Home Coming

Chicken and tasso simmering in a Mag-na-Lite skillet, cold beer next to me, my girl soaking up some TV while she folds laundry, the Honey in the shower after a long, hot day.  My house is finally feeling like my home.  I've been in this house for three years now.  Everyday has contained a new lesson, a new awakening and has given me purpose.  This past week I spent on a cruise ship soaking up the sun and just being.  I got to put my hands on ancient structures, climb a temple, and have too-strong drinks with some wonderful people.  Amid sunburns, hangovers, perfect blue water and beautiful young bodies I came alive again.  Upon coming home my eyes opened to things I forgot to appreciate:  a loving generous daughter, a kind open-hearted man, and a home that has been mine all along.

Yes, we are doing the YMCA at the top of a Mayan Temple

Five days aboard a beautiful vessel was about as much fun as I've had in years.  We danced, we sang, we drank top shelf drinks till the wee hours of the morning....hell I think we molested a couple of random men.  But the water was as blue as the Pacific, the sky was bright, and the beaches were beautiful.  By the third day we were spoiled to gourmet dinner, live shows, white sand, puffy clouds, and Turkish serving men.  By the fifth day we were ready for our own beds, rice n gravy, our children/pets, and our significant others.  But we were still in the bliss of the moment--soaking up the sun, cleaning up spotty tans, trying that last great drink of the day, hitting the spa, playing Bingo, buying last minute souvenirs.....when it was all said and done, there were still the photos that needed to be deleted.  The drinks that are forever on the 'never again' list.  And the phrase of all phrases uttered:  what happens on the boat, stays on the boat.  Fortunately, our "stay on the boat" activities are tame compared to some folk these days.

The Ceiling at night

I came home to a Second Line in the Quarter for Representative Lindy Boggs.  She had lived in New Orleans and her funeral was held at St. Louis Cathedral, downtown.  Because we had to stay in town till my daughters flight came in, we were able to see her dirge.  It was amazing.  I got my daughter back after her summer romp, I properly munched and squeezed her till she was annoyed.  Came home to a relatively clean house and fat, happy pets.  Once I was home I tackled the living room with some gusto, I shredded things for about 2 hours, since we had rearranged the furniture a month or so ago, I was ready for some polishing. Cleaned up the desk and added in/changed up some artwork in the room, taking the old things to hang in the main office at our business.  I needed that, all of "that".  The week away with no communication, the coming home to my favourite city, the scrunching of my daughter, and the will to keep taking the steps of making my house my home.  I cooked tonight for the first time in months, sure I'd thrown together some random burritos one night, and heated various frozen whatnot's, but not actually cooked.  So, tonight was rice and gravy, comfort food for some tired parents and a happy Cajun child.

Dirge and Second Line for Mrs. Lindy Boggs 

This trip was magical, spiritual, and downright fun.  I can't lie, there was a smidgen of guilt before I left.  That voice, that..."what have you done to deserve a cruise??" "there are others who work just as hard or harder and never get this chance".  I received prompt rebuttals from close friends, one being the woman who treated us to the trip.  Upon defending my conscience to Honey, I said, "this cruise still comes with a price, it may not be monetary but there is loss connected here and we bore her up through that loss.  If she found it fit to be this generous then she is being kind.  Not one of us would ever ask such a thing from such a good woman."  I meant every word of it then and I mean every word now.  I have been blessed in this life with amazing people.  Genuine people who are exactly what they portray.  This night, I am grateful for a patient man who is soon to become my husband (yes you read that right), close friends that have been with me through thick and thin, a family that has watched me grow and change and stuck by me.

I have cats racing around, jingling, attacking each other, I have the TV blaring, I have the en vie to paint the wall around my fireplace (yeah I said "my"), and a disco ball hanging from my living room ceiling fan.

Life. Is. Good.