Please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a few posts for a few days. I’m going to try to post over the weekend, but not sure if I’ll have access or time. I’m going to cover the first major, citywide convention and trade show to be held in New Orleans since Katrina.
It’s an exciting opportunity. It’s not very often, unfortunately, that I get to cover stories in person. I’m a bit nervous though because I feel like I’ve got a lot of loose ends. Usually when you go to a show, you register weeks in advance and get a nice neat schedule of where you’re supposed to be and when. For this event, however, everything came together to allow me to go at the last minute. I don’t have a schedule and I’ve got a very short time to interview a lot of people.
As great as I’d been feeling lately, these past two days haven’t been good ones. I’ve been sick to my stomach at night, the joint pain is worse, and while my tummy feels better during the day I do feel super tired all of a sudden. All I really want to do is take a nap!
I am excited about New Orleans though. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, even if it always had a lot of poverty and doesn’t always smell so great in places. It’s a city that you can’t confuse with any other American city. It has its own vibe, own culture and plenty of color to give it character.
I first went to New Orleans when I was barely 18 years old. I was a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and they were hosts of the National Federation of the Blind convention that year. I learned my Braille numbers by brailling the hotel room numbers of four large hotels! (this was before they put them in for ADA.)
That week was a life changing week for me. I’d never known blind adults as role models, and suddenly I met 3,000 of them all at once.
The next time I was in New Orleans was a very romantic week I spent there with Peter. We poked around in the French Quarter, took the trolley to the Garden District and took a riverboat up the Mississippi and toured old Southern plantations around the city.
And the last time I was in New Orleans was only a few weeks before Katrina hit. I was covering the National Association of Consumer Show organizer’s national meeting. We were served foo-foo food by waiters in tuxes on the floor of the stadium before we were whisked away for an elegant dinner in the French Quarter. As the hurricane hit, and the stories started to emerge, I still had those pictures on my camera.
So, I’m anxious to see New Orleans again and get a first hand look at just how well she’s recovered.
It’s an exciting opportunity. It’s not very often, unfortunately, that I get to cover stories in person. I’m a bit nervous though because I feel like I’ve got a lot of loose ends. Usually when you go to a show, you register weeks in advance and get a nice neat schedule of where you’re supposed to be and when. For this event, however, everything came together to allow me to go at the last minute. I don’t have a schedule and I’ve got a very short time to interview a lot of people.
As great as I’d been feeling lately, these past two days haven’t been good ones. I’ve been sick to my stomach at night, the joint pain is worse, and while my tummy feels better during the day I do feel super tired all of a sudden. All I really want to do is take a nap!
I am excited about New Orleans though. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, even if it always had a lot of poverty and doesn’t always smell so great in places. It’s a city that you can’t confuse with any other American city. It has its own vibe, own culture and plenty of color to give it character.
I first went to New Orleans when I was barely 18 years old. I was a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and they were hosts of the National Federation of the Blind convention that year. I learned my Braille numbers by brailling the hotel room numbers of four large hotels! (this was before they put them in for ADA.)
That week was a life changing week for me. I’d never known blind adults as role models, and suddenly I met 3,000 of them all at once.
The next time I was in New Orleans was a very romantic week I spent there with Peter. We poked around in the French Quarter, took the trolley to the Garden District and took a riverboat up the Mississippi and toured old Southern plantations around the city.
And the last time I was in New Orleans was only a few weeks before Katrina hit. I was covering the National Association of Consumer Show organizer’s national meeting. We were served foo-foo food by waiters in tuxes on the floor of the stadium before we were whisked away for an elegant dinner in the French Quarter. As the hurricane hit, and the stories started to emerge, I still had those pictures on my camera.
So, I’m anxious to see New Orleans again and get a first hand look at just how well she’s recovered.
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