Awaited

Last night my mom, step-dad, Kelly, Stevie and her son Adriane went to Crossroads to see Awaited. I've heard great things about the show and definitely wanted to see it this year. Kelly and I arrived together and the inside of Crossroads was so festive! They had a large Christmas tree in the middle of the room and shops with hot chocolate, candy, scenes set-up where you could get family portraits, cookies, kettle corn, etc all for free!

It's crazy the feeling I get when I go to Crossroads. It reminds me SO MUCH of the way I feel when I really think about my trip to New Orleans. It's so nice to see familiar faces of people that shared the experience with me. I saw Brian (Moose) right away, saw Andre (who did great in the show.) It was great to see them! I took Kelly to see the photo gallery which included a couple pictures I had take in New Orleans as well as pictures of me with Nola natives. My mom and stepdad arrived as we were going through them, so I was able to tell them all stories about the pictures in the gallery; which was really great to share with them.

We sat down for the show and I absoultely LOVED it. I was expecting a play, with Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the three wise men, etc. but it was totally different. They had a very large band and the band played amazing renditions of Christmas songs and it was more of a ballet type show. People danced to the songs to tell the story. At one point it 'snowed' in the entire auditorium for a good 5 mins. It was like little tiny bubbles you'd get if you filled your sink up with too much dish soap. It was SO NEAT!

I would 100% recommend this show to everyone! There are a couple of days left this year to go see the show and the show has been done every year since 2007. Here are some pictures below:

Love is Blind

I've been wanting to share this story for a while now. I haven't had the time to but it was something that actually made me shed a tear; which VERY rarely happens in public. I've seen several people walking around downtown with white canes, obviously meaning they are blind. I've wondered how hard it might be to maneuver the streets of a city with just the sounds of traffic, street lights and a cane to guide you.

This day was different than a normal middle aged man or woman with a white cane. On this day I was waiting for the bus downtown after work. I saw a man and a woman, both with white hair, well into their 80's with their arms locked and their free hands holding out their white canes. They navigated themselves down the street slowly but with with ease. I got nervous as they approached the end of the sidewalk and a busy street. Their canes told them the sidewalk was ending and they were approaching the crosswalk. They stopped while traffic passed and waited patiently for their turn to cross the street. I wondered if I should go help them cross the street. I knew the 'walk' sign would let out a noise to let them know it was time to cross the street but I still felt like they might need some assitance. As soon as the I thought that, the sign turned and the couple still stood there. The moment I started to walk toward them a woman stopped her car, got out, and helped them across the street. She could have turned and kept going but she walked them all the way to the other sidewalk, ran back to her car and drove off. It was so good to see that there are still people out there that aren't too busy, or in too much of a rush. I was surprised that in 5:00 traffic downtown no one honked at her throwing her car in park and getting out to help someone.

I wondered where the couple was going the whole way home. It's silly to think that just because they're blind they couldn't do the same things we do. I wondered though, were they blind when they met? How long had they been together? Where were they headed? Where had they come from? My heart broke and was warmed at the same time. In there 80's, she had her head on his shoulder and the blind led the blind; literally.

I loved that they were out, in a busy city, doing what people like me take for granted. I loved that two people in there 80's were walking hand in hand, in love, the woman trusting her man to steer her in the right direction; blindly.

Get Over It

I'm not going to lie I've been in a slump. A pretty major one. I've been keeping it in a pretty tightly closed bottle too. I think it's because I'm sick of talking about it. I've had this 'get over it' type motto lately; it's just not effective; at all. I've really been wanting to be a better friend, better sister, better daughter, all of that. I just don't know that I'm doing a great job of it. I can't figure out why either. I thought to write about it on here because I decided to go the the Renaissance Festival with my best friend forever Jenna. It's not my type of thing but she wanted to to go so I was all for it. So we go, we walk around, we look through the shops, etc.

Of course there are psychics and I've been to them before. So we decide to get our cards read. This lady read me like a book. It was so creepy, as it always is when a tarot card reader knows what they're doing. She first talked about the slump I'm in, that I need to pull out of it before it gets any deeper. She talked about the heartbreak I've had in the past that's holding me back. She knows I'm not a fan of my new job but that I'm stuck for now and that I'm afraid of getting stuck there for the rest of my life. She said I'm not much of a dreamer anymore like I used to be. She said my mom hurts for the stuff I'm going through but she doesn't know how to help because our lives are so different.

She said I want to be in love but I won't even entertain the thought. That I really need to work on it. She said " you can't find true love if you're not even taking applications." She's right and I know she is. She told me to make a list of what I want in a person and to just put it out there, to know what I want and stick to it. She said I'm meant to fall in love, I'm meant to have a family.

She said family is the most important thing to me and that wasn't hard to see. She said my family will mostly be gathered around my home and my table during the holidays that I would hold it together. She did say I will have kids. She said next year I'll really start to want to have kids and that if I was still single I'd be the type of woman to have a baby with or without a man. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that but I think she's a little bit right about me, on that; I've done everything else by myself.

She said in the next couple months I would start hearing direction on what to do with my life and that I just need to listen and trust and keep dreaming. The last thing she talked about in my initial reading was my future and she said I should write. That I have a gift in it. That I should be published. I was really really shocked by this. I've had family and friends say they love reading my blog. That I write well. I guess this is just something that I really never thought I was good at. I guess I've never really felt passionate about it either. I like it, it's a release, but not a real passion. She told me to write everyday so I'm kind of going with it. I'll just need to find things to write about.

She then asked me if I had any questions. Of course I asked about my dad. Last time I asked a psychic about my dad she just kind of talked to me about him and that was pretty amazing. This time she flipped over some cards which would represent his advice or words to me and I would interpret them. The first card she said basically meant 'get over it' or 'get on with it.' It was really weird because although it was a bit hurtful, I kind of got it because the next card went with the first one and it said 'just do it.' So it was like he was saying quit letting him being gone hinder me. So get on with it, do things, quit making excuses and not doing things because of a him. It was like a stab through the heart but it made sense. First thing I thought was 'alright dad how bout you come back and I'll die and you can just get your ass on with it.' Not in a horribly morbid depressing way but, you know, it's true. This shit ain't easy and I don't want to still be making excuses 2 1/2 years later but when I'm down about something all I can think about is how great it would be to have my father's shoulder to lean on. I know I gotta get on with it because when I think that way it only makes it worse. I get it, I do. I just don't know where to go from here. She flipped over some more cards and the other one that really stuck out was 'pay it forward.' I really loved that one. A lot of my motivation to finally get out and volunteer, etc was because of him. I think that's died down some since I've gotten back from New Orleans. She also asked me if I see a lot of pennies and nickels on the ground. I really do, I notice them ALL THE TIME. I told her they're always heads up too. I told her I always leave them for the next person as kind of a pay it forward. She said he leaves them for me, she said they're 'I love yous' I hope that's true, if nothing else it will make me smile.

So yeah I think that's what I needed to hear. I just hope it's a big enough push. I know things need to happen, things need to chance but it's like they say- easier said.

Friday- Work

The Friday work day was pretty laid back. We set up shop at the hotel and the hotel staff and families were welcome to come get their portraits taken. We had a couple people file in here and there but we were really slow overall. So we went out into the streets and we asked anyone and everyone to come in and get their pictures taken. We ended up having a great turnout. There was a family reunion at the hotel so a lot of the families came in and got their picture taken, they were all so thankful.

The rest of the groups went off to their respective work sites so we decided to walk outside and wish everyone a good day...
Then it was time to set up the backdrops and get ready to take some pictures!




We had to test the lighting..
The family reunion shoot...


Throwin up some gang signs on a church group... Just kidding South side and West side :)

Nick took a nap :)

Photo Shoots!

I did a little editing too..

Friday Night (My poem :)

Mary Kate had told us the first day of the trip that last year she had a poem done by a man outside a bar. We all assumed that it was a silly poem written by a squater trying to make a little cash. We were completely wrong. She told us that the poem was so amazing that it was read to the entire Crossroads group at the end of the trip. I'm not great at poetry, I can't write it but I'm beginning to appreciate it more and more. So I was hoping to see him out this year and have the opportunity to have a poem written for me.

The last night of the trip three writers were sitting outside of d.b.a.'s. Mary Kate pointed out the man that has written a poem for her last year and he remembered her. At the end of the night I sat down next to him and he asked for me to just tell him some things about myself. He assumed I was there to party since I had Mardi Gras beads on and had a drink in my hand. I told him it wasn't the case. The Mardi Gras beads were given to me by a New Orleans native and I was in nola for the Crossroads trip. He asked me what made me want to go on the trip and I said I've always wanted to make the trip to Nola since Katrina and help in anyway I could. I told him that I was part of the photo team, taking pictures of families that lost everything. I also told him since my father passed away I've wanted to do more to give back, to recognize that life is short and that it felt good to be a part of something way bigger than myself. He told me he was excited to write my poem and that he had a great idea for it.


Here is the poem he wrote me; if you read between the lines, it's deep...

"So many things to be seen in the sights of a camera

You might think you have captured it all, but you certainly know that one square frame really reveals so little

Eyes like new lenses and memory like a kind of indelible film;

these understand the small betrayal that one frozen frame represents

It's just not possible to capture it all.

But it will be equally impossible to ignore the tiny truths recorded like fleeting heartbeats."

Friday Picnic

All of us were really excited to get to the picnic. We were finished with our work week and it was time to celebrate everything that had happened on the trip. Stevie, Andre, Nick and I sat on the back of the bus and played "It's time for the perculator" over and over. Lol, that was also a running joke on the trip and I'm not quite sure how it got started!

Andre playing the song on his phone for us.

Stevie and I

The picnic was one of my favorite parts of the trip. First we started off with service at FABC. This time service was Crossroads style. They also did baptisms which was cool to see. I've only seen the Catholic baptism, where they baby's head has holy water poured over it. Here an adult chooses to get baptised. The baptiser can be anyone who has already made the choice to follow God. So the baptiser and person being baptised stand in a pool of water and is dunked backwards into the pool to clense themselves. It was actually really cool to see.

This was during service, the window in the back is where people were baptised.

After service a woman from FABC pulled the photo team aside and gave us all gift bags! They had chips, red beans and rice, seasoning, mardi gras beads, and pralines in them.


After service Moose told me to hurry up and get outside to the picnic for a surprise. Right away I knew what it was. The Roots of Music came to the picnic to play for us! I was so excited because it was such a great program and awesome experience to see it. I wanted all my habitat friends to be able to see them too. We even talked about how cool it would be if we could get them to come perform for us.

It was really great to see people that I had met throughout the week, talk to some new locals and play with the kids. I found Ms. Nicole and bought a copy of her book, which I've actually since read and I really liked it. Great story line and she included hurricane Katrina in it which was very cool. I had a picture of me and her but it's on someone else's camera I'll need to get that :)

Another one of my favorite people (Ms. Patricia) was there and she brought me a candy apple! That's what I loved so much about the people we met in New Orleans. We were there to help them. To give them something that may have been taken away from them in the storm. These people also came baring gifts for us. They weren't selfish people that thought the world owed them something for how they were treated during Kartina. They genuinely appreciated that people came from Cincinnati, OH by bus to do anything they could to help them, five years later. It really felt good to be a part of.

Ms. Patricia, Stevie, and I

There was so much to do at the picnic. They had food which was great as usual and I'm not a tea drinker but the sweet tea, damn it was good!

These wonderful people brought us all the good food.

We had Bengals cornhole!!

Snow Cones!

if you were willing to wait in line...

Face painting by the lovely Shannon

Also a boy by the name of Jeremiah would do your hair for free, then he'd say "You've been Jeremiahed" and run off. He did mine. I had my hair up because it was so hot out, he took my hair down and said you're more of a down, natural type lady. lol.

Some of his models...

Hoopin'

The Drums!

Photo Crew!

more pics to come....