NOLA

I'm never leaving. Not really. Not in the long run, not in a year or two when I'm here again, maybe for a longer time and maybe for a shorter. Asheville has a vortex, it actively prevents you from leaving. Pursues you, arrests you, sedates you into staying longer than you ever thought you would. Asheville is the town that I've always just left, thinking I'll never come back. New Orleans and I part on good terms, like accomplices in a robbery, or international penpals who only see each other once a decade.
We've staying at my friend Ariel's house. It's an apartment in a house her dad built when he was a young man. Her dad is a genius, and the apartment is incredible. It's like living inside of an armoire. She has a big back yard and a garden and banana trees growing along the property line. And every inch of space outside and in is used wisely and makes me feels as if some great healing force is lifting me up from the soles of my feet. That said, Julia and I are really grateful for Ariel and Simon's hospitality the past few days. They get the awesome postcards, I'll tell you that much.
The first thing we did was go to the Tree, which is this massive, seven-hundred or so year old live oak that grows in Audubon park by the zoo. I walked up one of the branches and made an offering to the Tree in the bowl that props out of the trunk at its top. Usually, you can find remains of sage and glitter and tiny pieces of mirror around this bowl, but this time, it was totally clean, except for a few leaves. While the recent thunderstorm could explain this absense, some other phenomena, most notably a large spiked wire that hung from the top of the tree across one of the places one has to climb through to get from the outer branches to the inner, made me think that maybe someone is trying to discourage people from climbing up it. Better luck next time, spikey wire thingy.
The next day we did the all the good tourist stuff, and a little extra. Notably, I stopped in to Esoterika, and gawked and the variety and quality of books they had that I wanted. Oh well, whenever I finally build my library... We probably could use another week or two here to do the city any justice, but getting on with the tour right now seems like the best thing to do.
I guess in the end, I won't say goodbye to New Orleans, because I don't want to REALLY mean it, so much as I want to say Hello to it forever. Oh well, until that time...