This was probably one of the most frustrating and difficult years I’ve had, and that includes the 2005 Katrina year. Like 2005, I also did a considerable amount of driving. Here’s a look back on 2007:
- I started off the year discussing the frustration of living in a crime-filled New Orleans. But in September, the city got its first Inspector General to watch over our government. Mmhmm.
- January was also the month I discovered Flea Market Montgomery.
- In February my friend Katie and I went to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where I took one of my favorite photos. That night, a tornado passed through New Orleans and came within blocks of each of us, although she lived in Uptown and I’m in Gentilly.
- I also met Scot McKnight (who blogs here).
- And was recruited to paparazzi my friend Jason’s proposal (they were married in August).
- In March, we were given an opportunity to see Planet Earth in ways we’d never been able to. And there was much rejoicing.
- In April, my old roommate and best friend, Britt, married the woman of his dreams, Kayla, at a nice little methodist church in historic Glen Rose, Texas. It would be my first time as a groomsman in my adult years (and the first of three this year).
- A week after I got back from the wedding, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and I was forced to miss Displace Me. I couldn’t see clearly for a month, and my upcoming trip to Canada was in jeopardy.
- So in May I was forced to teach myself how to cook.
- I gave you all an idea of what a day in the life of Joe was like. And I took a summer class. On the last day of that class, I my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer (which I chose not to blog about in depth, because some things just aren’t bloggable). [As of this post in December, she's finished her chemo and begins the next steps very soon.]
- On June 1, 2007, I celebrated my one-year anniversary of post-Katrina New Orleans living.
- And I drove to Canada. This time, though, it was west to Alberta, not north to Ontario. As far as road trips, this was the mother of all of’em. I saw more terrain than I’ve ever seen in one consecutive shot. I drove through eleven states (seven for the first time) and three provinces (all for the first time). I covered over 6000 miles. All in seventeen days.
- I learned that I don’t care to visit Western Montana or Nebraska ever again. And that sky in “Big Sky Country” isn’t any bigger than it is along the Trans-Canada Highway (or Texas, for that matter). Photos of the trip are here.
- July saw the end of the Canada Trip and the beginning of the Spiritual Disciplines Collaboration among many of us bloggers that would last into October.
- I started August off with a New Orleans Prayer Guide.
- Then I served as a groomsman at my second wedding of the year, this time in Baton Rouge.
- August was the month I met Alan Cross, who blogs here.
- As I entered my fourth year of blogging, and my fourth year at NOBTS, I remembered Katrina Day Plus 2.
- In September I went to the Quarter and took a few photos which I like, and had my first opportunity to preach in a church setting since February 2006.
- By October, my semester was weighing me down, so the most I did was ask for church planter book recommendations, which you all gave me.
- November wasn’t much different, although I did do a little celebrating when Auburn whipped Alabama, for the sixth straight year.
- And that brings us to December. After finals, I drove to Texas to spend a week with Britt and Kayla. I photographed historic Granbury and Glen Rose. We grilled. It was a good time.
- I was back in New Orleans for a night, then I drove to Mobile for Christmas.
- And then immediately back to New Orleans for my roommate’s wedding in Mandeville. I was a groomsman for the third time since April (and becoming a semi-professional at it).
- Which leads us to this post, the last of 2007. Happy New Year, everybody!
by Joe Kennedy
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