Treme Overlaps Life

The Saints lost today – bad. All the more reason to sit back and watch HBO’s Treme and remember all the ways this city overcomes. This week’s episode covered the week following Christmas 2008 into New Year’s 2009. I happened to be in Louisiana that week in real life. I was visiting family for the holidays when I had an epiphany. I’d always meant to retire here, but I remember walking toward my cousins at their docked boat as the sun set over the Tchefuncte River and thinking, “What am I waiting for?” By December 2009, I was here.

Aunt Norma’s 85th on the River

One of the many advantages for me of living in Louisiana is that much of my extended family is here. Though I visited the state regularly throughout my entire life for holidays (and, oddly enough, Summers), I was rarely here for life’s smaller celebrations. Now, I can make it to things like my cousin’s son’s baby’s 1st birthday. My aunt Norma turning 85 is a pretty big excuse for a party, but this celebration was small – 28 people on a boat for 5 hours on the Tchefuncte (chuh – funk-ta) River, so who knows whether I would have been able to attend if I weren’t just across the lake.

Across the Lake

Last night, I ate the leftovers from my family’s trip here; red beans and rice with andouille, corn hush puppies and sweet potato fries with maple syrup. Wonderful. And it brought back all the joy and flavor of our visit. Our second day together, last Sunday, my mother, my niece and I went across the longest bridge over water in the world, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, to visit my aunt, Norma.