i was a sobering experience........

i returned home to new orleans that past weekend. and i cant describe how i felt. we drove down again and the whole way my feelings were mixed. i had no idea what to expect when i got there and wasnt sure if i should be happy or excited or weary or what.i think i kept rotating through all of them and more. we left saterday morning and arrived in NOLA about 4:30 PM sunday (would have been earlier but we got delayed). i though it would be good to get back onto familier turf.............only the turf didnt feel familier anymore. and i found that unsettling. one wouldnt think that a sity that you've lived in for damn near your entire life could feel that way, but it did. as i looked at how my city was limping along i was saddened and upset. mounds of trash, and i mean mounating looking size mounds that stretched for miles, took me by surprise. i know i should have expected that but seeing it with my own eyes was still a shock. actually seeing the gutted houses, lines upon lines of tents and trailers on the nutra ground (or median for those unfamilier with the term). we passed by the places we were made to wait at for evack and most of them were cleaned up for the most part. we had a running comentary for Elph's parents. we pointed out the water lines on the houses so they could see just how high it got. i didnt get to go to the house i grew up in cause we wanted to leave asap and, as to be expected, there were no hotels avalible anywhere.

when we got to our apartment everything was fine.........at first glance. Chiana21 (my GF) and i looked around and noticed quickly that things were missing. we were told that our property was being monitered by NOPD and we locked our door so we know looters didnt get in. our door's lock was busted completly out by the people that rescued our pets so we know the taken items were removed either then or after the fact. i have to go with the latter cause when i spoke to the property manager about it she told me an entire cleaning crew that was brought in was fired when they were found with stolen property. and also everythng that was missing was able to be hidden very/semi easily. someone also fucked with our computer cause when i tried to turn it on it wasnt able to comunicate with the moniter. the speakers and the subwoffer were some of the items they stole. they also stole on of our playstations, namely the one elph uses for FFXI exclusively. but once i realized that was the case i had to laugh. cause i doubt that theif knew that and, to top it off, the disk drive on it doesnt work. so it effectively useless to him/her. oh i wish i could have seen thair faces when they realized that. they took some of my PS2 games as well. including FF-X, soul caliber 2, and my suikoden 3 & 4. our dvd collection wasnt spared either. all 3 LoTR movies, the box sets, sim city, and resident evil 2.

the only good news is that we were able to pack all of our remaining belongings, elph's car is finally running good enough to survive the cross country trip, and we were able to have a good dinner with my parents before i left at one of the few open non-fast food resturants that were open. their hours of operation are considerably shorter cause they cant pay the staff for their normal working hours yet. we got there just in the nick of timeto have dinner. now im back in north dakota with Chiana's family. and finally we can do what we've been looking to do for 2 months, get on with our lives. i'll start with the updates and whatnot l8r today and should be back online in a few days. once we figure out whats the prob with my comp. i'll be seeing you all soon.

well nothing else to say so i'll close it out here. l8r friends.