Taking on New Adventures

I’ve often heard that some of the most beautiful things in life happen in some of the worst times. I don’t know if that rings true all of the time, but I know from experience that it happened to me.

Since I was a kid, I knew that New Orleans would be my “home”. I didn’t know when or how, but after being here so much to cover Katrina and the after-effects, I thought that would happen with my old job at CNN. It didn’t and I ended up in New York instead. But 8 years later, an opportunity arose at the right time for me to take the leap and get to this great city.

Everyone knows the story of Katrina by now. I was in the city when the storm hit and the levees broke. As part of the CNN team, we evacuated 2 days after the storm, and made our way back into the city days later. About 2 weeks after the storm, CNN made a deal with the Royal Sonesta, and the 100+ employees based in New Orleans at the time “moved” into the Sonesta.

I met several employees of the hotel and had great conversations over some beers every evening. It was our way of decompressing over everything we saw during the day as we reported on the people we met in the city. Several of the Sonesta employees would be faces and names I would keep in touch with on my return trips to the city for various stories we’d cover.

During those return trips, Chuck, who was the main point of contact for CNN, would send a bottle of wine and a small fruit and cheese tray to my room upon check in. I thought it was a nice gesture and really appreciated the thoughtfulness. He was always very nice.

When I made the tough decision to leave CNN in 2013 and move to New Orleans to start a career in a totally different field of work, I found an awesome place to rent and moved in on October 30. In early December, my building had its annual Christmas party, and when I walked into the condo that was hosting it, Chuck was sitting there alongside Elton, another Sonesta employee I remembered from the Katrina days.

We spent some time catching up and reminiscing. Elton and his wife, Stacy, lived in the building and Chuck was going to rent in there as soon as his lease was up at his current place. We made plans to catch up soon and I left and went to my next event.

Chuck and I continued to see each other on the deck of our condo building and would talk. I never thought much of it, other than he was a really nice guy who was quite the gentleman.

Over the course of 2014, Chuck and I got to know each other better. He was really fun and we always were able to laugh. On August 21, 2014, we went out on an unofficial “date” and had our first kiss. I realized how much I enjoyed being around him and decided that it wouldn’t be so bad to date him.

We got closer and because we lived in the same building, were able to avoid some awkwardness that typically comes early in a relationship. We also had a previous relationship and friends in common so we didn’t have to spend the early part of our relationship in the “getting to know you” phase. We already knew so much!
We’ve now been together for a year and plan on being together for the rest of our lives. It’s amazing that in the ugliness that was Katrina and the aftermath, something as simple as “Love” can happen. But somehow it did.

Everyone in this city has a “Katrina story”. This is mine.