Shmeng-o-rama
Date Friday, March 29, 2024 - 07:16 AM PST
Topic Cult


wow. I have been putting this off only because I have been really busy (in a good way) and also out of not knowing what to say. Now I know what I want to say, yet feel that you all have written it so much better, but I will try anyway.


First off, the ride down was nice. I really love road trips, and with good company it's even better. The conversations that flow and roll into each other, changing with different participants, leaving some things behind as the miles roll by, learning and rethinking new ideas as the horizon apporaches.

As we pulled into New Orleans, it's like leaving America behind, or rather the elements of America which depress and bother me - the repression, the fear of the new, the mono-culture. You instantly become aware of the ghosts and spirits of a place that is so old and yet warm, the history dripping the way the moss drips from the live oaks, soaking into the bricks. I love the earthy smell, similar to a rotting Chuck Taylor that has been on a sockless foot for too long then left in a damp garage and is hosting a family of spiders. The swamp, the food, the horse shit, the sweat - it's all the odor of THE REAL that I find I miss in Cowlumbus.

The heat, although at times withering, is also somewhat refreshing - even the ride in the sweatbox with the flapping doors and the passed ice jug. It is another element that makes you feel real, makes you grounded yet delirious and giddy, and when you have brief respites from it, makes you actually appreciate air conditioning or ice cream or water.

The company was great. I too was nervous, not because of meeting new people (being a firm neophile, I enjoy meeting new people), but because I have felt like an alien in many situations, in real life and electronically. You know the feeling - that when you are talking to someone, you feel like a tentacle is growing out of your forehead. Or maybe not. Anyway, as I talked to each person (and I had gotten to know on some level or another, most of the people there before the trip) and met new people I felt like I was with family. Not the family that stresses me out and jusges me, but a true kinship. The beauty of it was also that we are all so different, yet found many many common grounds.

The spontaneous game of tag, the instinctual I'm-so-hot-I'm-going-to-dart-after-a-speeding-ice-cream-truck animalistic chase, the interaction with some of the more colorful denziens of the city, the naked hot tub, the most beautiful bed and breakfast filled with the most beautiful company, the sharing of secrets, the shedding of Shmeng, little dreams and fantasies, green liquor, ice, tobacco, great food, hidden magic.... everything was great other than the fact that I could have stayed there much longer (can dogs, birds, and cats be shipped overnight?) and surpassed my expectations in every sense of the word. And as a confirmed music junkie, I could easily have wandered into any or all of the many jazz, blues, and other bars and loved it like a cat in a sunbeam, but I was glad I did not because I would have missed so much good conversation, sexy smiles, sweat, corsets.... well, you get the idea.

A hearty thank you to Devin, to Callei and Shade, to MRD, to Rogue and Meranda, to Daria, and to Kira from my heart to yours, and also the sentiment that I would not miss the next one even if I have to walk one one bad leg from Hell itself, and that I hope more can make it next time.

I'm sure I am forgetting something..... And I'm sorry for doubting or being nervous. And also for being such a Schmeng hermit and lurker.

And a dork. ;)

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