Frigidaire, How I Love Thee

I would like to compose an ode to our new refigerator, which was delivered today. After a month of pizza and pasta, it's very odd to think that we ever had a fridge ("a fridge? comes with the rent? amazing! one nation, with liberty and fridges for all!"). However, I am not going to compose an ode to our fridge. But I might go sit in the kitchen and stare at its white loveliness, meditate on its crisp coolness, and contemplate the joy of having a drink that is actually cold. Oh, fridge!

Tags: post-katrina, rave, fridge

06/06/06

I would like to bring it to everyone's attention that my birthday this year will occur on June 6th, 2006 or 06/06/06. Mark it on your calendars or I will smite you.

Scary, isn't it?

Tags: birthday

First Rejection Letter

Well, my first grown-up rejection letter. I used to enter and win contests when I was in high school. Let's just say I took several years off from actually sending my work anywhere. But now I'm back, and I've gotten very serious about this being what I really want to do. So yeah... The letter was a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot about it.

I hear from the online community that your first rejection from JJA at Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is something of a genre rite of passage. Haha. So here's mine, and now "Dangerous City, Dark Skyway" is off to some lower markets at which it might actually have a hope. Though, do they always say that there is "nice writing here, along with some good world building"? I don't think they have to say that (?).

Why You Should Never Tempt Fate And Buy a New Car

I knew if I bought a new car I would get in an accident. I don't know how I knew this. I certainly have never been in an accident in my life. There is really no explanation for why I felt this way. It's negative and fatalistic. Not to mention statistically unlikely.

But I WAS RIGHT! SEE? MY TEN DAY OLD CAR WITH THE DRIVER'S SIDE SQUISHED IN? IS THERE SOME DEITY UP THERE WHO LOVES TO SHIT ON ME? Because, yeah. I was coming down Elysian Fields minding my own business (extremely happy, after having been at UNO finally getting my financial aid straightened out) and a lady pulled out of the neutral ground RIGHT into me. I then jumped the curb, slammed on the brakes, and slid 30 feet through the mud on the neutral ground, where I came to rest, listening to the hiss of the air leaving my destroyed rear tire and thinking, "Of course." OK, in perspective, as in 4 hours later, it is not that bad. I mean, it's not totalled. And I wasn't at fault, which means State Farm is probably going to pay for it. And the side airbag didn't go off and whack me in the arm and break my wrist. But the car was ON THE LOT last Saturday! And now I have-- not one, but two-- count them-- two undriveable cars parked outside my house. I'm like that old guy who collects the hulks of beat-ass cars, who all the neighbors hate.


I firmly maintain that if I'd bought an old crappy car this would not have happened. Mike disagrees; he thinks that if I'd been driving Brad the remaining glass would have gone and I'd be dead or at least in the ER very cut up.... eh, he might have a point. But! I did cut my toes. They were bleeding at the scene. Strangely, both Progressive and State Farm seemed peculiarly interested in this fact. "Wait, you have an injury on your toes?" What, don't people drive in flip flops? Whatever. I need my lawyer.

The Hair is Gone!

That's the rumor, anyway!

Hello Red Car!

This is my new car (picture stolen off the internet, but mine does indeed have four doors and is indeed red). It's a 2005 Hyundai Accent. I think it is cute. I don't know how I feel about it other than that, since it is $265 a month I am not sure I can afford, seeing as I lack a job. This is the first new car I have ever bought, so I kind of felt like I was signing my life away and it was scary. Also, "old car" is sitting behind "new car" on the street with a tarp on him, and I feel absolutely awful, like I have betrayed a child, because I know I will have to sell "old car" for parts. But that isn't "new car's" fault. So yeah, I feel less joyful than people who buy their first new car apparently do.

But it is cute. And it is red.

The Strangeness

New Orleans is... strange. Yesterday I walked down to Jefferson and St. Charles, then down to Magazine, then up to Napoleon and back up to St. Charles. All the mailboxes that used to be on the corners are gone. So I pretty much walked an entire square of uptown and failed to mail my letters.

Some houses are untouched, and others completely caved in from the wind. Very weird how hit or miss the damage was. Magazine Street is mostly open. I haven't spent much time in the flooded areas. We got about a foot or two here... but all evidence of that is gone except for the contents of people's furnished basements on the sidewalk. There's work going on constantly.

The business hours take some getting used to: even Popeyes closes at 6 or 7. Subway was closed at 6 when we walked down the other day. If you don't want sit-down or pizza (note: we still have no fridge after 2 weeks so have pretty much exhausted these food options-- can't we just run in and grab a sandwich?) there's pretty much no choice. Now, personally, if I were a fast food restaurant, I would just forgo being open 8-5 in favor of being open AT DINNER when people want food. But what do I know?

My classes don't start until January 30th, so I am pretty aimless. I am going to look at cars this weekend (another weird thing: literally every other car has temp plates signifying its being brand new). I have resolved, since Mike does not understand how I graduated in English having only read one of Dickens' works, that this week I am going to read Dickens. I doubt very many people sit down and go, "I think this week I'll read Dickens," but I have always been a little weird like that. I've banged through Great Expectations today. It's surprisingly good!

Oh, and for all the people who told me I needed to see A Love Song For Bobby Long, you were right. Mike and I really liked the movie (writers! alcoholic writers! in New Orleans!) and also enjoyed picking out the various places, though we would like to add that they are actually not in walking distance of each other as the movie suggests. Recognized the Camellia Grill (word word), but they stuck a female waitress in and took the camellia pictures down off the walls. Heh! Still recognized it. I am glad we saw that movie here and not in Boston!

The air smells like flowers here, especially after the sun goes down, and the sky is purple-ish. It's hard to say just exactly what it is about New Orleans... but I will say that to spend all day reading Dickens and drinking coffee is somehow OK here, while in Boston I felt like I ought to have been doing something "useful." Oh, strange New Orleans...

Where We Live Now

Finally all moved in and have the internet back! Click here to see pictures of our newly consolidated, cleaned, and decorated apartment. We have so many books! :-)

Back in New Orleans

This will be a short post from CC's on Magazine... because we have no internet. We also have no hot water and no fridge. In fact, we arrived to find the old fridge still sitting where we left it with nasty meat juice staining the floor. Lovely. Hopefully the house will be all set today or tomorrow, and I will be back in touch. Will update soon with pics of the apartment.

It's 75 degrees here!!!