As I’m typing this letter, you are reading it out loud to me. You have grown so much in the last year. Reading, Writing, Addition, Subtraction. You are very good in math and very hard on yourself when it comes to your school work. This comes as a surprise to me, because I was just the opposite in school.

You just finished Kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. Every week, we’d go through your school work…and every week you’d come home with a stack of papers on Friday – most of which were perfect. But you’d always manage to find the few you had red X’s open and comment how you ‘got it all wrong.’ I’d try to place the emphasis on all the good work you did, but you really weren’t hearing it. As I always say…”I’m not asking you to be perfect, just do your best.” And I honestly believe you have.

To say you were a social butterfly at school is an understatement. Your friends were not limited to the Kindergarten class, you made friends  with the Pre-K class – as well as ‘big kids’ all the way up to the 8th graders. As I walked you to class in the mornings, you were always greeted by most everyone, by name – even parents.

You are still known by everyone at the restaurant, as well. You have now infiltrated the entire place, finally figuring out that Vincent and Little Gino are really where it’s at…and you use this knowledge to get anything you want there. You seem very interested in how things work in the kitchen. You ask a lot of questions about cooking when you’re there. You also love to help out in the kitchen at home.

You have no problem walking up to a table of adults and talking to them, especially in a place you feel comfortable. With that being said, new places or places with new people seem to really intimidate you..or as you call it “scare you.” You can have a very sassy attitude at times and can still talk trash with the rest of us. You get it honestly from me and Daddy. We focus a lot on manners and how you speak to people.. because no matter what, we want you to be polite.

You are still in soccer. The season just wrapped up a few weeks ago. You like it..but I wouldn’t say that you love it. I think you like the fact that you are able to see your friends and run around with them, more than anything. You are very active at school and at home. You have a hard time sitting still. Always curious, always inquisitive. You are constantly doing something – and sometimes into things you shouldn’t be into, because of your curiosity.

Physically, you are more beautiful than I ever dreamed you would be. Your skin is perfect and your hair is curly and brown with a lot of red highlights in the sun, especially in the summer. You are already at odds with your curly hair, wishing it was straight..and not so ‘poofy.’ You have your own style and you like to dress yourself..model your clothes and wear makeup. You are always getting into my makeup and trying different things.

You love drawing, painting, telling stories, acting, singing..and entertaining in general. You still have that very dry sense of humor that you get from me…and you are very sensitive, just like me. You love your babies and take care of them all the time, packing them around in a basket and putting them to bed or dressing them. You also love all animals and have a very maternal side to you. You are always thinking about your friends and creating artwork for them…or asking to call them.

I have not been working in an office for several months now, so I get to spend a lot more time with you. I can honestly say these last few months have been some of the best in my life. It’s so nice to spend time with you and truly get to know you – not just in the 2-3 hours after work and when we’re getting dressed in the mornings. We’ve done so much together lately…and we’ve had so much fun. Every year around your birthday I have always felt like I was missing out on so much with you. This year it was a little easier to stomach that you are growing up so fast.

Favorite Music: Britney Spears, Prince, brass bands and anything live. You like playing the drums and I hope to be able to help you explore this interest more very soon.

Favorite TV Shows: iCarly, Tru Jackson & Suite Life on Deck

I could not be any more proud of you, Grace. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t stop and think of how thankful I am for you in my life. You are a blessing to all of us.

Happy Birthday!

I Love you,
Mommy

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A lot has happened in my life recently. It’s been amazing and difficult. I resigned from the administrative position of 9 years at the same organization to pursue other interests. For various reasons, I was no longer happy there. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made, but I am much happier. This not only gives me more time with Grace, it also allows me time to work on starting my own businesses, offering virtual assistance to small businesses.

I’ve been able to reevaluate my life and what is important. All the money in the world isn’t going to help anything if I’m not happy. I was missing out on so much with my family prior to resigning. It was affecting my health, my emotional well being and my relationships. Life is so much better now. I have a better outlook on life and spend more time thinking positively, rather than dwelling in how miserable I am…and it shows. I am working hard and feel very confident that I will succeed. I am more sure of this than I have ever been in my life.

“You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It’s your life.”
Ethan Embry

More soon…

Check out a video of her performing Window Seat on Jimmy Fallen!!

Will you purchase her new album??

But first, a topical Louisiana aside: how I long for high speed rail between Baton Rouge and New Orleans! Only a resident can really appreciate this. It’s a straight shot from one city to the other, but Louisiana’s hopeless, hapless, ineffective, and generally (universally?) incompetent Department of Transportation has been meddling with Interstate 10 between the two cities for my entire life. (Literally.) The same two miles of highway leading into New Orleans have been under construction for at least a decade, and now they’re attempting some sort of elevated extension that guarantees another lifetime of setbacks, funding issues, potholes, car accidents, redesigns, land disputes, orange cones, and gridlock. Simply put, automobiles are the worst way to commute between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, eliminating a mutually beneficial job market, labor force, tourism source, and real estate investment opportunity. (Yes, people do make the commute. But what should be an hour’s drive takes double that on bad days. Not many are up for it, with fuel prices alone.)

But high speed rail — just consider it! Existing lines, upgraded, would connect downtown Baton Rouge and the Superdome. (With stops, presumably, along the way — Gonzales, La Place.) No traffic. No headaches. No car accidents. A smooth, relaxing, productive trip. Add wi-fi (ubiquitous by the rail’s implementation) and you’ve got an extra hour to get work done, return emails, do homework (let us not forget the benefits to education!) and update Facebook. Downtown Baton Rouge, already engaged in a revitalization plan, could double its efforts. New Orleans — one need not even mention its needs — stands only to gain by every conceivable measure. A successful implementation, indeed, would bring to the forefront Baton Rouge’s abject failure of public transportation, and rejuvenate the system in New Orleans. A successful high speed railway station in the capital would surely spur calls to revive the streetcar system, and modernize the bus lines. (C.A.T.S. is a failure. Everybody knows it. But it is essential to the thousands of people who cannot afford automobiles. And therein lies the problem: people see it as being for “the poor,” and thus avoid it. [That is putting it gently on multiple fronts.] Only a substantial renovation can change that. Public transit for all! Perhaps someone could fly to Portland, take careful notes, and come back with a bus system that is safe, reliable, economical, and used by the majority. Baton Rouge isn’t so large that one should have to climb into an SUV to go to the mall.)

Mostly, though, I want to take my little girl to Audubon Zoo and be home by lunchtime. High speed rail can make that happen. The technology is ready. Louisiana has largely avoided the worst of the recession. New Orleans is ripe for far-reaching and meaningful urban development of the first order. Nothing should be off the table. I’m sure a clever politician could even make a disaster preparedness and security argument. How might a hurricane or terrorist attack evacuation look without I-10 gridlock and with a major railway running at full speed and full capacity?

(My little aside, it seems, has run to six-hundred words.) This is a virtual book tour, as I mentioned, so perhaps I should get to the book. Red Planet Noir takes place in the very distant future. Our hero, the down-and-out private eye Mike Sheppard lives in New Orleans, a city that has largely survived a nuclear apocalypse. As Mike observes, “bombs couldn’t do anything to us that we hadn’t already done to ourselves.” Mike’s dilapidated office is in the Hurwitz-Mintz building on Royal, across from Hotel Monteleone. Dolores Yu, the Watson to his Sherlock, works at the K&B drugstore.

On that point: long before the novel’s publication, I’d submitted the manuscript to a regional contest. It did quite well, though one of the judges took points from the final score. K&B, she carved in red, was no longer in business, and I clearly needed to research such details if I intended to write them. Fair enough, but everyone knows K&B is no longer. Indeed, one’s citizenship would be revoked for not knowing such a basic fact. My defense: the author crafts his or her Ideal World. And in my Ideal World, K&B is still around, still open on Christmas, still stocked with purple sacks, purple pencils, and that gorgeous purple oval sign. A little piece of Louisiana’s soul died when we lost K&B. A little piece of me died. But at least it lives in my book.

Mike Sheppard’s New Orleans is very real, and I tried to keep it geographically accurate. Here is Mike’s office:

Check out the gorgeous terrazzo on its stoop out front — I’d love to know how far this dates back:

From his office, through a broken pane of glass, Mike observes the Hotel Monteleone. Red Planet Noir isn’t the first novel to feature the landmark. Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty, among many, many others, all give mention to the Monteleone in their literature.

The gorgeous neon sign outside its garage:

K&B was bought by the execrable and utterly generic Rite Aid in the 90s. Nonetheless, in the book, this Walgreens is where K&B would stand (as opposed to Canal — or perhaps in addition to Canal, where it really was).

From the novel: I hoisted the plastic bag with one hand and donned my hat with the other. Outside, wind swept through the rain-slicked streets. A reflection of the violet K&B sign shimmered in puddles along the sidewalk. Pulling my coat tight, I leaned into the door. The wind pushed back.

In my world, K&B still shimmers. And the wind will always push back.

~

Sincere thanks again to Candace for kindly lending me her slice of the web. On Monday, the blog book tour returns at the blog of author Mindy Blanchard. I’ll describe the business of publishing from my small vantage point. A look into the sausage factory, if you will, at what happens when an author types THE END. I hope to see you there.

–

D.B. Grady is the author of Red Planet Noir.
He can be found on the web at http://www.dbgrady.com.

Jazzfest Grids | The Nearly-World-Famous Jazzfest Grids.

For a listing of Jazz Fest artists, click here.

For Saving Saints, Tagliabue Deserves a Place in the HallSIGN IN TO RECOMMENDTWITTERSIGN IN TO E-MAILPRINTREPRINTSSHARE By DAVE ANDERSONPublished: February 13, 2010Over the Super Bowl weekend, the sentimental story was how the Saints had finally fulfilled their romantic return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The ignored story was that Paul Tagliabue’s name was not even in the discussion when the Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors met.

Full Article at: Sports of The Times – Tagliabue Deserves a Statue in New Orleans and a Place in the Hall of Fame – NYTimes.com.

YouTube – NFCCG 2009 Miked Up.