On Sunday, I traveled to New Orleans for a long overdue family day of fun at the zoo and the aquarium. My son was particularly looking forward to seeing the elephants–and, as fate would have it, they are pretty much the first animals you get to see after you walk into the zoo.  Two very large elephants (are there any other kind?) were chilling in the mid-morning light, just kind of swaying back and forth. Then, they must have sensed that I was there (they had their backs to me and all I could see was um, elephant butt) because they became giddy with excitement–one urinated and one pooped–right in front of me.  My string of good luck was obviously continuing.

A bit later, I tried to move in for a close-up view of a rhinoceros.  He was lounging in the sun, trying to hide from me. I crept forward, inching ever closer–until my dad stopped me.  You see, what I hadn’t realized–a snake was on the ground right in front of me. About two feet away.  Not INSIDE the animal’s secured area. Right. In. Front. Of. Me.  (And my two year old son.)

So not cool.

Now, my dad has much more experienced snake eyes than I do, and he said the snake looked like a water moccasin.  I wasn’t gonna do a close-up survey.  I got my son and we got out of there–fast. My dad lingered a bit to warn others with kids to stay away until the zoo folks arrived and took charge.

I hate snakes. Have I mentioned that?  And the kicker for me–less than a week before, a snake was in my front yard. Slithering his way up my drive like he was a welcome guest. So not.  And now this…What? Do the snakes think I’m their leader?  I’m not–they need to stay away from me!

I did have a fun time at the zoo. Come on–it’s the zoo!  Jack loved pointing at all of the animals and we even had an ice cream break for lunch.

After that, time for a trip to Canal Street and a visit to the wonderfully air-conditioned aquarium.  I love to go to the aquarium because I so enjoy watching the sharks swim. For some reason, watching them soothes me.

I didn’t travel too deeply into the heart of the city.  I wanted to see more–see what was being rebuilt, what still needed help.  Perhaps next time. I considered this my gentle re-introduction to the city–and New Orleans is, for all its recent troubles, a beautiful city.

In the past, I’ve enjoyed strolling in Jackson Square and taking Haunted Tours around the city–and I know I’ll do that again.  Perhaps even later this summer–I’m considering attending Heather Graham’s New Orleans Conference.

But it’s getting late now–and I just finished watching my taped episode of House. So that means (anybody who watched the show will know what I’m talking about) that I have a headache from crying.

On a writerly note, I’m working on my first read-through of my recently finished rough draft.  I’ll post tomorrow about my read-through method. Every writer seems to have a different method–different strokes for different folks.

Night!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.