Thursday, January 31, 2013
Happy Mardi Gras! Welcome Superbowl XLVII fans!
Happy Mardi Gras, New Orleans and Superbowl XLVII fans!!! Welcome to our beautiful City!
There's so much to do and see, and definitely never enough time to get it all accomplished, but we can try, can't we?
Felix and I are settling back in, in New Orleans. We are currently living on the Southshore, near the Lakefront (Lake Pontchartrain for you out-of-towners) and UNO. It is wonderful to be home again. I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to live in a wonderful community like Corpus Christi for the past few years, and then be able to come Home to New Orleans. Ain't nothin' like HOME, huh?
Okay, back to work... I took the webstore down while we were in the midst of all the craziness of moving from Texas back to New Orleans, and now I'm slowly rebuilding it. I only have www.Scrappersaurus.com up and running, and I will incorporate the store back in - a little at a time - over the next couple months.
Until the webstore is fully functional for processing orders, please feel free to CALL ME with your requests at 504.812.2261 between 9AM and 10PM Central Time. I will be adding pictures and prices of new merchandise here on the Blog, so keep your eyes open!
I missed you all, and can't wait to meet up with everybody again soon.
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
P.S.: Visitors, we would like you to return to our City, so please party safely! It is possible to be responsible and careful, even while you're having fun. If you do NOT have a designated driver, PLEASE either sleep it off in the parking lot, or catch the bus/streetcar/ferry or a taxi cab back to where you are staying. Here is a link to the Regional Transit Authority (public transportation) that may prove extremely useful: http://www.norta.com/. If you cannot figure out what you need on their website, they are usually very nice about helping you over the phone.
Laissez les bon temps roullez, cher!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
5 Steps to Stop Overeating & Emotional Eating | Crazy Sexy Life
Hey, folks!
I came across this awesome article tonight and thought I would share it with you all.
5 Steps to Stop Overeating & Emotional Eating Crazy Sexy Life
While the main point of the article is to help people identify if (and when) someone's (over)eating for emotional reasons, towards the end of the article it speaks about how to prevent this, and it is something very dear to me. It pretty much reinforces what I have always said about making time to do something creative and constructive for yourself --preferably as part of your daily routine.
Those customers who knew me when I had the storefronts open can tell you what I always preached to them: "An appointment with the doctor is considered important enough to schedule time off from work or time away from everything else. However, if you don't consider yourself important enough to schedule some time off from your usual, hectic routine, it more than likely WILL turn into a doctor's appointment, forcing you to take time off."
And what better way to enjoy doing that, than by allowing your creative energies to flow freely? It doesn't have to be scrapbooking, either (O-M-Gosh, did *I* just say that?!). Allow your creativity to flow into other things, such as needleworking, woodworking, painting, cooking, flower arranging, or even into learning or discovery of new exhibits at your local museums and attractions.
You get the idea...
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
I came across this awesome article tonight and thought I would share it with you all.
5 Steps to Stop Overeating & Emotional Eating Crazy Sexy Life
While the main point of the article is to help people identify if (and when) someone's (over)eating for emotional reasons, towards the end of the article it speaks about how to prevent this, and it is something very dear to me. It pretty much reinforces what I have always said about making time to do something creative and constructive for yourself --preferably as part of your daily routine.
Those customers who knew me when I had the storefronts open can tell you what I always preached to them: "An appointment with the doctor is considered important enough to schedule time off from work or time away from everything else. However, if you don't consider yourself important enough to schedule some time off from your usual, hectic routine, it more than likely WILL turn into a doctor's appointment, forcing you to take time off."
And what better way to enjoy doing that, than by allowing your creative energies to flow freely? It doesn't have to be scrapbooking, either (O-M-Gosh, did *I* just say that?!). Allow your creativity to flow into other things, such as needleworking, woodworking, painting, cooking, flower arranging, or even into learning or discovery of new exhibits at your local museums and attractions.
You get the idea...
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Surgery Date Finally Set!!!
Well... Hello, everyone!
It has been a very long time since I last blogged and, hopefully, you didn't give up on us here at Scrappersaurus! We are still alive and kicking, however, we've been through quite a lot over the past couple of years since we closed the storefronts.
We closed the stores because I was experiencing a lot of pain and problems with my back, and the intention was to close the stores and then have surgery. However, as they say, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions!" LOL. Shortly after closing the stores, we had the opportunity to move to be closer to family in Texas, so we did.
However, I basically had to begin at 'square-one' with my back/health issues, and go through numerous diagnostic tests and therapies before I could get back to the point I was at when we moved from Louisiana.
I am happy to say that I finally have my surgery date scheduled: Tuesday, December 13th!!!
I am really looking forward to my surgery, because once I recover from this, I will be able to bring you all the latest-and-greatest, hard-to-find treasures like we originally began the business with, back in 2004!
I'm not going to lie, though... It is going to require a lot of dedication and hard work on my part in able to rehab myself back into walking again, but I am determined to do it. I like to think that I generally accomplish whatever I set out to do, letting nothing stand in my way. I may have to walk through fire, but if that is what it takes, that is what I will do.
I will do my best to keep you posted on how things are going. I'm not certain when I will be able to blog again, but please know that you are all in my thoughts, every day. I remember all of you; your families, your goals; your joys and sorrows; your worries; your loves and your pet peeves. And I still continue to pray for all of you. Every one of you will forever be in my heart.
You, however, are the heart of Scrappersaurus!
My love and blessings to all, and
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
It has been a very long time since I last blogged and, hopefully, you didn't give up on us here at Scrappersaurus! We are still alive and kicking, however, we've been through quite a lot over the past couple of years since we closed the storefronts.
We closed the stores because I was experiencing a lot of pain and problems with my back, and the intention was to close the stores and then have surgery. However, as they say, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions!" LOL. Shortly after closing the stores, we had the opportunity to move to be closer to family in Texas, so we did.
However, I basically had to begin at 'square-one' with my back/health issues, and go through numerous diagnostic tests and therapies before I could get back to the point I was at when we moved from Louisiana.
I am happy to say that I finally have my surgery date scheduled: Tuesday, December 13th!!!
I am really looking forward to my surgery, because once I recover from this, I will be able to bring you all the latest-and-greatest, hard-to-find treasures like we originally began the business with, back in 2004!
I'm not going to lie, though... It is going to require a lot of dedication and hard work on my part in able to rehab myself back into walking again, but I am determined to do it. I like to think that I generally accomplish whatever I set out to do, letting nothing stand in my way. I may have to walk through fire, but if that is what it takes, that is what I will do.
I will do my best to keep you posted on how things are going. I'm not certain when I will be able to blog again, but please know that you are all in my thoughts, every day. I remember all of you; your families, your goals; your joys and sorrows; your worries; your loves and your pet peeves. And I still continue to pray for all of you. Every one of you will forever be in my heart.
You, however, are the heart of Scrappersaurus!
My love and blessings to all, and
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Monday, April 25, 2011
Just wanted to share...!
Greetings, y'all!
I hope this Easter holiday was a most wonderful and blessed one for all, and you were able to enjoy fun times with family and friends (and even yourself), making great memories to scrapbook! LOL
Here are some of the greeting cards my best friend in New York has sent me over the past few weeks; I am so proud of her crafting evolution! She is just pumping out those greeting cards, and doing such a lovely job at it. Of course, I'm the lucky recipient, and I've decided to begin sharing them with you. I'm hoping it will inspire you, and give you more ideas for your own cards and layouts (a/k/a "scraplifting").
As you can see, Donna LOVES creating 3-D effects, and it just tickles me every time she figures out a new way to do it. Don't you just adore that little piece of cotton she used on the bunny rabbit on the Easter card?! How PERFECT!
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
I hope this Easter holiday was a most wonderful and blessed one for all, and you were able to enjoy fun times with family and friends (and even yourself), making great memories to scrapbook! LOL
Here are some of the greeting cards my best friend in New York has sent me over the past few weeks; I am so proud of her crafting evolution! She is just pumping out those greeting cards, and doing such a lovely job at it. Of course, I'm the lucky recipient, and I've decided to begin sharing them with you. I'm hoping it will inspire you, and give you more ideas for your own cards and layouts (a/k/a "scraplifting").
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Uh-Oh! Website & Webstore links had to be fixed!
Greetings, folks!
As you know, we've been working diligently on getting our main website and webstore updated, and its a constant process. Well, during that process, the links to the webstore and this blog were (temporarily) accidentally "lost"; if you weren't able to access the webstore or my blog earlier, they should both work properly now!
Also, the "About Us" button was incorrectly linked to the information page on the ORIGINAL, pre-Katrina store at 3501 Severn (which has been closed since 2006)!
Whoooopsie!!! Okay, so I messed up on a few things!!!
The "About Us" button has been removed temporarily until the proper link can be reworked, and we should have that back up again very soon.
And, yes, we are aware that the Tips & Techniques "Un-Du" page still has to be separated out, and buttons put up for each individual tip (among other things!).
PLEASE let us know if you see anything else that doesn't work properly on either the main website or the webstore so it can be corrected appropriately!
Thanks so much for your understanding and patience while we try to bring everything up-to-date!
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
As you know, we've been working diligently on getting our main website and webstore updated, and its a constant process. Well, during that process, the links to the webstore and this blog were (temporarily) accidentally "lost"; if you weren't able to access the webstore or my blog earlier, they should both work properly now!
Also, the "About Us" button was incorrectly linked to the information page on the ORIGINAL, pre-Katrina store at 3501 Severn (which has been closed since 2006)!
Whoooopsie!!! Okay, so I messed up on a few things!!!
The "About Us" button has been removed temporarily until the proper link can be reworked, and we should have that back up again very soon.
And, yes, we are aware that the Tips & Techniques "Un-Du" page still has to be separated out, and buttons put up for each individual tip (among other things!).
PLEASE let us know if you see anything else that doesn't work properly on either the main website or the webstore so it can be corrected appropriately!
Thanks so much for your understanding and patience while we try to bring everything up-to-date!
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Friday, March 25, 2011
More Themed Brads/Eyelets; Creatively Using Excess Energy
Felix has put up more themed brads and eyelets on the webstore, so go check it out! And he's not even finished yet--we have tons more that's he's still working on adding.
Also, you can now simply type NewOrleansScrapbookSupplies into your browser (no spaces!), hit the CTRL+ENTER key, and be brought straight to our webstore! (It will take you to http://www.neworleansscrapbooksupplies.com/)
And, of course, I'm still working on updating the Tips & Techniques section, so you may wish to check that out on our main website (http://www.scrappersaurus.com/).
Our website and webstore are a constant work-in-progress and a definite labor of love! Please let us know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see on either one.
On a personal note, I subscribe to the DailyOM (http://www.dailyom.com/. They send me inspiring updates throughout the day with musical reviews, my personalized horoscope, and just plain good advice and news. The funny thing is that it is ALWAYS eerily relevant to whatever is going on in my life at that time, so I often find peace and understanding of my situation in the words of their articles. I know this sort of website isn’t for everybody, but I sincerely believe a lot of what they speak about has much logic and reasoning behind it.
Today, I received an article discussing how everyone needs to channel their excess or unsettled energies into constructive creativity. In essence, the excess and/or unsettled energy has potential to cause unnecessary anxiety and apprehension, which we all know is detrimental to both our physical and emotional well-being. And this is exactly one of the many reasons why *I* do crafting!
Stressors sometimes get blown out of proportion if I just sit idly and worry about "what to do". But I find when I engage myself in something constructive, I discover myself thinking more clearly and objectively about the issue, sometimes even from different perspectives than I originally had. Once I get to this point, more options seem to suddenly be available than what I originally thought, and I can then make a clear-headed decision or determination of what the next step is supposed to be. I usually also feel satisfied with myself, knowing I took control of my stressors, and didn’t allow them to wear me down or prevent me from enjoying the REAL life I have been so richly blessed with.
If you wish to visit the DailyOM website to see if it is something you enjoy or find interesting, click here: http://www.dailyom.com/. Namaste.
Even though it is Lent for many of you, you can still Laissez le bon temps roulez, cher!
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Also, you can now simply type NewOrleansScrapbookSupplies into your browser (no spaces!), hit the CTRL+ENTER key, and be brought straight to our webstore! (It will take you to http://www.neworleansscrapbooksupplies.com/)
And, of course, I'm still working on updating the Tips & Techniques section, so you may wish to check that out on our main website (http://www.scrappersaurus.com/).
Our website and webstore are a constant work-in-progress and a definite labor of love! Please let us know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see on either one.
On a personal note, I subscribe to the DailyOM (http://www.dailyom.com/. They send me inspiring updates throughout the day with musical reviews, my personalized horoscope, and just plain good advice and news. The funny thing is that it is ALWAYS eerily relevant to whatever is going on in my life at that time, so I often find peace and understanding of my situation in the words of their articles. I know this sort of website isn’t for everybody, but I sincerely believe a lot of what they speak about has much logic and reasoning behind it.
Today, I received an article discussing how everyone needs to channel their excess or unsettled energies into constructive creativity. In essence, the excess and/or unsettled energy has potential to cause unnecessary anxiety and apprehension, which we all know is detrimental to both our physical and emotional well-being. And this is exactly one of the many reasons why *I* do crafting!
Stressors sometimes get blown out of proportion if I just sit idly and worry about "what to do". But I find when I engage myself in something constructive, I discover myself thinking more clearly and objectively about the issue, sometimes even from different perspectives than I originally had. Once I get to this point, more options seem to suddenly be available than what I originally thought, and I can then make a clear-headed decision or determination of what the next step is supposed to be. I usually also feel satisfied with myself, knowing I took control of my stressors, and didn’t allow them to wear me down or prevent me from enjoying the REAL life I have been so richly blessed with.
If you wish to visit the DailyOM website to see if it is something you enjoy or find interesting, click here: http://www.dailyom.com/. Namaste.
Even though it is Lent for many of you, you can still Laissez le bon temps roulez, cher!
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Sunday, March 20, 2011
New Fleur de Lis stickers & Musical Brads
Wow--it's been far too long since I blogged! Let me catch you up...
We have added some new Fleur de Lis stickers and bling, and the bling is even safe to use on electronics! Also, Felix found some fantastic new Musical Instrument Brads, which are a mix of trumpet, drum, guitar, and cello brads. The sizes are 18mm for the trumpet, and 25mm for the drum, guitar, and cello.
I've stumbled upon a cache of brads and eyelets (I had never unpacked) in many different themes, and Felix is in the process of adding them to the webstore.
Tonight, our Design Team Member, Charlotte, called so we could talk on the phone while looking through new products on manufacturer's websites, trying to decide which products to get. And it's really a tough decision with an online store, because there isn't daily face-to-face feedback regarding which are the most desired. There are so many wonderful products out there right now!
Would you believe I have actually been doing some crafting for myself lately? Also, I'm co-organizer of a local MeetUp craft group here in Corpus Christi, called the Corpus Christi Crafters. And, of course, Scrappersaurus is the Sponsor of this MeetUp group! If you want to visit our site, here's the link: http://www.meetup.com/Corpus-Christi-Crafters/. You can sign in to see more details if you are already a MeetUp member. If you're not a member yet, you may want to consider joining and find a group near you. MeetUp is a great way to meet new people who are interested in the same things YOU are interested in--whatever it may be.
Have y'all decided on what you're going to do for National Scrapbook Day (May 7th)? I'm not sure if Mother's Day being the next day (May 8th) is a good thing or not! I plan on having an NSD event here at my house, and we will also be having a Project Linus event at the same time, for the needleworkers in the group. I'll have something for everybody to do--regardless of their craft--and am really looking forward to this. I'll be sure to have Felix take pics and post them on the website afterwards.
You know, I miss you all so much! Please take care of yourselves, stay in touch with us, and tell us which products you want us to stock. You know we do our best to get you the lowest pricing, and are happy to meet or beat any advertised price, if at all possible.
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
We have added some new Fleur de Lis stickers and bling, and the bling is even safe to use on electronics! Also, Felix found some fantastic new Musical Instrument Brads, which are a mix of trumpet, drum, guitar, and cello brads. The sizes are 18mm for the trumpet, and 25mm for the drum, guitar, and cello.
I've stumbled upon a cache of brads and eyelets (I had never unpacked) in many different themes, and Felix is in the process of adding them to the webstore.
Tonight, our Design Team Member, Charlotte, called so we could talk on the phone while looking through new products on manufacturer's websites, trying to decide which products to get. And it's really a tough decision with an online store, because there isn't daily face-to-face feedback regarding which are the most desired. There are so many wonderful products out there right now!
Would you believe I have actually been doing some crafting for myself lately? Also, I'm co-organizer of a local MeetUp craft group here in Corpus Christi, called the Corpus Christi Crafters. And, of course, Scrappersaurus is the Sponsor of this MeetUp group! If you want to visit our site, here's the link: http://www.meetup.com/Corpus-Christi-Crafters/. You can sign in to see more details if you are already a MeetUp member. If you're not a member yet, you may want to consider joining and find a group near you. MeetUp is a great way to meet new people who are interested in the same things YOU are interested in--whatever it may be.
Have y'all decided on what you're going to do for National Scrapbook Day (May 7th)? I'm not sure if Mother's Day being the next day (May 8th) is a good thing or not! I plan on having an NSD event here at my house, and we will also be having a Project Linus event at the same time, for the needleworkers in the group. I'll have something for everybody to do--regardless of their craft--and am really looking forward to this. I'll be sure to have Felix take pics and post them on the website afterwards.
You know, I miss you all so much! Please take care of yourselves, stay in touch with us, and tell us which products you want us to stock. You know we do our best to get you the lowest pricing, and are happy to meet or beat any advertised price, if at all possible.
Until next time, happy scrapping and stamping!
Dee
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Scrappersaurus remembers... 5 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
I wanted to write and let everyone know why I haven’t been blogging. There’s been a LOT going on in my life lately which has prevented me from blogging regularly as I intended to… which has prevented me from running the Scrappersaurus online store as I intended to… which has prevented me from crafting, even, or just doing mundane household things.
I’ve recently learned how important it is to take the time—to MAKE the time even—to stay in contact with those you love the most, and let them know how much you love them. I’ve (re)discovered that life is very, very fragile and it is of the utmost importance to stop the frenzy of the workaday world at times to really be able to LIVE. My best friend of 20 years needs a heart transplant immediately. The sister of another of my best friends had a massive heart attack and passed away unexpectedly. My 11-year-old Australian Cattle Dog, Ally, also passed away recently; that alone was a very, very traumatic experience for me. Add to that the trauma of having to leave my hometown of New Orleans and move to Texas. And now, here we are, five years later after Hurricane Katrina obliterated our first scrapbook store.
Katrina took a lot more from me than most people realize: she took my best friends, my network of physicians and proper medical care, my business, a lot of personal items, my family’s entire pictorial history, and our family Camp in Lake Catherine where we spent the majority of our holidays and all of our summers. And worst of all, she took away the beautiful City that I grew up in. She took away my history, actually. The schools and church I attended are now razed—they simply don’t exist any longer. The high school I graduated from doesn’t exist any longer. The neighborhoods I grew up in are still largely boarded up or considered “blighted property”. And yes, this is in New Orleans proper, where most of America thinks things have “gotten back to normal”. Sorry to say, there will NEVER be any getting “back to normal” at this point. Some of us will NEVER recover from our losses. Hard as we try to move on, there’s always something there to remind us of that awful saying, “You can never go home.” Or the song lyric that says, “You can get back to the place, but not the time.”
On Yahoo! News today I read an article that gave 3 different accounts of people who had “survived” (did any of us really survive?) Katrina, and where they are now. One gentleman, an attorney in the City, said he felt that New Orleans had “matured” after Katrina. Yeah, well, guess what… he lives Uptown and I think his life is probably totally different from the majority of others who live in New Orleans. Uptown is pretty much “back to normal”, I guess you’d say. Uptown has the funds and resources to rebuild, and cover up the devastation--for that, for them, I rejoice. But I don’t think he’d say that if he went and lived in New Orleans East or Saint Bernard Parish for a month or so. Heck, even a week. Then he’d know…it’s just a shell of what it once was, and is not really a lifestyle anymore.
I miss Methodist Hospital and Chalmette Medical Center. I miss the people who worked there with me. I had worked with Methodist since 1988 or 1989, I guess. I knew most of the staff, regardless of the department they worked in. I saw many department heads come and go; many changes to the operations of the hospital. Throughout it all, the people remained the same: caring, giving, and loving, regardless of who you were or why you were there. And when the radiologists at Methodist asked me to transcribe for them at Chalmette Medical Center, I got to know those people, as well. They, too, were the same kind of caring, giving, loving people. Just in a different parish. But all of it was still “New Orleans”. New Orleans people CARE. That’s why we want our City to come back to life as it was originally. We have opened our doors to people—tourists and different ethnic groups and cultures—for centuries, and blended them in with our way of life. Growing, changing, evolving, with the addition of every new person to our community, yet still staying the same caring, giving, loving “family” that we always have been.
Here’s an excerpt from my journal a few months ago. I think it is very appropriate to include it here, now.
“... I’m really depressed. I realized this afternoon that what I’m going through right now is actual grieving for all I have lost. I lost all my history in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, causing me to lose all my friends, doctors, and work over the next couple years. Then I ended up losing both my stores to the post-Katrina economy.
Now, living in Texas, I’m grieving the loss of the friends I had made after Hurricane Katrina and the doctors and medical network I had finally gotten into place after all my original doctors either moved out of state by choice or couldn’t return because they had no home or business to return to. I’m grieving also because there has been an immense oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles south of the Louisiana shoreline that has absolutely halted the Louisiana way of life for most people in the coastal area, killed a lot of wildlife, and is preventing tourists from going to Louisiana for vacation now. Yes, it’s affected Mississippi and Alabama, and even Florida already (its been two months), but Louisiana is my HOME—it’s where my roots are... where my family is from... where my family still is. I grieve for the loss of all that I knew and can never have or even visit again: the schools I went to, the churches I worshiped at, even the hospitals where I worked, and the apartments and houses I rented and owned are all GONE.
This afternoon we had to go pick up antibiotics for my dog from the veterinarian’s office, which was on South Padre Island, a ways away from where we live now in Corpus Christi. As Felix drove, I looked out over the waters, over the beaches and the marshes, watching the people fish or kayak or boat or just sit on the beach. It smelled so wonderfully familiar, just like when I was a little girl and we were at the Camp in Lake Catherine—something else we lost completely to Hurricane Katrina. He made a comment on how it smelled, and it reminded me of home, which actually made me even sadder and more depressed. I thought of all my family on the Bayou—Bayou Des Allemands and in Cutoff. I thought about what their lives must be like now. I thought about how much I missed smelling that wonderful smell of the melding of the sea and the sky, and the lifestyle to which I can never, ever go back. And it made me very, very sad, and I realized there’s no home anymore. There’s nowhere to go. I thought about the people whose sweat dug the canals crossed over by cars on the roads of the city, or the fishermen who left their families for sometimes weeks or months at a time to go out and catch the fish, shrimp, and oysters eaten in local restaurants and literally, around the globe. And I was so glad that I grew up where I did—in New Orleans. I know my great-great-uncles and cousins dug the Irish Channel and a lot of the canals in New Orleans. I know my great-grandfather was a butcher and a preacher, and my great-grandmother raised her own animals and butchered them herself for meals. In some ways, she never quite recovered after her first child was murdered, but she went on with life nonetheless—as we always do here in Louisiana—rearing her children and doing what she needed to do. I know her son, my grandfather, spoke our native Cajun French until he went to high school or college, and that although he was newly married with a child on the way and only 18 or 19 years old, served in the military to keep our country free so we would have these treasures to fall back on. And I know the true value all of that is. People who are not “from here” simply don’t comprehend it. And they miss out on the real richness these people have shared with everyone else. And so they do not understand our grief on having to give up all of that, simply because a Hurricane named Katrina decided to come here to visit, too...”
So, be real. Be real in your journaling, real in your blogging, real in your scrapbooking, and most importantly of all, be real with yourself. Know and allow yourself to feel the feelings you have, however much you wish to suppress them. Every now and then, just like the old photo or scrapbook albums you take out of the closet to look at—take out those feelings, dust them off, remember them, and then put them away and get back to real life. Today. And live the moment. From the time you are born, your moments are numbered. You never know the actual number you have left, or the number your friends or family members have left, so live in the moment, and love in the moment. Give yourself to reality every day. As the sun rises every day, we are given another fresh start, another chance to be the person we know we are inside, and another chance to love and give love to others. Bring joy to those you love. It will come back to you, a thousand-fold.
My love to ALL of you,
Dee
I’ve recently learned how important it is to take the time—to MAKE the time even—to stay in contact with those you love the most, and let them know how much you love them. I’ve (re)discovered that life is very, very fragile and it is of the utmost importance to stop the frenzy of the workaday world at times to really be able to LIVE. My best friend of 20 years needs a heart transplant immediately. The sister of another of my best friends had a massive heart attack and passed away unexpectedly. My 11-year-old Australian Cattle Dog, Ally, also passed away recently; that alone was a very, very traumatic experience for me. Add to that the trauma of having to leave my hometown of New Orleans and move to Texas. And now, here we are, five years later after Hurricane Katrina obliterated our first scrapbook store.
Katrina took a lot more from me than most people realize: she took my best friends, my network of physicians and proper medical care, my business, a lot of personal items, my family’s entire pictorial history, and our family Camp in Lake Catherine where we spent the majority of our holidays and all of our summers. And worst of all, she took away the beautiful City that I grew up in. She took away my history, actually. The schools and church I attended are now razed—they simply don’t exist any longer. The high school I graduated from doesn’t exist any longer. The neighborhoods I grew up in are still largely boarded up or considered “blighted property”. And yes, this is in New Orleans proper, where most of America thinks things have “gotten back to normal”. Sorry to say, there will NEVER be any getting “back to normal” at this point. Some of us will NEVER recover from our losses. Hard as we try to move on, there’s always something there to remind us of that awful saying, “You can never go home.” Or the song lyric that says, “You can get back to the place, but not the time.”
On Yahoo! News today I read an article that gave 3 different accounts of people who had “survived” (did any of us really survive?) Katrina, and where they are now. One gentleman, an attorney in the City, said he felt that New Orleans had “matured” after Katrina. Yeah, well, guess what… he lives Uptown and I think his life is probably totally different from the majority of others who live in New Orleans. Uptown is pretty much “back to normal”, I guess you’d say. Uptown has the funds and resources to rebuild, and cover up the devastation--for that, for them, I rejoice. But I don’t think he’d say that if he went and lived in New Orleans East or Saint Bernard Parish for a month or so. Heck, even a week. Then he’d know…it’s just a shell of what it once was, and is not really a lifestyle anymore.
I miss Methodist Hospital and Chalmette Medical Center. I miss the people who worked there with me. I had worked with Methodist since 1988 or 1989, I guess. I knew most of the staff, regardless of the department they worked in. I saw many department heads come and go; many changes to the operations of the hospital. Throughout it all, the people remained the same: caring, giving, and loving, regardless of who you were or why you were there. And when the radiologists at Methodist asked me to transcribe for them at Chalmette Medical Center, I got to know those people, as well. They, too, were the same kind of caring, giving, loving people. Just in a different parish. But all of it was still “New Orleans”. New Orleans people CARE. That’s why we want our City to come back to life as it was originally. We have opened our doors to people—tourists and different ethnic groups and cultures—for centuries, and blended them in with our way of life. Growing, changing, evolving, with the addition of every new person to our community, yet still staying the same caring, giving, loving “family” that we always have been.
Here’s an excerpt from my journal a few months ago. I think it is very appropriate to include it here, now.
“... I’m really depressed. I realized this afternoon that what I’m going through right now is actual grieving for all I have lost. I lost all my history in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, causing me to lose all my friends, doctors, and work over the next couple years. Then I ended up losing both my stores to the post-Katrina economy.
Now, living in Texas, I’m grieving the loss of the friends I had made after Hurricane Katrina and the doctors and medical network I had finally gotten into place after all my original doctors either moved out of state by choice or couldn’t return because they had no home or business to return to. I’m grieving also because there has been an immense oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles south of the Louisiana shoreline that has absolutely halted the Louisiana way of life for most people in the coastal area, killed a lot of wildlife, and is preventing tourists from going to Louisiana for vacation now. Yes, it’s affected Mississippi and Alabama, and even Florida already (its been two months), but Louisiana is my HOME—it’s where my roots are... where my family is from... where my family still is. I grieve for the loss of all that I knew and can never have or even visit again: the schools I went to, the churches I worshiped at, even the hospitals where I worked, and the apartments and houses I rented and owned are all GONE.
This afternoon we had to go pick up antibiotics for my dog from the veterinarian’s office, which was on South Padre Island, a ways away from where we live now in Corpus Christi. As Felix drove, I looked out over the waters, over the beaches and the marshes, watching the people fish or kayak or boat or just sit on the beach. It smelled so wonderfully familiar, just like when I was a little girl and we were at the Camp in Lake Catherine—something else we lost completely to Hurricane Katrina. He made a comment on how it smelled, and it reminded me of home, which actually made me even sadder and more depressed. I thought of all my family on the Bayou—Bayou Des Allemands and in Cutoff. I thought about what their lives must be like now. I thought about how much I missed smelling that wonderful smell of the melding of the sea and the sky, and the lifestyle to which I can never, ever go back. And it made me very, very sad, and I realized there’s no home anymore. There’s nowhere to go. I thought about the people whose sweat dug the canals crossed over by cars on the roads of the city, or the fishermen who left their families for sometimes weeks or months at a time to go out and catch the fish, shrimp, and oysters eaten in local restaurants and literally, around the globe. And I was so glad that I grew up where I did—in New Orleans. I know my great-great-uncles and cousins dug the Irish Channel and a lot of the canals in New Orleans. I know my great-grandfather was a butcher and a preacher, and my great-grandmother raised her own animals and butchered them herself for meals. In some ways, she never quite recovered after her first child was murdered, but she went on with life nonetheless—as we always do here in Louisiana—rearing her children and doing what she needed to do. I know her son, my grandfather, spoke our native Cajun French until he went to high school or college, and that although he was newly married with a child on the way and only 18 or 19 years old, served in the military to keep our country free so we would have these treasures to fall back on. And I know the true value all of that is. People who are not “from here” simply don’t comprehend it. And they miss out on the real richness these people have shared with everyone else. And so they do not understand our grief on having to give up all of that, simply because a Hurricane named Katrina decided to come here to visit, too...”
So, be real. Be real in your journaling, real in your blogging, real in your scrapbooking, and most importantly of all, be real with yourself. Know and allow yourself to feel the feelings you have, however much you wish to suppress them. Every now and then, just like the old photo or scrapbook albums you take out of the closet to look at—take out those feelings, dust them off, remember them, and then put them away and get back to real life. Today. And live the moment. From the time you are born, your moments are numbered. You never know the actual number you have left, or the number your friends or family members have left, so live in the moment, and love in the moment. Give yourself to reality every day. As the sun rises every day, we are given another fresh start, another chance to be the person we know we are inside, and another chance to love and give love to others. Bring joy to those you love. It will come back to you, a thousand-fold.
My love to ALL of you,
Dee
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