Cold Spaghetti

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week… and Abeona is celebrating all week. Our director, Emmy, along with a parent who coordinates our Parenting Group, organized activities for the week. They put up a great display of bags for all teachers (subs and volunteers included!) where we have been placing love notes, surprises, and assorted pieces of fun all week. Parents came in and subbed for the entire staff on Tuesday so they all could go around the corner for lunch (Paul and I were supposed to be there – but so many other parents came to cover that they even had extra help!) Oak Street merchants donated food for staff, parents have brought in breakfast, and some parents have given gift cards to their businesses. One of our projects has been to write notes to Will’s teachers using his words. It works like this: I ask Will questions, like “What games does Ms. Sarah play with you?” and Will answers: “Chess.” I write down the whole conversation. So, while we were talking about his teacher, Ms. Sarah, with me frantically trying to write his responses, Will picked up a marker and drew a picture. I didn’t think anything of it until we were finished and I got a chance to see his work. Lo and behold! He drew HIS FIRST EVER DRAWING SHOWING REAL PEOPLE. Check it out (above). See those three people, so nicely represented by two lines and a circle? On the far left is Ms. Renee, the teacher in the 2s class and Will’s Music Together teacher, the next is Ms. Sarah, Will’s teacher, and finally, the tiniest one is Baby Kate. I practically levitated over it. Drawings like this are exactly why I had kids.
Continuing on the theme of how wonderful Emmy is, she made email contact with Johnette Downing, a local children’s musician who has several CDs, is seen on Nickelodeon, has written children’s books based on Louisiana culture… and lives right around the corner from Abeona House. Johnette offered to visit the school — bringing CD gifts for the school — and her guitar and talents for a performance. Parents were invited to stop in, too, for the fun. I brought the camera. (That’s Johnette, above.)
I took some fabulous pictures, but since virtually all of them heavily feature kids other than my own, I won’t post them here — save the one of Johnette above and the two of Will hugging Kate after the group performance of Happy Birthday Kate (one picture above, the other in a post below). It’s been a wonderful, inspirational week to be a part of Abeona House.

A month ago, we agreed to buy Will a pair of Crocs. They are *the shoe* at Abeona, loved by kids and teachers for the on-off ease involved. Will’s interest in having a pair of Crocs was not unlike the episode of “The Simpsons” where Bart and Lisa want to go to Splash Mountain — except Will was even more insistent. Our neighbors told us that the Hallmark in Lakeside Mall (out in Metairie) had them at about $25, a few bucks less than the $30 usually charged. So, on the Sunday after St. Patricks, we decided to venture into the suburbs.

It was a mess. We didn’t realize that the day after St. Patrick’s is St. Joseph’s Day — a parade day — and got caught in the Italian-Irish Parade. We ended up hanging out in the Target/Sears Mall, having an awful food court lunch, and generally being miserable that we were in a mall. Getting to Lakeside was out of the question. Nearly everytime we go to the ‘burbs, we ask whether it is really worth it. When we went home, we looked to our local stores for where they may carry Crocs.

We didn’t have to think too hard. Haase Shoe Store, on Oak Street, across the street from our much loved Oak Street Cafe and Miss Norma’s Queen of the Ball Snowballs — would they have them? We stopped in after picking up the kids from school the next day… and YES! They had a wonderful Croc display, we were helped by the owner (the proud recipient of the coveted Golden NuNu), and after a personable visit, left with two pairs (one for Will, one for Paul) and a balloon for Will. The shoes were $30, a few bucks more than out in the ‘burbs. Which made us do some reflecting. What did it mean to spend $10 more? For those few extra dollars, we stayed within our neighborhood, kept money in our local economy, showed support for the small stores that make up so much about what we love in our community, and so much more.

In Lima, there are groups of hard-working entrepreneurial entertainers who hop onto the collectivos that transport busy Limeños around town. They tell jokes (usually incredibly dirty), pass around bags of hard candy (“it’ll cure your diabetes!”), and basically do whatever they can to make their kept audience laugh and earn a few cents. I remember hearing the hard sell once or twice. I always was prepared to give some change. Why? Because they pointed out the obvious: “No me hará rico; no le hará pobre.” Meaning: it won’t make me rich, and it won’t make you poor. Since then, I have used this phrase to put so many things into perspective.

What does it mean to spend a little more in ways that matter? Aren’t there things more important than saving a few cents in a mega-mart? Shouldn’t we look for ways we can invest in our communities, build our local resources, and support the things that really matter?

Living in New Orleans has made it easy for us to be better, live more closely to our principles. Spending a little more where it counts the most… no los hará ricos; no nos hará pobres. It won’t make them rich, it won’t make us poor.

Last week, I had the fun of playing photographer for Abeona’s Spring Fling!
The kids took the short walk to the levee, going to the end of Oak Street, crossing River Road, over the train tracks and past the stables. Once on the levee, they had snack, hunted colorful eggs (left by the “Rainbow Chicken”), awed at the horses trotting past, and waved to the conductor of the train who waved and blew his horn as he passed.
Will eagerly hunted the hardboiled eggs… quickly discovered that they were food… and smashed them on his head to crack it enough to eat. After the excitement of snack, egg hunting, and more egg snack, the kids chased a dragon (a kite) helping him fly with shouts of encouragement.
I’m only posting the pictures that feature Will, but I had a great time photographing all the kids and the scene. Kate smashed a gooey finger on the lens (again!!!) so there was pretty significant lens flare with the pictures. I ended up cropping many of the shots to deal with it. I cleaned the lens later and called around for a filter… but no one had the 50mm one I need. (I’ll order it soon!)
Happy Spring!

Thanks to the generous support of family and friends, Paul raised over $800 (when cash donations were totaled, I think it was around $860?) in ONE DAY for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. So either Paul has a lot of supportive family and friends, or a lot of people who were willing to pay to see his bald head. Thank you!Paul’s nervous laugh as things got started…
Nothing fancy! Others went down to mohawk first… unfortunately, Paul was a little nervous and camera-shy and didn’t realize he had the option!
Fellow shaver (who we ended up hanging out with at the St. Patrick’s parties the next day) hammed it up for cameras and audience.
Paul’s pink and blonde hair floated by in the breeze…
All done!
Will couldn’t keep his hands off Paul’s head — “it’s scratchy,” “it’s really short,” and “it’s shaved” were among Will’s responses. Later that night, he would also ask Paul “Daddy, why’d you shave your head?”
Paul holds a lock of his hair. We saved it. I have no idea why.
Local muse Chris Rose, who came across as much more insecure and gruff in person than I would have thought, gets shaved. He was funny (expected, as he’s writes with wonderful humor), a bit socially awkward, clearly nervous, and had a bit of a rough edge that seemed more a result of his awkwardness and nerves than anything. I wanted to get a picture of him and Paul together, but he ran off quickly after his shaving so we missed the opportunity.
But we DID take pictures with fellow shavee Ecoee, whose son Jude and partner Melody are friends from Music Together and future Abeona parents. Jude is the same age as Kate and weighs 26+ pounds… almost 10 pounds more than Kate!
Many Abeona kids came with their parents. It didn’t take long for the kids to find the one puddle in the lot to splash in!
Will went crazy in the puddle for a good half hour.
With many friends! It was a good distraction (along with hot dogs and ice cream) for the kids while parents talked and met with other community members, businesses, and Oak Street vendors. It was also a great opportunity for the Abeona community to meet more people in our neighborhood.
With all of the stomping and commotion, it was just a matter of time until…
…Will fell in the mud. It is telling that Will was the ONLY one to fall.
The mud didn’t stop him. He continued to jump and found a balloon to get stuck in.
By the time we were ready to leave, he was so muddy and wet that we had to strip him down to his undies. He wore Paul’s t-shirt (a lagniappe from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation) to enjoy two hot dogs before heading home.

Email from Emmy, Abeona’s Director…

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Aside from a few little outings, Saturday was all about the Endymion Extravaganza.

My Dad received a gracious invitation to the event through a work colleague who is a member of the Krewe of Endymion. To our luck, the host extended the invitation to include Paul and I. Tickets to this event are few, sold early, and quite pricey. In addition, our tickets were not actually for the general event, but were for space on a private, catered veranda overlooking the Superdome floor. What an invitation!! Our friends and visitors for the week, Matt and Laura, agreed to watch the kids (on their vacation!) otherwise, we would not have been able to go. (Thanks, again!!!)

We’ve heard two numbers for attendance at the Extravaganza: 12,000 and 14,000. In other words, a lot of people! Getting there — in the middle of parade crowds on one of the biggest parade days of the season — was tricky. We left between parades and had to drive all the way around the Quarter and enter from the East in order to get to the Canal Place, the one place we were told we could find parking. Then we met my parents in their hotel room, finished getting ready, and rushed out into the cold night to catch our bus to the Superdome.

Thank goodness my parents brought a coat (an off-white boxy number once worn by Grandma Betty) otherwise, I may have frozen in line. And what a line! At least 10,000 people were gathered from all angles waiting to enter the Superdome — all in formal wear, many carrying trays of food or king cakes and trailing coolers. Each guest was checked at arrival: for tickets, attire (women in dress pants are turned away!!!), and gear (we saw a guest told that he could not bring his cooler in to the event because it was Styrofoam!?)

The Superdome itself is an impressive arena. It was the first time I’d been inside. It is also the first and only time I’ve ever wondered if I was inside the Spaceship from the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The Dome is a huge ring of lights that exactly mimics the movie. (I was shocked that we got through the night without my Dad humming those 5 notes.) The verandas were tremendous sections of scaffolding built over the Superdome’s seats going down the sides of the arena. Huge black cloths hid the seats from view and a series of stairs connected verandas at different levels. We were on the veranda closest to the floor and had a wonderful view over the room. The enormity of it all was hard to take in. We kept having to remind ourselves that there was a football field under all of it.

We had just enough time to eat and explore before the parade began to arrive. The Endymion parade leads to the Superdome, winds through it, and then ends so that the riders can depart and get the party officially started. The floats used to circle the interior edges of the ‘dome, meaning that those in the verandas had the premiere spot to catch throws. This was stopped last year, after someone was killed after falling off a chair and onto the floor below. Now the floats circle through the interior of the huge floor. As the parade neared, crowds gathered at the metal fencing used to create the enormous thoroughfare.

Paul and I spent the beginning of the parade on the floor in the huge crowd. I stood on a chair (fatiguing) and took photographs. When throws came our way, I ducked — they were terrifying!! Not the gentle, tossed with eye-contact throws in Uptown. After the event, we noticed that the backs of our tickets held detailed disclaimers about any number of horrifying injuries that could befall us at this party — and from those warnings, I think I was smart to duck. After awhile, we joined my parents on the veranda. Paul went back down to try and catch light-up throws for Will and I joined him for the last 5 minutes or so of the parade… and in that 5 minutes, we caught enough to fill a box. People leave this event with more throws than we have collected in an entire Mardi Gras season! The riders, known for throwing more than any other Krewe, unload all their remaining loot at the Extravaganza… watching the amount of stuff being hurled from these gigantic, flashing, beautiful, floats is truly an incredible sight. With the lights, live music, people, fireworks (yes, fireworks!), and unbelievable energy, extravaganza is honestly the best word to describe the experience. The pictures below do a better job of telling the visual story… what an awesome sensory overload!

Here we are at the hotel, waiting for our bus:
The crowd arriving… a football field is under all of that!
Looking out into the crowd (towards the stage) as we wait for the parade to arrive:
Stilt walkers were included as ushers for the parade — the one on the far left is the son of friends of ours. He had also walked the 6 mile parade loop two nights before on stilts. Last year, he did the same route for several Krewes riding a 6 foot unicycle. (Seriously talented guy!) We didn’t know he would be in Endymion so it was a cool surprise!
Tailor Hicks was this year’s Grand Marshall. We missed his stage performance, as we left on the 12:30am shuttle to get back to the kids. It was the longest amount of time I’ve ever been apart from Kate – about 11 hours (we were stuck in the parking garage for an hour and didn’t get home until 2!)
Journey was another headlining music performance. They played after Taylor (at around 2am) so we missed them as well.
Styx was yet another headliner. They were the last stage show at around 3am. Yup. Missed them, too.
Every Krewe has it’s maidens… these ones had pretty awesome costumes!
Crowd shot — lights, spotlights, confetti, streamers, throws, music, dancing, crowds….!! A float as seen from the floor:
Crowd detail from the floor:
My favorite party-goers from the night! This couple (whose names I never did understand) watched the entire evening of madness from their wheelchairs on the edge of the floor. The gentleman told me that he rode with Endymion for 11 years, “in the 1800s.” I gave them beads at the end of the parade.
When we finally went upstairs, my Mom told us to find Dad “in the middle of all the girls.”
Endymion boasts “the largest floats ever assembled” and they are not kidding. Those things are GIGANTIC. They are intricately beautiful in detail and almost too much to take in, with flashing multicolor lights, themed decor, and hundreds of riders. Many floats are in several parts with their own generators trailing behind them.
Seeing it up close helps to get the scale of how big the room is when the floats are further away… errr… downfield?Here you can see one float way behind another. The scale is quite hard to describe.
A sense of the incredible length of the floats.
The crowd in front of the stage. See all those arms up? The riders actually get throws that far! Orthopedics must get a ton of business from Endymion Krewe members this time of year. The title float, Endymion’s Endangered and Extinct Species. Themed floats included the Polar Bear, Dinosaurs, Whooping Crane, and others. This title float sat on the outer rim of the Superdome after it wound around the crowd as a beautifully lit backdrop.
Title float in the distance with video view above. Each of those streamers were wider than I am tall.
Multiple floats near and far.
Catching junk… the American way…?
Beautifully detailed floats…
See the float lit up in the background?
The lights on the floats and the spotlights in the room changed color constantly. It was a different sight at each second.
Can you spot Paul in the picture below?
More float detail…
And more flag!
In addition to the live bands playing on stage, bands were also on many floats. Plus, the standard marching bands within the parade itself. Many layers of music floating around as the parade went by and wound through.
Colors, lights, sounds…
Crowd view.
After the parade… party-goers have loot everywhere. Folks start to pack up and get ready to enjoy the rest of the night. Krewe members join their family and friends as the main musical acts get ready to take the stage. Al Green was the first major headliner — he was great. We left as he was finishing up his set.
Looking out from an upper balcony over one of the verandas. What a great view of all the action!
It was an overwhelming, incredible night — a complete extravaganza!!! We hope to go this year… (except next time, stay in a hotel downtown and arrange for all night babysitting!!) We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to go and had an incredible time!

After taking photos at the Abeona Winter Formal two weeks ago, Paul and I went to Oak Street Cafe, our favorite local spot. While there, we visited with Helen Hill and her son, Francis. Francis attends Abeona; we got to know him and his parents (mom Helen and Dad, Paul Gailiunas) in the kids’ Sunday music class. Over breakfast at Oak Street, Helen gave me a photograph that she took of Will and Kate during a Music Together session. We talked about local photography resources, growing up in South Carolina, getting together for a “family” New Year’s Eve party with other Abeona parents, and laughed as Francis pointed to the Cafe counter, requesting donuts. When Charlie (the Oak Street pianist) sat down to play, Helen and Francis went over to the piano — and I took pictures of them.

We are just getting to know Helen and Paul. Paul is a physician and co-founder of a community clinic; Helen is an artist who grew up in Columbia, S.C. They are also musicians and involved in social activism efforts. Like the other families that make up our Abeona family, Helen, Paul, and Francis represent the kind of people that make us want to live in New Orleans. They are, like us, a family that has chosen to be here because they believe in the importance of making the world a better place and are willing to do the work that is required to see that happen.

The phone calls and emails reached us late this afternoon. From the Times-Picayune:

In the sixth New Orleans murder in less than 24 hours, a woman was killed and her husband shot in their home at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday, said New Orleans police, who found the bleeding husband kneeling at the door of the couple’s Faubourg Marigny home, holding their two-year-old son.

The toddler was not hurt; the husband, 35, underwent surgery at Elmwood/Charity Trauma Center, police said. The woman, 36, was pronounced dead at the scene. But friends identified the Marigny couple as Helen Hill, an animator and filmmaker, and Paul Gailiunas, a doctor.

We are feeling and thinking many things right now. But there is one thing that is important for us to get across.

Before you dismiss this grand tragedy and tremendous loss as a causality of living in New Orleans; before you blame the citizens, the local ‘leaders’, the corruption; before you resolve to forget this city and recommend its decay and elimination — remember that THIS IS OUR HOME. And it is important, vitality important, to all of us. New Orleans and its rebuilding should be a symbol of what our country stands for — that the suffering among us matter, that resources should not be saved for the needs of a privileged upper-class, that the incredible contributions of this city be celebrated.

PLEASE BE ACTIVE. GET ACTIVE. Make New Orleans matter in your life, because it does. HELP US. Help us build back a beautiful, strong, safe home.

This Friday Abeona held an end-of-summer party. After enjoying two days of wonderfully temperate (low 80s) temps, the end of the week sweltered back up to the mid-90s in relative heat. Pool party? No problem! Paul and I took the morning off to share in the event. (Well, actually, we dropped Will off at his normal time and went down the street for breakfast at Oak Street Cafe — and THEN went back to the house for the party!)
Paul juggled; I played photographer (note: we have become addicted to our hobbies.) In the picture above, I capture Kate thinking on one of her nefarious plots of world domination. “Yesssss….”
She didn’t last long in her Bumbo. And I got more input from other parents who were there on our Bumbo issue: she’s probably a little young to sit for that long and she’s HOT in the thing. There’s hope yet for our intented Thanksgiving centerpiece!

The kids had a blast at the party. They attempted to make homemade gelato (it was too hot for it to properly set, but they had fun rolling the cans as part of the process), played in a pool, with a hose, and in a newly built sandbox, and painted the sidewalk with special paints and chalks. The teachers were amazing. Everytime I am there, I learn so much — and leave feeling so thankful toward this community of people helping to raise my kids.
I am just posting a few pictures here (just ones that are mostly Will and Kate). Abeona has posted more of the shots (ones not on the blog) here. Check them out, they are really fun!