My Thanksgiving

A year ago, the Saturday morning of freshman orientation, I was doing my radio show and Katrina was in the gulf. It was hard to get through the huge traffic jam when I drove to the on-campus radio station - parents and kids unloading SUV's. In the middle of my show (I have completely forgotten the opera I played), I learned that Tulane's president was to make an announcement at noon. When I left the studio, parents and students were reloading the SUV's - Tulane was closing down and everybody was sent home.

The following morning at 6:30, my level-headed friend Janie and I piled into her car and headed out of town. I took newly adopted Gris-Gris with me and left plenty of food and water for Felix and Rocco - expecting to be back in town in no more than 3 days. We headed north and found ourselves in Tunica, Mississippi - just south of Memphis - where my brother Gary arranged accommodations in one of the casinos owned by his company MGM-Mirage.

Two confusing and stressful weeks later, after sneaking back into New Orleans with Janie from our safe haven in La Place, Louisiana at the home of Tommy and Jerrie St. Martin, I was able to rescue Felix and Rocco (who had been fed by Elliot Barron). I retrieved my car, assessed the damage - typical burglary plus broken back door, scrubbed down the refrigerator - (remind me not to buy frozen guacamole.) At this point, Janie and I went our separate ways - she to a friends houe in Albuquerque and me to Austin. I don't know how I would have survived those first difficult weeks without her humor, support and constructive thinking. My little household reunited, we headed to Austin where Clint Bledsoe, a friend who had been a Latin American Studies student some years ago, had arranged for me to sub-let his sister's apartment. And the very happy (if you discount an Achilles tendon rupture and repair) Austin chapter of my life began.

There are so many people to thank for making my exile as much of an enjoyable adventure as it was. The acts of kindness from strangers cannot be counted - from institutions (the attention Gris-Gris received at the Austin Humane Society to my own adoption by the University of Texas) and those who make such superb institutions possible - Professors América Rodriguéz and Nicolas Shumway. And then so much good will, help and great companionship by friends old and new: the noble and aforementioned Clint Bledsoe (who took me to every single doctor's appointment), Gary Greenblum, Jarrod Beck (who drove us back to New Orleans - my foot was still in its cast), Whitney Zoller Hyde, Pepe Pierce and my cousin Tess Amsel (who I hadn't seen since I summed in the Laurentians as a kid.)

While I am looking forward to a normal, almost uneventful year, it is reassuring to know that under the most difficult of circumstances, there is a larger community which will, in the words of the gospel song I used to sing with Shades of Praise, "Lift you up" in times of need. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.