Jazz Fest Trip

A successful trip to New Orleans includes:
1) Snowballs at Sal's

2) Cousin Lovin'




3) Aunt and Uncle Lovin'


4) Grandma Lovin'


5) Good Music (this time that included the Jazz Fest)
Day 1 of Jazz Fest: Elijah accompanied--didn't like the heat, but loved the people (he shimmied up to this woman to watch the Masankho K Banda of Malawi, then started throwing grass)
Day 2: Me with my high school buddies Kathy and Betsy. The hat you see is one Marguerite found for me from Hector's stash. I must admit, it came pre-sweat-stained, but I wore it proudly.
My favorite part of Jazz Fest was the sign language interpreter in the Gospel Tent. That man could dance! A close second was Chris Owens, a 90 year old burlesque performer who, despite her bad singing voice, drew a large crowd with her big hair and feather-tailed bathing suit. Decency allowed us to view her for a few short minutes before her voice quality enticed us to move on.

6) Good Food
Marguerite and Maria Garcia are most excellent chefs. We always enjoy the Southern and Cuban cuisine. Jazz Fest food is also quite good, although the crawfish bread wasn't as good as I remembered it and Elijah ate 95% of my mango freeze.

And Danny & Clyde's fried shrimp po-boys. I especially liked the box the condiments came in:

7) Panchos
Panchos is a family tradition that has survived through Katrina flooding the original location, the period of time they switched to Velveeta, and most amazingly of all, the time we (or maybe it was just me) spotted vomit as we walked out the front door.

8) Time in the Abuelos' beautiful backyard



Where do you think Claire learned this facial expression?
9) Riding in Cars: one of the few places we are legally obligated to tie down children...yippee

10) And of course, a wild story-time with Grandma

Crowd Magnet

Elijah has a crowd magnet inside him somewhere. When I lose track of him, I just look for the area of highest human density and he’s usually in the middle. Often, I’ve found him sharing snacks with a group of kids, wrestling or hitting teenagers with his toys, playing Frisbee with adults, etc.
Sometimes when I bring the kids running with me, we stop at an amphitheater that overlooks the East River at Brooklyn so Elijah and I can do sprints on the stairs, or sit-ups on the benches. But not today! There was a group of 7 Asian grandmothers. Elijah, of course beelined towards them and sat right in the middle as they fawned over him. They helped him put his hood on, spoke to him in their language, while he spoke to them in his, changed his boots to the right feet (his rainboots are so big on him that it doesn’t actually matter which feet they are on, plus it is a gorgeously dry day), and were very protective of him everytime he moved, trying to prevent him from falling down the stairs. Elijah was in heaven. It took me at least 5 minutes to coax him away from their protective gaggle.
The magnet has a life-time warranty. Below is Elijah at 15 months old in Antigua, Guatemala. We knew none of these people, until Elijah made it his/our business to know all of these people.

Easter

Yesterday Elijah painted Easter eggs, paper, the kitchen, and himself. The kitchen is still pink and his hands are still blue. We were never able to hide the eggs since our church adventure took 6 hours, promptly leading to the meltdown phase. Then we had a nice dinner with friends. Maybe we’ll hide the eggs tomorrow. The plastic ones have cereal and money inside; money is Elijah’s new love (he bought me a doughnut on Thursday night with an egg full of coins).

On a side note, David and I have signed up to run a half marathon in Brooklyn on May 30th. I ran 7 miles yesterday in the cold rain and did a little second-guessing…we’ll see how old my bones are!

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

I take it back...

I take it all back. That last post about being in the emotional driver’s seat proved my hypocrisy. Today Elijah fell backward off a toy he wasn’t supposed to be standing on and stamped his body, clothes, and the futon with a permanent red ink pad. He then broke the toilet and refused to take a nap. All of the above seemed like a typical day in the life of Elijah. Then, I heard a crash from the bedroom where he was supposed to be asleep. He had broken our lamp, one of the few things in our house that we paid good money for. Now he’s screaming at his sister who is trying to sleep. I opt for the silent treatment so as not to demonstrate the emotional roller coaster I'm riding. I think we will all take a nap now. I've found naps seem to solve many problems, or at least dull their impact significantly.

Elijah enjoying General Conference

David enjoyed a few minutes of General Conference from his office. He's still there and says he will hopefully be home before 10pm (that usually translates to somewhere between 11 & midnight). As always, I loved Conference and am sad it's already over.

Musings: My favorite talk (in a large part because it was while Elijah was asleep and I was able to focus) was Elder Pearson (Saturday Afternoon). 2 things hit home:
1) "We get what we focus on." I have been thinking about this a lot lately, in a large part because I read a similar scripture a few days ago that impacted me: "For that which ye do send out shall return to you again, and be restored" (Alma 41: 15). I have been working on emotion control lately. I have never considered myself an emotional person, in fact, quite the opposite. At the same time, several unwanted emotions seem innate and unavoidable. For example, today Elijah accidentally stepped on Claire (Elijah, as usual, was excited, and Claire has a way these days of quickly sneaking up behind us). The “natural man” response is anger. Trying to stifle these emotions and replace with positive/constructive reactions has become empowering. It feels good to sit in my emotional driver’s seat. In relation to the scripture and quote, as I control my emotions, I see Elijah is better able to control his (slightly). On the same note, when I get frustrated, I notice that he grunts and moans a lot more over spilled milk.
2) "Discouragement and distraction (lack of focus) are 2 of Satan's most effective tools, but they are also bad habits." Amen to that!

A few other conference tidbits: Don’t say long public prayers. Don’t wear your watch into the temple. I particularly noticed the several talks on temples. A few weeks ago I went a temple session for the first time in about a year. The Spirit there was incredible! Something I’m definitely hoping to experience more of in the future. In fact, David forgot to get me a Valentine’s Day gift this year. I told him not to spend money on me, which of course stifled his fun and temporarily erased the dollar signs from his eyes. At 11pm that night he gave me a coupon that promised me a monthly temple visit this year—best present yet!

Claire enjoying General Conference

Contagion

Analysis of data from the lives of Garcia children (n = 2) in a prospective cohort study of Tourette Syndrome has found that the disease is, in fact, contagious. Although the results are not statistically significant, I am 99.45% positive they will be robust if applied to children exposed to the same circumstances. Symptoms include random outbursts of noise. As evidenced in one such subject, severe screaming erupts upon sighting a squirrel, then chasing the animal and targeting it with almonds*. Another subject incites vociferous ejaculations as a means of personal entertainment. In conclusion, I recommend earplugs.

*No animals were permanently injured in the course of this research.

Oh man, I've been working too much lately!