I AM working on real blog posts and not home videos of me failing to break a pinata or my birds humping inappropriate things, but I've been extremely busy these past few months. 

I left the art sales world.  Still waitressing on weekends for the time being.  Starting next week, I'm teaching college English again, which I haven't done for about four years.  Filled with both glee and abject terror at this.  I have a red briefcase, which makes me feel like a grown-up.

The Fuck-You-I-Built-A-Goddamn-House-Fund is up to $1,823.66.  Only $1,276.34 to go. 

Jane the parakeet (or Madame Ovary, as she was nicknamed after laying egg after egg after egg in my closet) passed away about a week or two ago.  After spending the night body-bagged in the morgue--a Ziploc in my fridge--she was given a proper and entirely fitting New Orleans funeral.  As her body was being borne (carried in my purse) to the cemetery (a planter behind Jax Brewery where the mulch is soft enough to dig with a piece of cardboard), a brass band (that crazy guy who plays the trumpet in front of Cafe du Monde) played a slow, mournful version of "His Eye is on the Sparrow."  On the way back, he was playing a jaunty version of "I'll Fly Away."  It may well be the best send-off a bird has ever had. 

My brother made her a tombstone and mailed it to me.  At some point, I'll have to go install it.

And I have a new bird.  Since Enoch the parakeet was named after Enoch Emery in Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood," I decided to go with an O'Connor name for this one as well.  Meet Parker.

As you can see, he does in fact have a tattoo that covers his back that may or may not turn out to be a Byzantine Christ.  It is quite large and bright green.  Normally it would be entirely hidden by his wings except in flight, but they're clipped right now.  He (or she, I don't know for sure yet) seems to be getting along fine with the other birds and will let me pick him up to put him on high places and back in the cage since he can't fly there himself. 

And that's all for now.