2005

5 years ago today i was at work not even realizing a major storm was heading this way. not until i got to work and was told...MOVE EVERYTHING TO THE BACK OF THE STORE. front was all windows. i called my mom and said, there's a storm? she said yeah. i said i guess we need to leave. both of us dreading it. called jody and said we're coming up! it's great that her and neil take in the refugee's every time a storm is coming. 


i got off work around noon and we were on the road by 3 pm or so. we brought 3 days worth of clothes, the cats and my water frogs. the same thing we brought the year before. only this time we didn't leave after 3 days. we left somewhere in the middle of oct., 5 weeks after we left. 


after dealing with stupid allstate bitches (wanting me to prove i'm an only child. wtf?! and wanting to talk to my dad after me repeatedly saying HE'S DEAD, would you like to have a seance, i'll bring his ashes.) and fema people, i just wanted to go home. as much as i dislike new orleans a lot of the time, i know what it means.... 

so this is what we came home to find...

the back of our house. big branch on the house. no damage. dunno how that happened. 

our mighty oak that was shredded. you have to turn sideways :P

superdome. 

welcome to st. bernard parish....checkpoint to make sure you were a resident and not looking to cause trouble. 

the first look inside. the yellow is the kitchen. my ass is heading into where the table was. to the right was the utility room. then the main hallway...

outside. 

the dreaded x

that white thing is the fridge. the table was to the right and the brown is the wall cabinets. also made the mistake of nudging the fridge. i can't even begin to describe the smell. all of a sudden the water started to flood out of it. *gag*

that would be a look into the attic with a bucket in the most interesting position. see the cute little pattern...that was my crib bumpers! 

utility room behind the door. looking outside from the hallway

the ugliest damn lamp. how it survived INTACT i dunno. i should have saved that ugly ass globe, but i threw it out. 

dresser. check the lamp on top. it was in the wall, but just kinda dangling there. 

the bathroom, complete with awesome plastic curtains. it was such a 50's bathroom, complete with pink tiles in the shape of a flower on the floor. rest of the floor was the blue tiles. 

toy in the tree in the backyard

backyard looking towards the street. 

 laplace st 

our fridge. they put cute little red flags on all of them. idk why they had to do that. seems like wasteful money to me to buy red flags. haha we already knew it stunk, i don't know why they'd need a warning sign for that. 

gettin' our shots so we could stomp through the nasty house...tetanus shot and hep b, i think. that meant for about 2 weeks later, i couldn't lift either one of my arms up higher than my boobs. 

yup...that's the HS stadium where i got shot! i hope i never have to experience a "field" hospital again. 

this kinda stuff fascinated me. i saw some cars just "hooked" on a fence by a bumper. how does that happen and how does that stay like that?? 

water lines on the front entrance. there was about 7 to 8 feet of water. not to mention i was in the oil spill area. thanks murphy oil for paying for my wedding. 

my 1st ever pair of crocs that i got while we evacuated. i didn't realize they were the same color as the kitchen. and then i didn't realize it when i painted the bathroom in our house that it's the same kinda yellow. it reminds me of good times in that kitchen.

this was the decorative metal on the neighbors screen door. i loved the way it twisted. i should have taken it for art. 

strange place to have your boat, but this was by the hospital, so i'm sure it worked perfectly at that height during the storm. 

NO...idk why, but this is just an odd one. that was the 2nd floor too. 

this is the river road levee heading towards the algiers/chalmette ferry. all of the appliances ended up there. look...more red flags! 


the last time i went back to the house was the day i sold it in '07. i haven't been back since. maybe when thomas is old enough to understand, i'll venture back and show him, until then, i can't even thing about it without tearing up. 


dan and i went down there with his cousin and her bf back in june. i was really surprised to see how much life there is down there. if i make it to chalmette, it's just over the ferry to buy roast beef and gravy at jeanfreau's. seeing all the growth from what had happened was amazing. you should go to rocky and carlos' and then head to jeanfreau's to get you some sliced garlic roast beef, gravy and some french bread. heaven! 


even though i dislike the city most every day, i'm proud to say i'm from new orleans AND that there's a little slice of chalmation in me! 


so there...my remembrance of the shitty 2005 year. 


now can we please stop showing it on t.v.?