New Orleans

I have a single piece of original art. I bought it just off Jackson Square the summer before my senior year of college. It's this fantastic watercolor of the brightly colored buildings and intricate railings on the balcony. It's rather hazy and soft and it hangs in my kitchen, next to the china I inherited from Grandma. I look at it and remember brushing sugar off my front at Cafe du Monde, looking at pralines through a shop window, sweating so much I thought I might die and looking around and thinking the city was exactly as I wanted it to be.

LaKisha has been in New Orleans doing research and is participating in a fundraising campaign. There's little I admire more than intense competitive spirit, so I'm throwing my full support behind her efforts. Please click over to read her post (I'd try to summarize, but I've been drinking daiquiris and editing my book. So I'm not so good with the words right now.) It's a bit shameful for me to admit, but past the initial donations to the Red Cross, I haven't given a tremendous amount of thought to the recovery effort in a truly fabulous city. I plan to fix that this evening.