Yes, Memphis, our part of the Flood of 2011 has finally made the national news; Brian Williams went live today to a broadcast from Memphis, where the reporter was standing on the hill behind the Montessori School in Harbor Town. We ran into the NBC crew on our walk tonight; they are from Ohio, Florida and Atlanta, and it sounded like they had already visited Miss Cordelia’s, our neighborhood grocery. (The same reporter from Memphis will be live on the Today show tomorrow, if you care.) CNN is also here, so we are officially on the national radar screen, which doesn’t often happen. (Remember during Hurricane Elvis when we didn’t even make the AP wire?) The NBC reporter talked to one of our neighbors who lives in a Marina Cottage Drive house — their basements/storage rooms are underwater now, and their first floors will go soon — and if you look closely you can see the sandbags now protecting the back of the school. (When I took this photo, I was standing near where the reporter was standing.) This makes me so sad — no kids’ school should flood, ever — though I heard tonight on the Channel 5 news that several Memphis City schools are also in the flood zone. And the headline on the WMC story is that the flood waters could stay around until June. Gawd. That would be awful.

MPD has put up a sign at the foot of the Auction Street Bridge: “Road Closed to Thru Traffic Turn Around (sic).” It did cut down on gawkers tonight, though I have to admit that if I didn’t live here, I’d be fascinated by the power and brute force of this river. Man, is it huge. And seeing a rushing current go past your feet as you stand on what was a driveway to a parking lot is a little surreal (the driveway I’m talking about is to the right of what you see in this photo). This is today’s view of what I’ve been posting since Monday — the parking lot on the south end of Harbor Town — though the money shot is really from the OTHER side, which shows how far the river will have to rise to cover the street. Andy thinks it won’t go that high, and he’s got NOAA on his side; they continue to predict a crest of 48 feet and the Island Drive looks to be 50 feet or higher. Still, we are ready to go if the time comes. We continue to think we won’t have water in our house, even at the crest of the flood.

For all of my local pals, thank you SO much for your offers of shelter and help; our great friends Mary and Dave have offered their East Memphis guest room to us, and they even look forward to Buddy coming to stay. So we are set if we have to go. But I so appreciate your calls and emails offering help. We are lucky to have you looking out for us. Our community is what makes this place so special.

My friend whose basement is the one we cleared out Monday night (here’s the latest photo of where the water is on her house), was telling me today that she knows another one of the Marina Cottage homeowners, someone else who is evacuating. Where’s he going? Just down the street to the River Inn, the hotel that’s here in Harbor Town, overlooking the circus that is Island Drive. He doesn’t want to leave, and it’s not just because he wants to be close to his flooded house. He doesn’t want to leave because it’s where he lives. It’s home.

I can totally relate.

I can finally say it: I feel guilty that I am no longer a journalist.

It all started last week, when my subscription to The CA suddenly stopped. Turns out they hadn’t sent me a bill, but the point is that it took me THREE DAYS to call and re-up. Did I miss that dead-tree reading experience? A little, I guess, but the online version was almost as good.

Then I got a Kindle. You know, one of those handheld reading devices that Amazon sells. (Actually, I am borrowing the St. Mary’s “review copy” of a Kindle, but it lives in my house, so I guess it’s mine.) And you know what? I really like it. The device sort of disappears as you use it — you just read your story, you forget you’re not actually holding a book — and it’s easy to figure out. I am reading the daily New York Times on the Kindle, too.

So you can see why I’m worried that I’m about to get struck by lightning. All those years making a living in print journalism. All those great stories I never got to tell. Never mind that the industry is imploding and fewer reporters are doing more work in less depth. And forget, for a moment, that I really am enjoying my new life as a private school fundraiser/communicator.

I still miss journalism.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Ruven Afanador for the New York Times

It was the cover story of last Sunday’s New York Times magazine, and several of my more plugged-in girlfriends have mentioned it to me since: A terrific interview by Emily Bazelon with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now the only woman on the United States Supreme Court, about the upcoming confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor. Depending on who was talking, we all see ourselves in her: My friend W. loved how Ginsburg pointed out that when she talked at a judicial conference, no one heard her, but when the guys at the table said the same thing, it was a brilliant idea. What I loved was hearing her certainty about the big issues of our time: Abortion (she points out that “women of means” will always get to choose now, so it’s an issue about poor women), racial discrimination, and civility.

Long live Ruth!

… which is how I have decided the jump from The Commercial Appeal to St. Mary’s, three months in, should really be described. It’s definitely not a bad thing, not at all. I was thrilled to be going to St. Mary’s, and I am really enjoying my new work there.

But I completely underestimated the enormous change I was bringing on myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it took a little longer than I thought, but I’m thrilled to be back blogging at iDivamemphis, this time as a civilian … no longer an employee of The Commercial Appeal or skirt! magazine.

In order, here are the most frequent questions people have asked me since my departure. The answers? Well, here’s what I know. We’ll puzzle out the rest as we go along.