I'm okay. My family's okay.  The house is (mostly) okay.  Still no power at home, but we got power here at the bank last night.

We made it.  That's more than others can say.  Thank God.

I'm in DeRidder right now, at the bank where I work.  The president opened it as shelter for employees and their families.  Right now, there's only one other family here, but more may arrive later.  We've got power, internet connections, a kitchenette, tvs, even a playstation.  But driving through town to get here this morning we saw people lined up into the street for gas and crowding the one still open grocery store.  The meat market was advertising a "hurricane sale" on all fresh meat.  The store windows are all boarded up or taped up (they ran out of plywood yesterday morning) in town.  The radio is playing live commentary from the Lake Charles tv station as it starts to get bad there.  My cousin is the chief of police in Westlake, a suburb of Lake Charles, so he has to stay there.  It's scary here. Wal-Mart closed its doors yesterday afternoon.  Believe me, in a little town like this, that is tantamount to admitting that the Big One is finally here. 

I know several of y'all are riding this one out in Houston, and I'll say a little prayer for you.  But it's heading my way, so say one for me too.  We've never had "the Big One" here before.  I don't think we're prepared for it.

I'll try to post after it's over and let you know I'm okay.  And maybe some pictures too.  This is going to be a hugely altering event for southwest Louisiana.

Catch you on the flip side!

So. The play is less than two weeks away, and I am very, very nervous.  This will probably be upgraded as opening night approaches, rather like a tropical depresion evolving into a hurricane.

I need a sign that says "Does not deal well with pressure." 

Well, now that I'm home I guess I can do a better post.  I had rehearsal tonight--we're doing "A Bad Year for Tomatoes," which is quite funny if I do sy so myself.  I play Myra Marlowe, a TV actress who has decided to escape the weirdos of Hollywood and go to the country to write her autobiography and raise tomatoes. Of course, as ayone who has ever lived in a small town can attest, the people she meets there far outweigh any crazies she may have met before.  Then there's this whole subplot about her pretending to be her own crazy twin sister to scare away nosy neighbors, and said nosy neighbors thinking she killed her sister and her agent who keeps trying to persuade her to marry him.  It's a big bundle of silliness.

I'm very nervous. I've never played the lead before.  Heck, this is only the fourth play I've ever been in.  But I'm determined not to let the cast down, so I've been memorizing lines like crazy.  Sure, it doesn't leave me time for much else, but that's okay.  I enjoy being busy.  June I'm taking a few days off to go to Houston to stay with my friend Becca (also a former Weissman) and then from there to Dallas for A-Kon.

We went to New Orleans for Easter weekend. (Road trip!)  Stayed on Canal Street, wandered all through the French Quarter and the Garden District, walked beside the river in the thick morning fog, met Harry Anderson and saw him perform a magic trick, and ate tons of delicious food. 

My favorite restaurant (if anybody's planning on going there soon) was Dick & Jenny's.  Dick (the owner and head chef) was a former chef at Commander's Palace, so he knows good food.  The place is on the edge of the Garden District, down by the river.  It doesn't look like much from the outside or the inside.  Garden furniture and a porch swing grace the patio lobby area, water is served in mason jars, the customers may be dressed in khakis or sneakers, and they don't accept reservations so you may have to wait two hours to be seated.  But it's worth it.  We started off with Lemon Drop martinis--tart, sweet, and highly intoxicating.  Despite the estimated hour wait, before we'd received them we were seated in the tiny dining area.  Our waiter was great; always making sure our glasses were full and that each course came out as soon as the other was finished.  We chose crawfish and smoked tasso cheesecake with hot sauce beurre blanc and crispy crab legs for appetizers because it sounded so interesting.  And we were glad we had.  It was heavenly, melt in your mouth stuff that left us scraping the plate clean and wishing for more.  Then Becca had pomegranate lacquered duck and I had spinach, pesto, and feta cheese stuffed pork tenderloin for our entrees. OhmyGodsogood.  The vegetable side dishes were rather unmemorable, but they didn't need to be with the meats taking center stage.  Finally we had dessert: crepes with creme anglaise and wine poached apricots in a Late Harvest Viognier sauce.  I had the Viognier with it; Becca, port.  Do I really need to tell you how wonderful it was?  Just imagine the lightness of the crepes, the melt on your tongue creaminess from the creme, the apricots reminding you of summer in all the best ways, and the wine sparkling in your mouth and your brain.  It was, quite literally, the best meal I've ever had.  In fact, Becca and I decided that who needed sex when we had this food? 

So it was a good trip.  Lots of fun, lots of talking, lots of searching out all the cool little non-touristy places--a bar that used to be a blacksmith shop, a bookstore crammed from floor to ceiling with books, a 1920s hotel with marble bathrooms and unpreposessing facade, boutiques, beignets, the best tuna and mango salad I've eaten, a house with goldfish statues on their porch--and lots of great memories.  I have high hopes for June.  Now if I can just survive until then... 

Currently Reading Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear By Jim Steinmeyer see related

So, this is my first post here.  Not really sure what to say. I'm doing good down here in swampy old Louisiana.  I'm the IS Manager for a community bank (six branches and a seventh under construction) and a member of the local theater group.  I divide most of my time between the two places, and in what little spare time I have I love to spoil my niece and nephew rotten or play with my parents' chihuahua.

That about covers it.