New Orleans traffic

Aidan Gill on Magazine Street.  So tempting, it hurts to walk past without stopping in.

I'm used to living in old, dense, New England cities.  I'm a cranky Yankee who isn't against taxes on principle but has little respect for laws I find a nuisance, especially traffic laws.  It always boggles my mind when I see someone from the Pacific Northwest obeying a traffic signal on an empty street.

Whether the sign flashes "Walk" or "Don't Walk," I don't care if the coast is clear and I'm not going to interrupt anything.  That seems to be the way in New Orleans.  Traffic flows, pedestrian, bicycle, motor scooter, car, truck, without much attention to the written rules of the road.  I find this a good thing.  Here are my reasons. I think I am smarter than an automated traffic signal.  Many New Orleanians seem to feel the same way within reason.

I have to admit I've never been inside Aidan Gill's shop even if I've crossed the middle of the street to gaze longingly in the window.  This is the kind of shop I've dreamed all my life to have close by.  What's stopping me?  I just landed a job at an unnamed local hospital and I don't know how much I will have to invest in my personal appearance or whether it will matter.  This outfit is run by a national corporation out of Houston and their dress code is business casual.  I'm not even sure what that means but, based on what I saw in Houston last week, I am supposed to dress like a computer programmer.  Friday is casual and I can wear jeans if I owned them.  It was like taking a trip back to 1995.

I'm happy to be well-groomed and, once I run out of the supplies I have stockpiled from Boston, I'm sure I'll be visiting Mr. Gill.  If not for professional reasons, at least for personal ones.  When you look good you feel good.  Of course nothing and no one looks very good in Houston so that may explain the dress code.