New Orleans part 1 - arriving and parties
Thursday morning lordaerith and I set out to drive to New Orleans. The trip was fairly uneventful. We made pretty good time and arrived in New Orleans at around 6ish. Since my mother's house is not finished, we are actually staying at her neighbour's house across the street, which is okay because they are out of town and have 4 bedrooms (mom is staying here too). After bringing most of the stuff in from the car, we headed out to Frankie and Johnny's. Upon being seated (by a waitress that my mother has known for YEARS), I immediately ran into a woman who I went to both high school and college with. Got myself a roast beef po-boy dressed. mmmmm...so good. Then as we were getting near the end of our meal, who should walk in but that-girl-who-made-my-life-in-elementary-school-a-living-hell-and-is-now-a-big-fat-cow. It's amazing how my flight-or-fight response kicked in, even after all these years. I decided to just ignore her. Of course now that it's after the fact, I realize that I probably should have followed my mother's advice and said "hi" and been super nice...oh well.
Friday I went out shopping around town with mom. She took me to Mojo's Coffee shop, where I got to meet and hang out with some pretty cool people. Then it was getting late, so we went home and lordaerith and I picked up sushi for dinner. After dinner, queencimmy took me down to "her bar" in the quarter. It's a cute little place. Then we picked up lordaerith and headed over to daobear's parent's house and hung out with him and his brother and artemis42 and A for a while.
Saturday morning my pseudo-brother DD arrived at the house (he was also staying here for a little while) and we hung out and helped queencimmy prepare for her Post-Apocolypic birthday party at mom's house. Actually it was a pretty easy one to set up for because the house still looks like it went through a disaster :)
The party rocked! So many of the people who showed up came in costume. I dressed up like Poor White Trash because they always survive the disasters in all those movies. I even found some old fake tattoos in my room and so I had the badly placed tummy tattoo and the "tramp stamp" going on. I also took my old baby doll and wrapped her in a flannel nightgown and proceeded to introduce her as "Madison James, with 3 y's and a silent q. Her daddy died in the tornado that came through our trailer park, so I wrapped her up in his old shirt so she would know what he smelled like." lordaerith dressed up Mad Max style with vinyl pants and a leather jacket. I got to see lots of my old friends who I never get to see except for at these things, so that was cool.
I would have to say that the best part of the party for me was when queencimmy was opening her presents (after midnight, so it was really her b-day), opened mine, and let out the largest scream. I had made her a cd of a tape that we used to listen to as children and doesn't exist on CD currently. Hurray for me being able to make immediate practical use of what I learned in Survey of Digitization last semester to make my sister very happy!
Sunday we all got up late and chilled for a while. Then queencimmy, lordaerith, and I went to the mall to get lordaerith clothing because queencimmy has an amazing eye for clothing and outfits and lordaerith needed a nice not-suit type outfit. Afterwards, queencimmy and I raided her closet for something for me to wear to the NYE party at daobear's parent's house. She ended up lending me this really beautiful white glittery dress (but I don't have any pics of me in it right now).
The NYE party was very nice. Chatted with some people whom I haven't seen in a while, some of them have known me since I was very little. Had a debate with DD about the placement of Sirius in the sky, only to find out that daobear's dad studied astronomy in his youth. It turns out I was given wrong information and DD was right. Rang in the new year with sparklers and fireworks (artemis42 was having a ball setting them off). aenelein kissed my husband, hehehe. Left the party around 2something. Didn't make it in the hot tub at all, but I did see people in their formal wear in the sauna.
New Years Day was mostly spent relaxing, chillin', going out to Zea Restaurant with mom, DD and lordaerith for dinner, and helping queencimmy clean up the house from the party (which was actually very easy).
Stay tuned for part 2 - enjoying being home
Friday I went out shopping around town with mom. She took me to Mojo's Coffee shop, where I got to meet and hang out with some pretty cool people. Then it was getting late, so we went home and lordaerith and I picked up sushi for dinner. After dinner, queencimmy took me down to "her bar" in the quarter. It's a cute little place. Then we picked up lordaerith and headed over to daobear's parent's house and hung out with him and his brother and artemis42 and A for a while.
Saturday morning my pseudo-brother DD arrived at the house (he was also staying here for a little while) and we hung out and helped queencimmy prepare for her Post-Apocolypic birthday party at mom's house. Actually it was a pretty easy one to set up for because the house still looks like it went through a disaster :)
The party rocked! So many of the people who showed up came in costume. I dressed up like Poor White Trash because they always survive the disasters in all those movies. I even found some old fake tattoos in my room and so I had the badly placed tummy tattoo and the "tramp stamp" going on. I also took my old baby doll and wrapped her in a flannel nightgown and proceeded to introduce her as "Madison James, with 3 y's and a silent q. Her daddy died in the tornado that came through our trailer park, so I wrapped her up in his old shirt so she would know what he smelled like." lordaerith dressed up Mad Max style with vinyl pants and a leather jacket. I got to see lots of my old friends who I never get to see except for at these things, so that was cool.
I would have to say that the best part of the party for me was when queencimmy was opening her presents (after midnight, so it was really her b-day), opened mine, and let out the largest scream. I had made her a cd of a tape that we used to listen to as children and doesn't exist on CD currently. Hurray for me being able to make immediate practical use of what I learned in Survey of Digitization last semester to make my sister very happy!
Sunday we all got up late and chilled for a while. Then queencimmy, lordaerith, and I went to the mall to get lordaerith clothing because queencimmy has an amazing eye for clothing and outfits and lordaerith needed a nice not-suit type outfit. Afterwards, queencimmy and I raided her closet for something for me to wear to the NYE party at daobear's parent's house. She ended up lending me this really beautiful white glittery dress (but I don't have any pics of me in it right now).
The NYE party was very nice. Chatted with some people whom I haven't seen in a while, some of them have known me since I was very little. Had a debate with DD about the placement of Sirius in the sky, only to find out that daobear's dad studied astronomy in his youth. It turns out I was given wrong information and DD was right. Rang in the new year with sparklers and fireworks (artemis42 was having a ball setting them off). aenelein kissed my husband, hehehe. Left the party around 2something. Didn't make it in the hot tub at all, but I did see people in their formal wear in the sauna.
New Years Day was mostly spent relaxing, chillin', going out to Zea Restaurant with mom, DD and lordaerith for dinner, and helping queencimmy clean up the house from the party (which was actually very easy).
Stay tuned for part 2 - enjoying being home