April, 2009

Before I could unpack on Sunday, I was whisked off to a wonderful place called JazzFest where the sun was shining, food stands offered at least 10 different crawfish dishes and cold Miller Lite reigned as the official festival beverage. The whole family went. The daughter of a family friend works for the lieutenant governor so we had a few passes to his tent and air-conditioned bathrooms. It was the best way to celebrate and recover from the master’s defense: fresh air, delicious food and so much music.

Heard: Locos por Juana(Latin), Jim McCormick (country/songwriter), Ebony Hillbillies (folk/blues), Kinky (rock/dance/techno from Mexico), Better than Ezra (rock), Earth Wind and Fire and the Dave Matthews Band (with Tim Reynolds)

Good day for dancing. And hippy-watching.

I’m avoiding the word plan for now. Plans carry the expectation of being definite, dependable, secure. I don’t have much of that right now, but this is what I know.

I flew back to New Orleans Saturday and I’ll be back in Missouri sometime around May 13, graduating May 16. I wanted to leave May 18/19 for a two week trip abroad, but the sweeping swine flu threatens that idea.

I’ve started applying for jobs at newspapers and news Web sites. Jobs are hard to get and keep everywhere, but even more so in journalism. The pool of May job-seekers includes journalists with 10 more years of experience than me. I’m not giving up on the news writing route because it’s truly what I want to do: report and write every day, finding stories that matter to the people who read them.

I’m staying in New Orleans while I search for a permanent job. The other two options — moving back to Missouri or Illinois — would be okay, but I don’t know if I would be able to write there. Professionally, it makes sense to stay here where I can freelance. And never be without something to do. The details of that arrangement haven’t been worked out yet, but with the project is behind me, I can focus on the next step. I will also have more time to write in this blog, which I will keep until I leave the city.

I defended my master’s project before my faculty committee yesterday afternoon. I was prepared on paper but wasn’t exactly, er, focused.

I had been sleeping in hour-long increments since Saturday night, so I was a little tired. And I made the mistake of skipping my morning coffee and eating at least half a cup of icing after breakfast. (Icing for the two king cakes I baked for my committee and cream cheese icing for lemon cheesecake bars I baked to relieve stress.)

The sugar high dropped off around noon, so I was a little out of it during the actual defense. My committee members asked questions. I think I answered them. It’s all a little fuzzy, but I took notes.

I passed!

Cream cheese filled, of course.
And multiple babies were baked inside.

…on the condition I make a few changes by Friday. The changes address what I knew were weak parts of the project, so it was good to get input about how to finish them. I’m staying in Columbia for a few extra days to finish, and then back to New Orleans to write a few more stories. I will graduate in May with an M.A. in journalism!

I could not have done it without my all-star committee. Each made diverse contributions along the way, from before planning this project, to writing the proposal, to the final defense. It was hard at times to be physically far away from school while completing the project, and I don’t think many people could do it — especially in the amusement park that is New Orleans. But it can be done and finishing has been my most satisfying accomplishment yet. In a close second are the near-perfect king cakes that my friends claimed were better than any cake they ate during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Last night I sent a draft of my research project to my committee. I had revised it a few times since I sent the first rough draft to my chair April 3. Final page count: 214. On Saturday I fly back to Columbia. On Monday I’ll give an open presentation about my project. On Tuesday I defend my project in front of my committee. I’ve dreamed of this twice: one time it was the Mad Hatter’s tea party and the other it resembled the Spanish inquisition. Let’s hope it’s the former.

The defense ends one of three ways: I fail and work on it for another semester, I pass and am done or I pass on the condition I make more revisions. Usually revisions need to be made and I’m staying in Missouri for a few days so I can hunker down and make them without distractions like live music, snowballs and sunshine.

Then it’s back to NOLA for JazzFest and a few more stories. Graduation May 16. Let the countdown begin.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IKcMl_a9A]

When I was a kid, Easter meant matching floral dresses sewn by my mom, church in the morning and a baked ham for Easter dinner at Grandma’s. Over the years that schedule relaxed to sleeping in, candy for breakfast and ham sandwiches sometime in the afternoon at Grandma’s.

Today we enjoyed a lazy morning that included searching the house for plastic Walmart bags full of candy. We skipped the parades (every holiday in New Orleans comes with a few parades) and instead baked cakes. Easter dinner — 40 pounds of boiled crawfish, potatoes, corn and garlic — was eaten while standing around the iron patio table in the backyard, avoiding mosquitoes and sipping Abita.

I had just settled in front of my computer to work on the project when I heard music. Live brass sounded like it was two houses away. I went outside to investigate. A parade marched by on the next street over. We joined the second line, or the party of people following the parade, for six blocks. The Rebirth Brass Band played and the Pigeon Town Steppers Social Aid and Pleasure Club danced in lilac and orchid dresses and suits. We turned around when we got to Claiborne. Ann Elise wasn’t wearing shoes and, as it is in New Orleans, the neighborhood ahead wasn’t one of the better ones, especially for walking barefoot.