New Orleans Daylight

We awake and plunge into the pool, floating around for a while, soaking in the scene of bohemian foreign backpackers swimming through America’s big cities by train and spending languid weeks in this bustling city, drinking and dancing in the streets by night and watching MTV from sagging couches in dimly lit rooms, snacking on bulk cereals and saturating themselves with pop music in the day. Languages are traded and western culture is commodified in that particular way that is replicated by backpackers all over the world, and I feel as if I could be anywhere—Guatemala, Bali, France, or perhaps the set from the movie, The Beach. We leave this little world in midday and journey into the French Quarter where we find a café that has a courtyard filled with fountains, greenery, good sandwiches, iced coffee, and wire tables to work on. I discover plugs for the electric lanterns hidden in the garden, hook up my laptop, and I’m in business. Night falls and we prepare to saturate our souls with live jazz and more adventure. When I travel with Tzadik, everything—from grocery shopping to exploring a new city to driving to writing to singing to simply breathing—is an adventure. This way of living is tantalizing and rejuvenating, and after spending the entire afternoon working on CODEPINK work at this café and catching up on blogging, I feel refreshed and ready for the night.