My thesis draft is turned in for now. I expect to make a lot of revisions, but that's okay. I know of a few things that I should probably get more of a handle on before the defense, but I'm looking forward to the feedback, which will really help me figure out what to do next.
I needed to have the thesis in on Monday. While I was in Pensacola visiting great-aunts and -uncles and grandma, I realized that I needed to go to Baton Rouge for the final push to get the draft done. For one, my fab friend Erica could help with Ellis, and I could get to the library for a few citation checks. So instead of going to New Orleans from Pensacola on Monday, I decided to go to Baton Rouge on Sunday afternoon, so that I could be there to finish on Monday before coming back to New Orleans to pick up Chris at the airport.
So after church and lunch with my great-aunt and uncle, Ellis and I were off. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we were cruising. It was fun. Ellis dozed off, and when he woke up was ready for a little break. We had gone for about an hour, so we stopped at the last exit in Alabama at a little gas station with picnic tables. It was sunny and warm, and I was loving it! Ellis and I tried on sunglasses and had fun.
We went back to the car, I strapped him in, and set him up with his toys. He was so cute; I had to take a picture.
We drove for about another hour, and Ellis was getting hungry, so we went to an exit near Gulfport, MS. There was a Barnes and Noble there that Chris and I used to stop at. But it was still getting renovated after the hurricane. By this point Ellis has been screaming for about half an hour. I felt so bad. So I thought we could get out and walk around a little bit after giving him something to eat.
I looked around for the bag with the diapers and my wallet and other random stuff in it, and I couldn't find it!! I turned the car upside down and inside out and I couldn't find it!!!!!!! OH NO!!!! The picture dawned on me: I left it on the ground by the car in Alabama, an hour ago, when I strapped Ellis into the carseat.
As I realized this everything flashed before me. Ellis has been screaming for a good half hour, and likely will continue to scream for much of the two hours we have left to get to Baton Rouge, but the bag is an hour away, so if I were to turn around and go back, that added an additional two hours to the two hours we already have left. So four more hours of Ellis screaming, and trying to finish my thesis at the end of it.
What was I going to do!?!?
I didn't know what to do. I called my friend in New Orleans in a panic. We were going to their house on Monday and are staying with them while in NOLA. They are the Fun Family with five Fun Kids. I called Fun Mom, my friend. After brainstorming for awhile, we came up with a plan. I would go on to Slidell, another half hour, and she would meet me there, except, it would take longer for her to get there than me. So that I could turn around right away to get back to Alabama, she arranged for her cousin, with whom she would trust her life she informed me, and her husband to meet me there to take Ellis. Fun Mom and two Fun Daughters would meet Ellis and take him back to her house in New Orleans, and I would go to her house that evening. So much for Baton Rouge. My wonderful friend Erica agreed to print out my thesis, which i would email to her, and give it to my committee.
So Ellis screamed the whole way to Slidell, where I met Fun Cousin and her husband, who were so wonderful. They filled my tank with gas, gave me some cash, and loved on baby Ellis.
I turned around and headed back 90 miles to Alabama, just praying that I would find it. Having gotten about four hours of sleep the night before, plus thesis, plus traveling alone with screaming Ellis, I was beginning to feel considerably frayed. In my mind, I was praying and composing this blog entry to occupy myself and stay calm.
I got to the gas station at about 9 pm. Praise the Lord, the bag was there!! Not only that, all the cash (over $100) and cards and everything was there. (Chris had already checked card activity online.) The owner of the station had found the bag shortly after I had left and locked it in the office. After profuse thanks, and stocking up on caffeine and sugar to get me the next 130 miles, I was on my way again.
Driving back along the Gulf Coast, driving back into Louisiana, driving across the lake at 45 mph on rickety post-Katrina I-10 bridge, driving past blown out apartment buildings in New Orleans East, driving past mudbaked flooded cars abandoned underneath the interstated bridge, driving through the Central Business District, trying to take in as much as I can in the dark. I drove over the Crescent City Connection to the Fun Family's house on the West Bank. And was happily greeted by Fun Kids and a contentedly sleeping baby, who, I was informed, had a fabulous time with Fun Cousins and zonked out when they loaded up in the car.
I crashed sometime around midnight. So much for the thesis. But so wonderful to be with such dear friends.
The setting for all this was in the borga of Dozza, a small medieval town outside of Bologna, Italy (which is about 100 miles southwest of Venice). We met in a room in the fortress and stayed in local hotels. There was no internet, one pay phone at the end of the town. The whole week was spent in relative isolation from the rest of the world (at least for those of us who couldn't use our cell phones!). But even though I had no clue what was going on outside Dozza (nor really had time to worry about it), it was as if a whole new world was opening up, sort of a cross between Italy and the 14th century, and the citizens of this world were my fellow classmates and faculty members, and I felt a special bond with them for that week. 