chutzpah, AKA cojones

I was juggling job offers and potential apartment leases, waiting for the written offer from Cool Job Inc. while I held off Mr. Landlord at Dream Apartment. This lasted for a few days while I "kept my options open" and hoped that I could actually secure some kind of income before signing a lease on a new place...

Lo and behold, on the last day I needed to give the landlord my final answer, the job I wanted came through! Woo hoo!

Now I'm on my way to starting with a new secular disaster recovery organization in New Orleans (more on that later), AND I'll be moving into a sweet pad Uptown.

Uptown, between Magazine Street and St. Charles Avenue, parallel to the Mississippi River, is also known as the "Isle of Denial", because life appears almost normal in this narrow strip of the city that didn't flood. I'll be closer to the universities than the French Quarter. My neighborhood is quiet and family-friendly, and near lots of cool bars, restaurants, shops, drug stores, yoga studios, book stores, parks, cafes, grocery stores, etc.

My apartment is what's known as a "shotgun", meaning if you stood on the street and opened all the doors, they would line up and you could shoot a gun straight through toward the backyard. Front to back, it's got a front porch with shutters and a rocking chair, a front room, a living room, a huge kitchen, a cute bathroom, a bedroom and a small backyard. It has high ceilings, hardwood floors throughout most of the place, and black and white checked tiles in the kitchen.

Even after I get my stuff out of storage in DC and unpack everything, I won't be anywhere near filling the place with furniture! Ah, well, one hurdle at a time... I am excited about decorating it, though, and pulling all my photography and art out of boxes.

August 29th is, in case you've been hiding on a rock and haven't heard in the media, the 1-year anniversary of Katrina. How fitting for me that instead of being overcome with sadness and despair on a day like today, I'm filled with hope about all the great new things that are afoot in my life, in this reborn city.