I cannot believe how extremely happy I am with a recent decision I made.

About five months ago, Heather and I were at lunch just talking.  One of the subjects that came up was that of tattoos.  Many of our friends have tattoos, and most have gotten them to celebrate or remember some particular event that has happened to them.  I was saying that I thought the concept was a cool one, but that I just didn’t personally have anything that I felt was momentous enough that I would want to have a permanent symbol of on my body.  I had no idea that an event of epic proportions was only about a week away. That’s when Katrina hit.

No need to go into all of that again, as all of the gang from NOLA suffered losses of one proportion or another.

So, Stuff and I are currently visiting friends and family and enjoying Mardi Gras.  A lot of the people that had relocated to Austin had discussed getting tattoos, and I had already decided that I was going to get one.  A small group of us got the idea that we should go get tattoos while we were in.  We knew of two reputable tattoo shops in town where friends had already had work done, and of the two I found an artist whose work I liked.

Low and behold today I got my first tattoo.  It took about two hours, and wasn’t as painful as I thought it was going to be just a bit uncomfortable to have to straddle a semi padded board for such a long period of time (there are just certain body parts that are quite disconcerting to have fall asleep).  While he worked on the outline it wasn’t too bad.  Just a few spots that were more sensitive.  The fill was more intensive and there were moments when I squeezed my hands together a little tighter and tried to concentrate more on the beat of the music playing and less on the needles digging into my back.  I was thinking that there was about another half hour to go when the tattoo artist said he was done.

I’m really quite pleased with the results and cannot quit smiling about it, or stop talking about it.  I’m glad that I had it done in NOLA too.  The only worry now is, where will I put the next one? 🙂

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Well, we still don’t have jobs yet, but my life is slowly but surely starting to feel like mine again.

We just spent the last three weeks putting together costumes and make-up for "Carnaval".  This was the 29th year of the event, which is held for one night from 9pm till 2am and consists of "Brazilian music played on Brazilian instruments and sung entirely in Portuguese", and throngs of people in outrageous costumes dancing and having a great time.

I have to thank Shortbus for that, because had she not found a great fansite about Carnaval we might never have known that such an awesome event was being held just a couple of blocks from our apartment.

Shortbus, Gonzo, Doug, Stuff and me all decided to give it a whirl.

I have to say that for the first time, in a very very long time, I felt like myself.  The high that I experienced was not unlike any one of the parties we had at the wHoReS except that there were a lot more people and most strangers.  For a change, I wasn’t worried about not having a job, or having lost our home or anything else.  I just enjoyed the music and the people.

I could have been anywhere just celebrating, but I was in Austin, TX.  How lucky am I that I had to leave one great city like New Orleans, but be able to discover a city that seems to be just as groovy.

For now, I’m still on an emotionally charged high from all the people, and what can only be called rejoicing.  I still miss our friends and family and the life that we had, but I’m glad to start to see that life appears to be going on.  So, "Vivo!" my friends, which the English to Portugeuse dictionary tells me means "Live!".