Post-Katrina Adjustment

We are in agreement that we want eventually to move out of the New Orleans-Metairie area in order to avoid further exposure to hurricane risk, but even if we were to move soon to a new city, obviously someone needs to go back to confirm the state of our house and/or to prepare the house for moving. As San Diego friends pointed out, "KTLA news... reported that New Orleans is going to be a 'sellers market' -- Apparently, real estate investors are going to want to buy just about anything before New Orleans is rebuilt -- They predict that the people who are going to help rebuild New Orleans as well as the business people who plan to return to New Orleans will need places to live." We could even put up a For Sale sign that reads "NEVER FLOODED".

In the meantime, Houston makes sense for a while. I've all but given up on moving to California, as we haven't found any jobs possibilities there. One of Katie's doctors has also relocated to Houston, and in the past he has been an excellent source of relatively lucrative testing referrals for Joel. He and Joel spoke yesterday about the possibility of establishing a practice here in Houston, and after some thought, it is my first choice. After all, we are familiar with the weather, have the requisite wardrobes, and it's a big city with lots of resources not that unlike big-city SoCal. It has a distinctive Hispanic accent in places (I studied Spanish as a kid growing up in San Diego and I LOVE to flex my foreign-language muscles), and truly first-rate health care. They say that housing is relatively affordable (not that one would know it in THIS neighborhood, which looks like Westwood) so presumably we could get a decent house with a nice, big, doggy yard.

The other day when we were at PetWorld (yes, a pseudonym) having new dog tags made, I saw a sign up soliciting applications for a part-time animal trainer. They train the trainers to do it THEIR way, but my related psych and animal experience would probably boost my salary up to a whopping $9/hour. It's crazy to choose this over a psychologist's position, but I think this would be excellent experience if I chose to get into pet behavioral consulting someday, which is something I've toyed with for a long time. I've also been given the name of someone who runs an assisted living conglomerate, but I like the idea of PetWorld better than psych! I think it says loads about my personal and professional insecurity that I would choose a part-time animal training position over the career for which I trained for so many years, but it's scary trying to present myself as a geropsychologist since I've been out of practice for 4 years. I can also justify it by pointing out that PetWorld is a big chain that would likely be present wherever we may relocate, and it would be great to get employee benefits, even part-time ones, while Joel is more dependent upon market forces in private practice.

Last week we received the most amazing news: our house appears to have been spared any flooding or any structural damage, at least as visible from outside the apparently-still-intact fence. A friend of mine had just moved home to his also-unscathed house, and he sent out an offer to friends to check out any places in the area at their request. He said that our house and property appeared to need a good sweeping, but that, from what he could see, we had only one tree damaged, and it did not appear to have hurt our house. Val was able to look into our TV room from the carport window, which was the room that we had thought most likely to sustain damage through its large glass sliding door and doggie door. Even the TV room looks normal from his vantage point. He could not see any roof damage from the ground in the front yard.

This news is so overwhelming that we don't know what we are going to do. To my surprise, Katie actually cried with sadness when she heard that the house was intact! Yesterday she said she did NOT want to return to Metairie, but this morning she wishes she could continue at both schools (and once the workload rises, of course, she'll wish she could attend neither!)

Oh, a wonderful source of comfort has been unearthed: we were recommended a good, funky grocery store and I went there two nights ago for the first time. I love the concept of organic food, but Joel and I just aren't a Whole Foods family. I went to Fiesta, and stocked up on my favorite tortillas brand and all the frozen entrees that we love. They didn't have my beloved Community Coffee iced tea, but they had Diet Lipton with lemon in 16-oz bottles which really soothed my soul, after my trying to drink Diet Coke nonstop for a week. The store was full of Hispanic men, which I liked, and I saw a guy dressed in denim and leather with a tiara. I took it as a positive omen.