Thanksgiving in New Orleans

Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It is such an important time during these terrible economic times; not to mention the Wikileaks diplomatic fallouts, The Third World War War games taking place in South Korea….

On Thanksgiving Day itself, we all watched football. More specifically, we ‘Who Dat’ fans watched a Saintly miracle, while feasting on a wonderful, light and incredibly tasty Thanksgiving dinner with friends, Nancy and Don Adams. Their daughter Vanessa is a vegetarian, which provided a fun project for ‘cuisine artist’ Nancy. She even made a delightful stuffing using fruit and nuts, which was spicy and wonderful!

New friends and old friends, new Saints fans and old, a group with highly diverse lifestyles and politics; we all clustered around Don and Nancy’s little, temporarily rigged-up T.V. with one accord, and watched the Saints beat the Cowboys in Dallas with a miraculous display only the Saints could achieve.
Gerry actually went to the first football game of his entire life (he’s from the land of soccer, cricket and rugby) on Halloween Day, when the Saints beat the Steelers. We were in the Superdome that day, when thousands of costumed ‘Who Dat’ fans ‘Made Some Noise’, the likes of which Gerald couldn’t even fathom. And the fact that we were air and weather-conditioned inside that huge stadium seemed an extravagance that left him quite astonished.

We sat near the 50-yard line, thanks to our new Vieux Carre friends, Linda and Bill Miller, who had a family event that day and, very generously, gave us their season tickets. What a day! I even enjoyed queuing up at the Ladies Room (necessary twice that day, thanks to the exceedingly large Daiquiris). Thousands of the fans dressed in incredible, sometimes hilarious, outfits, trying to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records for the most people in costume at one event (I think we made it) including the Steelers Fans. We were very happy to see them in town.
Since we have adopted New Orleans as our hometown, we are always glad to invite friends and tourists alike to come and enjoy a few days here. There is a chemistry here that is hard to describe - but it is irresistible nonetheless!

Dave the Dude, aka ‘Pestilence’ (of The Four Horsemen), visited us back in October. We spent the first night celebrating and then he spent the next two weeks recuperating. He’d fallen and whacked his elbow – luckily x-rays showed it not broken but badly inflamed. So, the hospital prescribed analgesics, hot & cold packs, rest, etc.
The mischief happened when Gerry and David stopped in at Ryan’s Pub on the way back home from dinner. I was tired and went ahead to go to bed but those two didn’t show up until hours later. Our friends who own Ryan’s, Jessica and Martin, later told me what they drank. Shot after shot of bourbon. However, on the positive side, nursing David back to health gave me the opportunity to pass the time studying Mandarin. Gerry gave me a Rosetta Stone Mandarin course for my birthday. So now I have to walk the walk: learn Mandarin! But it’s not easy. The calligraphy is driving me nuts right now. However, at least, I now understand why Asians are naturals at math and music. Their language and calligraphy explains a lot about their culture.

Why am I studying Mandarin? Because I would love to study Hunyuan Taijiquan with Grand Master Feng in Beijing, student of Fake, and Feng only accepts students who speak Chinese (and are already very competent in the art, of course). Yes, Maria, I know I’m a wee bit obsessed.
I would be so honored to be allowed to study with Master Feng’s students. But first thing is hard work: Mandarin. Ni hao! The anglicized alphabet is easy. However, the calligraphy is a whole other world – reading it and writing it!
An important part of Thanksgiving Day here in New Orleans is the first horse racing day of the season. Vanessa and Daphne, dressed up with charming hats and outfits, went to the big event – apparently it was sold out and totally festive. And it was all organized to be over by early afternoon, so that everybody would have time to feast at home and/or watch the Saints game, which started at 3pm…

We don’t know if Jessica and Martin had one of their horses in the race on opening day, but I have no doubt that they were personally there, and then off to Churchill Downs. Here’s a shot of Martin and Jessica with one of their thoroughbreds. You see how this amazing creature adores Jessie? But don’t you just walk into a racing stable and try this – you’re liable to get your ear bitten off! Thoroughbreds are notoriously moody. I remember horse-world pal, Francis Radics, when she tried to enter Joe Hamilton’s thoroughbred into a dressage competition. How that stallion jumped and bucked! She skillfully managed to stay on him – but got kicked out of the dressage ring nonetheless! He just wanted to run…
It’s not always true that horseracing is just a big business. Jessie and Martin adore their horses. You should see the feed room! Those horses eat better than 99% of the population on earth - and I’m talking the human population! And they also retire their horses when necessary to a beautiful farm.
I was so glad for a chance to meet some of their horses. Did I go for a ride? I wouldn’t dare even ask!
But that day at the stables at the New Orleans race track brought back such pleasant thoughts and feelings from the ‘horse world’. I do miss my horses – but I know for certain that Jose is taking wonderful care of them.

We finally managed to get our windows open in New Orleans! No Ali, she is not his daughter. Denise is Corey’s wife! And this wonderful couple did a great job restoring and painting the windows of our flat in New Orleans. Now I can open the windows and breathe in the fresh (?) air. It has completely changed my life here; natural air flowing all through the flat – it’s not the forest but it makes urban living so much nicer!



Suzy's painting of her Mermaid. Nov.2010

 Ever seen a sulking mermaid? Take a peek at Suzy’s sulking mermaid, which Billy actually had her tone down. According to Billy, mermaids aren’t the sulking type. Well, Suzy’s mermaid was sulking, because a big fish was just about to eat her pal, a little fish, and she could do nothing to stop it!
Yes, we spent some of the holiday with my parents in Florida, and Suzy came to visit from Canada. Just like old times, we sat, ate and painted together; she always had more raw talent than me.
Zai jien.

Costa Rica Update

The weather has been terrible in Costa Rica. We are in New Orleans so got the most specific updates from friends who wrote:

Luisa Hughes from El Rodeo wrote, "Our roads have collapsed several times in Rodeo, schools were out for the entire Central valley for 2 days and today one big hill just collapses in Rodeo so we are stuck one more time. The area by the river in Ciudad Colon just got evacuated last night and Escazu has received the most damage about 30 people dead."

Margaret Flaum wrote: "Quepos is cut off. So is Londres where the farms are. No electric, water or food in stores. Raymond, an old friend and old guy, asked our friends Howard and Carolyn what they used to do when we got a temporal. Howard said we partied until the sun came out. We were much younger. Parrita is being evacuated. Those palm oil plantations are flooded and so is the road. Aserri's mountain has collapsed taking 25 houses but the people got out due to quick thinking by the old guy on the mountain top who heard the midnight rumbling. Still looking for bodies at Pico Blanco. Brian is collecting old clothes at the shop."