do you know what it means...
Two years and one day ago I was in a Holiday Inn in Ripley, Mississippi "hunkering down," as the news outlets were fond of calling it. I was exhausted from an 18 hour drive out of New Orleans that morning, (go with the contraflow!), and the only thing I'd had to eat was a crappy McDonald's hamburger and some water, since every gas station along the way was sold out of everything.
I spent the night sitting on the bed in the dark, since the power had gone out, reading the Vogue I'd bought in the most stereotypical WalMart ever with a flashlight. I spent the night alone since my dad, uncle, and aunt were driving my mother to the Little Rock airport so she could be home for my younger brother's first day of school. Cell phones were down and all I could hear was the torrential rain pelting against the window.
Two years ago I sort-of awoke to my dad turning on the TV, damage was bad, but it wasn't catastrophic.
The next time I woke up the levees were breached and I booked my flight to California.
I always feel bad when I refer to New Orleans as "home" in front of my mom. Nothing for it, though. It's one of those things you have to feel. In french there are two common verbs that mean "to know". Savoir is used for facts. You know what time it is. You know how to swim. Connaître is used when asked if you know someone. Not "do you know what their name is?".
Je connaîs la Nouvelle Orleans. Avec toute de ma coeur.
I spent the night sitting on the bed in the dark, since the power had gone out, reading the Vogue I'd bought in the most stereotypical WalMart ever with a flashlight. I spent the night alone since my dad, uncle, and aunt were driving my mother to the Little Rock airport so she could be home for my younger brother's first day of school. Cell phones were down and all I could hear was the torrential rain pelting against the window.
Two years ago I sort-of awoke to my dad turning on the TV, damage was bad, but it wasn't catastrophic.
The next time I woke up the levees were breached and I booked my flight to California.
I always feel bad when I refer to New Orleans as "home" in front of my mom. Nothing for it, though. It's one of those things you have to feel. In french there are two common verbs that mean "to know". Savoir is used for facts. You know what time it is. You know how to swim. Connaître is used when asked if you know someone. Not "do you know what their name is?".
Je connaîs la Nouvelle Orleans. Avec toute de ma coeur.