Day 90: Jingle Parade

While I'm not a big "Xmas person" as defined by my lack of interest in holiday decorations, sending cards, caroling or listening to much holiday music outside of occasional binges on Mariah Carey's Pandora station, going to church or synagogue, giving or receiving gifts, or young children; I can sometimes be bitten by the spirit, while driving through deep Queens and seeing deep brown brick houses with their garish lighting displays and my occasional visits to the more festive than thou Midtown East and West.

Here, we celebrate with parades.

Floats as food

It's not a parade without the Muff-a-lattas!

Santa must have melting in the heat

Puppy's First Parade

Holiday time in New York for me has long walks attached to it. How else are you supposed to see all there is to see under a blanket of snow and shiny decorations? So I walked from my house to the parade; then Dr. Anna, Dakota, and I walked down to Krewe de Brewe and then I walked back (a five mile lap). Took longer than being on a bike definitely but weaving through the Quarter on a Saturday afternoon, while also listening to Zombies Run to chart my progress, was quite the adventure. Day drunks and night creatures both invoke a disproportionate amount of terror while they waddle towards you. 

Day 79: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

When I was going through pre-move cold feet (which is somehow a different emotion than post-move "What the hell have I done?"), I looked up the Hornets schedule and saw that THE KNICKS WERE PLAYING IN NEW ORLEANS ON MY BIRTHDAY! My joy over that synchronicity was that powerful and long lasting that I still can only refer to it through the glorious power of all caps lettering.

It also lead me to buy the Guys' Night Out package, so no matter how this move turned out, I had something to look forward to. 

I have been counting the hours!

 

This was just the bottom half of my game day outfit.

And the top half. 

This year, I am grateful for bad lighting and iPhone cameras

My boys!

We destroyed them.

Day 62: Trying to Get Ahead

I woke up early to take advantage of the time change and get laundry done. Another difference between NOLA and NYC, people wake up early on a Sunday morning to get their laundry done. Well, not a lot of people. Just the people who were doing the laundry of a million blankets.

I managed to squeeze all my clothes into one washer. My laundromat is the laundromat/convenience store/liquor store/bar/grill/indian restaurant. I went with a perennial brunch favorite: Salmon Benedict

I'm going to be feeling that for days.

There was cheese in the hollandaise and no potatoes to soak up the extra yolk and sauce. No bueno. The place is known for their po-boys, so I will give it another shot. Not just because I like to be fair but because it's a block away.

Other than that, I watched the entire Knicks game from home on my computer for free (read between the lines, ya'll), worked on the consulting project for a couple hours, hung out with a couple friends, gave NaNoWrimo another stab (according to the website, I will hit the required 50K January 19, 2013),  and enjoyed my Sunday night TV true loves the same way I enjoyed the Knicks game. Sounds productive? 

That's because I left out my Dark Twisted Fantasy Team obsession.  At the beginning of the day, I realized I was going to win my match-up (barely), but going into next week, I was going to suffer. My opponent is my college roommate who while having an elementary knowledge of the game itself has developed a sharp eye for balancing statistics in a short time. She just destroyed our League Champion. She is not to be messed with, so I had to put the work in.

Numbers make my head hurt, but tuna makes it better

 

Day 61: Writer's Saturday

One Man Drum Line

I worked on a new consulting project for over four hours today and then did a couple back blog entries at Sound Cafe, which has really become my second office. Two out of four walls have the big doors you see above so you get all the air and sunshine of being outside, but all the wind and power outlets of being inside. 

Day 60: Milestones

I felt comfortably normal last night for the first time since I got here, just in time for my 60 day anniversary.

It started with a great yoga class that I biked to and from in record time. I left the studio at 8:30, biked 2.3 miles, showered, got dressed, and biked over a mile to SoBou to meet a friend from out of time for a throw-down dinner.

Pork Crackling and Blue Crab Mousse

Elijah Craig Manhattan

Afterwards, we went to Erin Rose originally for Frozen Irish Coffees, but we were too full. Guiness  sufficed and was found to be poured skillfully. The beer flows freely but there's not a lot of craftsmanship. Luckily, this was a real deal pub with blaring Drop Kick Murphy's and appropriate medical warnings.

  I have not outgrown this "thing" I have for gingers

The bar is one block off of Bourbon street and has KillerPoBoys cooking out the back, so the number of drunk people could have been at crisis level, but it was actually comfortably lively. We met hilarious tourists from Detroit, who kept ordering shots and then having too much fun to take them in a timely fashion.

NOLA VS DETROIT Arm Wrestle -- much more exciting than the World Series.

What happens in the French Quarter stays with this guy.

Definitely stayed up too late, but it was totally worth it. NYC may always be home, but I'm learning how to live here.

Day 59: Woe Is My Liver

Dragged myself out of my house for post-party meal time at good old Cake Cafe. It was Saturday afternoon busy which shows I'm not the only mid-week slacker. Tomorrow is hopefully the day I will get the green light to really start moving forward my consulting project so I'm taking advantage of the calm to tell myself that I am going to write my 1,667 words for NaNoWriMo, catch up on blog posts, complete my scratch project for CS50, and watch the videos for my Economics of Obesity class, do some laundry, etc. Instead, I watched last night's Daily Show and laughed harder than I have in weeks and weeks.

In other things are getting better news, I am socially booked semi-solid going into Monday. A friend is in town from Colorado, I have multiple very needed yoga dates, an alley cat race on Saturday, and a girly brunch on Sunday.I figure if I'm looking for something down here, I might as well get out of the house and do some sniffing around.

Tonight, let's start here.

Day 58: A Marigny Halloween

I am not a Halloween person inherently. I cannot remember the last time I dressed up in a costume (outside of the Idoitarod 2012). It's not the concept that bothers me, but I'm just not big on costuming it up. Here people have costume closets.

Sexy Ben Franklin and Babe-braham Lincoln

I don't even bother to compete with that. So, I threw on a doctor's coat left over from a show however many years ago and did the best I could muster. If asked, I was "a doctor", a "hipster doctor" (in order to justify the Uggs and knee socks), and if I was feeling really sassy "Healthcare". The latter shut people up. The former resulted in direct "WTF?" comments.

It was not impressive so there are no pictures.

I convinced a crew to come out for the Cochon de Lait party a few blocks from my house. It was hosted at the Krewe de Vieux warehouse. For those who don't know, "krewes" are the social clubs that host Mardi Gras parades, and Krewe de Vieux s notorious for their political commentary themes through vulgar presentations. So don't judge me for the following two shots. They were some of the more tame ones available.

Fun Fact: Krewe de Vieux had John Goodman's character in "Treme" as a member.

Not for the super-feminista friendly.

One of the bonuses of living where I do, people do not have to be cajoled to come visit. Especially not to a pig roast, live music show, and then drum line to Frenchmen in a cool venue, no less.

This was my posse for part 1 of the evening.

During the party, people got restless and wanted to leave before the drum-line did. I followed suit despite my love for bare bones rhythm. 

Reporting for duty, sir!

I had to go to the bathroom, so I doubled back on the walk to Frenchmen to avoid doing the pee pee dance in a crowd of hundreds. Lesson learned: you separate from the herd there is no catching back up.

Oh, the anxiety!

I ran into Mike, a LA native who I met doing comedy in NYC before he relocated back. Poor guy, he got stuck with my tipsy agoraphobia rant.

I tried to meet up with another friend who was at a bar two blocks away. Took me 20 minutes to get to the door and then this guy...

WOULD NOT MOVE TO LET ME BY!

I gave up and went the other way to meet up with another friend at The John. It was much more my speed, except for the crowd with a propensity to set off fireworks.

Amateur Night at its finest

Going inside was a much better idea. Some people say The John is the place people go to end the night in despair with their dignity on the floor of the bathroom. I, however, danced my tail-feathers off and made new friends.

 Mr. McGibblets!