I don't like Mondays..

Not because of having to go to school/work etc, but simply because the group has to split up and go their separate ways today.  Michael is already in the air above our heads.  I note another bright morning sunrise slightly resentfully due to a mild headache and sore throat, but pick up the computer even though it is only 6:30am.  Reading aloud posts and comments from friends on 6S to Mum, and exclaiming over a bunch of trite comments.  My excuse is that "writers" (and how sweet to call myself that from the glow of a writers convention) have to be observant and pick up on the absurd to fuel their creative engines; but the truth is, I just like bitching at times, most times ;) 
Yesterday afternoon was spent in the bar downstairs, because it is the best place to meet and chat, paper tumblerfuls of whisky, showing purchases (books, what else), Mike photographs Michael for a future art piece, we write bon mots into each others notebooks, and above all, chat.   The afternoon draws into evening as we head out again, food and wine and conversation swirling around the table; and then we swirl into the crowds on Bourbon Street.  The muted colours of daytime are a different place, noise and neon are the themes now.  Drink and flesh on display everywhere, booming club music replacing the gentler (but somehow more alive) Jazz.  We drank from our paper cups and observed the good natured revelry, and then retired to a room for refills and more talk into the night... 

Dulled tired eyes above
the laptop screen, the boozy
night gets its revenge.

It ain't 3 pages but...

the couple fuck out
of rhythmn in the room next
door, squeaking field mice.

In the Casino

Noise lights people food
brightly overwhelmed, Harrah's
shuts out the seasons.

Hotel life...

Murder trail left on
white hotel pillows and towels,
red brick hair dye bleeds.


the maid HoWls?

HoW Pile

Of course, the pile of packing so far is basically books, and I'm getting slightly anxious, as some of them look awfully thin...  What if I read them all in the first couple of days?  It's going to be a long trip there, three flights & fifteen hours flying...  I'm wondering if I should stick the old faithful, battered and bent copy of Lord of the Rings in, that's always good for 3-4 days... 
I did choose these books as a selection of American fiction, although not necessarily typical of Louisiana or New Orleans itself.  I have recently read Anne Rice's "Feast of All Saints" but wasn't all that impressed, found it a little slow until around 75% of the way in, and the characters basically not particularly sympathetic or interesting.  If anyone else has read this I would be interested in hearing your opinion.  I just finished James Lee Burke's "Black Cherry Blues" which suited me far better, the characters jumped off the page at you, and the descriptive parts added mood and didn't slow the pace.

Of course, I could just interact with everyone instead of reading ;)  But I'm guessing there will be bookshops in New Orleans in case of emergency...  so here goes with the first HoW haiku:-

Pages like cloudy

veils, hiding my lack of words

with others' writing.