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1183 days ago
Three years ago, on August 29, the most beautiful baby girl was born and began my reign as Zia, the crazy aunt. Two years ago, on August 29, my fiance' (now husband) and I closed on our first house right in the middle of Metairie. This is where I always dreamed life would take me. A year ago, on August 29, my fiance' and I watched CNN from Atlanta as our first house suffered the wrath of Katrina. Yesterday, on August 29, I thought I woud be inundated with emotion and overwhelmed by the loss of my dreams to grow old and raise babies in Metairie. Surprisingly, I felt nothing. It seems as though after a year, I have finally come to terms with the fact that sometimes life kicks our ass for no apparent reason. Don't get me wrong; I can be as philosophical as the next guy and say all the phrases that help us survive in this spinning chaos we call life: "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger," " Tragedies like these bring out and build character," "Dark ...
1203 days ago
In approximately 34 minutes my phone will ring just like it does every year. My mom will sing me "Happy Birthday" and then dash in to the story that begins, "29 years ago today, I was holding my brand new baby girl..." And so begins the official rituals of my favorite day. I say the official rituals because I wasn't actually born until 8:14 am, so everything before this is just lagniappe. For instance, the routine midnight singing by my husband, the earlier-than-the-sun-wakes-up phone call from my dad, the race to be the first to tell me happy birthday by my best friend and my sisters--> these are the whipped chocolate icing on the perfect day. People ask me how I can still be so psyched about a day that identifies me as another year older. I have to be honest. I am not all that worried about age. I am more excited about the fact that there is a day set aside just for me and I choose to bask in every glorious minute of it. Truly, though, the ...
1212 days ago
Call me Alanis; I am thinking about writing a new verse, and this verse may actually contain irony. Last week I decided to break out of my "I can't believe people spend $4 on coffee when the circle K coffee is only $1.09 and there are 50 flavors of cream and Oreo cappuccino for free" soap box and try the new praline flavored ice coffee at a local coffee shop. I have very little interest in coffee unless it is infused with some type of decadent flavor, ice, and lots of milk (i.e. mint chocolate chip, bananas foster, pecan praline, white chocolate mousse, etc.), but I digress. Upon entering the establishment, I am pleasantly surprised to be the only one in line and head directly to the counter. I begin examining the wall-mounted menu that is obviously written in some coffee language that we novices can't understand, when I notice a hand-made sign posted on the counter. It reads, "Please end all cell phone calls before ordering AND remember to be ...
