Generally I’m doing okay now. I’m settling into Austin and although I’m not making friends, I am learning my way around the city. I’m starting to feel more comfortable here, although I am not nearly close to calling it home. I’m not so depressed and homesick for NOLA all the time anymore, it’s more waves of “what in the hell just happened?” every once in awhile. Like any minute Ashton Kutcher will pop out and yell “Damn New Orleans!! You’ve been punk’d!!” And I’ll be able to think “hmm, yup, that makes so much more sense than what really has been going on.”

Today I bought the newest Time magazine and New Orleans is the cover story. As I was flipping through it and looking at the pictures of Mayor Nagin in front of the Superdome and houses in the Garden District burning down I realized just how surreal it is to be looking at pictures from home in national magazines. I mean New Orleans may have been a huge city, but we liked to fly pretty much under the radar. I mean, sure we liked to throw wild attention grabbing parties (Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, etc etc) but as far as national headlines we were a pretty quiet city.

And now I can’t go to the grocery store without seeing us on the cover of every magazine out there. It just feels weird.

The one really good thing to come out of the hurricane:

Yes it’s big, in fact according to Jason it’s too big for my short torso, but who the hell cares?!? It’s so perfect and wonderful and dreamy that it even deserves a name. So in honor of New Orleans I’ve named her Maple, for Maple Street.

My god do I ever love this bag.

People in Austin don’t smile at you. Ever.

In New Orleans everyone smiled at everyone. I even smiled at people that I was flipping off on the interstate. You also said hello to perfect strangers and they never looked back at you like you were going to steal their purse. Wait, get this, the person you said hello to, they even said hello back to you! Imagine that!

Here in Austin I’ve tried my New Orleans charm on a few random strangers and they just think I’m crazy.

First I said hello to a girl that lives in my apartment complex when we were both getting clothes from the laundryroom. She just looked back at me blankly, grabbed her underwear, and escaped as quickly as she could. Yeah, all I said was hi.

Next I tried saying hello to people in some of my classes and that didn’t work. Apparently at UT you only talk to people that you share a dorm room with/ pledge to a frat with/ or drunkenly molest one night at a party.

Finally tonight I tried to smile, not even speak to, but just smile at some other neighbors from my complex. The guy smiled back at me, which leads me to believe he’s not from Austin, but the girl didn’t smile at me. In fact she made eye contact but looked away so quickly you would have thought I looked that kid from the Mask.

Stupid, nonfriendly Austin. Learn how to smile back because I REFUSE to let you make me mean.

here’s the backstory:
The Arboretum is the main mall in Austin, or rather it’s the only mall I can find. But it’s not a mall, it’s an outdoor shopping center. And when you want a mall the Arboretum just won’t do.

The following is a conversation that happened between me, Random Woman Shopping (RWS), and a Bath and Body Works employee (BBWE).

RWS: “Where is the mall here?”
BBWE: “The Arboretum is a mall”
RWS: “No, I mean where is the mall?”
BBWE: “Well the Arboretum has plenty of stores and is beautiful to stroll through”
RWS: “It’s nice, but I’m used to real malls, do you have one around here?”
BBWE just looks at her
me: “I understand, the arboretum’s really nice, but sometimes you just need a real mall. ”
RWS: “Thank you!”

This woman and I just got each other.

Things I’ve learned how to do thanks to UT:
1. ride a public bus.
2. sprint 40,000 yards between 2 classes in less than 10 minutes
3. descretely sniff my armpits to see if I smell so offensive from 40,000 yard sprint that I need to sit far far away from other students
4. descretely spray perfume onto said armpits so I’m not totally offensive with my scent.
5. get insanely mad at a computer program because it won’t give me the information I so desperately need.

UT accepted me today and I’m now enrolled in four classes for this semester. I’ve got to play catch up for 9 days worth of missed classes, but what else do I have to do? Also I’m not going to be looking for a job anytime soon since I’m getting such a good deal on school. I’ve got to focus all of my energy there.

Today when I went to get my fancy new UT student i.d. I ran into a friend of mine from high school, Peter Spoon Chassignac, in the line. He is also a student displaced by the hurricane and is seeking academic refuge at UT this semester. Peter informed me that a lot of my friends from Mandeville High School are now living in Austin (who knew Austin was THE hip place to live?!?). It’s weird, like Hurricane Katrina was the tornado from the Wizard of Oz, but instead of dropping me in Munchkin Land it dropped me back in high school in 1996.

That means, hopefully Univeristy of Texas, Austin will accept me as a student.

See for the low, low price of $700 UT will accept you and allow you to take as many freaking classes as you like, so long as you are a New Orleans college student and swear to hate Texas A&M.

I’m hoping that there are still classes open, although at this point in time I would probably take anything just to have something constructive to do.

I signed a lease on an apartment in Austin because some complexes here were offering to waive all deposits, application fees, and giving one month free rent to people displaced by the hurricane. I figured I should jump on this before all of the other refugees snatch up the good apartments.

So on Tuesday I’m heading back to Houston to pick up my car and to Ikea to get some basic items I’m going to need to feel a little more comfortable in my bare apartment.

I wish I could say that I’m really excited about moving, but I’m not. I only know one person here, and as nice as she is, she’s very busy with grad school and wedding planning. I’m really homesick for my friends and for my family. I haven’t spoken to my mom in a number of days and I’m starting to just get really homesick for a friendly voice.

I want to go home. I want to go home. But for now I need to get used to the fact that home is an empty, plain, boring apartment.

You remember how in my other Tori-centric post I said this weird obsession with getting to Tori in this time of need could not end well? I could not have been more right.

I didn’t get to her at the booksigning. They did a lottery drawing of names for folks that would get to see her, and yup, I didn’t win. Even crying like a fool and explaining that I’m from New Orleans got me no where. Okay, well it got me some strange looks, but that’s it.

Next up is the concert. I carefully packed the tickets when evucating New Orleans. I checked the bag a few times to make sure they were there. Well leaving Houston this morning I didn’t double check them, I simply believed that when Jason said he had them, that he had them. When we got to Austin I went to look for the tickets to see what time the show started and the tickets were MIA. He swears they were in my purse, but I never saw them. I think maybe he thought they were in my purse but that they are really on a nice plaid chair somewhere.

So far I haven’t cried. I know I’m being stupid, especially since in this horrible time of destruction I have so much to be thankful for, but seeing Tori was the one “normal” pre hurricane things I had left. I might cry later, but right now, just like everything else I don’t think it’s sunk in.

Can anyone forward my blog to Tori and have her email me? Or how about someone pretend to be Tori and email me, that might make me smile even if it’s stupid.

I’m leaving for Austin first thing on Friday morning.

Will have email access in case you need to get me or my new phone number. I’ll be returning to Houston Monday or Tuesday.