, it should be more like...air.

Yesterday, I was heading home in the fog and started thinking about all of these things that I'm dealing with and all of these things that are happening, and I started to get that feeling of all of those other feelings piling up again and then becoming a big knot. And then I suddenly became aware that I was alone. Not alone forever, but right then, right there I was very much alone. So I just stopped and let myself feel that. It hurt, but it came and it went, just like that. So then I just kept walking and paid attention to everything. I breathed in the dense air that smelled like damp towels and left beads of moisture on my face. I remembered seeing him the other day, the awkward distance, how he felt like a stranger all of a sudden and a the same time just as familiar as if nothing happened and the distance between three feet was unbearable and awkward and sad. And that, too, came and went. Then I breathed in the damp towel air again and looked at the skyline draped in blankets of eerie white haze and admired how beautiful the lights looked struggling to blink through it. Now I smelled damp air and...fried chicken. Fried chicken and rolls and maybe greens? And car exhaust, then damp air again. I felt my stomach growl and rumble for the first time in weeks. I moved through the damp air and thought of the good things coming and the things I have to appreciate and off in the distance I heard jazz at some event. And then I let my mind wander. It's not *really* jazz, it's really some amalgamation of jazz and funk that we slap the label "jazz" on because we don't know any better any more, even though we live in the "birthplace of jazz". All we seem to remember is that it has horns and bass and it's here and it sounds good, so it must be "jazz", right?

I felt my feet hitting the pavement, the crunching of wet gravel under my flat dress shoes. Wet and crunchy, like the breading on fried chicken... Ohmygod fried chicken.The air still smelled like chicken. My stomach rumbled again and I immediately thought, "I'm going to the place closer to my house on the way home, and I'm going to get fried chicken. And a biscuit. And fries. No- red beans. And a large Barq's. My stomach rumbled again and I realized this is the first time in a long time that I have actually felt genuinely hungry and really wanted food. I was so busy not feeling anything that I didn't even feel hungry for a while.

That's when I realized that it's time to turn over a new leaf, time to stop fighting what I know I can't change, time to stop trying to change myself but more importantly change how I choose to react to myself and how I choose to react to situations. I decided that I wasn't angry at myself or anyone else any more, and for the first time in a long time, I was comfortable in my own skin.

Except for being very hungry. Honestly, by the time I got home and ate, I swear that was the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life.

Wants: "I'm Nobody, Who Are You"

From Etsy seller tartx, this beautiful pocket mirror with a collage image of poet Emily Dickinson(one of my favorite authors), with words from one of her famous poems. Lovely, and cheekily ironic to look in a mirror that says "are you nobody, too?"

Want: Shoes

Vintage meets contemporary in these two designs. I like the nod to t-strap maryjanes meeting with a ballet-style flat. I have a pair of Privos already and absolutely love them.

Who says you can't be cute and comfortable?

New Category: Wants Today: A Fedora Named Violet

I thought I would throw in a fun category of random things I come across that I would love to have.

Just because I can. :)

Today: A gorgeous gray fedora by Goorin with soft, feminine lines and bright purple lining.

(pictures from www.goorin.com)

Knock, Knock

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
-Luke 11:9 NIV

"The Cost"

Living the

dream is expensive. Is it

worth the cost? Priceless.

Cats Up Close No. 3

It's that kind of day . . .

Pepperpalooza

Couldn't resist. I'm happy to be rid of my brown thumb.

More Begonias

Flowering like crazy. I want to grow more flowers with this coloring. Just gorgeous.

Fruitful Progress

Lots of new Carmen peppers growing.

Budding Promise

My tea jasmine is growing numerous buds and blooms and they are much larger! My back stoop smells like perfume.

Cats Up Close- No. 3

Who Dat sometimes likes to make a nest under the blankets and sheets.I feel a little cruel for having disturbed him, but it was worth it!

This Guy Means Business

A poison spiny fish. Beautiful, but dangerous! I took this picture at a recent trip to The Aquarium of Americas.

Cats Up Close, No. 2

My "Bear", my first cat.I like this picture of him because it seems to capture his sophisticated personality. he is truly wise beyond his years and maybe even his species.

"Stormy Skies Are Not Far Behind Us"

I took this while we were driving through Mississippi. We just passed through a rainstorm, and there was this gorgeous wall of dark clouds behind us.

Cats Up Close, No. 1

This is one of my rescue babies, a pure-bred Blue Point Himalayan we named Girlie, and the first in a series of photographs I'm taking of "Cats Up Close"

More on Sad Laughter

I've been in a soulful bluesy-ballad kind of mood lately (sad music makes me so happy. What's up with that?) I've been listening to the Nina Simone station on Pandora lately and it's fabulous. Lots of greats come up in the mix in addition to Nina Simone: Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Dina Washington, Etta James, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, and of course Ella Fitzgerald.

This song came up that Ella sings, somehow I've either overlooked it or never heard it before. It's called "You're Laughing at Me", and the original lyrics were by Irving Berlin. I thought it would be a great follow-up to the original poem that I posted yesterday. It's such a wistful number. Although I don't entirely agree that you can't have romance if you have humor ;-) .

"I love you which is easy to see

But I have to keep guessing how you feel about me

You listen to the words that I speak

But I feel that you listen with your tongue in your cheek

You're laughing at me I can't get sentimental

For you're laughing at me I know

I want to be romantic but I haven't a chance

You've got a sense of humor, and humor is death to romance

You're laughing at me

Why do you think it's funny

When I say that I love you so?

You've got me worried and I'm all at sea

For while I'm crying for you

You're laughing at me"

(I found the lyrics here.)

Comedienne

I'm laughing

because there is so

much that I could cry about

Divided

Self-portrait. I took this some time around late April to early May of '09.

I Khen haz Nhap?

Sometimes, you just need a "nap".

Living Stones

My favorite little succulent plants. They'll have little flowers in the fall.

Rieger Begonia

I love these begonias. The blossoms have vibrant tones of yellow, orange and red.

Tea Jasmine

Tea jasmine in my container garden. It flowers continually and smells wonderful!

Carmen Pepper

A new Carmen pepper growing in my container garden on the back landing outside.

Incense Holders

A little craft project I've been working on.
I made paisley-shaped incense holders out of
polymer clay and some glass beads left over from other craft projects.

The message under my soda cap pretty much sums up my life, I thought.
For all of the little failures I'm frustrated over, I've decided that I would rather fail trying to do something that matters to me than be successful at something that means nothing to me.

Currently Untitled

Love so large

it expands

Like the breathing lungs of clouds

exhales a gail-force gust

It fills and swells and overwhelms

like the flood rising

it's water filling up lungs

making heavy chests

woozy weak gasps of breath

dizzy head and failing knees

giving in and drowning

in forlorn, wind-torn seas

Intuition

Intuition-

having a feeling

knowing it's there.

Everyone's searching,

blindly looking-

They are unaware.

Subtext

It is what is between

the lines of the script

The moment before

and the moment after

Isn't it about motive?

Some times

some things

are just understood

better left

Unsaid

And the one candid

Sentence

that slips into the

Script

alludes to the unspoken

Dialogue

the exchange of emotion and

Need.

Greetings!

Hello, All! I fear that I may have lost my mind. Here I am, creating another blog. As if there weren't enough blogs in the world and bad enough that many people have more than one, here I am becoming another statistic.
I am involved in many creative pursuits and have several passions, which include but are not limited to performing arts, film, fragrance, and crafts. To top it all off, I am fortunate enough to live in one of the most inspiring and sensory-stimulating cities in the world . . . New Orleans. I feel the need to find a place to empty all of my creative mind clutter and share with other creative-types.

And so here I am . . . Creative Aura . . . living life as an art form.