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Lent--Day 15
Feb. 27th, 2013 06:10 pmSunny days. We've had a run of epic rainstorms / tornadoes / hail / etc. So it was a relief to have a day without weather.
Feb. 27th, 2013
My Self-Indulgent Writing Trip to Paris
Feb. 27th, 2013 06:24 pmIn New Orleans, if you are not going to participate in Mardi Gras festivities, then Mardi Gras is basically the world’s most annoying thing. If you have never lived here, I cannot adequately express to you how inconvenient it is to try to live a normal life while the parades are going on. They interfere with several weekends and overflow and snarl up weekdays, too. Random streets are closed with no explanation and no warning, and when you attempt to ask police officers how you can get around the street closings, they basically tell you to stop being such a stick in the mud and join in the partying. And it isn't just one part of the city, or even just the city; it's the entire metropolitan area.
I actually really like Mardi Gras, that previous paragraph notwithstanding. It’s not at all what you would think it is from pop culture depictions of it. The parades are very fun and very family-friendly and I love all the tradition around it. It’s just that last year I lived on the parade route and went to literally every single Mardi Gras parade (there are a *lot*) and I was paraded out this year. I had no guests in town, and I had a long weekend off from work for the holiday, and I was restless. But, at the same time, I had stuff to do. Serious Writing Work. If I’d gone home, I would have gotten* nothing done, because I never get anything done at home, I spend too much time socializing.
A friend suggested, finally, “Why don’t you go to Paris?” Oh, yeah, I thought. I’m going to go to Paris for the weekend. And then I thought: Why *not* go to Paris for the weekend? If I’m going to spend money to go away, why not go somewhere spectacular? Believe it or not, at the time I was buying the plane tickets, a flight to Paris wasn’t much more than a flight to Boston (and less than flights to other domestic destinations). I’ve been to Paris before, so I wouldn’t have to do much sight-seeing. I could just sit around cafes and get my Serious Writing Work done. It seemed like a rite of passage, the sort of thing I should do in order to start thinking of myself as a person whose job is actually to write.
So I went.
( More on the Trip )
I actually really like Mardi Gras, that previous paragraph notwithstanding. It’s not at all what you would think it is from pop culture depictions of it. The parades are very fun and very family-friendly and I love all the tradition around it. It’s just that last year I lived on the parade route and went to literally every single Mardi Gras parade (there are a *lot*) and I was paraded out this year. I had no guests in town, and I had a long weekend off from work for the holiday, and I was restless. But, at the same time, I had stuff to do. Serious Writing Work. If I’d gone home, I would have gotten* nothing done, because I never get anything done at home, I spend too much time socializing.
A friend suggested, finally, “Why don’t you go to Paris?” Oh, yeah, I thought. I’m going to go to Paris for the weekend. And then I thought: Why *not* go to Paris for the weekend? If I’m going to spend money to go away, why not go somewhere spectacular? Believe it or not, at the time I was buying the plane tickets, a flight to Paris wasn’t much more than a flight to Boston (and less than flights to other domestic destinations). I’ve been to Paris before, so I wouldn’t have to do much sight-seeing. I could just sit around cafes and get my Serious Writing Work done. It seemed like a rite of passage, the sort of thing I should do in order to start thinking of myself as a person whose job is actually to write.
So I went.
( More on the Trip )