Katrina - Four Years Later (Part 1)

On Friday August 26, 2005 Mark and I arrived at the Denver airport to visit our great friends who are also from New Orleans. As we picked up our luggage to load into the back of her car, B said to us, "Did you see that the hurricane has turned toward New Orleans?" And from there, our lives would never be the same.

Earlier that week I was traveling between Houston and New Orleans. As I headed home on Thursday to get ready for our long weekend in Denver, I sent Mark this text: "What's up with this Katrina chick?" She had formed on Tuesday 8/23 and made landfall in Florida on 8/25. His response was "Who's Katrina?"

We packed our bags and met at my house on Friday morning. A spur of the moment decision was made about who's car to leave at the house and who's to take to the airport. His car was in the back of mine in the driveway so we decided to leave it in the airport garage. At the time, it was such a small decision.

As was my usual procedure for short trips, my neighbor was going to check on the two indoor and one outdoor cat each morning to make sure they had food and water. We dropped Mark's cat and dog off at the vet for their yearly shots. No big deal. After all, we would be back on Monday afternoon, right?

The television in the airport still had projections for Katrina pointed toward Apalachicola, Florida - about 400 miles to the east of New Orleans. Obviously, the storm took a jog to the west.

While in Denver we tried to proceed with the plans we'd already made. We relaxed on Friday night and had plans to take a train up to Winter Park on Saturday for a day in the mountains. Mandatory evacuations began to spring up for parishes all over the greater New Orleans area. I started to panic. I was stuck on a train heading through rock tunnels and up a beautiful mountain with limited cell phone service. I was totally ignoring the majesty of it all and instead spent the whole time trying to find someone to pick up my kitties and take them to safety.

Winter Park was beautiful but it's beauty was marred by the stress of the events happening far away from me. I had the thought of going home to get my kitties but Mark convinced me that was insane. I knew it was, but I felt the need to do something, anything. I got sick in the train's bathroom as I tried to come to grips with what was about to happen.

My Mom - the greatest woman who ever lived - drove into the city as everyone else was leaving and found all three cats and packed them up to take with her and my Dad on their evacuation. We couldn't reach the vet to find out about Mark's pets.

Saturday night the four of us sat glued to the television as we watched the mayor of New Orleans call for a voluntary evacuation. He urged people to leave but wasn't sure if he could call for a mandatory evacuation. Katrina got stronger. On Sunday she became a category 5 storm. We called the airlines and canceled our flights. We didn't know where we would go or when so we simply suspended our tickets. Frontier Airlines was incredibly understanding and helpful. Thank God for companies like them or I may have lost my mind really early on.

At 6 a.m. Katrina made landfall in Buras, Louisiana and caused major wind damage and flooding. St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parishes were hit hard from the water pushed up from the Gulf of Mexico. Monday afternoon the levees broke and so did our spirit.

I was luckier than many in that I didn't lose any loved ones and I didn't have to deal with deciding what to do. I was already away from home so all of the normal stresses surrounding a hurricane evacuation were a non-issue. I didn't prepare my home or move my car. I didn't gather important paperwork and pictures or move trash cans or make sure that I had battened down the hatches. I just left for a three day trip. The New Orleans that I passed through on Friday on my way to the airport was gone.

We all were glued to the television for hours at a time. We didn't know the fate of our homes or, in Mark's case, the pets. Since cell phone service to anyone with a 504 area code was non-existent we managed to keep in touch with my parents by text message and found them a hotel on the Internet. They had been stopping at every exit since Shreveport to check for openings. There weren't any. We sent them directions to the room we booked them in Arlington, Texas via text. It took them 17 hours in the car with 5 cats to get there, but they made it. Our little Denver support group finally headed out for dinner to pull ourselves away. Many beers later (for everyone but my friend who was pregnant - even harder for her) we headed back to their home for our last day of commiserating.

Since I didn't find the need for work clothes or dress shoes on a hiking trip, C and B made arrangements for us to use one of their cars for the day and Mark and I headed to the mall to get just a few outfits to wear when we reported to work. My job had an alternate location in Houston and Mark's was looking for him to head to Reston, Virginia. End of season sales are wonderful things, so for only $200 I got one pair of pants, three dress shirts and a pair of shoes.

I was impossible to be ready for what would come next.

Recipe: (Sort of ) Hidden Veggie Meatloaf

I am constantly searching for a way to increase my vegetable intake. It's not hard for me to eat the recommended amount of vegetables in a day because I love them, but every now and then I look for a way to make a classic dish healthier and ways to get my boyfriend to eat more veggies. So here we go.

(Sort of) Hidden Veggie Meatloaf
1 1/2 lbs ground meat (turkey, chicken or beef is fine)
2 cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup baby carrots
1 medium yellow onion
1 medium yellow squash
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg (or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters)
1/4 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Tabasco chipotle sauce to taste
BBQ sauce to taste
Salt/pepper or other seasoning blend to taste (I use Tony Chachere's)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place spinach in chopper and chop until very fine. Do the same with the carrots, onion and squash. In a large bowl combine the vegetables, meat, breadcrumbs, egg, milk, a few shots of chipotle Tabasco (as desired) and seasonings. Make sure the ingredients are well combined. The mixture will be wet, but if you are using ground turkey or chicken the mixture could be really wet and may require additional breadcrumbs.

Place the mixture in a loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a light coating of BBQ sauce, or for something a little spicier, combine the BBQ sauce with the Tabasco. Bake for 1 hour or until the internal temperature reads 160 degrees F. Drain fat from pan and let the meatloaf cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Note: Even my picky boyfriend said that he liked it. This is huge considering that he hates it when I substitute ground turkey for beef in things like dirty rice and sloppy joes.

The Movies In Review

In the last week I have seen three very different movies: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Julie & Julia and District 9. These really are all over the place but I'm going to put on my movie critic's swim cap and dive in.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1046173/
Wow. Okay, let me begin by saying the nice things I have to say about this movie. Channing Tatum is hot. He's not a little hot either. He's a whole lotta hot. Ever since The Mummy I've had a crush on Brendan Fraser and he's in it too (for all of about 10 seconds). Okay, well, now that I have the good things about the movie out of the way... Yeah. It was that bad. Don't get me wrong, some of the effects were kind of cool but the acting was astoundingly bad. Sienna Miller did a so-so job as Ana/The Baroness (lame-o plot line) and Mr. Eko from Lost was in there too. It was just really terrible, horrible acting. I guess the Eiffel Tower was axed because you still can't mess with American buildings or symbols without some furry and the French are easy whipping boys. Okay, I can accept that. Still. I know I don't fit into their target audience - 13 year old boys who are just beyond needing mom's permission to buy their tickets - but wow. Thank goodness for matinee pricing.

Julie & Julie
I really liked this movie. It's a bit of a "chick-flick" and I certainly like to cook so those things certainly didn't hurt it's appeal for me. Also, it's made me want to pick up a book or two about the life of Julia Child. I'm not letting the cat out of the proverbial bag when I say that Meryl Streep is an amazing actress. At some point early in the movie I forgot that I was looking at an actress playing Julia Child instead of Julia herself. The food is certainly as much a character in the film as the actors. However, while watching the parts about Julie Powell's life, I found myself wishing that I was learning more about Julia Child. Not that Amy Adams did a bad job, the story just didn't grab as much as Julia Child's portion. It was definitely a movie that let you leave the theater with a smile on your face and it gave me a much needed escape.

District 9
It's movie with only a handful of actors (and none that you've ever heard of before) and a somewhat unconventional plot. I found myself pretty involved in the story and really feeling for the aliens. It was shot in documentary style, kind of like Cloverfield but I liked this one much better. It's hard to identify with the aliens at first, but the audience gets to know one or two pretty well and that's when I got hooked into the whole story. Sharlto Copley was amazing and the CGI effects were really quite good. It has an ending that sets the hook for a sequel and that always bothers me a little, but it was a solid movie and I liked getting immersed in the story once the action really kicked in.

So there you have it. My tribute to Siskel and Ebert, Gene Shalit, Rex Reed and all of the other movie critics out there. Except I'm right. :)

Health care is a matter of choice

Several months ago I went to a dermatologist to get a once-over for skin cancer. Having spent my whole life on beaches and boats and with my 40th birthday just a few years away, I thought I was probably past due for a check.

I picked a doctor near my office that has a thriving practice. A lot of her expertise is in cosmetic procedures, but I didn't think too much about that. She was convenient and covered by my insurance plan.

The office staff was friendly and pretty. Not too surprising for an office where people go to look less than their age. However, when the doctor walked in, things started to become uncomfortable.

She began my exam by checking my scalp and made a comment about my thinning hair. Interesting that she would call it "thinning hair" and not "thin hair". She had never met me before and despite my tongue and cheek post from a month or so ago, I really hadn't left a pile of hair on the floor while I waited for her. She didn't know about my lifetime of thin ponytails and attempts in high school to change the texture of my hair with a body wave (hoo boy - that was an interesting hair time). She didn't know that on the days when I use conditioner, my hair is a little softer and limper than usual. She didn't ask either.

She continued to check me and didn't find anything of concern. When the exam was over, I asked her about some hair that I had on my chin/neck and if it was possible to get a couple of laser treatments to have it removed. She said yes and then threw me the curve ball I hadn't expected at all. She asked me about my fertility and if I had polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Now if you don't know me I should tell you that I'm a large woman. That's not something that I would deny or am ashamed of. As it turns out, some of the symptoms of the syndrome are weight gain, thinning hair and excess facial hair. I don't mind so much that she was concerned about my general health, but she went on and on about my weight. She doesn't know that I have a healthy blood pressure/blood levels or that I work out 5 times each week. I know a lot of physicians and people believe that simply being overweight is unhealthy. You are entitled to your opinion. However, you should know that it's possible to be overweight and have that be the only thing that is "wrong" with you.

This physician took one look at me and a few other surface issues and put me in a tailspin. You see, I want to have children. I know that I'm getting old for that dream but these aren't things she knew. She didn't know that telling me that would send me into a panic. She wasn't gentle about her cursory diagnosis. She just lobbed it into the air while I sat there in her office half naked. Her words landed squarely on my heart and left a huge dent there. What if it were true? What if I am infertile and all of the dreams I've had about babies are just not possible? I was so shocked that I didn't even say anything to her. I just listened. I left the office and cried.

Since then I've been scared to find out if she might be right. Finally, on my birthday I had several tests performed to check for the existence of POS and all of the results came back negative. My glucose level is fine and the same is true for my free testosterone levels. I might still have problems conceiving, but it may not be for the reasons that were laid out before me. It's not as though I've been trying to have a baby. I'm trying to do this in the right order. I'd like to get married and then get pregnant, but again, I'm fully aware of the passage of time.

So back to having the federal government choose my health care options. Aside from the ignorant and judgmental eyes of some doctors, there are a couple of things that bother me. Do I think that everyone should have access to health care? Absolutely. I think the system needs to be changed, fixed, improved. However, I also think that we need to think long and hard about it and not throw out a solution and expect an answer in a month. If I were forced to go to this doctor or one like her, I would be miserable. She's really not interested in getting to know me or probably even in treating people like me. She wants to make people beautiful (or more beautiful). That's fine, but not for me. I like the doctors I have who sit down with me and have a conversation with me. For example, my gynecologist has me sit in her office after each appointment so that we can have a conversation about what's going on with my health and my life. She knows me and therefore I trust her and her advice and suggestions.

What if I discover that I can't get pregnant the natural way? Will I have passed someone's cut-off time for the age in which women are assisted with pregnancy? Will anyone help me or am I just on my own? Who should make that decision?

I don't know the answer to fixing this mess. I do believe that there are too many questions out there right now to proceed forward with a solution.

Sorry if this is a ramble, but this is something that's been heavy on my mind for a while. It wasn't until my tests came back earlier this week that I felt the need to write it all down. The timing with the health care debate just helped to bring the point home.

As for the town hall meetings where people are protesting? Well, I think that some of these have gotten way out of hand. However, I also think that people have the right to voice their concerns in these open forums. I don't know if the people ranting and raving are planted there or not, but if you want an honest debate with the people, don't pretend to have a forum and expect it to be a pep rally. Not everyone is going to agree.

We have a responsibility to question our government leaders. This is what Lincoln meant when he talked about a "government of the people, by the people, for the people". Hopefully, this will be an issue that concludes with a solution that is best for all of our citizens regardless of income or age.

Thank you John Hughes

John Hughes helped a generation make it through those angst-ridden days of high school life in the 80s. First, my 20 year high school reunion takes me back in time and now, reading Hughes' biography does it again. He happened to write and direct my favorite movie of all time - Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

For the record, I love a lot of his movies. If you're not familiar with his body of work he gave us a day off of school, a forgotten sixteenth birthday (complete with a panties display for a bunch of geeks), a Saturday of detention, a crazy cross country road trip to visit a moose with our dead aunt tied to the roof and so many others. You just need to see the list of his work to really appreciate how many movies of his you've enjoyed over the years. However, as I mentioned earlier, my very favorite movie of all time, which he wrote in one weekend, is Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

That movie is a perfect blend of laughter and sentimentality. I always laugh when Del and Neal end up cuddling in the hotel bed and I always cry when Del is sitting alone in the train station on Thanksgiving. Of course there's the scene at the rental car agency that is well worth watching by itself if you get an uncensored version. Oh my.

I didn't mean for this to be a movie review, there's just such a flood of memories for me when I think of his movies. I remember who I was with when I saw them and what was going on in my life at the time and how much fun it was to watch his characters.

I never got to hang out with the jock or bad boy during detention because I went to an all girls' school AND I was a goody two shoes (where does that expression come from anyway?); I never skipped school like Ferris (again, I was a good girl); my uncle never went to the Principal's office and told her to have a rat gnaw the mole off of her face (I don't think she had one and she was a pretty nice lady - a nun, no less); and I never would have lent a geek my underwear so he could make a few bucks (ew). Maybe that's what I liked so much about them. They did things that I never would have done or thought to do and at the end, it all turned out okay. Del got to have a family Thanksgiving, Cameron stood up to his dad, the girl got the guy, families reunited and we went home with a content feeling in our hearts and a smile on our faces.

What are the chances of me forgetting John Hughes? I'd have more luck playing pickup sticks with my butt-cheeks.

Thank you John Hughes and rest in peace.

Life Is Too Short

It happened again.

Someone that I know, the daughter of a good friend, died way too early. And again, I start to wonder about the choices I have made and what God's will is.

None of us know how long we have in this life to be with our loved ones, to make our mark on this world. Most of us live life as though we have countless days remaining to say what we want to say and do what we want to do. We let our priorities get skewed and take people we love for granted. It doesn't make us bad people, but it has the potential to cause hurt where we never intended.

We often live our lives as though we have time to life the life we planned for ourselves. As though we will all live to a ripe old age in excellent health and prosperity. It's not until we're slapped in the face with our own reality or the reality of those we care about that we even pause to re-evaluate the progress we're making toward our goals.

At what point do you decide that this path has come to an end? When do we decide that goals are not being met and it's time to find the other path somehow hidden by the forest? Is there a final event that forces decisions or is just a reflection on the culmination of events? Maybe you just reflect on your progress and realize you haven't made much of it at all.