I'm Walkin' to New Orleans

Ok, so Fats Domino may have walked there but my mom, Gusi and I drove. PapaGus had a business trip and instead of enduring the pouty-faced boy who misses his father terribly I decided to distract him. Well, the fact that the Jazz Festival was going on this past weekend also helped me make my decision of when to go.

Gusi had sooooo much fun and so did mom and I. We dropped PapaGus off at the airport and kept driving until we got to New Orleans. We stayed at a nice hotel close to Lake Pontchartrain in Metairie, one of the suburbs, and our room had a partial view of the lake. I thought that he might like being in a hotel but he totally loved it. He opened and closed all the cabinet and drawer doors at leisure, he ran down the hall, he ate his morning yogurt in a big chair in front of the big window, he had a blast. The night we got in there was some confusion over the rooms so we switched rooms and then switched again. When we finally got back to the original room he was already in his PJs. He had obviously loved walking down the halls and going in the elevators because he looked at me, waved bye-bye and walked out the door that was being held open by the bell-hop. If it hadn't been for the quick bell-hop Gusi might have just made it to the elevator! Thank goodness he got him. Gusi even loved taking a bath which is usually something that scares him when we're away from home.

Friday we spent most of the day at the Jazz Fest. We ate awesome food, saw Amazones: Women drummers of Guinea (African women usually dance and rarely play drums so it was neat to see African women starting to break the mold), ran into a friend from childhood who was there with her family, danced and spent a lot of time at the Kids' Tent. Mom had never been to Jazz Fest in her 30+ years of living in New Orleans so she also had a great first Jazz Fest. I had been a number of times during high school and it was just as I had remembered only with more food and more music. We had some real good food, lots of spicy things like alligator pie and crawfish etoufee. Gusi was too distracted with all the people-watching to eat but he did slurp down his fair share of snow-balls to keep hydrated. We were able to cool down in the (covered) Kids' Tent where we saw a great elementary school marching band and dance group. Gusi would bounce up and down to the beat of the drums and clap when the songs were over. Then when Monsieur No, sponsored by the French consulate, came on we had a blast. I felt bad for the group because no one in the audience really understood their songs but Gusi and I participated as much as my memory would let me. I took 7 years of the language and consider myself pretty proficient but when it comes to lyrics even songs in English can seem confusing. In any case, we did pretty well and sang along with the group to "Cool Raoul" and learned some very useful expressions in French such as "relax Max!" Gusi danced and applauded and wore himself out.

On Saturday we made the rounds. We started the morning by visiting my uncle and aunt. They hadn't yet met Gusi but they won him over BIG TIME when they let him play with their dog. Gusi is all about dogs lately though he calls them guau-guaus (in Spanish dogs say guau-guau which would be pronounced wow-wow in English). He laughed and played and then found the DVD player (and the buttons that go along with it) by the television and life was good. Many people have said that Gusi looks like my uncle and now he got to see it for himself. It was a nice time spent with them. Then we went to see some old family friends who are working on their house still. They're in a trailer a year and a half after the storm but they're determined to stay in New Orleans, rebuild and start anew; it was incredibly inspiring to see them and how much progress they had made on their house.

We then made our way over to the Children's Museum where we met up with Shokufeh who was doing quite well even though she was without MrMan. I was almost jealous that she had an entire weekend to herself. Not since I was pregnant have I been alone for more than a few hours. It would be so new to me but I already know what I would do: read books. I miss reading so much. Perhaps a novel or two? Ahh... And at least she could rest easy that MrMan was with his father who is the best person for him to be with when he's away from his mom. Maybe PapaGus and Gusi can also take a father-son trip one day?

And wouldn't you know it at the museum we ran into my cousin's best friend, Erin. And in a total New Orleans moment it turned out that Shokufeh's mom had worked with Erin. If you're from New Orleans, you just can't get away from running into people you know and this was a prime example.

Then after a nice lunch with Shokufeh we went to a birthday party where I saw friends I hadn't seen in ages. Gusi had a blast with all the kids and toys there. He wasn't into the cup cakes or food but he did play a lot. Afterwards we went across the lake to see another cousin (lots of family ties what can I say?) and her family. Gusi totally loved being with his extended cousins who were 7, 5 and 4 years old. The 5 year old especially liked playing with the baby. My cousin is married to a Cajun so dinner consisted of boudin, steak and Cajun rice. Gusi ate some rice but he was so distracted by their playful guau-guau he didn't eat much else. I think we're going to have to get this boy a dog soon, he just loves them so much.

When we finally got back to the hotel he fell asleep fast. He was so worn out. The following morning we had breakfast with some other friends who hadn't met Gusi. They just couldn't get over the fact that I had a child. It's probably because their kids are just a tad bit younger than me and we all grew up together. But Gusi took to them immediately and gave them a sweet taste of what being a grandparent would be like. Afterwards we drove to meet a dear childhood friend of mine, also named Erin. She, her boyfriend and mother got to see how Gusi rearranged the furniture in the coffee shop.

What makes me nostalgic is that New Orleans is a place where friends and family are always close by. You run into people you know everywhere and you don't need to schedule play dates to see someone--all you need to do is go to the grocery store. I know that Gusi loves it there, I can tell by the look on his face. He feels the love people have for him and he returns it and that is not something I see happen every day; he is normally much more cautious and reserved with people. Here we have our schedule, our classes, our play dates, our life, but there life just seems to happen without as much effort. Perhaps I'm idealizing it a bit but I know that he and I are happy when we're there. Maybe we'll convince PapaGus to go one more time before the end of the summer. Everyone kept telling us that this visit didn't count since PapaGus wasn't with us. I think they're right.