Friday night, my so-called wife took me to see Sade at the New Orleans Arena. She spoiled me rotten (as usual) with awesome seats on the floor for a show I can only describe as mind-blowing. Sade has hardly aged at all and still sounds absolutely amazing. To be sure, her voice has matured to some degree but she still hits every note and has such magnificent control over her voice that it is truly not to be believed. In this day and age of expensive shows by cheap artists, Sade is a marvel. The show itself was beautifully lit and produced but never overwhelmed the artist's presence onstage. The minimalist stage set & superb use of visual FX like scrims & back projected images were simply entrancing without being obtrusive.
The concert was a welcome distraction from my current situation which is: still seeking work and rapidly coming to the end of my savings as the bills keep coming in.
Another welcome distraction came earlier this evening in the form of a phone call from my dear friend & ex-classmate, Mad Martha. Just as I was about to put a frozen pizza in the oven she called with an invitation to dinner with a little Escrabble (Spanish Scrabble) afterwards. We went over to Juicy Lucy's on N. Carrollton, where we enjoyed cheese stuffed burgers (mine had bacon too--YUM).
We went over to Z'otz Coffeeshop on Oak St, and we were playing at one of the tables on the sidewalk outside, talking crazy when I heard a crash from behind me and as I turned around to look, I saw this big red dooly (sp?) truck swerving straight towards us, out of control, with its rear end lifting up off the street. Mercifully there was a car parked in between it & us and the truck hit the car in front of us & then drove off. Plenty of people (including the girl who was working at the coffee shop) ran behind the fleeing truck, calling for people to take down the license plate number. Within a couple of minutes, we saw the truck come around the corner and then keep driving. All this time there are loads of people milling around, talking about what had just happened. This truck had hit not one but two parked cars. The owner of the first car (i.e. not the one that blocked us from certain death) came down from a bar a block away to give someone the license plate number of the truck when she realized that her car was one of the ones that had been hit.
She called 911 and gave the police all the info she had & right after she got off the phone, the truck's driver came up, wanting to give her his information. This guy was talking crazy and was clearly high or drunk but gave her his driver's license and address and everything & even left a note on the other car he'd hit but then he took off. Everyone was telling him he needed to stay there until the police came or face Hit & Run charges but he wasn't hearing it. When someone pointed out how much damage he had done, he just sort of shook his head and chuckled. Then he proceeded to walk off. Short of actually tying him up, there was no way to keep him there (plus I don't think anyone wanted to fight with some drunk) so he just carried on.
About an hour later we managed to wave down a passing policeman and tell him the situation, and he took the info that Miss Woman had and took off & a bit later an officer showed up in response to the 911 call to take everyone's statements. He gave all of us witnesses report forms to fill out and we did that.
Mad Martha & I continued our game of Escrabble, but as the adrenaline wore off we started to really think about how much worse it could have been. We were both pretty paralyzed with shock when that truck was hurtling towards us and I'm not sure we could have gotten out of the way in time. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that I have some kind of PTSD from this or anything but DAMN that was a close one.
This little incident makes me want to work harder at being grateful for my blessings and not focus so hard on my shortcomings, because it all could have been taken away in an instant with no warning , or even any active participation on my part.
So thank you, first and foremost to Elisha & Mad Martha but also to all of my friends, family & just plain folks who think kindly of me from time to time!
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