Thursday, June 18, 2009

this spring was luxurious in new orleans- we had perhaps two and a half months of absolutely perfect weather. warm and not too humid. cool breezes off of the gulf. in mid-april, during the midst of the great grad school panic of 2009, i remember distinctly having the thought, "how could i ever leave this place?"

well, it's 100 degrees. in my house. i'm working with no pants on. and it's fucking early june. and every damn article on nola.com includes the phrase "shot in the head". new orleans, new orleans, you are like a bad relationship that i can't quite shake but know i have to.

i've begun volunteering with a local youth photography project- my first day was this last week. i have never really worked with small (ages 5 - 10) children, and boy oh boy oh boy. the screaming! the climbing! the jumping! the hair-pulling! the fighting! the grabbyness! the glitter glue all over me! it was fun, even though i know it's going to take me a couple more weeks to be comfortable with these kids and telling them yes and no and giving them directions. they were so high engergy, and, according to one of the girls also working at the center, "a little starved for attention", hence them going so batshit nutso when presented with a group of adults there solely for their amusement. by far the best moment would be when i was trying to show one little girl how to use a camera and she snapped, "i know how to do this! some white person already showed me." hilarious. worst moment would be the realization that all of them had really bad teeth. as in, definitely rotting. poor babies.

it's so hot. it's so hot. it's so hot.