Rest and New Orleans: An Oxymoron?

How could it be that I am in New Orleans? How could it be that the greatest, most happening international music, food festival is right outside my door?

Yesterday, the lineup was the soulfully yummy Amos Lee;

(Photo courtesy of somebody other than me)

the Grammy-winning Cajun, Terrence Simien and the Zydeco Boys; Fantasia; the Queen of NOLA, Irma Thomas; Robert Cray; Ahmad Jamal; Ricky Skaggs; John Boutte; Bon Jovi for those who care; and MORE MORE EVER MORE.

And I didn't go.

WE didn't go.

Fact is, me and my sister never get out of our PJs.

What was wrong with me?  Well, maybe  "gettin' up offa that than thang" is a metaphor. Maybe seizing life doesn't always mean boogying til your feet caint go no more.

I was tuckered when I got to NOLA. I was doing wayyyyyy too much before I came to New Orleans, what with Easter and my son's bday and Chris coming home from college, what with lots of photo jobs and packing; wayyyyy too much when I got to NOLA, what with Pahtaying 24-7. I had wayyy too much ahead to save energy for when I get home, what with a radio show to do (!!!) grad parties and more bday parties and Benjie graduating from 8th grade and more photos to take for people and a column to write and a garden or two to plant.

Yesterday, the day after our first day at JF, I told sister Sue I didn't think I could put on my dancing shoes.

She looked at me.

And then both of us, while Amos Lee was crooning a few miles down the road, sat and scrolled through Netflix and found some really dumb movies to escape into. While Bon Jovi was tearing it up for tens of thousands of drooling women, we moved in and out of naps, while intermittently sucking on crawfish tails in the air-conditioned comfort of Mama's former Katrina house, now Susan's beautifully comfortable home.

I didn't even take one single picture.

That was then.

Today, now, well it's time to get back stage with Charles and Deacon!; time to stand in line in the heat, waiting for rosemint tea and crawfish puff; time to take wayy too many pics til my fingers hurt; time to drool over John Legend and walk from stage to stage to stage until my feets cain't take no more.

The yin and the yang. Living life fully involves both shadow and light, rest and energy,  even in NOLA town.

Laissez les bons temps rouler. And laissez faire, too. See y'all.