in that number

ten years ago tonight i was at touro walking down a dark hallway with dimly lit generator powered lights to take sink shower when a nurse stopped me and said "are you prepared to be here for two weeks?"the fact that the hurricane that shall not be named had come and gone that morning and that i hadn't slept in two days didn't help me process this absurd question any more quickly. when i got back to the nurses lounge on the neurology icu floor that were the sleeping quarters for the dietetic interns i still didn't even understand fully what was going on. even the next day when stories of the levee breach came across battery powered radios i still didn't get it. and even when i was driving out of the city that i called home for less than two weeks, following people i didn't know on backroads to baton rouge i didn't get it.new orleans had always had a special piece of my heart and was responsible for so many of my fondest childhood memories. my aunt and uncle moved here in the early 1980s so every chance we could get our family would come down. my parents pulled us out of school every year for mardi gras and futrell thanksgiving was always in new orleans. i remember the summer after my freshman year of college i was on a run (why in the 100 degree weather i don't know) and as i was running down audubon blvd. it was one of those moments where i felt like i heard the lord audibly say "you'll live here one day." when it came time for me to choose places for my dietetic internship after college new orleans was first on the list.i found out in april 2005 that i'd be moving to new orleans and i couldn't have been more excited. the plan was to live in new orleans for a year and then move on to graduate school in a more, could we say, stable place, or so i thought. i moved to new orleans on august 14 2005 and my first day at touro was august 22. during our orientation that day we were informed that if there was ever a hurricane we would be required to stay, but not to worry, that had only happened once in the past ten years and everyone only had to stay one or two nights.we all know the story, that those bags we packed for two to three nights turned into weeks and months. i ended up in nashville and was certain that i had misread those signals sending me to new orleans. that was a WRONG decision to move there and i certainly was not going back. i was in counseling at the time, and my angel of a counselor asked me in february 2006 what my plans were after i finished my internship at vanderbilt. my answer: "anything but new orleans." as i pulled out of the parking lot after that session i remember driving home and again, that pesky audible voice said "you're going back." um, excuse me?still skeptical about this suggestion, as i perceived it, i went back to new orleans for mardi gras because my aunt asked me to ride in iris with her. it was part of my college graduation present and something fun for us to do that year i'd be living there. i paraded and rode in a whirlwind 48 hours before i had to go back to nashville. i flew out on a sunday evening and had a layover in the houston airport. i got off the plane in houston as as i sat in the airport with a suitcase full of mardi gras beads i started bawling. i was sad to leave my family but that wasn't it, i was grieving leaving new orleans. that moment on the floor in the houston airport is when i realized i was in love with new orleans.at this point i could jump ahead and say "they lived happily ever after" but anyone that has lived in new orleans (or been in love!) knows that simply isn't true. i tell people that new orleans either gets in your blood or under your skin and i am 100% in the first camp and while it hasn't been easy, it's been oh so rich. in new orleans i found my life (thank you mel for those words), i found love, i've learned i'm learning not to take life so seriously, to celebrate more, to cling to my faith, and that for better or for worse that i certainly want to be in that number. as i was typing this i was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from the lion the witch and the wardrobe:"Aslan is a lion-the lion, the great lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”and i'm thankful that my God who is so very good, sent me to a place that reminds me of this truth everyday.on a day that i never know how to commemorate, i'm thankful to type out a piece of my new orleans story--while ten years in the making, seems like its only just beginning.