parks

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Planter’s Peanuts Park at Euterpe & Simon Bolivar

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I had a long day at work today following a short night of sleep (sometimes cats are pests), so I was feeling too tired for a bike ride. I sluggishly rode home from work, dropped my stuff, and decided to take the bike out for a short ride after all–just what I needed after a day spent talking about prisons, from OPP and Angola to Abu Ghraib. I headed for the smooth ride that is Simon Bolivar and flew along with a nice tailwind that was to become a rough headwind on my way home. I stopped at Euterpe to wander through this new park, brought to you by Planter’s Peanuts. This corner has been vacant for as long as I’ve been riding my bike past it (which isn’t very long), sometimes hosting trucks for sale. And the suddenly something was being built there. And then a week later it was finished. And it’s a “park,” in the shape of a peanut, with Mr. Peanut sitting on a bench. There’s just gravel, and only one bench–and Mr. Peanut is hogging it–so I’m not sure exactly what we’re supposed to do in the park. As I was leaving a mom and a couple kids wandered over, and they seemed just as confused as I was. Why can’t we just get an actual park here? Sigh. I continued my ride to and around the CBD and back Uptown. Yep, it is *always* a good idea to go for a bicycle ride.

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Snapdragons at Audubon Park’s Main Entrance

I had one of those incredibly long days, the kind where you are working from the second you get up in the morning through to the evening and you can literally count the number of minutes where you weren’t doing something for the job. Fortunately, I love my job and working all day, while exhausting, means I get to think about a lot of different things in a lot of different ways. One of my students asked in seminar this afternoon how you tell the difference between the self you perform and the self you “really are.” Oh my. Continue reading →

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Lights at Comiskey Park at Jeff Davis & Baudin

I’ve been under the weather this weekend. Maybe allergies, maybe a spring cold? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve been sick more often in New Orleans than any other place I’ve lived, and I think that has something to do with the environment. It’s not safe here. I love it anyway, but the people who live here deserve clean air, water, and soil. The weekend’s malaise kept me off the bike, but I had a dinner party to attend in Mid-City this evening and after a day spent fantasizing, I really needed to get in a quick pedal. Continue reading →

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Twilight at Easton Park at St. Peter & N. Lopez

Today’s ride took me up to campus for class, which was awesome, because the writer of the book we’re reading came and answered all our questions. How great is that? After getting some work done in the office and stopping at home to rest and read another book, I got back on the bike and headed down to Bayou St. John for the first meeting of volunteers for this April’s Patois Human Rights Film Festival. Continue reading →

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White Herons Building Nests in Audubon Park

As I was riding my bike up to campus today for the first day back from spring break, I kept thinking about the gazillion people who don’t commute by bike. You are really missing out, people. It feels so good to get some energy out and pedal to work first thing in the morning. Continue reading →

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Birds in a Tree at Lake Pontchartrain

Five years ago I quit smoking. The first three months were terrible–lots of crying and worrying that I’d be logged on to my support site for the rest of my life and feeling like I’d accomplished some amazing feat by managing to wait 40 minutes for an oil change–how do nonsmokers wait? That seems like a zillion years ago. Continue reading →

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Trees at City Park

It’s Mardi Gras Thursday–or Muses Thursday, if you, like most folks I know, have been waiting for this parade in particular. The parade isn’t until tonight and I had the day mostly free, so I took the bike out for a ride to this appointment and that appointment, and then rode out toward City Park to check out the folks already gathering for this Saturday’s big parade. Continue reading →

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Clouds Over Lake Pontchartrain

It was warm and lovely out when I left my place early to head to the Bywater for brunch with students. Someone else was paying, so I got myself some praline bacon with the rest of my meal, drank too much coffee, and put extra butter on my biscuit. On my way out I ran in to S. and R. coming in, so I stayed for another round of water and caught up on the rest of their parade night before heading over to Bayou St. John to catch up with D., M., R., and N.–thanks, terrible cell phone service, for keeping us apart last night! Continue reading →

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Feats of Engineering at the Huey P. Long Bridge From the Levee Path

The weather outside today was simply beautiful, enough so that I didn’t mind having to be in my office at noon to meet J., who calls that the crack of dawn (which it sort of is, for a Sunday). After a quick meeting I rode over to catch the Tulane women’s basketball team in their CUSA showdown against Houston. Continue reading →

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A Goose at Audubon Park

My legs are tired in that you-need-a-day-off-the-bike way, so today’s ride was an easy breezy commute followed by some low-gear riding around Audubon Park after work. I have been feeling out of sorts for the past few days–it happens–and I wasn’t feeling particularly chipper as I weaved through the rush hour crowds doing laps, and even the casual ride felt forced. Continue reading →