I’m going back to New Orleans for the weekend to do a recon mission at my house. Doesn’t look promising but I’ll take pics and post them here when I’m back.

I miss Girl Scout Camp.

Okay, I know I’ve been away from camp for awhile (not really that long. Only one summer, one loooong summer) but I’m used to the topic of camp popping up in random places pretty frequently. Like a person might think I look familiar and it turns out they went to camp and know me from there.

woohoo, local celebrity! “That’s Dragon, she has a tattoo.”

The point of this ego-stroking post is that I was at a poker night last week (by the way I took 2nd place and won $20. Not bad for never playing before) and I made a motion on the edge of the table, which is not vulgar you dirty minded perv, but rather a camp song/game. I wish I could explain the motions because it’s pretty fun to do and if you get really good and fast at it you can impress people in bars and get beers bought for you.

Anyway, I made this motion and one of the girls playing recognized it as a camp thing. Normally I would have asked if she had attended Camp Whispering Pines but this time I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I knew that being from Texas the chances of her going to my camp were slim to none and I’m not ready to not be a local celebrity.

Let me first say, Houston and Galveston I’m so sorry but good job on having the foresight to run the hell out of the way of the hurricane.

Next, I want to hear President Bush say there is no such thing as global warming again. Yup, no global warming, which is why we’ve had an incredibly busy hurricane season with 2 incredibly huge, damaging hurricanes.

I don’t want to turn all tree hugger-ish on ya’ll but really this HAS to be because of global warming. I think our President needs to swallow his pride and admit that he was wrong in saying there is no such thing as global warming. Then he needs to start working on correcting the problem. Immediately. We, as a nation, need to do all we can to help save the environment. At this point our lives and the cities we love depend on us shaping up and becoming concerned for the environment.

I mean, unless you like being pelted each year with more and more deadly hurricanes. I hate to say it, but this is just the first hurricane season in what is sure to be a long line of devastating ones.

Good luck Houston.

First Hurricane Katrina screws up my plan to see Tori in concert. Now Hurricane Rita is coming to screw up my plan to see Coldplay.

I really hate hurricane season.

The country is still not ready to hear September 11th jokes, but damnit New Orleans is ready to hear some hurricane jokes. We have that bizarre sense of humor that makes every other state uncomfortable and makes us want to laugh at the worst of situations.

I read this joke online and enjoyed it so much I thought I would share. I’m not sure who orginally said it but I found it on cnn.com.

What is President Bush’s stance on Roe vs. Wade?

He doesn’t care how people get out of New Orleans.

groan all you want, but I love it.

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.

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.