update from the land of the blue roofs
Thank goodness there are only three days (or two and a half days, if my boss is considerate and generous on Wednesday) to get through this week, so the typical sting of Monday is not quite so enormous. That, and the office Christmas party at Arnauds is now only 25 days away - it's almost like, if you make it to Thanksgiving in this office, no matter how bad things are, it's worth sticking it out just for the Christmas party. It's this luncheon at one of the nicest restaurants in New Orleans, and our entire suite has a private room with an open bar and balcony, and the gift exchange is that day, too.
It's strange, but in many ways, I've actually started to feel better during the past three or four days. I'm not really sure how or why, but I don't have that numb, weepy, zombie-like feeling that I've had for over a month, now. I think it's a combination of things, including my meds and the fact that Sean and I have started to make our rental house more cozy instead of treating it like this liminal space where we are serving out our sentence. I'm preparing to start my Thanksgiving baking tomorrow or Wednesday evening - pumpkin cheesecake and apple pie, which we will take with us to our friend, Brian's apartment on Wednesday where we are having Thanksgiving. We bought a Kitchen Aid mixer and a Cuisinart 11-cup food processor on Saturday with some of our wedding gift money, which was so thrilling. My mixer is light pink, and it's sitting on the counter in the kitchen - Sean says it takes up too much counter space and should be put in the cupboard when it's not being used, but I can't bear to put it away anywhere. I like to just look at it every time I walk into the kitchen.
Things are still a struggle here. "Working" with adjusters and contractos to find bids is like pulling teeth - no one wants to put things in writing, no one responds to phone calls, and adjusters and insurance companies are hell-bent on not paying decent prices for settlement of property damage claims. As if we haven't been through enough already, the bureaucracy with these places is astounding. It's been over thirty days since our property was inspected, and our insurance company has yet to even make an offer. Legally, I know that I have grounds to sue for bad faith penalties on top of the property damage claim, but it's the last thing I want to do. After working in this office, litigation is just not something I want to have to deal with. On top of that, I am trying to weed my way through the morass of paperwork to ask my mortgage company for extra time, or alternate options, before we start paying our mortgage again. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's difficult when it feels like the mortgage for the house I can't live in is breathing down my neck, and I can't trust my bank to even notify me of changes and the status of my mortgage. I feel like repairs are within arms' reach at this point, and if we could just get a response from all of these people, I know that things would fall into place. In the meantime, it's the cause for a lot of anxiety.
I've started having nightmares again (they'd gone away for a while) - I think that, in a way, my depression was protecting me from dealing with things by cocooning me from feeling anything at all. Now that I'm coming out of my shell and feeling things again, though, the dreams have started. Dreams where I'm trapped in a building, and the water keeps rising and rising, and I know I'm going to drown, and I wake up just as the water closes in over my head. In the other dream, Sean and I are at the rental house and tornado sirens (which I don't even think we have in New Orleans) start blaring, and a voice comes over the radio telling us all to evacuate. We scramble and try to pack our things, but we run out of time and the wind is blowing and I know we're going to lose it all. I finally caved and agreed with Sean to go see a counselor; my first appointment is this evening. It's with a man, which I'm not too thrilled about. However, there are like, three counselors left in most of the surrounding parishes - none at all left in Orleans Parish. Apparently they all left after the storm.
The other tough thing that just lingers is our allergies. At first I thought it was just a problem when we were working at the condo, but after this weekend and this morning, I'm rethinking that. I came across this article, New Orleans still too moldy, activists claim, which confirms what Sean and I were thinking. On Saturday, he had the worst allergy attack I've seen yet - nothing, including Claritin and Alleve Cold and Sinus, could even touch those allergies. I felt awful, as there was basically nothing I could do as he suffered. Then, this morning I woke up congested, runny eyes, and chest pains - really lovely. It's not so bad as the morning progresses, but Sean and I are feeling more and more everyday that this city is just not a healthy place to be.
My dad goes in for surgery on Wednesday (yes, fabulous time for surgery, I don't know why they scheduled it for then) for a hip replacement to replace the old hip replacement. Apparently, the muscle and/or bone around the hip socket has deteriorated, so the doctors are hoping to alleviate that by doing the same surgery over again. The recovery for hip replacements are difficult - he is supposed to be in the hospital until Sunday, and then it will be a few months after that until he is fully recovered. I feel sad that I'm so far away while he is going in, but I spoke with him for a minute or two on Saturday, told him I loved him and was thinking about him. It was actually a really nice conversation, and I'm thinking of him a lot. I hope he gets through it okay. We all have our own stuff to deal with, and I am thankful that at least I'm not in constant pain and have my health, save for a few sniffles. It helps to put things into perspective.
I'm hoping that this weekend will provide some rest. We are planning on going to see "Walk the Line" and possibly "Rent" this weekend. I'm also looking forward to the new "Pride and Prejudice" adaptation when it comes to the area, as I'm an English lit geek. Sean continues to apply for jobs in New York, and I cross my fingers that we'll hear back from someone any day, now.
Funny and/or cool random notes:
Death Cab for Cutie played on NPR this morning - an excerpt from "Soul Meets Body," one of my favorite songs on the new album. I'm enjoying NPR so much lately; it's become part of our morning routine.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - watching the scene in which the dragon crashes into one of the towers at Hogwarts, Sean and I later confessed to each other that our mutual thought was something along the lines of, "Oh man, that's going to be a lot of damage to fix. Those slate roofs are just so expensive and time-consuming to repair." I guess you can tell where our minds are these days ...
It's strange, but in many ways, I've actually started to feel better during the past three or four days. I'm not really sure how or why, but I don't have that numb, weepy, zombie-like feeling that I've had for over a month, now. I think it's a combination of things, including my meds and the fact that Sean and I have started to make our rental house more cozy instead of treating it like this liminal space where we are serving out our sentence. I'm preparing to start my Thanksgiving baking tomorrow or Wednesday evening - pumpkin cheesecake and apple pie, which we will take with us to our friend, Brian's apartment on Wednesday where we are having Thanksgiving. We bought a Kitchen Aid mixer and a Cuisinart 11-cup food processor on Saturday with some of our wedding gift money, which was so thrilling. My mixer is light pink, and it's sitting on the counter in the kitchen - Sean says it takes up too much counter space and should be put in the cupboard when it's not being used, but I can't bear to put it away anywhere. I like to just look at it every time I walk into the kitchen.
Things are still a struggle here. "Working" with adjusters and contractos to find bids is like pulling teeth - no one wants to put things in writing, no one responds to phone calls, and adjusters and insurance companies are hell-bent on not paying decent prices for settlement of property damage claims. As if we haven't been through enough already, the bureaucracy with these places is astounding. It's been over thirty days since our property was inspected, and our insurance company has yet to even make an offer. Legally, I know that I have grounds to sue for bad faith penalties on top of the property damage claim, but it's the last thing I want to do. After working in this office, litigation is just not something I want to have to deal with. On top of that, I am trying to weed my way through the morass of paperwork to ask my mortgage company for extra time, or alternate options, before we start paying our mortgage again. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's difficult when it feels like the mortgage for the house I can't live in is breathing down my neck, and I can't trust my bank to even notify me of changes and the status of my mortgage. I feel like repairs are within arms' reach at this point, and if we could just get a response from all of these people, I know that things would fall into place. In the meantime, it's the cause for a lot of anxiety.
I've started having nightmares again (they'd gone away for a while) - I think that, in a way, my depression was protecting me from dealing with things by cocooning me from feeling anything at all. Now that I'm coming out of my shell and feeling things again, though, the dreams have started. Dreams where I'm trapped in a building, and the water keeps rising and rising, and I know I'm going to drown, and I wake up just as the water closes in over my head. In the other dream, Sean and I are at the rental house and tornado sirens (which I don't even think we have in New Orleans) start blaring, and a voice comes over the radio telling us all to evacuate. We scramble and try to pack our things, but we run out of time and the wind is blowing and I know we're going to lose it all. I finally caved and agreed with Sean to go see a counselor; my first appointment is this evening. It's with a man, which I'm not too thrilled about. However, there are like, three counselors left in most of the surrounding parishes - none at all left in Orleans Parish. Apparently they all left after the storm.
The other tough thing that just lingers is our allergies. At first I thought it was just a problem when we were working at the condo, but after this weekend and this morning, I'm rethinking that. I came across this article, New Orleans still too moldy, activists claim, which confirms what Sean and I were thinking. On Saturday, he had the worst allergy attack I've seen yet - nothing, including Claritin and Alleve Cold and Sinus, could even touch those allergies. I felt awful, as there was basically nothing I could do as he suffered. Then, this morning I woke up congested, runny eyes, and chest pains - really lovely. It's not so bad as the morning progresses, but Sean and I are feeling more and more everyday that this city is just not a healthy place to be.
My dad goes in for surgery on Wednesday (yes, fabulous time for surgery, I don't know why they scheduled it for then) for a hip replacement to replace the old hip replacement. Apparently, the muscle and/or bone around the hip socket has deteriorated, so the doctors are hoping to alleviate that by doing the same surgery over again. The recovery for hip replacements are difficult - he is supposed to be in the hospital until Sunday, and then it will be a few months after that until he is fully recovered. I feel sad that I'm so far away while he is going in, but I spoke with him for a minute or two on Saturday, told him I loved him and was thinking about him. It was actually a really nice conversation, and I'm thinking of him a lot. I hope he gets through it okay. We all have our own stuff to deal with, and I am thankful that at least I'm not in constant pain and have my health, save for a few sniffles. It helps to put things into perspective.
I'm hoping that this weekend will provide some rest. We are planning on going to see "Walk the Line" and possibly "Rent" this weekend. I'm also looking forward to the new "Pride and Prejudice" adaptation when it comes to the area, as I'm an English lit geek. Sean continues to apply for jobs in New York, and I cross my fingers that we'll hear back from someone any day, now.
Funny and/or cool random notes:
Death Cab for Cutie played on NPR this morning - an excerpt from "Soul Meets Body," one of my favorite songs on the new album. I'm enjoying NPR so much lately; it's become part of our morning routine.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - watching the scene in which the dragon crashes into one of the towers at Hogwarts, Sean and I later confessed to each other that our mutual thought was something along the lines of, "Oh man, that's going to be a lot of damage to fix. Those slate roofs are just so expensive and time-consuming to repair." I guess you can tell where our minds are these days ...