My Moments in the French Quarter: Le Coeur de New Orleans

Before I left LA for my somewhat dreaded trip back to Tennesee, I told myself that I wanted our one day in New Orleans to be a day of freedom, free from my daily life in Los Angeles and free from the preoccupation of selling a business in the beat-up economy of Tennessee. Lucky for me, New Orleans would have it no other way.

It was my first time in the city and we were directed by our hosts to visit the French Quarter with the limited amount of time that we had. Anyone who has been there before can attest to the fact that this neighborhood is extremely special, to say the least. After the floods, when I saw displaced residents saying that they would return and rebuild, I thought they were crazy. But, you would hear people saying over and over again that there is no place in the world like New Orleans. After a mere half day there, I understand wholeheartedly their sentiments.

Let the earth open up and swallow Phoenix, Dallas, or Knoxville. The surviving residents can then relocate to St. Louis, Minneapolis or Houston where they will find their Best Buy/Safeway/Ross Dress For Less/McDonald's corners and ease right back into the familiarity of it all.

But, oh, to imagine having lived in the magic of the French Quarter all of one's life. To begin and end the day with cafe au lait and beignets. To walk amid jazz bands and horse drawn carriages on the way to work. To have had your first kiss beneath the crumbling balconies of Royale Street. And then, one day, to be whisked away on a crowded bus and plunked down in Lincoln or Wichita! And try as you may to search out the new loft developments and downtown revitalization projects, you would never, ever find the soul of New Orleans there. And at night you would fall asleep only to dream of its sounds and smells.

I understand now.

If you can, before the world ends, find a fabulous lover and a second story flat in the French Quarter. Stay there for at least a week. Love the food, the music, the thick air, the galleries, and a sidewalk hurricane now and then. Then tell me where else in the US of A you could possibly feel so alive.

And now... A Word of Wisdom From My Dentist

I went to the dentist for the first time in over a year yesterday. Despite brushing my teeth, on average, 1.75 times per day, I had a lot of plaque built up on my gum line. So much so, that the scraping was making my gums bleed quite a bit. Sexy, right?

Anyway, my dentist says, "I don't know if you haven't been in for a cleaning in a while because of the filling (read: large hole in one of my molars due to falling out of a faulty filling that he did the previous year) or what, but you have a lot of plaque on your teeth."

I said, "Actually I haven't had insurance for the past year, so I couldn't afford to go to the dentist". He then offered up this string of rhetorical pearls of wisdom, "So what? Is there insurance for food? NO. Do you still buy food?"

Uh, yeah.

I would have responded if he hadn't subsequently huffed out of the room. Plus, I was numbed, drooling, and bleeding. Anyway, I don't understand this logic. Based solely on the number of days that a human being can survive without food vs. without dental care, his argument is ineffective. But, he was probably just upset because he missed me while I was gone. And the 500 dollars that I chose to spend on daily nourishment.

Here's to the eventuality of free health care for all.

Jasmine is back!

If I could, I would build a winter home out of trelliced jasmine vines. I would fall asleep to the scent of night-blooming jasmine and wake to the fragrance of the Confederate variety. One of the saddest things I had to leave behind when we moved to Tennessee was the star jasmine vine I had spent the last year training and pruning, especially because I knew it was just about to bloom and I would miss all the pleasure that the flowers would bring.

But, today on my bike ride into work, I discovered a patch of road on Civic Center Drive in Beverly Hills, where for a brief second, the stellar scent of the flower almost knocks you out. I gasped a reflexive, "Oh my God!'" as I passed through it. So, it's time again for jasmine all over LA to bless us with its presence. The fragrance travels a significant distance, so even if you can't immediately spot the vines, you know they're there, maybe on the other side of a fence or around the corner.

And, alas, I am leaving for Tennessee again for two weeks starting tomorrow. Lucky for me, it has a long growing season. Get yourself one too! They are very drought resistant, grow well in containers and will climb anything. And they will fill your days with aromatherapeutic pleasure!

Here's to taking advantage of the splendid year-round gardening opportunities California has to offer!