New Orleans Diary: Week Four

Goal: To keep a diary of all the haps and observations of every week. This is my fourth diary entry, and therefore the fourth time I have managed to successfully reach my goal. This is a big deal. Hitting goals I make for myself is not my strong suit. Maybe all this not having a job is really helping me out in the life skills department. (Speaking of, someone want to pay me for this?)

Laundry: So I posted a photo of this the first day that I moved into my new apartment (AKA Palace) but for those of you who are not my Instagram or Facebook friend or managed to miss it here’s an update: I have a washer/dryer in my kitchen. IN MY KITCHEN! My friend Katie used to tell me years ago that she will know she has made it as an adult when she has a clawfoot tub in her bathroom. I replied that I would know I had made it when I have a washer/dryer in my building. (I set my sights sort of low. New York livin’, am I right?) Well paint me green and call me a cucumber because I have surpassed my wildest dreams. Yesterday I did 3 loads of laundry and I didn’t have to carry a huge bag around the corner, fight for a washing machine that barely works or avoid tripping over someone’s kid who is riding around the laundromat on one of those stupid scooters that I hate. Nope, I just stayed home. And now my whole house smells like freshly laundered clothes. Aaaaaaahhhhhh……

Waterbugs: I found one in my bathroom. I really had to pee so I did but I didn’t flush the toilet because I was afraid the noise would scare the bug which, in turn, would scare me. I hid from the bathroom for the rest of the night despite the fact that I had drank a lot of water. So much water, in fact, that when I woke up in the morning my eyeballs were swimming. I went into the bathroom and made a whole bunch of noise in hopes that the bug would come out from where ever it was hiding when I was semi-prepared for it and not when I was in mid-stream, but to no avail. Now I have no idea where the bug is. I am starting to rethink my previous inaction. Will update as necessary. But suffice it to say that if this blog goes dark it is because the bug killed me.

Some People Don’t Like New Yorkers Here: And I get it. I totally do. Also, despite the fact that I spent the last 12 years in Brooklyn I was born and raised in New Jersey. I am not sure whether that helps me or hurts me in this situation, tbh. But just in case it helps maybe I should bust out that neon green and yellow New Jersey trucker hat that I bought at the Palisades Mall back in the year 2002. Feel free to leave your thoughts about that in the comment section. So anyway the reason I say this is that the other day I was visiting my friend at work and he introduced me to some of the people sitting at the bar which was very nice of him since I know approximately 5 people here and one of those people is me. The dude at the bar seemed all interested in the fact that I had just moved here until I told him I had moved from Brooklyn and he goes

Yeah. The seems to be the trend.

And then he turned his back on me. Just turned his back. He behaved as if I told him a string of those crazy outdated and not funny “yo mama” jokes. On a slightly serious note though, I get that the city is changing really fast. I spent the last 12 years in Brooklyn, for chrissakes. But the people we should turn our backs on are the people who somehow think they are god’s gift to where ever they moved to, people who need the city to adjust to them rather than the other way around. I can tell you all about them. We’ve got plenty of that type back home. Listen, if I wanted this city to be just like Brooklyn I would have stayed there. I had it good. I left for a reason. I needed a change. And let me just say this one other thing: if it was someone turning their back on me who actually would be impacted by the arrival of a youngish white woman, I would have accepted it. That, however, was not the case. If you pick up what I’m putting down.

Waterbug Update: I was informed by my friend Sarah Jane that there are A LOT of these bugs here so, I don’t know. We will see how this all goes. The odds are not in my favor.

The World War Two Museum: I went there on Monday and it was really intense, especially when put in context of what all is happening in our country right now with Tr*mp and the crazies and how much they hate the Jews. I am not going to go into it here though because I wrote an entire blog about it that I am really proud of and I would love it if you would go over there and read it and maybe share it with your friends and family.

Hive Update: As some of you might already know, part of the reason I came down here was that I kept breaking out in hives. The crisis started when I went to Iceland last March. I was at a loss. I had no idea what was causing it. Was I allergic to the sulfur (AKA eggfarts) in the air in Iceland? Did I have some sort of food allergy? I went to a doctor and went on this crazy diet to try and figure out and then one day I did. Through sheer happenstance I discovered I was allergic to the cold. Even my friend Katie (different Katie from the clawfoot tub Katie) told me it was possible and she’s a nurse. Anyway so I moved down here to get away from the cold and also the hives. And the first week or so I was here I broke out in hives a few times but recently even though it has been cold they haven’t appeared! Which makes me think. When Katie told me that she thought my hives were caused by the cold she also said that I should be concerned about the underlying reasons for that. I kind of glossed over that in the moment because I was just really excited that I said something health-related to Katie that she thought wasn’t a load of shit. I come up with absurd theories all the time. Katie even thought up a really funny idea for a TV show based around this particular part of our friendship. As I was saying, even though I sort of tucked what she said in the back of my head I didn’t dismiss it at all. And so now I am thinking that maybe lack of sleep is one of the things increasing my histamine levels, leading to an uptick in hiviness. I have been sleeping A LOT here. This, by the way, is still a working theory.

Conclusion: So that’s it! Week four in the books! Up top! (In the interest of full disclosure I just gave myself a high five.)