Thank you.  Thank you place of employment, for giving me work on an account that allows us to do good things and sponsor cool events.  Thank you for putting me in charge of said events.  Thank you Laura Mayes for creating the Mom 2.0 summit and thank you Megan Jordan for not allowing horrible things to ruin your spirit, and for being the storyteller you are, on paper (shit…we need a new expression for this…on the interwebs?) and in person.  Thank you both for coming together to make the stories of hope event at the Eiffel Society in New Orleans a true success, on a professional and very personal level.

Thank you Heather Armstrong, queen of the mommy bloggers, for not running away when I approached you to tell you my old friend and former roommate was your biggest fan.  Thank you for remembering that she waited for three hours outside your book signing in Brooklyn so she could meet you face to face.  Thank you for remembering that her mom emailed you after she passed away last year to tell you what an inspiration you were to her, as an aspiring write herself.  Thank you for talking to me at length about her, and for being truly interested in the story of her life.  And thank you for what you did Saturday night, after being reminded of Robin’s story, in front of hundreds of people (and thousands of online followers) dedicating your story of hope to her.

My summer of 12 hour workdays came to an end when my team and I traveled to New Orleans to put on a concert commemorating the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I’ll spare you the details, since I don’t want to make this a work related blog, but we basically paid a high level spokesperson (Faith Hill) to perform a concert in New Orleans to honor those who have stayed in the area in the five years since Katrina hit. I wrote about this in communication materials, spoke about it to media and spent months preparing for it, but I don’t think I actually GOT it until the evening of the actual concert. See, we made sure the theater was filled with local residents as well as people who worked at relief organizations in the area. About an hour before the concert, we realized a mistake had been made, and we had about 50 extra tickets right in the front orchestra section.

After I got over my panic attack and readjusted some of the seating, I took a handful of tickets, and right before the concert started, I made my way up to the upper balcony section. I went up to a couple and asked if they were with a relief organization. They actually said, “No, we’re with the fire department.” I looked at them quizzically and said, “Well, that’s certainly a relief organization,” and handed them two orchestra section tickets. They were amazed, and thanked me before going downstairs to take their upgraded seats. After handing out a few more tickets, word must’ve spread throughout the upper balcony to what I was doing. One elderly man came over to me and tapped me on the shoulder as I was giving out some more tickets to some folks from Homeland Security. He said to me, “I hate to ask, but is there any way you can upgrade me and my wife? We’re sitting all the way up there…and I know you’re giving these to relief organizations. I’m from St. Bernard’s Project, and I helped save thousands of lives when the hurricane hit.” I smiled, and handed him the two tickets I had that were closest to the front. He thanked me, and I said, “no…thank you!” I was thrilled to be the person to give something to this man who had clearly given so much to his community.

Later that evening, as the lights went down and Faith Hill took the stage, I was amazed that my team and I had just put on a large scale concert. But as amazing as that feeling of accomplishment was, the part of the evening that stood out most was being able to give something to that man I met in the upper balcony. In all communication leading up to the concert, we kept saying how this concert was about the people of New Orleans. And as great as it was to have coordinated such a high profile event, what we had been saying all along really held true, the evening wasn’t about the theater we had decorated, the production we had coordinated, or the celebrity we had signed on – it was wholeheartedly about the people of the area.

Although I can’t stand Atlantic City, for some reason I was excited to go New Orleans for the first time on a business trip this week. I was kind of disappointed to find that it was just one big cheesy spring break spot. I’m sure there’s local culture somewhere, but I definitely didn’t see it. Maybe it was because I stayed right in the French Quarter and didn’t know where to go to find the good jazz clubs and the famous New Orleans cuisine – although I did enjoy a delicious breakfast of chicory coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. I also don’t recommend going in July, the humidity was like nothing I had ever experienced. I broke into a sweat upon exiting my hotel room, and walking around was brutal. I took three showers in one morning so I wouldn’t be a complete disaster when arriving at the venue I was checking out for our upcoming work event. I did stumble upon one really beautiful art gallery that featured local artists, mostly focused on jazz paintings and colorful fish murals. They were displayed in an outdoor garden which was really lovely to browse in.