Southern Comfort

Hi Ladies,

After a few weeks of craziness, I finally can take a minute to sit down and tell "ya'll" about my Southern adventure. I've been really busy with work already, so I apologize for the delay. I love reading about what you've been up to!

I moved down here the first weekend in August. It was something of a nutty trip down - my parents wanted to stop in Memphis, so we visited Graceland (I never loved Elvis so much!!), and I had some of the best BBQ of my life. We walked down Beale St. and heard some great music. It was a really odd little city. It felt like I was on a Mock Trial trip or some bizarre high-stress vacation because everything felt so rushed and foreign.

After one night in Memphis, we made it down here to New Orleans. The drive in was amazing - there's a gigantic bridge over Lake Pontchartrain leading into the city - the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway - it's the longest bridge in the U.S. and it's somewhat terrifying. We drove in over all the swampland, a landscape littered with little swamp boat-houses that looked like they were part of a movie set. As we got closer to the city, we started to see all the mess from Katrina. It's unbelieveable what that did to this city. Everyone here still talks about it like it just happened yesterday (this week marks the 2-year anniversary, so it's very much on everyone's mind). About a week ago I had to go down to the clerk's office in the city to pick up a copy of an old complaint. When I was checking out at the register to pay for copying the document, the lady behind the counter was talking about Katrina.

You never know what will happen, she says, I never that that the 30 years I spent making my life would end up like this. Now I've got my grandchildren living with me in a trailer and we still don't have a house.

She was a black woman - race relations are unbelievable here - and she went on to say that that morning she saw a white man begging for money at the side of the highway. A white man, she says, just think anything can happen to anybody.

She got tears in her eyes as she talked about her grandchildren and her deceased son. It was overwhelming.

I'm actually learning a lot about Katrina not only because her effects are felt everywhere, but also because we have a huge Katrina-levee break case we're litigating. It's unbelievable, this legal system of ours. My job is keeping me really busy. I've developed a website for one of our cases - you can see it at www.toxicfematrailers.org - we're working on a pro bono formaldehyde sickness case.

There are so many other things to say, but I have to cut it short now. I'll say more later - I hope everything is going well with you girls! I smile too whenever I think of you.

I hope your families were ok after the storms this past week in the Midwest. Did you guys get any water or damage? Keep safe and healthy and take care.

Hasta,
K