Hobo Siren: Fake Life & Places

It didn't seem like that big of a deal to learn that the landlady who is also the tenant of the place Kady and I are inhabiting for an undetermined amount of time in the French Quarter of New Orleans was behind schedule and therefore going to still be at the apartment for our first night. But as the day grew longer and Ashley and I grew more and more restless in the heat nearing our final destination, I grew more and more discontent with the impending inconvenience and lack of privacy. The terrible cold I'd been struck with a few days before departure wasn't helping.

But as Ashley and I pulled into my temporary adopted neighborhood and the charming landlady came down to meet us and I walked Edie through the dimly lit town-square, my discontentment softened to ambivalence... as conveyed in a voice-mail I dreamily left Kady that referred to this as not a real place and this life as not real life.

We unloaded part of the car and partook of a brief tour of my home of undetermined temporariness that included a view of the Jolie-Pitt's home a block away as seen from our bathroom.

Ashley and I made the mistake of expressing ambivalence when the landlady's daughter- a brand new mother and the source of the tardiness in departure- asked us if we were comfortable with breastfeeding. "I finally stopped breastfeeding when I told my mom I was too old to breast feed," I elaborated, adding, "That sounds like an anecdote, but it's a true story."

Huge mistake.

One night turned into two nights which turned into three nights and that on top of the constant unnecessary nursing lady bra-removal, lifestyle-overshare, Kady having to sleep on the couch the night she arrived here, my cold seemingly getting worse and worse... and my ambivalence understandably escalated to indignant irritation as I exclaimed "This is completely unacceptable." This indignation climaxed in a very curt voicemail to the landlady as my mind frolicked with the worst case scenario (what if they never leave? what if I get home and they've stolen all my stuff?).

But depart they finally did, leaving Kady and me in a dizzy euphoric state of giddiness as we navigate this most delightful, perfect, intriguing situation in one of the most compelling places I've ever visited.

"I feel like we're the luckiest girls in the world, " I said to Kady in the bathroom the other day. Yeah, the bathroom that offers the view of Angelina and Brad's home.

Below, a few photo excerpts of my temporary life here in Nola: