The Downside

I am in love with this city.  In LOVE.  Here's a couple reasons:

• Paul Rudd works at Starbucks.  Or his taller, more attractive doppelgänger
• I get to say, "yes ma'am", and "yes sir" whenever somebody finishes a sentence.
• I get to call ladies by "miss-and-then-their-name", like "Miss Annie" or "Miss Ruthie".
• I have a free apartment in an amazing neighborhood with a free car parked outside and free food in the fridge.
• A man on a bicycle will deliver mac & cheese, shrimp po'boys and crab cakes right to your door.
• You can buy alcoholic beverages in drive-up windows.
• I have a grill on my balcony.  You know, the New Orleans balcony, with the lonely jazz music playing in the soft distance?
• The man on the bicycle will deliver beer too, if you ask him to.
• The architecture is amazing.
• Impromptu parades.

• Muffalettas:

Oh. My. God.

THAT SAID...

Summer and I saw three rats yesterday (way too close to our apartment), and I've been yelled at by no less than six homeless people.

We see a lot of Katrina devastation.  Tons of stoops in the lower 9th ward, with no house on top:

Most houses still have the markings from spray-paint identification.  To read a great article about these markings, and see more photos, click here.

These ones always get to Summer:

And of course there are still abandoned homes everywhere with vegetation growing throughout:

Just being here has been an emotional experience.  I have gotten used to hearing a lot of tragic stories out in the field every day at work, since everyone has a Katrina story, and they share them with you.  Some stories are both horrifying and inspirational.  But nothing prepared me for what I heard today.

Miss Annie and I were stopping at our last device-repair with a man in the lower 9th who told us that his son was murdered two years ago.  He pointed behind us to two bullet holes in the wall and explained that his son fell right where we were standing.  Somebody just came to the door and shot him.  "Youngsters these days, they'll kill you for nothin'.  Nothin'".  I didn't know what to say.  And it gets worse.  Just one year after the murder, this man's wife died in the hospital and five months after that, his other son was mugged while driving a delivery truck and shot, for his empty wallet and gold necklace.