In the name of nostalgia (that bitch)

As many of you probably know by now, I am overly nostalgic. As a character from a Noah Baumbach movie very well said, "I'm nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday. I've begun reminiscing events before they even occur. I'm reminiscing this right now." (more here).

One of the recurring nostalgias in my current life is about Louisiana, the place where Michael and I lived for two years. So between Christmas and the devilish New Year's Eve, we decided to go back.

What follows is a list of the things we did there in the name of nostalgia. I now realize this may be of little interest for most of you, except maybe for Raluca who lives there and my sister, who's usually interested in everything I do (like a good sister that she is). In any case, here it is:

In New Orleans:

- we ate muffaletta from Central Grocery
- we drank beer from Angeli's on Decatur
- we ate beignets and drank cafe au lait from Cafe Beignet.
- we walked and walked and walked

We also drove to Baton Rouge, the city where lived and complained about for two years. That's how nostalgia is so wicked.

In Baton Rouge:

- we drove to our former apartment building , where nothing has changed, including our neighbor's wrecked Toyota Corolla with an expired inspection sticker (expired in 1999).
- we went to Ambrosia Bakery to get King Cake, the traditional Mardi Gras oval shaped cake with a plastic baby Jesus inside. I was excited to get the amazing Zulu Cake, but they did not have it, so I had to resign myself to a plain cinnamon one.
- we drove on beautiful Highland road towards the LSU campus. It's beautiful because of the many oak trees with moss.
- we had coffee at Highland Coffee on the LSU campus. I don't love their coffee, but the place is nice. It was the place I used to go specifically to hear people speak in other languages than English (Baton Rouge is otherwise not a very ethnically diverse city).
- we visited an older couple who lives near LSU and used to work with Michael. They are hippies, their door is always open, and they have many cats and parrots in their house (which always smells like incense, "to cover the smell of pot", Michael would tell you). We arrived unannounced, but they welcomed us and, in the true spirit of Louisiana hospitality, said: "Would you like some gumbo? We've just made some!"
- we visited the shopping center on Jefferson highway, which was opened after we left Baton Rouge. It features a Whole Foods, which makes it the yuppie central of the city.
- throughout the day, we listened to the LSU radio station, my favorite radio station ever (because of the music they play).
- we had Nepali-Indian food at the Himalayas. We used to have Friday dinner there almost every week: meat momos for Michael, chicken tikka masala for me. We did it again.


The other wicked side of nostalgia is that it paints the past in colors that are too bright compared to the real thing. Going back, I could not help realizing that New Orleans is a sad, deserted city, or that Baton Rouge, with the exception of a few nice areas around LSU, is suburban and very poor around the edges. But the beautiful, vast Louisiana sky was as beautiful as I remembered it:



For now, I'll go pretend I'm watching LSU play American football in the Sugar Bowl. Go Tigers!