Jumpin' Jesus, hustlin' hunnies everywhere!

As our time in New Orleans has come to an end, we now have yet another experience under our belts we will never forget. We had such a busy schedule for the week, in the beginning we were worried we may not have a chance to see any of the city, but by the end of this last weekend, all was well ;)

The SOUL singers worked with the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans all week as well as area schools and a retirement home. Due I think partially to a packed schedule and partially to horrendous traffic and bad roads we were gone everyday of the week from 8am or earlier until 9pm or later aside from a couple breaks where we walked around town for a little while. The weather is now officially warmer for us!! Aside from one night where there was a huge rain storm with hurricane force winds....we had days in the 60's or higher and sun!! My point there is that although we didn't have a lot of time, it was nice to walk around outside a couple of times :) One of the days we had a break Teele and I were walking down the famed Bourbon Street when a guy from the doorway of a club shouted across the street "Ladies! Come on in, you know we love the hustlin' hunnies here..." WHAT does that even mean?! We found out later that apparently auditions for gentlemen's clubs take place in the afternoon and club employees try to recruit random people off the streets....oh dear. Aside from random outbursts downtown New Orleans is a beautiful place to walk around. The architecture is rich with history and detail, there are people everywhere out and about, everything is colorful, there are street performers and artists everywhere, and it seems there is a beautiful church or cathedral on every corner! I think this is one of those places you could visit 30 times and still find something new and unique every time you go. I personally am amazed the most I think by the street performers who are human statues...I could never be completely still in those contorted positions for hours at a time...hats off to you human statues!

There is a store in Jackson Square (basically the center of downtown) called Jackie's! I have a business card from there because it was all I could afford. I can't say I saw a single item in the store I did not like or wouldn't buy, and I can say that I also could not afford a single thing...$85 for a t-shirt is a little out of my recent graduate budget. Oh well. By Thursday night the whole team was ready to have a chance to go out on the town! I think this was partly the case because we discovered there are a lot of good people in New Orleans. Hence our new slogan: "We are Singles of United Lands developing international and cultural relationships through vOcal music from around the world!" Don't panic people - it's just an inside joke...that's not an inside joke anymore because I just told you.

SOUL had a concert Friday night with the Symphony Chorus of New Orleans and area school choirs that went really really well! The audience enjoyed themselves, SOUL received a standing ovation, the choirs sounded amazing together and I sold out of CD's! Woo Hoo...afterward was party time!! Let's just keep it at, we danced the night away...live music everywhere!! Salsa, reggae, jazz, rock, hip hop, anything you want!! We experienced people watching from the balcony's and the freedom of no such thing as open intox and no bar closing time :) (Ahem ahem attention Michigan law enforcement, please take note people can have fun without causing trouble even without ridiculous restrictions :)) We went out Friday night and didn't get home to our new friend Rehema's house until 6am on Saturday! We slept, woke up around 11, went home to eat and shower, and then headed back downtown for round two!! We saw some awesome street performers in Jackson Square and then ate dinner at Hard Rock Cafe...because well, how can you not? And as we spent most of Friday night on Frenchmen Street we decided to spend Saturday night on the Bourbon Street that everyone talks about, and I'm so glad we did!! We got to see a traditional New Orleans parade complete with TONS of people partying in the street, beads and flowers flying everywhere, loud music and lot's of dancing!! We then spent the rest of the night at a bar where a band was playing 80's rock which everyone loved being as we were all mostly children of the 80's :) we called it an early night at about 3am since we had to pack and drive the next day.

So in short, New Orleans was amazing however I have been a little frustrated lately. It amazes me that no matter how much you go above and beyond the call of duty people still don't appreciate you. My BIGGEST pet peeve throughout this tour has become people referring to me as "the driver". Driving is about one millionth of what I do as a Manager for this organization. When I hear those words it makes me want to bust out a spiel about how I graduated from two intense programs with a degree in two fields, with honors, in just 3 1/2 years and if I wanted to be "a driver" I wouldn't have busted my ass with two or three jobs at a time and more than a full course load at all times to put myself through college...I would just go work for a taxi company. My second pet peeve is people assuming that this job is easy, or that they could easily do it themselves...I would love to see anyone try. It's times like this where I have to keep one of my favorite quotes in mind:

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered..LOVE THEM ANYWAY, If you do good people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives..DO GOOD ANYWAY, If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies..SUCCEED ANYWAY, The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow..DO GOOD ANYWAY, Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable..BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY, What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight..BUILD ANYWAY, People really need help but may attack you if you help them..HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY, Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth..GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT!"
+Mother Teresa+

SO on that note it's time for another "Kudos to Jackie session". The Michigan Association of Broadcasters award ceremony was held last week in Michigan and although I could not attend to receive my radio journalism award I am still happy, because I was informed that Moore Hall Television (the station where I was a news anchor this past year) was awarded Television Station of the Year! I now have two prestigious awards to be proud of and add to my resume! It's this kind of recognition that keeps me going in life and reminds me that hard work does pay off.

On a lighter note! I have been using the expression "Jumpin' Jesus!" a lot lately...especially in heavy traffic and one day Makly said "Mom, you should never use his name that way!" and I said "Even if he's jumping?!" *Uncontrollable Laughter*. So I decided I should share the story of where this expression comes from: I was in Las Vegas with my Grandpa and my parents...Dad is driving 70mph on the highway when Grandpa yells "JUMPIN' JESUS!! Pull over! Stop the car!" Dad swerves to the side of the road like a stunt man and everyone turns towards Grandpa to see whats wrong as he leaps out of the car...when he says "Get the camera!! LOOK at THAT moon!!! It's beautiful!". Oh dear. This was my Grandpa, and my very best friend, who passed away in August who I miss and think about every single day and I think using some of his famous expressions helps remind me of how happy he made me with his craziness! 

Speaking of family, I found out my cousin Emmy got a job as a packaging engineer at the Kellogg Company in K-Zoo, MI so congrats to you cuzzo!! So proud and happy for you! :) Annnnnd to my very dear friend Kristen whose boyfriend Kareem has been overseas with the Army Reserves for the past year...the wait is over girlie!!! I'm happy to announce that Kareem is scheduled to be coming home sometime this week - so happy for you Kirky, you did it and now your wait that seemed like it would be forever is almost over!!

As for me, I am feeling a lot better about things today because our boss Marcus showed up this morning in Thibedoux, LA to meet us and offer me two days off! He also thanked me and told me he knows I am doing an outstanding job with the team this year, so that made me feel good and I plan to spend my time off job searching for after the tour!

Peace, love, Chavista.   ~Jackie