Well, I made it back from Houma, though I thought that would never happen. Time seems to crawl when you are working nights. At least it does for me. I am so glad the entire fiasco is over. It seems like all I did was sleep, eat, work, repeat. I did not even have time to write or draw or anything, which was depressing. All I will say about the trip and the people is that I could barely get a word out edgewise and what I did say was completely either ignored, taken incorrectly, or ridiculed. One person kept trying to tell me what was not being understood. Don't worry kid, I got it. I knew he was not getting it, and why. You didn't have to tell me. Several times. I'm not that bloody stupid. Tell that to the other guy who was not getting it! That would have made more bloody sense.
I don't know why "I get what you are saying, and I understand completely, now please see what I am saying" means "I don't get what you are saying, please explain your point louder and walk off" and "Please butt in and tell me what I am saying and what he is saying to me because I do not get it."
I used to think I spoke clearly.
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But traveling there and back was absolutely amazing. We left both times early morning, and we got to see the sun come up, and the way it look on winter farms and trees and fields was inspiring. On the way down I loved the greens, the blues, the browns, and the way the early morning sun was just bright orange yellow on everything, sometimes even almost red.
Everything in the distance tended toward blue, but there was so much warmth in the landscape as well.
And the clouds! Going down there were many, many small, puffy, flat clouds filling most of the sky. They were tiny around the horizon, growing the higher they got. The colors that were in them were amazing. They were so perfect, that I thought they were the perfect example of Glenn Kennedy clouds. My teacher used to paint clouds just like those in a lot of his works and I can't help but think of him when I see those clouds.
On the way back it had snowed. I know! Snow in Louisiana?! We were shocked too, but it had happened. I was also running on no sleep and I had not seen the sun in twelve days, so everything seemed alive! Color and light seemed to come from everywhere. Of course that could have been the inordinate amounts of caffeine, and the shock of seeing light.
The sun was bright, and there were no clouds. Smoke from refineries was just drifting along the horizon. We could usually see three or four perfectly formed smoke trails at a time. It was really quite odd looking to see this billowing of smoke, that would settle into these perfect paths across the landscape.
At first there was a lot of frost along the ground, that turned every thing in shadow bright, bright blue. And the water! Water was everywhere, and perfectly still and reflected everything. And it was both the bright blue of the sky, and anything reflected was reflected bright orange, red. I would have killed to have been able to stop and oil painted. Hell, I would have killed to have a camera.
And then the snow! Everywhere we saw had huge, huge piles of snow everywhere. Last time I saw this much snow was in 2004. And it was around 9 am in the morning. And there was still a ton! I was all excited. I played with some when everyone stopped for boudin.
And then I met the governor right when I got back. That was pretty cool. Got to shake hands, and I'm not sure what I said, as it was three o'clock in the afternoon and I was still running on no sleep. No matter how sleep deprived, I'll remember this day :D
Ah well, it is good to be back. I now know I can not work at Lowe's forever. I've got to find my place in the world. Now, where did I put my coffee?
