electric mist

the new normal

I'm having a really hard time even trying to contemplate people talking about another hurricane right now. I want to put my fingers in my ears, squeeze my eyes shut, la la la la la, I can't HEAR you. Because, you know, that always worked when I was a kid.

If Rita strikes toward west Louisiana, it's going to mean the entire southern part of our state will have been harmed within weeks of each other. We still have many many people here who are without homes (and will be so for probably a year or more).

It's a little weird to say things were getting back to "normal" here, because there is a new "normal." We spoke with a realtor the other day (not for ourselves, for a family member) about values / sales around here, and it's a little insane. Property values have jumped, sales have jumped, all sorts of businesses are buying up real estate downtown -- it's just crazy. It was already pretty fast-paced around here prior to the storm, and values have continued to go up every year, but they jumped, according to the realtor, by another 30% after Katrina. He said that while Baton Rouge did double in size after Katrina, the real news is that at least half of those people will stay here permanently. He also said that every rental out there was snapped up within 24 hours of Katrina and big companies, like Exxon, are offering big deals to people to buy out their leases because they have to relocate their executives to Baton Rouge.

This place is forever changed.

I've never lived through a life event where the actual landscape around me altered radically. I've moved, I've had traumatic things happen which will forever be a benchmark of change internally, but I've never had the world around me shift on such a large scale.

On the other hand, the people here seem to really be rallying and pulling together. There's a great determination to at least use the disaster to improve things in the state -- including the politics. I don't know how well that will be accomplished, but I hope it can improve. It certainly can't get much worse, though, right?

But, in the midst of all of this, I am writing, working on the book, keeping an eye on that deadline coming up. And wonderfully, in spite of being in shock and profoundly changed on some levels, this novel has brought me great joy. I'm writing a story about a kick-ass Cajun woman who battles incredible odds to try to save her brother. She's a little bit Terminator, a little bit Tazmanian Devil rolled into one, and mostly, she's a lot of fun. I love this character, and I love that it's set in south Louisiana (not, ironically, New Orleans, but in Lake Charles / Lafayette and Baton Rouge.) It's a crazy, funny, raucous world I can escape to, and it energizes me. It also helps (greatly) that I have an amazing agent and an equally amazing editor. They each called and wrote and were incredibly supportive. It's made me feel protected, which helped make writing the book exciting and fun. It's hard work, of course, but it's what I thrive on. I can't imagine how other people have coped without having this sort of outlet. I hope to blog more about this process and what I've learned in the near future. Meaning, I really hope there aren't any more hurricanes or bad news to keep reporting. I crave normal. Whatever that's going to be, I guess, I'd like to get there.

(I never was terribly patient. I was really tired of being pregnant by month four and ready to boot the kid out by month five. Wiser heads prevailed.)

As for the hurricane(s)... I'm still delivering lots of supplies and books to various shelters and families who need the items. I don't know what affect the new hurricane will have on this, but right now, the need has shifted away from needing supplies or clothes and into other more long-term needs (educational supplies for the schools, for example, which have taken on nearly 7000 new students in this parish alone). I'll be making a run tomorrow to lots of places and will update on what I learn from them. If you've asked me what you can send and I have your e-mail, I'll try to respond directly. Many of you sent things already, and I've tried to make sure you were thanked directly... but at one point, there were so many boxes and deliveries happening, I may have missed a few of you. For that, I apologize -- I really wanted to make sure everyone knew where their gifts went and that they were greatly needed and appreciated.

I'm off to write on the book. Bobbie Faye has some butts to kick, and that, I assure you, is going to be a blast.

Posted by toni at September 21, 2005 12:40 AM