how you doin' baby

The man said as I walked past him washing his car in his driveway.

Have I mentioned that I love this? The warm friendliness is unlike anywhere else I've lived. People are real and they're really friendly.

"I'm good. How you doin?"
"Fine, fine."
"You know, maybe I'll bring my truck here later and you can wash it, too."
"Sure! Come on over!" he continued talking but I didn't hear because I had my headphones on and was walking away.

I need to take my camera with me when I go for walks - the houses are so beautiful here. And I love the beads which decorate trees and fences and gates. There's a class this afternoon on making art from the beads, but I guess I'll miss it this year. I'd be happy to send y'all mardi gras bead lamps, but it'll have to wait for another time.

The fantasies I have of buying a house here get stronger rather than subside. It's almost an obsession. I'll wait until I know my summer plans. On that, Allstate just sent a rash of letters to homeowners revoking their policies - they couldn't do it until March 1, so they're warming up. Allstate sucks, flat out.

I chatted it up with Paulette, my former neighbor. She said people moved into my old apartment right after I moved out, and that they are abusive - she hears them fight and cry regularly. The police have been called more than once. All this is good news for me if I can access those records if I get hauled into court for breaking the "lease" but very bad news for those poor kids. They're on subsidized housing, so I think Evil Ex-landlord is hedging his bets - if there's a hassle with collecting that, he'll sue me. He fucking pisses me off. Yet another reason to buy a house here - no more evil landlords ever. I love my landlady now, but I can't stay in this apartment without laundry & window.

I got my appellate brief draft back and she actually said "good" at several places. That sucks for me - having spent a total of five hours on it split into two days is far less than my classmates, but I'm not inspired to spend more time now. If I spend three hours today doing the next sections and then a couple hours tomorrow refining everything, I'm set for Wednesday's conference. But I feel like a slacker and am not motivated to kill myself to get an A.

I twisted my ankle pretty bad about a block away from my apartment - the stupid jerks always park on the sidewalk so I have to go around their stupid car with out-of-state license plates, and this time my ankle twisted in the tree roots. There goes my hopes of my first Mardi Gras Marathon (5K). It swoll (is that a word?) up immediately and I just hope it's not broken. Well, at least I got a good walk today.

Speaking of non-words - I actually said "tooken" the other day, as in I've tooken the streetcar before. The guy I was with laughed and said, "Look where you are. Your grammar is going to suck." Yesterday when I was trying on mis-labeled suits, I was fascinated by the mother-daughter in the dressing room next to me. The mother had a THICK Chalmette accent and the young daughter had a flat news announcer voice, articulating words completely and clearly. (Please note - people here do NOT have a drawl. Most locals, especially from Chalmette, sound like they're from Boston.) I didn't see her, but she was young, going to her first dance. Her mother said things such as, "If you keep the house clean and do your chores, I'll buy you a dress for each dance." (My first thought was holy hell that will get expensive with multiple daughters.) When she said, "I want you to do your nails before the dance," it was the only time the daughter had even a hint of Chalmette in her voice when she said, "I will." The mother immediately snapped, "Don't get smart with me!" The daughter responded with that flat neutral American accent, "I wasn't. I was just saying that I will." And the mother was satisfied.

It was fascinating to me because I wonder about the schooling and occupation of the family and the mother's values. There was the overlay of valuing dances (we are in the heart of debutante balls here) and valuing that flat neutral affect.

Fascinating, all of it. New Orleans would be a wonderful place to be an anthropologist.