San Quentin Stand Up

First of all . . .

from

I will be spending today dreaming of king cake and St. Charles Avenue and wishing I were in New Orleans.  I have so many great memories of watching the parades from uptown, catching the best beads at Muses, sipping frozen drinks out of neon plastic glasses, and trying to find anywhere that would let us use the bathroom without paying $10.  Oh New Orleans, I miss you!  Especially at your most festive.

Back to San Quentin.  Despite my borderline crazy schedule right now, my poetry class at San Quentin on Monday nights is totally the regular highlight of my week.  It's so funny/heartwarming to see the guys watching from their dorms for me to arrive and the guard to announce, "Attention all dorms: Poetry is good in the Education room . . . Poetry is good in the Education room." (Is good = students are allowed to come out of their dorms and head toward the classroom).  So far, I haven't had a single student show up without his homework.  Impressive, right?  And you should see how psyched they are to learn about complex poetic form next week.  Two of them even compiled a list of poems they want me to hunt down and print out for them, just based on their own interests (and since needless to say, they don't have access to an extensive poetry library).

Tonight, after I handed back their homework from last week (which I'd scribbled all over with a red pen), I was yammering on about how I want them to start focusing on the form/aesthetics of their poems, as well as to zero in on the sensual images & concrete details.  And one of my students said:

"See, I always thought that poetry was supposed to be abstract.  That you were supposed to use abstract language.  That was my thinking.  But then I came to your class, and I learn that I should use concrete images, and that too abstract is bad.  Which wasn't what I'd been thinking.  But then again, my thinking landed me in prison.  It landed me right in West Block."

HAHA!  See why I love them so?

and p.s., this past Friday I had a delightful blogger lunch date with this girl!  I promise to post pics as soon as she sends them to me (I left my camera/phone in the car).  Hint, hint Leeann! :)

Serious nostalgia.

My last 24 hours in New Orleans were incredible: the event went swimmingly (click here for a picture and a brief review!)--I forget that although I sometimes get nervous before talking in front of people, all the anxiety goes away as soon as I begin talking about something about which I feel passionately.  It was a great crowd, lively questions, and ultimately, I think, a great success.  Here's a pic from right before the panel discussion of me with my two college creative writing professors (so dear to me!), Peter Cooley and Dale Edmonds:

After the event, I hopped back on the street car and headed to an old haunt, the Maple Leaf, to see

There's something really liberating about wandering around a city on your own . . . so many things to do and people to meet . . . but I guess it helps being in a city you already know well.  Rebirth was, as always, incredible!  I didn't get to take any pics inside cause it was SO DARK I just knew the camera wouldn't do them justice.  I (barely) made it back to my hotel Tuesday night, and then Wednesday I experienced what may have been the highlight of my trip: lunch with old English professors.  Oh man--I was totally overcome with sweet nostalgia, and found myself wishing I was back in the Tulane English Department having conversations about Ernest Hemingway with these folks.

On the way to the airport, we stopped by my old house!

Ohhhh 7820 Birch St., how I miss you!

College is such an incredible time in your life, and you have no idea how to appreciate it while you're there.  It's the tragedy of growing up: you don't know anything else, and so you don't know to savor every single moment.  Seeing students walking around my old college campus made me almost impossibly sad, for just a minute, just knowing that I'll never be back there again.

But then it was back to the Bay Area where I got to celebrate the Giants' incredible victory over the Rangers--WHAT A GAME!--and then again last night??  I have to admit, I kind of felt sorry for the Rangers (and for Micaela and Marianne, the prettiest Rangers fans around!)--once they started walking people, it was just . . . embarrassing.

Happy Friday, and happy (soon-to-be) Halloween!

New Orleans: Yesterday and Today

This isn't some cheesy Katrina post; I literally mean yesterday and today.  I'm only here for a few days, so I'm trying to make the most of my time (which includes a lot of lunches & dinners surrounding the Zeitoun event I am here for).  Yesterday, I got back from Morgan City a little after noon.  I checked into my hotel and hopped straight on the streetcar and headed up to Maple St., where we used to hang out all the time in college.  First stop, Fresco--a restaurant where my bestie used to work (and which has a legendary spicy tomato dip).  Second stop, PJ's coffee, proudly displaying this on their door:

brew dat!

I also moseyed on down to the Maple St. Bookstore, where I picked up the latest copy of the New Orleans Review and some Eracism bumper stickers.  NOSTALGIA at its finest.

Then it was time to meet some folks for dinner at Lebanon's--the local restaurant my peeps and I patronized probably twice a week for four years in college.  I can now personally testify that after ten years, they still have the best hummus I've ever had in my life.  

And then I broke my no-Bourbon-St. rule and headed down to the French Quarter.  I was by myself, so I figured it would be wiser to stay in the more populated parts of the city, so I wandered around Decatur St., Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral:

stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets:

headed over to Bourbon St. where I made friends with some girls in New Orleans for a work conference (we discussed love, sex, and religion) and had (3) infamous hand grenades at:

saw a bunch of typical New Orleans signs such as:

and:

And that was enough of that.  I grabbed a cab uptown and called it a night.  But then this morning, I was right back at it.  We had an early luncheon this morning with the event organizers and speakers (as well as some students from the law school and school of social work), which was nice.  After the luncheon, I went to a very special place:

The Tulane English Department!  It was amazing to see so many of the same people in the building where I spent the majority of my undergrad years.  I then took the streetcar to another very special place:

The Columns Hotel . . . possibly my favorite place in New Orleans.  If I fantasized about getting married, I'd fantasize about getting married here.  There's no place I love to sit outside and sip a martini more . . . it's so quintessential New Orleans, and so reminds me of my time here.  This was my view from the big old southern porch today, looking out onto St. Charles Avenue.

And now, I'm scrambling to get dressed for our big event tonight--wish me luck, as the room is set for 270 people.  YIKES!

Hello from New Orleans!

I had no idea how badly I missed New Orleans until I got back here.  I couldn't stop grinning in the cab to my hotel in the Garden District . . . just seeing all the familiar street signs and fleurs de lis everywhere made me so happy.  Goodness, this city has a charm like no other city I've been to.

But first--before I got to New Orleans--I went to see Summer in Morgan City (where her family lives).  Summer's daddy passed away yesterday morning, as I waited to board my flight to New Orleans.  The timing was both horrible and perfect; I'm so sad that I didn't get there in time, but I'm grateful that I got to be with Summer last night . . . she and her mama and Mr. B were so welcoming and wonderful, despite the circumstances, and we sat together and had a little wine and looked at pictures of Daddy Butch with Summer's sister and niece.  It was sad, but it was wonderful to be with them.

Sadly, this is the only proof of our time together.  We drove to Summer's sister's house to pick up some fans (it is so hot & humid here!), and Adam snapped this picture of me and Summer with fans piled on top of us in the back seat of her mama's car!

Well, it's mostly true that that picture is our only proof.  There is one more (slightly clearer) version, but I forbid Summer from acknowledging it cause I had a double chin.  Ha.  

And here's a dose of extreme cuteness--I'm not normally a tiny-designer-dog loving person, but Summer's mama's dog is adorable.  

You should've seen her when she stole my apple slice this morning! 
3 lbs of mischief.  

And speaking of Summer's mama, she's practically my new BFF.  I loooooove her, and we're so much alike!  She's got blonde hair and she loves astrology and lots of gold bling and she is a vegetarian. :)  It was really nice hanging out with all of them, both to mourn Daddy Butch and to celebrate him.  Summer showed me a very sweet video of her daddy--all hooked up to machines--smiling so big when she started talking to him.  He was in his hospital bed and he was on oxygen, but his beautiful daughter was still making him laugh . . . .

This morning, when the family headed out to the funeral home, I drove back to New Orleans and checked into my hotel.  I'm so happy to be here!  The first thing I did was hop on the streetcar and head to our old college hangout, Maple St., where I had a $2.50 draft Abita:

and now I am stealing away a moment before meeting some folks at our other old college hangout, Lebanon's Cafe!  So excited.  More on New Orleans tomorrow!

All-work-no-play

Y'all are gonna witness a very disciplined Claire this weekend.

♥

(Or rather, not witness, since I will hopefully be absent from the blog world).  As much as I'd love to spend the weekend playing around with my cronies, drinking outside in the sunshine, and taking a little beach trip, 'tis not gonna happen.  I'm gonna have my weary head in the books all weekend working on these two things:

1. Voice of Witness writing

You may remember the interviews I did in the South this summer.  I met with four amazing women who had recently been released from prison (and who were brave enough to share their stories with me).  Well, as you can imagine, those recorded interviews had to be transcribed into documents, and now they have to be whipped up into first person narratives.  Tonight is slated for continuing to immerse myself the writing styles of past Voice of Witness books, and tomorrow is all about putting pen to paper (i.e. fingertips to keyboard).  Suffice to say that Sunday I'll be taking a break for football!

2. Campaigning against this.

I don't talk about politics very often on my blog, because frankly, I hate arguing.  But fighting against the death penalty is in my blood--it's in my heart--and it's a big part of who I am.  (If the state doesn't stop the planned execution of Albert Brown, I will do a longer post on this next Tuesday, before heading to San Quentin for an evening vigil).

That said, it's Friday!  And today, my Friday loves are New Orleans themed:

Summergirl

1. Abita Purple Haze

my Whole Foods shopping cart

New Orleans-brewed Abita beer is hard to come by in San Francisco . . . which was why I was overjoyed when Summer told me I could find it at Whole Foods!  Needless to say, I picked up two 6-packs this week, and will be happily sipping away while watching the Saints/Falcons game on Sunday morning (big game for me: I grew up in Georgia, then moved to New Orleans at 18).  Have you had Purple Haze raspberry wheat beer??  If not, get yourself to a Whole Foods, stat.

2. Drew Brees

hi, I'm Drew Brees, and I'm sweet and precious and an amazing quarterback who's gonna lead the Saints in beating the Falcons this week

3.  This Louisiana girl 

is well on her way to makin' a baby!  Fingers & toes crossed, prayers sent up, chants repeated!

Happy Friday everyone--hope your weekends involve more fun than mine will!

p.s. Enter my adorable etsy giveaway!

p.p.s. Make the black bean chili I posted yesterday!

A very very good day.

Yesterday was a pretty magical day. This is how it went down:

*It started with my second acupuncture appointment with Thuy, which was even more amazing than my first. Pretty sure this is going to be an incredible addition to my routine.

*I came home relaxed from acupuncture, picked some tomatoes from the garden, and sat down with my computer and started filling out unemployment forms. I was in the midst of trying to figure them out, when . . . I got word that my job was saved! We got fully funded and I get to go back to Balboa next week!!

*I jetted across the street to get some celebratory champagne, and toasted with my roommate (and dear friend whom I LOVE) as soon as she got home.

*California lawmakers declared Prop 8, the highly controversial proposition declaring gay marriage illegal in California, unconstitutional! YAY FOR LOVE! This is such an amazing victory. I'm proud of my state.

In general good news . . .

1. I got an email from a former friend/boss at Tulane, inviting me to come to New Orleans in late October for a 5 Year Katrina Remembrance event! Dave Eggers is a keynote speaker, and there's going to be a panel about the Voice of Witness books on wrongful incarceration/exonerated people and women who've suffered abuse and neglect while in prison. I was invited to participate in the panel discussion, which includes flight/hotel/meals in New Orleans. I'm pretttttttty excited. Anyone wanna meet me here?

The Columns Hotel, aka my favorite place in New Orleans

Trying to convince Summer B to take a lil trip home and hang out with me in NOLA!

And speaking of Summer, go congratulate her on her daddy's cancer being in remission!

Lastly, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I made a damn good dinner last night to go with my celebratory champagne. You see, my mama's kinda famous for her squash casserole. Those of you who've had it know what I'm talking about it. I replicated it quite nicely, gotta say, and made a caprese salad with tomatoes from the garden. (But no, I can't take credit for growing them). Check it:

deeeeelish

nothin' like mama's squash casserole!

And lastly, I've developed an addiction, y'all. To Friday Night Lights. It's only been a few days, and I've already finished the first season, thanks to my friend Doro's Netflix Instant Watch, or whatever it's called. In particular, I've developed an addiction to the hunkiest man alive:

Tim Riggins, ladies and gentleman. Tim f'ing Riggins.