Here we go
The next week is going to be tremendously fun. I cannot even imagine it, really.
The whole Saints thing alone is outrageous. Yesterday morning, I went on a 52 mile bike ride (up the river to towns so nondescript and boring that they didn’t even have names), and on the way back, a half-naked man who I saw peeing along the levee started chasing after me yelling WHO DAT. And it wasn’t even that weird. Because here, people just do that kind of thing. After the game, we went out and celebrated (for what? for everything) and it was one of those time where you feel like your life could easily be a music video. Everyone happy, joyous, sliding smoothly through this perfectly detached and unreal existence of perfect pleasantness.
It’s a crazy thing, spirit is. It’s hard to find something as unifying (that’s not a terrible occurrence like 9/11) that implants this kind of chronic Christmas morning feeling in everyone, a feeling so glorious that people dance in streets; give you wrist bands when you’re not 21 because, well, what the hell, just because; hug and kiss and shake hands and chest bump; shed every ounce of privacy. Everyone, everyone felt something. Sacramento had spirit for a few years when Chris Weber was there and the Kings were good. But it’s nothing compared to this. Think of what it costs to close our school down tomorrow. That’s a huge deal. And the reason? So we can all (ALL, everyone) go to the parade downtown. Tulane is the biggest employer in the city; and it’s granting everyone the day off to go frolic in the streets, wear black and gold, drink things and yell Who Dat until they cannot any longer.
And then there is Mardi Gras. It’s something that’s impossible to think about at this point.
The funny thing about New Orleans is that it’s a community. And it’s kind of a hard thing to describe to other people. But you really do have to be here to feel the pleasure. Really, I don’t think life is like it is here anywhere else. It’s almost as if anything you imagine because it’d be cool and outrageous can happen. If it’s not happening somewhere in the city, then there probably aren’t rules against it anyway, and you should take it upon yourself to do. Unprecedented. That’s a fitting word.
