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Home again


I’m back! And, I’ve got tons to share about my trip. But, I’m exhausted so I probably won’t do it tonight. I’ll probably also have to blog about it in pieces.

For now, all I can say is that considering all that New Orleans has been through in the last 10 months, the city is amazingly resilient. I didn’t get a chance to venture beyond the convention center and the French Quarter because I was so busy covering the events of the show. I know from the attendees I spoke with that rented cars to go look beyond downtown that vast parts of the city are still in ruin. But, the parts I saw can best be summed up by this picture.

The city is still there. It’s still beautiful and vibrant and unique – and although it was in good enough shape to host the 17,000 tourists that came to town for the American Library Association’s show, it still isn’t back to normal.

As you can see from this picture, the iron work, the French influence and the Cajun spirit is still there, but like the city, there’s a bit of iron work still to be repaired. Chains remain where normally lush green ferns would hang – attention (rightly so) has gone to the practical, so some of the edges are still in need of polish.

I had to get up at 4:00 am to catch my flight – so I’ll write more when I’m not feeling so sleep deprived I could be drunk!
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