I’ve definitely got some dark, cold winter post-Christmas blues. I’ve also been homesick since my adventures in New Orleans over New Year’s Eve. So, after waxing romantic about it for the last couple decades, I decided it’s time to make the move. Hopefully somewhere around the beginning of 2020, I’ll be taking myself down to the ‘City of Yes,’ as she’s recently been called. Also, the Crescent City or the oh so popular, Big Easy. I’m taking my Cajun heart Home.
There’s lots to do between now and then. First off: getting a transfer with my job. Can’t live somewhere without one of those. Then there’s real state transactions to be made. I’ll get there though.
The fact is, whatever gives you the blues… be it unrequited love, missing a place, financial woes, or just a plain ole malfunctioning brain messing with your serotonin… or some combination of all of the above, there’s always something you can do to make things better. You don’t have to stay still or stagnant. Action usually requires change and change is certainly terrifying but it can be so worth it.
I won’t say I don’t love Colorado. I do. But home is something in the soul. It can’t be denied.
There’s also some fear of the reality not living up to the fantasy. I’ve wanted to move to New Orleans for more than half my life. It’s always been my favorite place. So, what if I go and it’s awful? I can’t believe it will be. It may be a little scary, it may require some adapting, but I have to believe it will be what I make of it. I have to keep opening myself up to people and focusing on creating memorable moments. I’m also anticipating moving into one of the safer areas and not venturing into others when I shouldn’t. I get the rules of this city. It’s like knowing to avoid the 16th Street Mall here in Denver (trust me, skip the mall, hit Larimer Square).
I’ve had to analyze some of my pros and cons. I will miss the snow but not necessarily the 5 layers of clothes I have to wear to go out in it. I will miss the general lack of bugs. Oh, I’ve had my share of adventures with spiders and wasps but you still have those in Louisiana plus all the mosquitoes, termite swarms (not so bad in the area I’m moving to), stinging caterpillars (I’m def going to begin a small but adorable parasol collection. I already know some I want and where to get them!), and palmetto bugs- aka the spawn of hell flying cockroaches that WILL CHASE YOU! The crime is certainly a concern considering I live in the Colorado version of Mayberry but then there’s actual high quality restaurants that don’t usually charge an extremity per meal. There’s live music all day and all night somewhere and you can find it free or cheap on any corner. There’s gardenias drenched days and jasmine soaked nights. There’s a full growing season! Then there’s the people… the people of Colorado have been lovely. They’re polite and so incredibly smart. The people of New Orleans treat everyone like family from the first minute of meeting. New Orleanians are more like Nashvillians- open, friendly, and warm. Then again, the racism there is so heavy. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist in Denver but it’s definitely different. I won’t even get into the corruption, the poor public education system, and the politics. It’s hard to consider moving to the far shore of a lipstick red state. Oh, yeah, and it’s back to the humidity and hurricanes.
But a friend said to me recently, “No place is a utopia.”
That hits the nail on the head.
It would be great if the heady, seductive siren song of New Orleans existed in a place with 4 seasons, less than 200% humidity on a dry day, and was free of all pests. That place doesn’t exist though. If you pull at one thread of all that makes the people laugh so loud, or dance in sorrow, or wear insane costumes for no reason at all, or cook food that makes you feel like you’re at your momma’s table, or love so passionately, you risk destroying all that makes this a living, breathing, sighing piece of land. You risk disrupting the magic that murmurs through the streets.
And that’s what’s been calling me.
To her I shall go… perhaps then some of these blues will be carried away on a river breeze.
