NOLA

The wedding:
The wedding was the best one I've ever attended. It was truly a celebration of the couple. Both of their personalities were reflected in the wedding. It was in a gorgeous location on a beautiful night. At the end of the reception, the bride and groom were led out to their car by a NOLA brass band. The Philly born and bred bride danced her way down the steps of the venue as if she had always been in Louisiana...her husband was right there beside her as friends and family waved them on with white cloths. It was like something out of a movie.

If I had to describe the wedding in one word, it would be joy.

The city:
For the first time ever, I spent most of my time outside of the French Quarter. I never knew it was such a beautiful place. The wide boulevard of Canal - decorated with bright signs and vendors, the small narrow side streets whose tall office buildings offered shade on the winding routes, architecture that has stood the test of time...all reminded me of Harare or Santiago.

A trip out to Metarie took us along an evacuation route. During that same trip, we also came across a neighborhood where people were still living in FEMA trailers. I can't even put into words how it affected me. If I were alone in the car, I would have pulled over and started to cry.

The friends:
My friend who got married is a most awesome woman. She's mad cool, beautiful, intelligent and so much fun to be around. But at the end of the day, she, and her sister, are just good people. I didn't have to think twice about going to her wedding. On top of getting to see her again and being invited to be witness to this important day in her life - I also got to reunite with some other friends I haven't seen in a minute.

The cool thing was that a lot of us hadn't seen each other in a few (maybe 5 or more?) years or had heard about each other only through stories, but when we got together, it was like no time had passed. We cracked jokes, reflected on the past and got excited about the future. Everyone needs to have girlfriends like that.

Fun times all around...at the rehearsal dinner, we listened to old school rap from the 80s and some of us (not yours truly) showed off that they are still skilled in double dutch, while we were sitting in the hotel lobby eating breakfast on the day of the wedding, we were randomly serenaded by an up and coming R&B act, at the wedding, we fell in with the NOLA line dances and shook what our mama gave us, after the wedding, we kicked it at Whiskey Blue and re-enacted dancing scenes from the Jackson 5 cartoon and an 80s Madonna video.

The food:
My friend's husband is local to NOLA. We were fortunate enough to have his mother cook for the rehearsal dinner. She made (from scratch): jambalaya, fried chicken, mac and cheese, red beans and rice, ooey gooey toffee cake, and pound cake PLUS a boil with turkey neck, crawfish, crab, potato and corn. Let me tell you something, turkey neck is more than a seasoning. I tore that sucker up as if my life depended on it. I even did the crawfish thing, although I couldn't bring myself to suck the head. That woman put her big toe, complete with bunion, all up and in that food!

On the one trip I did make to the French Quarter, we went to the Market Cafe for po' boys. I had a shrimp po' boy. [Insert Homer Simpson impression here]