Nawlins in a nutshell, preferrably praline

i got back from our art therapy conference in new orleans yesterday night. we started out driving wednesday in about the worst weather i've ever had to drive in. there were tornado warnings that day along the florida panhandle, exactly where we would be driving through, and as the wind was swaying my car like a ragdoll on the highway i seriously thought we would be swept away into a big funnel cloud in the sky. i stopped on the side of the road for a few minutes because it was so bad i couldn't see. after a few minutes the rain let up slightly so i decided to drive to the next exit and sit in a waffle house parking lot while lightning was striking all around us followed by loud roars echoing into my frightened ears. everybody in the car pointed out that i would duck every time a huge lightning bolt would strike. i really couldn't help myself, it was an instinctual reaction. i'm scared of lightning. i think it's beautiful in pictures but not when it's close to me. the lightning and wind with the streams of water leaking into my car from my window was not a good mix. i used to be deathly afraid of tornadoes as a child because we almost got caught in a tornado on the road. i remember seeing trees faling into the road and those memories were all coming back to me on this trip. thankfully all the rain and lightning subsided enough to where we could get back on the road and head to the crecent city. after all that natural calamity we went through, we saw the most beautiful sunset and rainbow. sara has pictures, my batteries in mine were dead of course plus i was driving so i'll have to wait for her to send me the pictures but the sky looked like nothing i had ever seen. it was so surreal. that's the only way i can explain. plus there was a rainbow that went from one part of the horizon to the next. it literally covered the whole sky. we sounded so sappy oooing and ahhhing over the clouds. every five seconds it was "oh, look over there, wow, how pretty!" it really was breathtaking though. all of this while listening to bjork. she was the soundtrack of our trip. i forgot all my cd's and pui was the only one who brought anything so bjork it was. i have to say she was a very fitting accompanyment to our trip.

once we got to nola, we were treated by getting to say in the illustrious Astor hotel thanks to rachel! her family owns a few hotels in new orleans and her uncle let us stay the whole weekend for free. and this is a very fancy hotel. we're talking 5 star. and it was walking distance to the conference so another plus. it was hard having a conference in new orleans though because who wants to be inside a building listening to presentations when there's, well, new orleans outside. i took the whole afternoon friday off to go take pictures. i got my palms involuntariyly read by a street artist i was taking a picture of. he was from spain and his name was giovanni i think. he asked me if i thought about running for president of the united states. from the little i could understand of him anyway. (not to self, just take picture and keep on walking next time.) i usually talk to the people i photograph on the street because it's fun to meet new people that way and they're usually interesting and nice and it also helps them feel more comfortable with me taking their picture. anyway, this guy got a little too comfortable and kept trying to hold my hands and his did not look very clean. finally he got distracted and i bolted. so yea, i was a little creeped out. you never can be too careful in new orleans.

saturday night, the last night of the conference was a blast. they had this pseudo mardi gras ball at the hilton with this middle aged white band called appropriately "Orleans" i thought it was funny that out of all the great authentic blues musicians in that city they got this bad cajun wanna be cover band. although i still danced my ass off. i mean the whole dance floor was covered with art therapists shaking their booty to whitney houston and old motown songs. i though imight as well join in, why not, any excuse to dance. i even started a conga line! it was so fun to just let loose after all the stress with school and everything. i think that's the most exercise i've gotten all semester and it felt great. i must have danced almost nonstop for at least 2 or 3 hours. i got a fisheye camera at urban outfitters and i used it at the dance party and i can't wait to see how they turned out! i'll try and post some on here when i get them back.

oh and i did go to some good presentations too. heheh. like i said new orleans is not the best place to have a conference, there's just too much distraction, but i did learn some new things about trauma. a lot of the presentations had to do with katrina and the positive affect art therapy has had on some of the children who survived it. rachel, kara, pui and I want to do our final project doing art therapy with kids who survived katrina around the new orleans area next summer. we made a lot of good contacts from art therapists who have been working with children already so i felt good about that. we're going to try and do a documentary about the art therapy process with the kids and maybe have them make their own documentary about their lives after katrina. i want to take photographs of the process as well. i'm really excited about the project. it's still in its early stages but after going to the conference and getting more contacts and seeing what others have been doing it really motivated me even more to want to work with these children.


well i'm heading up to dahlonega tomorrow for thanksgiving. i hope there's still some fall leaves still left on the trees. and i can't wait to listen to the cd's i got at tower at their clearance sale over the weekend. i'm so sad their going out of business:(

singing on the beach

please watch, you are guaranteed to laugh, probably until it hurts.

Bob likes his cowbell!

Bob never ceases to amaze me. Just when i thought he couldn't be any cooler he proves me wrong. He has this theme time radio hour on xm radio every week and theme this week was "Dance." Well he mentioned a song that featured a cowbell and he gave a shout out to my fav snl sketch. Bob says,

“This next song features the cowbell, an instrument you’ll hear on many fine records,
including Mountain’s ‘Mississippi Queen.’
As Christopher Walken knows, you can’t have enough cowbell:
Walken: 'I’m telling you, fellas, you’re gonna want that cowbell.
I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.'"

my favorite musician appreciates my favorite comedian. and all is right with the world.

Cash on the prairie

I was passing by one of my residents sleeping by the tv at my internship today and Little House on the Prarie was on and I happened to notice that Johnny Cash was playing a preacher. I hadn't seen the show in a really long time and I used to watch it all the time as a kid but I didn't know enough about the man to recognize who it was back then I guess. But it was a nice little surprise, it was right before it went to commercial but from what i saw he was consoling a little girl who's pet or something just died. It just reminded me how cool that man is, I mean who else in the rock world could pull off playing a preacher on Little House on the Prarie and still give the finger to the country music industry and rock your socks off at the same time. He just didn't care what anybody thought and that to me is priceless. I mean yeah, he fits right in on the prarie, but he stayed true to himself no matter what. I mean can you see any other rock legend getting away with hanging out with Laura Ingles and people still respect them? Mick Jagger, I think not.