Fear And Loathing In New Orleans
May 18, 2009
Last Monday, I returned to my apartment from a run in Prospect Park at about 6 PM. I took a shower and changed and began reading whatever book it was I had on hand. I think it was an hour by hour account of the Battle of Chancellorsville, but it doesn't really hold any relevance.
At 7 PM I noticed that I had missed a call from my brother Devon and checked the message he had left for me. In so many words he was calling to tell me that he had been working for five weeks straight and his company was making him take the next week off, so could I come down tomorrow to visit him for a week, because Charles (my other younger brother) had already booked his flight and was coming down too.
I should explain. Devon spends much of his time working as an engineer on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, earning disgusting amounts of money which he cannot spend nearly often enough because he spends most of his time working as an engineer on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. For Christmas, in lieu of material gifts, he promised my brothers and I that he would fly us down sometime, knowing perfectly well that none of us ever would visit him if left to our own devices and expenses.
Devon never really knows when he will have time off, so he can't really make plans ahead of time for anything. It's fine for him and his schedule, but at first I was a little insulted that he would just assume that I didn't have plans, or work to cancel or things that would require more than 12 hours notice to cancel. Granted, I had virtually none of those things and I make no secret of the fact that I keep myself busy with things like a day's worth of "short's shopping," which inevitably exhausts me and causes me to get 2 PM happy beers as I read whatever book I happen to have on hand at the time. I believe that day I was reading Exodus by Leon Uris. Again, no relevance. Though, I was named after the main character in Exodus and was reading the copy my mother read when I was born. The times of her labor contractions are actually recorded in the margins of the pages. The More You Know...
So yes, I pouted for about a half hour before saying, Hell Yeah!! And 10 hours later I was on a plane to New Orleans.
I have been here for just a week now, and tomorrow morning I catch a plane back to New York. While I was able to keep a decent journal during my stay here, I had pretty limited internet access, due to multiple passwords on my brother's company computer. bullshit. So, I know it's not the same as live travel blogging or whatever, but once I return to lovely Brooklyn I will share the tales of my adventures in the bayou.
Now 7 AM comes awfully early, so I will just hit the couch and read whatever book I happen to have on hand right now. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Close enough.
See you in the city.
--Connor
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