THEY ALL ASK'D FOR YOU

New Orleans, LA

June 4, 2012

"I went on down to the Audubon Zoo, and they all ask'd for you. Da monkeys ask'd, da tigers ask'd, and da elephant ask'd me, too" ~ The Meters, from "They All Ask'd For You"

It was Monday morning, and rather than miserably pushing myself out of bed to go to work like I usually do, I was going to go visit my besties, Jean and Panya, at the Audubon Zoo. Who are Jean and Panya, you ask? Why, they are the resident elephants of New Orleans. And how are they my besties? Well, hold on to your britches; we’ll get to that in due time.

A swan and a duck with her babies

Even though we had a relatively late night out on Frenchmen, we still managed to get up at a decent hour for a good morning workout in Audubon Park. This time I planned on doing more of an actual workout than I did the day before. I still carried my camera with me, but the plan was to walk/run with Miriam the whole route around the park. Having company would keep me in check, even though it slowed Miriam down a bit.

I walked and ran alongside her, sometimes running on ahead to try out some new photography techniques of her jogging. And every once in a while she was forced to run in circles while I stopped to photograph beautiful swans or amazing scenery. It was a lovely trek around the park, and I was glad to finally see the whole park instead of the first half-mile.

Miriam running over the bridge. 

After getting showered and ready for the day, we headed over to one of Miriam’s favorite coffee places, PJ’s Coffee, for some iced coffee. Right down the street was Maple Street Book Shop, a local bookstore that we just happened to have a Groupon to, so we ventured in to pick up some books. Maple Street Book Shop has two stores side by side. One store is a regular bookstore while the other is their used bookstore. We took a look around the regular store but didn’t see much we wanted, so we decided to try the used store. We had a little better luck here, but still the pickings were slim.

Maple Street porch

We had just recently seen the amazing play Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway and had fallen in love with it, so we were excited to see the book the play was based on in the children’s used books section. We snatched that one up right away. We ended up finding a coffee table book of the inside of the fancy homes around New Orleans and grabbed that for Miriam’s mom. The rest of our purchases were of magnets and postcards. 

It was at this point that I realized I had been subconsciously scratching my bare ankles and legs with increasing intensity. I looked down at my legs and notice all sorts of little red dots around my ankles. Miriam realized she had been doing the same thing and that she, too, was covered in red dots. The store had fleas in the carpet and they were eating us alive! I immediately left the store and sat on the front porch while Miriam made her purchases, trying not to give in to the itch all over my legs.

We then headed over to Miriam’s brother’s third and newest pizza place, Pizzicare (pronounced peet-see-car-ay), a by-the-slice or by-the-pie joint. We each grabbed a slice (one regular cheese slice and one Margherita slice) and also ordered garlic knots and the pepperoni sticks. There was no way we could eat all of that, but we had heard so much about the garlic knots and pepperoni sticks that we at least needed to try them. Everything was so delicious! Once we ate our fill we boxed up our leftovers and hit the road.

It was zoo time!

Now, here’s a little back-story about the elephants and me. When Miriam and I first met, she asked what my biggest dream was (besides the obvious “I want to be a performer” answer). My automatic response was always: I want to meet an elephant.

Unbeknownst to me, Miriam made it her personal mission to make that dream come true. She contacted every zoo, circus, and elephant habitat she could find in the United States, getting the same answer every time: Sorry, no.

Then in 2007 her networking paid off, and she was told that the zoo in her own hometown might be able to help. We were in the process of planning a trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama—just a few hours away from New Orleans—to vacation with some of my family members, and we were having a hard time finding reasonably priced airfare. So Miriam slyly suggested we fly roundtrip to New Orleans—which was a lot cheaper to fly to—and drive to Gulf Shores in one of her parents’ cars. That way, she said, we could spend some extra time in New Orleans at the end of the trip. I bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

Miriam had filled my family in on what she had planned—a visit to the zoo at the end of our trip—and everyone kept it very secret. They did get a hoot out of my response when we were talking our biggest dreams, and I said it would be the greatest thing in the world to meet an elephant and went on to explain just how much I would love it.

Cut to the end of our trip, we’re driving around New Orleans, and Miriam says we are meeting someone around lunchtime. My mind automatically thought: we are meeting the elephants at the Audubon Zoo. I have no idea why my mind went there, but as we drove towards Audubon Park, my insides started going crazy. When we pulled into the zoo parking lot, I was shaking and holding back the tears. And when we finally met the zoo curator and he asked if I was ready to meet the elephants, I started crying (at which point Miriam had to tell him that this was a surprise and the tears were ones of joy).

Best. Day. Ever.

The experience was amazing. I got to feed them and pet them and talk to them, and then the elephant keeper even took Jean out of her paddock and let me stand next to her. I could feel her eye watching me, and her trunk kept swinging up to sniff at me. As soon as we left I ugly-cried like I have never ugly-cried before (to put it into perspective what that day meant to me, I’m crying right now, five years later, just retelling the tale). Miriam ended up sending the zoo a picture of my ugly-cry, and it’s still up on their office wall. I’m known as the Girl Who Cried.

So, back to 2012! Every time Miriam and I visit New Orleans we always try to visit the zoo because 1. it’s a pretty zoo, and 2. I get to see my friends. I’ve never gotten up close and personal with them again, but I’m content standing back with the rest of the zoo crowd and looking longingly at them. Have I mentioned that I love elephants?

Anyways, I’m excited because they are currently building a whole new habitat for Jean and Panya, so they’ll have more room to move around. That was always my one complaint. They do get daily walks around the zoo before it’s open to the public, but elephants aren’t sedentary creatures so I always wished they had more space to walk. Now, hopefully, they’ll have lots of space! I look forward to visiting the zoo after the new habitat has been unveiled. 

We had an amusing, yet slightly freaky, moment at the big cat area, when we realized that one of the female leopards was hungry for a baby boy being held in his mama’s arms next to us. Mom and Dad were pointing out some sleeping leopards to their son and commenting on how they wished they all weren’t sleeping when I noticed another leopard slink out of her den on the other side of the pen—all eyes on baby boy. It was crazy! She totally stalked him, all crouched down and hiding behind things, until she got to the barrier and she couldn’t go any farther. She then started pacing along the barrier, never taking her eyes off the infant, and it was at that point that I mentioned to the parents that kitty was hungry for baby. They were fascinated! And very thankful for the barrier. 

We wandered around the zoo for a few hours, taking tons of pictures, and even running across a male peacock showing off his plumage in a beautiful and up-close display. We made it through most of the zoo before we decided to throw in the towel. We were exhausted!

My favorite of the ASPCA Mardi Gras bead statues.

Miriam’s brother, Jeff, amazingly had a night off from his various restaurants and asked if we wanted to go out for a family dinner, so that evening we all met Jeff and his long-time friend Sadie, at Mat and Naddie’s Restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. Mat and Naddie’s looks like it would be just a house at the end of a quiet block, yet it’s a very popular restaurant with delicious food. (Something I’ve noticed about New Orleans is that some of the best places to eat don’t always look like restaurants from the outside—I’ve been completely fooled on numerous occasions!) The menu was very diverse, and we all had a hard time deciding an entrée. We ended up getting multiple dishes to try and there wasn't a disappointed tummy in the house! Would anyone like to start off with a little artichoke, sun-dried tomato, and roasted garlic cheesecake? Yes, please!

We said goodnight to everyone and headed out for a little business meeting over coffee. Miriam’s friend, Rightor, who is now bicoastal in both LA and NYC, has a friend who is working heavily in the film/TV industry currently booming in New Orleans, and he introduced us so that we could get the lay of the land in case our plans to move to New Orleans ever come to fruition.

Bryce works on the behind-the-scenes side of the film industry—the kind of stuff I love to do when I’m not performing—so it was fascinating hearing about her work. She didn’t have much information on the acting side of things, but she did confirm that the film industry is steady in New Orleans at the moment. It sounded reassuring, as long as we can get our feet in the door.

We closed down the coffee shop, sitting outside at their tables, sipping our coffee, and chatting away, until we noticed we were the only customers left, and the employees were starting to put the chairs up on the tables inside. That was our cue to go.

We said goodnight to Bryce and realized we were close to Jeff’s apartment, so we decided to drop by unannounced—and managed to catch him eating Popeyes. He’s notorious for giving Miriam the “healthy eating” speech, so catching him with Popeyes after our delicious dinner at Mat and Naddie’s was incredibly hilarious.

It had been another long and eventful day in New Orleans. Only one day left and a long list of things still planned. Oh, what is a girl to do?
I'll leave you with the ugly-cry.