Gentilly Girl- a part of the 99%

December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Filed under: Aside — Morwen Madrigal @ 7:01 pm

Have a good time tonight folks. Be safe, have fun and don’t drink the bars dry… I may want to visit them later. (and there will be no potable deliveries tomorrow.)

December 30, 2008

Good Bye 2008…

and don’t let the time-vault door hit ya’s on the ass. Now git!

Good old ’08 has been one major struggle after another in the lives of Betts and me. Started the year screaming for our contractors to get the repairs done and screaming at Road Home concerning our Elevation grant. Didn’t help that my body was slowly coming up with more problems that I really didn’t have time nor energy for. These things would wind up coloring my whole year.

In February our beloved Siamese, Opal, passed away peacefully in her sleep lying between us. She actually rolled on her back as Betts rubbed her and then did the same for me. She left five minutes later. I was a mess, but the memory of adopting her when she was 10 and giving her a good life, and some adventures, for the next 11 years did cheer me up a little. (Giving Betty a large heart-shaped box of dark chocolates for Valentines perked her  up a little)

Missed all of Mardi Gras last year. I was starting to get some very strange feelings in the old body but kept pushing on (behind Betts) in order to finally get our grant and get the lousy contractors to do their J.O.B. . This latter poop would color the rest of the year.

In early April NOLA Blogger great and a friend, Ashley Morris died suddenly. To say that we local Bloggers took this hard would suffice if spread very thinly. Some set up a fund for his family and together they helped to have a good funeral and give Ashmo a good Second Line to see him along his way. He would have loved the Wake we held later at Bulldogs.

May was much the same with the contractors and my physical probs. Same goes for June except for showing up for Pride in a driving rain. July was a wash.

In August we worked on getting our final Elevation grant only to keep hearing the program might start up in the Fall. We finally got our Occupancy Cert. Rising Tide III was going down at the end of the month, but between packing the dumpster we lived in, getting the power on and my illness, we missed the entire thing. We moved into our home 3 years and 1 day from the day we evacuated due to Katrina.

The next day Gustav hit. I stayed online all night and then lost power the next morning as Baton Rouge was getting the storm. Our home stood like a rock, but the next five days is was hotter than Hell without power to cool the place down. We took most of our 3 freezers of food and either cooked or brought it raw to the Starlight since they were feeding all and sundry. From then until early November Betts and I crashed and burned as so much of the pain, sorrow and strees of the last 3 years somewhat flowed out of us.

November was eventful in that the damn elections were over and Obama won the Presidency and the Dems took strong control of Congress. Later in the month we cooked up a T-Day dinner for 12 to 14 only to have one person show up. I was really getting ill so I decided to bite the bullet and make an appointment with the only Doc I have left at the V.A.. I planned to not have to be in a hospital for the Holidays, but what would be would be.

December found me fretting over the medical stuffs and doing what I did most of the last year- fall into the bed at any time and just sleep. My ‘puter died for a while there and Betts got me a new one. Then she got the call that the mitigation grant folks wanted our paperwork a month earlier than previously. Betts ran it down and later they said we would be getting it, put probably in January.

My visit with the Doc went well. Tests to do, meds to help with the sinitus/tinnitus/ loss of balance and dizziness and an appointment for next month to set up various scans to find out what is happening inside of me. At least he said a brain tumor was pretty far out of the equation. *rolls eyes*

Christmas Week we had an old friend down We hadn’t seen each other for over 5 years. She had only seen pics of the house from when we bought it. We did things during the week- Eve dinner at La Cote Brasserie, quiet Day dinner at home and visited with our friends. It was nice having her visit. Was just like old times.

So tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and we shall do Rueban PoBoys, drink and then watch the Time-Vault door smack old Mr. 2008 in the tush as the Fleur De Lis falls. (And watch “Things To Come”, H.G. Wells) The next morning starts a new cycle and I have a little one named 2009 to become friends with.

Happy New Year Gentle Readers!

December 29, 2008

They Want to “Stop & Go” Again on Fuel Sources…

Filed under: Environment,Fuckmooks,Louisiana,New Orleans,Oil & Gas — Morwen Madrigal @ 1:40 am

My first words would come out as “BE VERY FREAKIN’ AWARE of these fuckmooks and what the Future may hold.

Here is a good article from Today’s L.A. Times. It concerns Big Oil & Gas wanting to open our country to the results of their “exploration/development” schemes for oil shale.  From using all of some States allocations of Colorado River water to the poisoning of lesser aquifers to require communities to engage in massive purification processes… the People don’t win, only the Fat Cats (some who have received a portion of the $700B bailout from the Feds) will win.

So for the folks on the West side of the Rockies, my advice would to be to learn about what Big O&G did to the Louisiana Coast in their repacious search for oil and gas  (= $$$)  and what has has been the results of their activities. Our wetlands (i.e. storm protections) are greatly diminished. Our Natural world has been altered. The things that for us were a given are washing away all for greed.

For the West Rockies folks, you’re not going to wash away since you are going to be shattered by dehydration. The oil shale concerns have many plans, but it involves many acre feet of water every minute to operate the procurment and refinery processes.  Your landscapes will be altered by strip mining. Wells may dry up or have a mineral report that has massive amounts of Selenium/Arsenic/heavy metals or Uranium. (I know much of this area well having hiked it and done my reading.) This will happen.

Never trust the Oil & Gas companies when it comes to extraction- they will extract the minerals and all, and they will also extract the joy of the living in your own land.

Just beware.

December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas From The Church of Our Lady Of Gentilly

It’s 78 degrees, humid and thunder clouds are amassing. It’s supposed to be cold and snowing, but the Nagin Administration is in charge of scheduling the weather (because C.Ray “controls” the vertical and the horizontal in order to help us buffoons get by. Evil minion Blakely probably had this job since he’s the Recovery Czar.) Well the snow came two weeks early, but at least Nagin and his minions actually made something happen. We should give thanks for at least that I guess.

Enough of that snark.

Tonight Betts, our dear friend Elaine and I will be holding court at Le Cote Brasserie on Tchoup.  Then we head out to see friends at the Starlight and play games, come home for “A Christmas Carol” with Alistair Sim and then your’s truly gets to start prep work for tomorrow’s dinner- Prime rib on the Weber and the fixens.

To you my Gentle Readers and for everyone in the New Orleans area, have a Merry Christmas (Bill O’Reilly liked that) and may you and yours have a great time. (Carpetbaggers are not included since they work for the Grinch) And to the NOLA Bloggers- I give you all a big hug and a kiss.

This bitch will be back on the 26th.

Be Blessed!

December 23, 2008

Leave It To Melissa…

Filed under: Inter/Trans-Sexed,LGBT — Morwen Madrigal @ 3:40 am

For 7 years I have been an advocate for the Transgender community. Personal advice , essays… what-not. My basic tenet is that we must work with other folks and prove ourselves as what we truly are. “To change hearts, minds and souls”. That will be the secret to us being liberated as ourselves.

Now Pastor Rick Warren is to deliver the Inagural Prayer and Melissa Ethridge was to attend the affair. In this essay she got it right. She was also proactive and talked with Pastor Warren and learned some things.

Melissa and her family will attend the Inaguration.

There’s a new world dawning folks, and Melissa gets my thoughts from the above.  (She doesn’t read my Blog) “Changing hearts, minds and souls” Just showing to good folks that we are good and proving ourselves. There is nothing to fear from us.

I won’t mute the Inagural Prayer as I planned. If Warren come close to the LGBT community’s position, I can go closer to his. (I may be a protective bitch, but I don’t like being petty.)

Here’s part of Melissa’s essay-

“Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world’s attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don’t hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.

Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.

I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.”

I too am a dreamer, and Hope always springs eternal.

December 21, 2008

I Want Justice

Filed under: Crime,New Orleans,Racism — Morwen Madrigal @ 1:46 pm

Another piece from Alternet on the happenings around Algiers Point post-Katrina.

I have seen many horrible things in my life- killings of street walkers in Bangkok, the Klan burning a  Black teenager at the stake, poor people beat to death in Mombasa, but this tale rips my heart out.

December 20, 2008

This Crap Is Getting Deeper

Filed under: New Orleans,Racism — Morwen Madrigal @ 7:27 pm

Lately I have mentioned this report, but things keep getting deeper.

Here’s the latest from Alternet.

The UN Considers My Tribes As Part of the Human Family

Filed under: Inter/Trans-Sexed,LGBT — Morwen Madrigal @ 3:50 am

Of course the U.S., the fucking Vatican, China and the Muslim countries opposed this declaration by the United Nations.

Why am I not surprised? The filth of rabid crosswearers (who don’t understand the meanings of their supposed Founder’s words) and the crap of Islam will always be opposed to freedom and equal rights for my tribes.  China is just a given when it comes to individual rights.

My kind- failed mosaics now number 1 in every thousand births. Homosexuals (not just the boys) are probably 1 in every hundred births.  Studies of sealife are showing massive scenarios of hermorphic fish. (This comes from our chemical pollution of the World)  Endocrine disruption in Utero has been rising for decades.

We didn’t ask for this, but we revel in our selves and lives.  We live our lives even with the duress of cultures that can only see male/female, yes/no, black/white… a polar belief system trying to oppress our being.

All of Life is a spectrum. As a scientist I know this to be true. There are many flavors in Physics, and there are many flavors when it comes to Humanity.  My question is what is the right flavor when it comes to Humankind?

The answer is that all flavors work. I don’t give a shit about what people do, as long as it doesn’t harm others.  Sex (which I can never know) is an individual thing. There is no quantifying that which two people experience together.  I have a partner who wraps her arm around me at night and  I snuggle in closer.  We argue and disagree, but really we are on the same page. When shit comes down we hold each other. When she is not with me I get scared… what happens to the two of us is one thing, but to lose my better half is a horror I don’t wish to face.

Where is the lack in Humanity in all of the above? Why are LGBT folks hated? Why are folks like me are demonized?

We are just Human, made as biology made us. We are just like all of the rest of Humanity, but with a twist. We live and love. We are not pediphiles, those kinds are 99% “straight.

Just let us have our rights under the Constitution. You may not like my tribes, but we don’t hurt you. What we are is ordained by Nature and it’s just how we are, and there isn’t any way to change that.

We are good people, and it’s far past time for me and mine to be stop being demonized. And I for one is just the kind that will fight to the death for my tribes’ rights and acceptance.

December 19, 2008

The City Council Speaks and the Mayor’s Minions Still Go His Way

Filed under: Nagin's Minions,New Orleans,NOLA Politics,Politicians,Ray Nagin,Rebuilding — Morwen Madrigal @ 11:30 pm

Here’s the latest, and I ain’t saying anything until it all blows up next week.

Fuck it, Nagin is NOT getting the money for his “glittering jewel” (probably wants it named for him).

I Hope This Isn’t True, But I Believe It Is

Filed under: American Culture,New Orleans,Racism — Morwen Madrigal @ 11:19 pm

I’ve been hearing rumors about this, but someone like me, if the Nation publishes it, I must believe it.

There was similar shit like this after Camille hit the Mississippi Coast back in ’69. It fit into things my father had to deal with as part of Civil Defense. (Same crap happened to us when he organized the garbage strike in Mobile.)

A rational person, or a good-hearted one, would assume that 40+ years after the Civil Rights Act was signed shit like this doesn’t happen.

No wonder my tribes face so much violence.

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