Hey! I got a new job in Seattle and fucking peaced out of the beautiful south on October 29th. Can I show you my trip?
I left Louisiana on October 29th and headed to an ill-fated love-affair in amazing Tuscaloosa. It was wonderful. I met this man with a huge beard, huge glasses and sweet personality. We went to Asheville which is the hippy mecca of the south, I think (although I have a new bio-regional definition of the south thanks to my friends.) From Asheville we drove to Philadelphia and met my mom <3
Then...northwestern Pennsylvania! Indiana! Chicago (fun!!) Wisconsin--for two days because of car trouble (Osseo is amazing--good beer and crafts)! Minnesota!
North Dakota--2nd most beautiful state ever!
Montana! Saw my good friend Amanda, former coworker from the Employee Free Choice Act campaign! Helena, MT is the most amazing place in North America!
And then I got here...<3 <3 <3 (picture: Lincoln Park, Puget Sound, West Seattle--
This is kind of old news, but I'm incredibly bummed that Jindal refused funding for the light rail between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I don't know how to say this without being offensive to Louisiana representatives, but seriously yall, Mass transit is the shit!--- (last time I will ever say 'yall' I promise! I nearly got clubbed by some LSU fan on Saturday)
I mean you wouldn't know how good and cost effective transit can be if you've only ever taken the bus in Baton Rouge--b/c BR bus system is limited, runs irregularly and doesn't meet the need in a significant way. The bus doesn't even run to the Baton Rouge airport!
The bus was my number one means of transportation to work and school when I lived in Philadelphia and DC. The bus was cheaper then the metro, and was faster then the metro at rush hour. You could very easily live in those cities and not own a car.
I've ridden the Accela from Philadelphia to New York, so I know that light rails are expensive, but I think the light rail would be good for BR because:
1) Wealthy folks who commute between BR and NOLA could potentially get rail travel subsidized (or partially subsidized by their employer) and bypass the frustration that is commuting in the south
2) A fast accessible option for traveling between Nola and BR might bring some of New Orleans tourist industry to Baton Rouge (at least for a day trip)
3) Finally, and this is real life, folks to go to New Orleans to drank (or at least I do). No one's going to drive an hour and a half home (or they shouldn't)
I say: Yes! Jindal, fucking take the money! And while you're at it, don't just make a super expensive high-speed train. Expand the bus system. Obviously there are more lower income folk than rich folk in Baton Rouge.
Senator Vitter is riding the wave of the Acorn defunding by introducing an amendment with Sen. Bennet (R-Utah) that would bar the Census Bureu from conducting the census (I feel like I said census too many times) unless they ask residents what their citizenship and immigration status is.
President Obama is coming to New Orleans this Thursday to tour Gulf Coast Recovery. Awesome. The President will hold a townhall at the University of New Orleans and speak at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter school in the Lower 9th ward.
Both Sen. Vitter and Rep. Scalise have issued statements asking that the President extend his trip to get the full scope of recovery efforts. To me, this seems like little more than a thinly veiled effort to criticize the President. As always. It's difficult to take Rep. Scalise seriously when less than a month ago he spoke at the Northshore Tea Party in Covington, deliberately promoted the myths surrounding health care reform (you know, abortion, illegal immigrants and rationing) while a 500-person crowd chanted "You Lie".
It would be awesome if Pres. Obama were able to tour areas that were hurt by Hurricane Gustav and if he could make his way to Mississippi. Spending a single day in this state will not and cannot show you the extent of the damage. Economic issues and deficient infrastructure were problems that pre-dated the hurricane, and have only been augmented in the aftermath.
Louisiana, like many southern states, has huge poverty issues which affect every aspect of statewide development/living conditions. "A Portrait of Louisiana" a recent study conducted by the American Human Development Project, ranked Louisiana 49th in terms of human development (using the United Nation human development score). The text of this amazing study is posted online in full, or you can order a free copy (I got mine the other week, and development variables have been condensed and plotted on maps--really interesting and easy to read).
I fully admit that I'm not from Louisiana, so my opinion is certainly less relevant than the opinion of those folks who are actually from here. But still, I think as our government addresses Gulf Coast Recovery ongoing issues of poverty and opportunity need to be considered. I recently heard someone say "Gov. Jindal says Louisiana is recession proof because it really couldn't get any worse than it already is."
Lyndon Johnson was committed to fighting southern poverty, and like Pres. Obama, Johnson had an ambitious agenda to expand social programs and enact meaningful, progressive reform. I hope Pres. Obama can follow Johnson's example and make fighting southern poverty a high domestic priority.
Yeah I had a tough day at work. I should probably take it as a compliment that folks are always asking me to do administrative work for them. I did admin work for three years, and seriously, I'm a master collater. But I hate being treated like an intern/someone's secretary (because I'm not a secretary, not that I have a problem with clerical work I just don't like being targeted for my age/gender).
So just when I want to hate Baton Rouge the temperature drops to a sunny, low-humidity, 75 degrees. Amazing...in the last six months there have been only two days when I haven't been a hot sweaty mess. Yesterday and today.
One of the women I work with actually suggested we drag our desks out to the parking lot. She also warned me that it would be unbearably hot again by Friday.
CREW issued this kind of hilarious press release--"Vitter Seeks Investigation of ACORN for Assisting Fake Prostitution Ring; CREW Seeks Investigation of Vitter for Role in Real Prostitution Ring". Zing. Melancon 2010.
I was pretty excited to read the comments after this article in the Houma Courier--I feel like the Houma/Thibadaux area (and their papers) is seriously conservative as a rule.
I'm a little bit lazy when it comes to blogging and shopping. This is what I made for breakfast on Saturday before seriously breaking my newfound vegetarian streak (which I broke again today at Dorothy's soul food restaurant off of Gardere Ln)
Semi-new (?) Vegan, Gluten-free bakery (with meat and veg-friendly entrees) on Perkins Rd. Truly Free has the best vegan baked goods I've ever had, even better than Sticky Fingers in DC.
I wish I knew what they used for egg/milk replacers.
The lizards (or are they geccos?) in Louisiana have probably been one of the most surprising instances of culture shock. My housemate found the first lizard (try to control your gag reflex) when he was getting a glass of water one night and turned on the tap. "Oh!" he motioned toward our sink which was filled with dirty dishes. "I just turned on the water."
I walked into the kitchen and saw this translucent, mottled creature looking up at me. "Holy shit! Did that just crawl out of our drain?"
Yeah, it had crawled out of our drain. A rat or an army of sewer cockroaches would've grossed me out less. "Tobin. Kill it. Please" He didn't kill it though, he herded it onto a rolled up magazine and let it go outside. But that convinced me that we must be the most disgusting people ever... The second lizard was a bright, translucent violet, and was perched (upside down) on the screen door in the kitchen. It scurried into the house after me when the door banged shut.
So...this is the third and much cuter lizard--not sure how it got into the house. I could love this lizard like a really cute kitchen mouse.
Lately I feel like I'm only interested in work, food and my housemate's dog...possibly the next mayoral election in New Orleans (Rep. Karen Peterson, Speaker Pro Tem, has decided not to run...likewise, Mitch Landrieu and Arnie Fielkow. Rep. Badon, Sen. Murray and James Perry are still in.)
But work has been pretty slow over the last couple weeks with all my coworkers out of town (it's looking to pick back up). Yesterday afternoon I realized that the majority of my email has been from google alerts. So it was really exciting to get out of my office and head down to New Orleans yesterday afternoon for the healthcare rally (pictures).
I got home around 9:00 and spent a couple hours working before deciding to make sweet potatos fries at like 11:00. And promptly cut my thumb open. Yuck. But cooking is my new, much-needed hobby, so I've been using every dish that we own on a daily basis to cook some good and not-so-good vegetarian meals.
What's kind of awesome about Little Dog is her love of starch, scraps and garbage. She's been snacking on the leftover sweet potato fries for the last couple of days and she'll gnaw on Tobin's leftover corn on the cob or pretty much any table scraps we have.
