In case you didn't read it in the news section, I am alive and well in Malden, MO.
I was playing the Tonder Festival in Denmark, with Bruce Daigrepont, when the storm hit. We are all ok, but living with varying degrees of loss. I was fortunate to have my cat sitter drive my car with my guitar and two cats to Memphis. I stayed with her and her partner for two days at a Ramada Inn in West Memphis(kudos to Esther and Dudley), before driving to this farmhouse, here in what is called "The Bootheel" of Missouri, a half hour from Sheryl Crow's hometown (Kennett, MO), and less than an hour from Arkansas.
I've now been here since Thursday, September, 1. I could rant about the phone ringing off the hook, and having to share one phone line with a writer and a civil rights attorney, but that's nothing compared to my friends who have lost their homes and everything in them; to the horrid conditions experienced by the people who couldn't leave (no cars, and no buses taking them out of town until it was too late); and the still horrid conditions faced by the people who are still in New Orleans. One of them is my next-door neighbor.
By bizarre comparison, I feel strangely lucky. Honestly, I'm afraid to feel too lucky, or much of anything else other than the numbness I now feel. Yes, I've lost all my local gigs for the forseeable future. But otherwise, I'm ok. I am alive. I will be playing music again soon, in other places. The friends I know are alive and safe. I have yet to see the horror of what has happened to my city firsthard. But witness Katrina's scars, I will--as soon as they let me back in to the city to see them.
When that will be, I do not know. The most poignant thing I've heard in the last several days is, "I don't know when I'll be coming back home."
You might say "...or what I'll find when I get there," but that one is for later--namely, when I can finally get back home.
Posted by gina at September 6, 2005 10:16 PM