New Orleans (aka the Davis Decennial)

The last weekend of August, Austin's family traveled to New Orleans and was nice enough to bring me along. It was a great weekend - HOT and humid but I actually kind of love that summery weather. 

We did mostly typical touristy stuff (my favorite kind of stuff). We stayed at a hotel right off Bourbon Street, so we ended walking up and down it, by day and by night. We ate Cajun classics, amazing po-boys and alligator gumbo at Parkway Bakery and Tavern, barbecued shrimp at Pascal's Manale on my parents' recommendation, gelato on Magazine Street, oysters at Peche, and beignets at both Cafe du Monde and Cafe Beignet.

We drank very sweet drinks on Bourbon Street, chicory coffee, Sazeracs, gin fizzes, Bloody Marys, and a number of other excellent cocktails. Bourbon Street was somehow trashier than I expected. (I don't know what I was expecting.) We didn't spend too much time there, but I dragged Austin out for one final Hurricane on Sunday night. And I'm sure I'll be back for a bachelorette party sooner or later...

We took the trolley to the World War II museum (which had an awesome hangar where you could stand eye-to-eye with WWII airplanes and, best of all, a working victory garden). We took the ferry to Algiers Point (the name was more exciting than the location) for what was most of our first official encounter with the Big Muddy. We wandered Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District - I LOVE old cemeteries, and this one did not disappoint. I spotted the New Orleans branch of my network of Catholic high schools. We saw live music (some pretentious, some awesome) on Frenchman Street. We sampled hot sauces. I played with my new camera and took my new Fitbit for walks around the French Quarter and down to the French market.

I was wandering around Bourbon St one night (see above RE Fitbit) and followed the sounds of live music to a neighboring street, where I stumbled on a wedding procession, the bride and groom and wedding guests circling the block with their jazz band. It reminded me that I'd gotten just a tiny taste of a fascinating culture. The more I travel, the more I realize that I am just scratching the surface of everywhere I visit. 

Resolved: to keep traveling, of course. And to pull out the Big Camera for more pictures of people and not just pictures of buildings.

Deep wine-fueled thoughts

The other night, we watched the movie SOMM, which follows four sommeliers preparing for the Master Sommelier exam. It's an intensive process, the culmination of years of working in the industry and intense months of refining your palate and studying thousands of flashcards on arcane details of wine knowledge. It takes long hours and becomes an obsession, one that pulls you away from your family and friends.

It was fun hearing their insanely detailed descriptions for wine (fresh can of tennis balls? decaying meat?) and nail-bitingly suspenseful as they heard their results. But what stuck with me most was the passion and perseverance that the process requires. One of them stayed up till all hours of the night studying for weeks ahead of time – which, though I am no fan of the all-nighter, was oddly inspiring.

Nothing I do currently requires that kind of intense commitment and perseverance. To be sure, I work hard and will occasionally stay late at the office. But right now, I'm happy to have found a balance – of working and playing and cooking and gardening and exercising and reading. But one day I'll throw myself into something imbalanced – the pursuit of one really valuable thing at the expense of other really great things – and the movie made me newly excited for that.

Because I am not planning on becoming a master sommelier, I imagine that will be grad school, or maybe some especially all-consuming job assignment. And, with Tunisian election season coming up, that day may be coming sooner than I think. From what I understand, the election missions are going to be a throw-yourself-into-it-and-make-it-happen type deal.

Also, sometimes I venture down the road of thinking that the only worthwhile activities are those that contribute to Saving The World, so it seems somewhat trivial, self-indulgent even, to dedicate your life's work to knowing vineyards and vintages.

But the movie made me think about how it doesn't matter so much what you're passionate about, what matters is the passion. The old "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Cliche, for sure, but nevertheless – a good reminder to start with what I'm passionate about and work from there, instead of trying to figure out what I "should" be doing.

It's happening.

All of a sudden, everything is happening all at once, and fast. After lots of drafting and political infighting and two years of prospective election dates getting pushed back, Tunisia has a new constitution and an electoral law and a calendar for not one but three election dates this fall. The catch phrase in Tunisia these days is, apparently, "It's happening!"

It is super exciting - the culmination of lots of work on the part of Tunisian political players. Because my organization is supporting Tunisian groups that are observing the elections and bringing in international folks to observe as well, it also means that the pace is going to pick up at work.

Austin and I also found out recently that we're getting kicked out of our apartment because our landlord is moving back in after a few years in DC. It's a bummer because we (mostly) love the current apartment and even more of a bummer because we learned this time last year that we hate moving. We weren't totally sure that we wanted to stay in this place, but remember that little adage about wanting what you can't have? Apartment-hunting in DC is the worst. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it, and then again about moving in the midst of a busy work period.

As I can see over the peak of summer into the fall, it has also hit me that I may need to start doing some serious work if I have real intentions of going to grad school anytime soon. So at the back of my mind, I'm thinking that i need to spend some quality time with the GRE book.

And all of this amidst lots of fun summer travel plans that are going to be totally awesome but also mean time away from home. And it's the summer, so what I really want is to drink on a roof and swim in a pool. 

All told, it's going to be a busy few months, and I'm a little overwhelmed thinking about it. But it's also struck me that being overwhelmed is, on some level, a choice. It's a story you tell yourself, dwelling on the negative instead of the positive of having lots of fundamentally GOOD stuff going on, like great career opportunities and a chance to explore a new neighborhood. Just like, instead of saying you're crazy busy, you can say that you're "wildly productive and living the dream." Instead of "I'm overwhelmed" – "It's all happening!" 

So I am going to try to tell myself that story. I'm going to try to ride the wave and hold on tight. Ready, set, go.

(Fun fact: I wrote this on July 14. On July 15, our apartment got burglarized. A good reminder that no matter how crazy things seem, they can—and will—get crazier.)