Do you recall returning home from your first day at kindergarten or a new school? Remember all the curious faces that stared at you and then asked, “So, how was it?” Immediately, you broke down and gave them a list of all the good and bad* – your new teachers and friends were great but cafeteria food smells.
Today, my first day back at work in New Orleans, was a lot like that, in that everyone wanted to know how the day went. Other than that, it was as weird as re-entering a place that was my … our … office until six months ago and now reoccupied just as quickly as we left it. As I explained to relatives and friends, “It was like walking into a time capsule. The Gambit Weekly from August 23rd sat on my desk, the week we evacuated for the storm. It had yellowed and my plants are dead. Walking the halls, I noticed how many project calendars had not been taken down since last August. How terribly eerie. Yet, there was the beautiful view, the one of which I have spoken in the past, albeit with the muted colors of some rooves roofs marred by the shocking blue of the FEMA tarps. And St. Louis Cathedral in the distance. Seeing that building and the surrounding square from my ivory perch was very reassuring.”
Yes, I’ll take another better one on a less foggy day [Click on image to enlarge]
As items returned from Houston through the course of the day and I arranged and rearranged them, the office quickly zapped forward to March 2006. I’ve hung onto that last issue of the Gambit before the storm, though. Perhaps it memorializes a time when life was less tumultuous for the city, when FEMA and New Orleans were largely unknown to one another, when a man and his home weren’t so quickly parted. On further thought, that dessicated and faded newspaper reminds me how lucky I am. I came back to it.
Incidentally, our cafeteria food is so good that we don’t have to make it stick to the ceiling.
*My first day of elementary school was slightly atypical. Home-schooled for as long as I could remember back then and having skipped kindergarten, I entered first grade as a five-year-old. Much tinier than and intimidated by the strange giants who surrounded me, tears surged forth and I cried, “Daddy, I wanna go home!” My wonderful father squeezed himself into the desk-chair combo next to mine until his daughter’s wailing subsided. I still remember him in his grey three-piece suit trying his best to soothe me because he “really, really had to go to work.” Several failed escape attempts, a cool teacher (Mrs. Fernandes) and a school day later, I didn’t want to go home. Difficult, thy name is Child.
I was hoping to provide a positive assessment, but THOSE PLANTS ARE DEAD!!
Glad you are back home in all ways.
the last time i made a comment on this blog was when you said that the hurricane season was still one week from ending when there were still five weeks left. anyways, here is today’s comment …
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2004/3810.htm
i would go for “roofs” in spelling and “rooves” in pronunciation.
ciao,
s.b.
in india, it used to be typical to be in the first class (or grade as you say it) when you were five. even now probably, kids are in first class before they are six.
in the usa though, it is different – five is the minimum age for the child to enter kindergarten.
– s.b.
Actually, in India, you’re in Lower KG at 3 or 4, Upper KG at 4 or 5 and first standard (not class) by 5, max 6. And, FYI, the story occurred in Kuwait which closely followed the British and Indian systems. I skipped both LKG and UKG.
As for “rooves,” you are correct. It’s funny that I spelled it wrongly because I say “roofs” and not “rooves.”
You try writing a blog post about an emotionally-heavy day after moving furniture and hauling large boxes all morning and afternoon. ;-)