Thursday, December 31, 2009

Reflections of a Blogger

As I jump from blog to blog today, I cant help but fall in love with each and every reflection on the past year. Some of your farewells to 2009 have made me laugh, while some have made my heart ache with sadness. It seems - to put it bluntly - that the last half of 2009 was a helluva bitch to a lot of people.

While I could sit here (literally minus the pants and procrastinating on getting ready for my NYE plans) and detail what I've gone through as a daughter, as a sister, as a granddaughter, as a friend, as a girlfriend...I'm not quite sure this is the place for it all. Those beautifully chaotic ups and downs are written in my heart - they have been acknowledged with the grace and strength that I have learned from so many that surround me - many of them reading this very post.

I post today in reflection of my journey as a blogger ... as a creative being who has seemingly found a place to lay out her transformation - the transformation of a young woman as she becomes entranced by the resilient life and culture that has surrounded her for so many years.

In six short months, I have carved out my little space in the blogosphere - but as you may have noticed with my constant tweaking and changing of layouts, I do not rest. I'm always in search of more - a dynamic experience that keeps you guessing whats next for Dixie Lust. I have been consumed with my little creation - not only wondering how I can delve more deeply into my culture but also racking my brain how I can better myself as a blogger.

Recently I was e-mailing with my "soul sister", Summer. And as we talked about the corner stone of blogging, writing, I shared one of my countless theories. We are all amazing writers - but each of us has a specific strength in writing that we need to discover and nurture. Some of us can make readers snort with raucous laughter as they scroll through our posts *cough* KLaw *cough* Some of us write with such beautifully uncensored emotion that whether we are downtrodden with despair or holding our breaths with the deepest hope, our readers guts feel the pangs of the same emotion. (Hola Dim Sum) And then some of us have the ability to go through our dashboard and respond to each and every post with the same genuine outpouring of compassion and selfless love. (Hey Hey KS)

In the past weeks, with a new year - a new decade looming in the near future, I have shackled myself with countless questions about Dixie Lust. What sort of writer am I? Where do my strengths lie? Why did I start it? What subjects should it be covering? What subjects are off limits? How do I relay the message that I want to send? And for that matter, what isss the message I'm trying to send? I've been so consumed with these thoughts - that last week I had the most ludicrous but enlightening dream. Yes. I dreamt about my blog.

I dreamt that LyLa and I literally walked our way to Houston - a pilgrimage of sorts, you could say. A pilgrimage of what you ask? A pilgrimage to see my high school Creative Writing Teacher, Ms. Genie. We trekked up the interstate for days, and when we finally got there, Lyla left me to my search. I stumbled upon my former teacher cleaning out her garage - and I began frantically explaining the concept of my blog. I began rattling off all the questions I had - and searched her eyes for some sort of direction. (Seriously.) She silently reached into a box and pulled out my writing portfolio from my senior year - and simply said, "The answers lie in here."

A bit dramatic, a smidgen of whack, but...that's how I tend to roll in my dreams. When I awoke from my dream, I headed out to my own garage and went directly to an old hutch. I opened the creaking door and inside, exactly where I knew it would be, was my writing portfolio, aptly titled "Metamorphosis." Inside, I found exactly what I needed.

I can't fully explain whats in my mind and whats in my heart, but I can say that 2010 will be Dixie Lust's year. I will bridge the gap between my being a blogger and my being a writer. There will be changes around here - some noticeable (Anyone else spot a new layout on the horizon?) and some will be changes that only I can feel (more direction and thought into my posts, perhaps?) I've refocused myself on what I'm here to do - what I'm here to say. Dixie Lust will be something more. I will be something more.

Stick around.
2010 - It's going to blow your mind.

Monday, December 28, 2009

A Gift to Myself...

Hope everyone had a safe holiday filled with lots of family and friends.

I'm still getting back into the swing of things after having a bit of time off, but I wanted to share a little gift that I got myself...

I ordered this a few weeks ago and I got it right before the holidays...


It's a custom laptop skin from SkinIt all decked out with two of my favorite iPhone photos from Lake Fausse Point!

Now, even my laptop screams "Dixie Lust"

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Little Thing 37

((image via WeHeatIt))

Getting voicemails.

More specifically, getting wacky voicemails from my soul sister - her huffing and puffing as she tries to stay upright amidst the "sludge" on her way to the subway, meanwhile straying in and out of sensible conversation as she lists her afternoon errands.

I Got Swamped...

...at Magees Landing.

Yep... after our deep fried delicious lunch at Magee's, walking around the gift shop lasted about 3 minutes before we decided it was time for an impromptu swamp tour.

The tour itself was a teesnie bit painful (sorry!) but I blame it on actually being Cajun and the fact that tourist humor makes me cringe (even when I ammmm a tourist.)

The sights on the other hand...
((ps. the bridge? Interstate 10.))



















































































((photos via iPhone))

Monday, December 21, 2009

I Do What I Want...

((via))

And today, I want to listen to a Mardi Gras Station I made on Pandora.
No ones around to judge me - even if I did accidentally drip ketchup on my sweatshirt as I was dancing through lunch.


Ladies and Gent (cause I'm sure there can't be more than a lone boy reading this thing), I have a one track mind - and right now its visions of Mardi Gras Indians and an out of this world second line.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Sunday Reading


I've holed myself up on the couch, under my warmest fuzzy blanket, and settled into Chris Rose's 1 Dead in Attic . I find myself getting goosebumps with every turn of the page, and making mental notes of every line that I wish I could pass on to you...



But for now, the dedication page says it all...

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Coming Clean...

So I've been thinking....
When I started blogging I wasn't sure how this would turn out or who would read.
So I came up with my little pen name, Kora Bruce.
Kora from my maternal grandmother Cora.
And Bruce came from my last name
& my daddy.

But these days
I'm meeting so many wonderful
and beautiful people through this blog
and I see so many of you as
true friends.

So lets go.
Bonjour pretty people.
If you weren't already aware
I'm Michelle Broussard.
Meesh. Meesha. Shell. Shelly. MBru.
and apparently... Kora Bruce.

So with my little
revelation and such.
I'm giving you guys a chance to ask me
any question that you'd like.
And I will answer them on Monday.

Lost Teeth....

Yesterday, I went home with every intention of catching up on my blog design and writing a few posty-posts for you kids as I watched The Sing-Off.

Well. theres only one thing that could have deterred me - one thing that could make me forget about the craploads of stuff I have to do before Christmas....

That's right.
Crawfish.

We ended up with 25+ lbs of crawfish on our table... SPICY pleaaase!




We literally ate every last one! Jane's never lets us down.




Bruce Bruce getting pose-y with his Miller Lite




The aftermath... a few hours later.



Seriously y'all. Nothing can compare to an evening like last night. Just sitting around with family.

If I'm being modest and all (haha), I'd say the best part about us is our sense of humor - or at least the fact that we can bring each other to tears laughing.

We somehow got on the subject of the show Hoarders, and how a lady in New Orleans lost her teeth in the crazy-disheveled house of hers. At the end of the cleaning, they found the top half of her dentures, but never found the bottoms!

My dad was rolling laughing, not because that in itself made him laugh, but because it brought him to the best story of the night about how...

One day his dad was hunting in the woods near their house, and he sneezed. Next thing you knew, his teeth had flown out of his mouth... Everyone searched the woods around him for a good while, but no one ever found his teeth...

Spicy Crawfish. Cold Beer. Great Company. & Even Better Conversation.
My Wednesday night was EPIC.
How about yours?