My Rant for the Week... and An Announcement

Let me preface this by stating that I love New Orleans. Love it. Growing up in Louisiana, it was always a treat to come to NOLA, like some sort of exotic weekend getaway. So much more fun than Dallas (sorry if you're a Texan). And better food, too.

That said, I'm ready to get the heck out of dodge.

Why?

I hate the traffic here!

Hate it. I am sick and tired of the traffic and the drivers. Here's why:

1. I hate getting stuck in a traffic jam every other day and wasting 45 minutes to an hour of my day.

2. I hate how mean the drivers are here. I'm amazed that NOLA has such a laid-back, easygoing reputation, because obviously whoever put that suggestion forward hasn't spent a minute in NOLA traffic.

Like today. I was coming home from work, trying to merge onto I-10, and naturally there was a car accident blocking 3 of the 4 interstate lanes. We're all moving about an inch at a time. So I put on my blinker to merge into the (not moving) traffic from the exit ramp and the woman sitting there floored it until she almost smashed into the car in front of her and blocked me from merging. Just to be mean.

No big deal, right? No. This happens multiple times a day when you are driving in this city.

And this morning? Another huge wreck on I-10 that went across the entire interstate. Thankfully I saw it on the traffic report on the Weather Channel and knew to take the backroads to a place where the interstate was clear.

People cut you off. People honk theverysecond the light turns green (seriously, I think NYC taxicab drivers have been transplanted down here). People straddle the lanes and expect you to get out of their way. People speed minimum 15 miles an hour over every posted speed limit. And if you haven't gotten 2-3 middle fingers flashed at you by 10 AM, then you must not have left the house yet. People refuse to let you merge or exit because of the whole "I have to be first and I'm not letting anyone in front of me" mentality. Then those same people fly to the front of a line waiting to turn/exit/merge and cut someone at the front off.

I hate it. Hate it.

I broke down in tears tonight on the phone with my husband (while I was waiting for the 3 lane, 5 car pileup to get cleared), telling him he needed to hurry up and finish his degree. I'm ready to get out of here. I'm terrified that one day as I'm driving back and forth across the city it's going to be me in one of those pileups. With my little girl in the car.

And to think the city has 100,000 less people than it did before Katrina. I can't imagine what the traffic was like then.

I've driven in Shreveport (large city in north LA), Baton Rouge, Jackson MS, Dallas, and Houston extensively. I've driven through Mobile AL and Atlanta several times in my life.

None of those cities are like NOLA. None.

I thought I was meant to be a city girl. I'm beginning to think I'm not. I find myself longing for the slow-as-molasses, friendly drivers of my itty-bitty hometown.

I'd gladly trade the snobbery and "Who's your family?" attitude (can I get an "amen" Lois?) again if it meant I wouldn't have to have a minor heart attack every time I get behind the wheel.

So there's my rant. Unfortunately I have at minimum 5 more years of this, and possibly more if God calls us to stay here. Unless at some point I get to stay home and I don't have to drive back and forth across the city every day. Might add that to the prayer request list.

In other news...

My craft fair on campus was last night. It was so-so. Seminary students are poor and frugal, so there you go. I had a great time, though. Passed out a lot of business cards. Hubby scheduled some photography shoots (we set up the iMac with a slideshow of his work and if we heard, "How much you selling that for?" once, we heard it a million times), so that means extra dough for us. Good things.

Tomorrow I will be at the church all day working on stuff for our India fundraising bazaar. I'm excited. Hubby is taking the day to study and since I'll be gone I won't have to console him when Alabama destroys LSU.

(I'm procrastinating telling you my biggest news... because I'm a little embarrassed for some stupid reason...)

OK. Here goes.

I opened an Etsy shop. I did. I've been working so hard on my crafts that I thought, why not? My SIL has a shop and she encouraged me to open one. So I did. I am excited, because I've already had one sale! Yay!

So if you'd like to see what's been taking up all my time, go here: Crescent City Crafts.

And if you don't like what you see, be nice. My feelings get hurt easily. :)