Today, I did a lot of bracing-type work for the ceiling of the house, which again, meant I had to be up on a ladder all day. Good thing I’ve gotten used to it. I did get to use a power drill today! Awesome! I find the noise of the nail being drilled in correctly to be extremely gratifying. It’s also really satisfying to successfully hammer things. No lie, every time there’s a tough spot that takes a little longer to finish, I feel incredibly victorious when I’ve finally defeated that trouble area. I’ve also discovered I’ve come a pretty long way in my hammering skills since Tuesday. My best streak of hitting the nail on the head and not missing was 25, which was what took me to nail that specific nail into the wall from start to finish. Much better than when it took me forever (as in, most of the afternoon) to do one column down a wall. Huzzah!
I was thinking about how many little things go into making a house, especially all the things you can’t see. Eventually, all the braces reinforcing various parts of the house’s structure will be covered up, but that doesn’t defeat their purpose or lessen their significance. So many of the little tasks we’ve all been doing are actually pretty darn important for the longevity of the house. NO TASK IS TOO SMALL!
After work, we went to a museum. We had the choice of the Historical Society or a special Hurricane Katrina visit. Naturally, I chose the historical one. I learned some interesting facts. Napoleon was only up to selling New Orleans/Louisiana to the US because of the successful slave revolt in modern day Haiti (can’t remember the French colonial name…), so I guess we kinda owe a lot to Haiti. Also, here, “creole” isn’t so much a racial term as a nationality (?) term. If you were born in New Orleans, regardless of skin color, you were Creole. If you were an immigrant to New Orleans, you were not Creole. A lot of the culture/style/etc. was distinguished as French (European) vs. Creole (colony). Also, we were told that “Dixie” as the name for the South comes from the fact that New Orleans has flown many flags in her lifetime (French, Spanish, Napoleonic Empire, US), which led to a lot of transition, so they had this bank note worth 10 USD (I believe) that said “dix” on the back (French for 10 for my non-French speaking friends), and these notes reached the rest of the US, where they started to call New Orleans, and later, the South “Dixie” as it was the land of the “dix” banknote. I like having the historical background the supplement what we’ve been experiencing in post-Katrina/Rita NOLA.
And, since we were in the French Quarter for the museums, we made a stop at Cafe du Monde for beignets as cafe au lait. A clown caught a group of us at the corner of the street after crossing, and made us all silly balloon hats. It was a ridiculous moment in my life, and a good end to the day. Tomorrow, we have a free night after work, so a couple of us are going to have dinner in the French Quarter, and do the typical NOLA stroll down Bourbon Street (named for the house of Bourbon which ruled Spain back in the 1800s and is now ruling in its 3rd restoration to the Spanish throne today, not the drink)!
I made a Walgreen’s run last night, and picked up a couple of disposable cameras (thanks to my love of carrying around my digital camera everywhere, using it ALL. THE. TIME., and its most recent decision to have a lens error and not work anymore). I forgot how quickly film goes. I kept taking pictures, and was like, “I need to make 54 pictures last me the next three days, so I actually have to THINK before I snap a picture (which is difficult for shutter happy people like myself). Thank goodness for my camera phone (and other people’s digital cameras)!
It's so amazing to see the vibrant community with people who returned and rebuilt after the hurricanes who still have such a great outlook on life. Despite all of this death, destruction, and disaster, they've managed to be so optimistic about the world. This pride in rebuilding the city and moving back to normalcy just creates a wonderful vibe, and I kind of don't want to leave. I think I could be happy living here for a couple of years (though, I want to end up back in California at the end of the day).
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