yesterday is history

where y'at

2009-01-17T21:20:12Z

if i ever move to some dumb european country where people only go out to hang out with the people they already know, something that i would miss the most is the fine institution that is american bar,.

the various watering holes of new orleans are especially close to my heart. each is speacial in its own beautiful way. they will carry you through the night; like all things in the new orleans tradition, their spirit endures and is interconnected and never-ending. the insides of bars spill out freely on to the sidewalk. never say goodbye because new orleans never says goodbye and because you know you will see them later in the infinite night .
the city streets are not just for moving about, but are just as much places to be in their own right. sitting on a french quarter stoop or a street corner in the marigny, listening to someone play a fiddle or a trombone, drinking abita and greeting all the passerby that you know and all that you don't.
your bicyle will take you to the next stop and through the night of the giant never-ending block party that is new orleans.
like the mississippi river that made this place what it is, the spirit of the city comes in the form of a flow strong and slow, just,as the bands and parades that dance through its streets.

in other news, i still need a job and don't know where i'm living at the end of the month. exciting times.

a return to an ambiguous home

2009-01-08T18:37:23Z

going back is different when, instead of coming home to warm and loving arms, all you have is a cold, dark apartment all alone.

new orleans tonight.
this is the beginning of everything.
i'm gonna make it happen and won't stand for any shit that tries to get me down.

ridingonacloud @ 2009-01-08T03:20:00

2009-01-08T08:21:48Z

all i gotta say is
what the fuck is goin' on

ridingonacloud @ 2008-12-29T02:41:00

2008-12-29T07:43:33Z

kindergarten me loves you!!

ridingonacloud @ 2008-12-20T02:54:00

2008-12-20T07:56:04Z

i just want to live in an enchanted forest

NOLA's first snowfall in a few years

2008-12-13T09:17:54Z

my street.

snow/tropical flowers.

st. charles streetcar.

it's going to be 76 degrees the day after tomorrow, too.

in other news, i'm pretty much done with college. weird. need to figure out how to make money now. any ideas?
a lot of things in my life are generally up in the air right now. don't have to much time to work it out here, though. going home for the holidays on thursday.

What are you doing?

2008-11-24T01:45:28Z

My life has never felt so ambiguous.
The state of my relationship, school, where I'm living, not to mention The Future.
I have no idea how any of it is going to work out. I have little to no plan. This semester is nearly over and after that, I'm basically done with school except for a single class in the Spring. How to best use the rest of my time?
I need to figure out what I REALLY want to do and try to work towards it or else I am not going to feel fulfilled. I want to experience the world in the deepest way possible and constantly challenge myself at the same time.

The biggest question out there really is whether I should stay in New Orleans. The more I think about it the more I truly believe that I don't think I could have as much fun or have the unique experiences that are possible here anywhere else in America. But do I want to go to UNO for grad school? Do I even want to go to grad school? Do I want to be further sucked in and stay here always & forever? New Orleans is not a place of progress or productivity, but it's so wonderfully special. Should I try to become master urban planner or sell custom-made fanny packs for a living and live in a trailer in the lower 9th ward? Other??
I just need to infuse myself with a little more motivation and ambition and try to do whatever I can. There's only so much I can do - the rest is up to chance and fate.

DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT

2008-11-04T23:02:33Z

I finally just got to vote in my first presidential election! And what an exciting one.

Halloween was super amazing. I dressed up as a chimney sweep. It was cost-free and a big hit.
The fun started with Critical Mass - we took over a lot of things including the Halloween parade on Decatur. Then wandering around the Frenchmen Street madness, art installations at the brickyard, dance party at the iron rail collective, Quintron show for free at One Eyed Jacks. Wonderful.

Now it's time to find my couchsurfers, get drunk and (hopefully) celebrate the incoming election results.
Seeing Kevin, Dan Deacon, and DC Critical Mass on Friday!

in keeping up with internet fads

2008-10-14T18:53:29Z

if anyone who hasn't already feels inclined to do so, add me on twitter at http://twitter.com/lauraharris

same old

2008-10-03T02:59:31Z

I just wanted to say hi internet!
I miss you and I'm sorry I never post anymore.

Here is a picture of me cycling through Greece:

Honestly, I probably will never post all my pictures on here - on facebook, maybe.
Is this a dying medium or just something I have grown away from? I think both.

Autumn is the season I love the most. I feel like I can make anything happen.

I feel obligated to say something about the current status of my life. Overall, I'd say I'm more comfortable with myself and what I want than ever before.
The conflicts that do exist are essentially reinventions of the same conflicts that have always affected me. I feel like I am still floating around in a social realm that is too large and diverse for a single individual to traverse. People come and go from my life, some stay. I cannot be well-defined by any particular association and while sometimes I feel lost in this sort of sense of anomie, I think this is just my nature. My spirit is restless, which I think is a good thing. I've just got to figure out the best way to roll with it. I feel like I am conquering more all the time, meanwhile discovering more I'd like to conquer. Conquer is not the right word.
I wonder which way I'm going to take this amazing thing we know as life. I feel like a couple of years from now I am just as likely to be living a million kilometers away, existing in a completely different way, as I am as likely to stay loyal to my dear New Orleans, rolling with the same crew, more or less. I have no idea how it'll go, but I just turned 21 and there is so much living left to be done! It seems moments ago that I was just 17 and the great big world had so much to offer me and I was ready to dive right in. It's beautiful how much I have learned since then - there is so much more!

Anyway! Enough of this crap. I have to go. I love you all.

Hurricane Party

2008-08-29T01:03:05Z

Being back in New Orleans and being back at school has been lovely.
Danny and I are thinking about subletting our place and moving into a shotgun on Annunciation and having a couple of good friends as shotgun-mates. We could have sweet parties.

It's my last real semester of college and I really like my courses so far:

Arabic I
Natural Landscape/Built Form
Infrastructure of Sustainable Urban Environments
Computer Applications in Music
The Urban Experience

It's kind of a shame that classes have been cancelled for at least the next week because of this little asshole named Tropical Storm Gustav who has decided to show up as an uninvited guest for the 3rd anniversary of The Big K.
Everyone is freaking out, all institutions are shutting down, all around me I hear "OMG where are you evacuating to!?"
As for me, well, I have a raft. I'll be quite okay. If I really must evacuate, I am avoiding all the traffic and evacuating via bicycle on the river levee path.

ridingonacloud @ 2008-08-21T14:40:00

2008-08-21T18:47:07Z

Holy crap I just noticed that there is finally Street View for New Orleans on Google Maps yessss.

In other news, I am back in the good old U.S. of A. after two months of somehow finding my way from Athens to Lisbon. My luggage still hasn't made it. Back to New Orleans in a couple days.

More to come on all this eventually.

Euro Adventure 2008 Update

2008-08-06T13:44:48Z

Hello lovely livejournal world. I regret not being able to update thus far, but free time for interneting has been scarce.

Our time along the mediterranean has been quite an adventure, to say the least.
We started out hanging out with some crazy anarcho commies in Athens, made our way along the gorgeous coasts of Greece, crossed into the unpaved roads of Albania, where we nearly died on a mountain after bikes broke down and water ran out and the sun torched us while women dressed in the medieval style riding side saddle on donkeys stared at us as if we were aliens.
From there, ferry to Italy, then ferry to Montenegro, a land that smells like shit and is full of naked old men and lots and lots of raki. We made our way along the tiny country's mountains, steeper and rockier and more intimidating than any I've ever seen.
Then on to Croatia, a lovely place in some regards, others not. A train through more mountains took us the city of Sarajevo, where we spent five days drinking turkish coffee and listening to calls to prayer in apartments littered with bullet holes all over the outsides. Then to Mostar in Hercegovina, where we stayed on a lovely hippie farm sort of thing with some very nice people and very nice kittens and saw some sweet fire dancing and gyspy music.
Back to Croatia - a ferry from Split took us to Italy, where we first stayed at Dan's aunt's place in Umbertide, outside Perugia. A lovely villa upon a hillside. Met Dan's little bro and baby cousin - very cute.
From there to the wonderfully ridiculous city of Rome. I've never seen so many fountains, piazzas, statues etc crowded into such an area. We stayed with a the parents of a friend of Jeph. A very sweet lady named Miriam and her husband, Franco, a director for the World Bank and central manager of the Bank of Italy. Their apartment was more like a penthouse. They invitied us to come with them to their place in Tuscany - a lovely place on a unique land formation overlooking the sea. The fed us very well and enoyment was had by all parties involved.
Our present location is Pisa. Soon we'll be on a train to Genova, from where we will catch a ferry to Barcelona. We were planning on going up to Venice and biking west from there, but since we are so very far behind and short on time, and, being the intrepid explorers that we are, we've decided to skip it in favor of having time to hopefully go to Morocco.

Obviously, so much more has happened than I can even begin to describe here, but the clock is saying I have to go, go, go again. Later, y'all.

ridingonacloud @ 2008-06-17T02:30:00

2008-06-17T06:30:45Z

tomorrow!

Knowing What It Means

2008-06-08T02:58:18Z

The days remaining before my departure have dwindled down to very few. When leaving New Orleans, especially for longer lengths of time, it's hard not to cry and wish that I could never miss out on a single minute here. Even though my love will be following my trail, a big part of my heart has been captured by this magical (albeit fucked up) city.
Of course, I know this adventure ahead will be wonderful, incomparable and an experience I will not regret, but something that I am most looking forward to is the feeling of returning to this city after some time spent away. It is comparable to a warm embrace from a big fat old mulatto lady, smelling of sweet magnolias and summer sweat, dressed in once-fancy clothes that became ratty and worn long ago. She smiles big and simply says, "All right."

Right On Target

2008-06-08T02:31:40Z

Local Plants & Bugs

2008-06-08T02:22:33Z

lol facebook chat

2008-06-05T01:22:01Z

all of it is alive

2008-06-02T02:39:40Z

drunk jesus

2008-06-02T02:34:00Z

morning.

Samuel Square

2008-06-02T00:28:07Z

ridingonacloud @ 2008-06-01T19:18:00

2008-06-02T00:21:35Z

Arrivals and Departures

2008-06-01T03:25:57Z

It's hot in New Orleans and the air is heavy with change.

Benji will be here in just a couple of hours time, completing his long journey from Brooklyn. I will be waiting for him here on the balcony to shout "Welcome home!" and maybe throw some beads at him.
While new friends arrive, others have slipped away to only live on in the memories of what we went through together that we carry with us wherever we go.
How strange it is to live someplace long enough to see other people come and go. Hey, I've found a home.

That being said, just less than two weeks and I will be out of this town. Less than three and I'll be out of this country for longer than I've ever been, on an adventure unlike any I have seen. I can't wait 'til it's just me, my boo, a couple of bicycles and a place that looks something like this:

Swamp Excursion - Barataria

2008-05-29T02:10:17Z

New Orleans - Dead Cars and Live Crawfish

2008-05-29T01:51:46Z

I took this in Hollygrove (home of Lil Wayne).