The Big Easy

New Orleans. Wow.

First off, if you've never been or if it's been over a decade since you have been, go. Go now. Spend a weekend, a week, whatever, but go.

This city is not only beautiful, rich in history and culture, it is also still in need of tourism dollars to rebuild itself after the damage that Katrina caused six years ago.

The people of New Orleans have a deep love for their city. I've visited and lived in cities where the locals have a real home-town pride and love their city but this is something different. The love and affection people feel for New Orleans somehow goes deeper and it's truly beautiful.

I had the pleasure of staying in a bed and breakfast along with some friends in the Marigny (the quarter directly to the east of the French Quarter). The Marigny is where many of the locals live and the music scene there is fantastic. Frenchman Street reminded me a little of Nashville because every bar, restaurant, and street corner had live music of some sort. Pick your favorite kind of music and you'll probably find it on Frenchman Street.

It was Halloween weekend and the trip was planned as a 3 day weekend. We got there Friday afternoon and planned to leave Monday afternoon. Friday evening we walked to Frenchman street and saw at least 3 impromptu parades with excellent brass sections and great costumes. We experienced wonderfully friendly people (everyone says hi to you on the street), great music, and delicious food. We actually ended up in a Japanese restaurant because they had the best live jazz on the street.

On Saturday we took our time wandering along Royal Street all the way from our B&B to Jackson Square in the French Quarter. Talk about history. Royal Street is GORGEOUS! The iron work on the houses, the balconies, the streets, the streetlights, the historic homes, the square. I felt like I was in Europe but to find a place so enchanting and full of history in the U.S. made it that much more beautiful.

We did our Bourbon Street duty and walked along for about 4 blocks. It was Saturday before Halloween and it was ridiculously packed. We did it because we felt like, as first-timers, we had to but I would not recommend it. It's overcrowded, rowdy, drunk, masses of people going in and out of bars that are equally crowded, rowdy and drunk. Not really my scene so once we decided we'd had our fill of that, we skipped back over to Jackson Square and ducked into a place we had stumbled across in our earlier wanderings. A local place (i.e. where the locals hang out, not the tourists), with a very friendly wait staff and a beautiful courtyard. They were so friendly that they called brothers, husbands, and friends in an attempt to get us a ride home on one of the busiest nights of the year. (In the end, we walked)

Sunday, I discovered Pirate's Alley. It's a little alley off of Jackson Square and it is so quaint I could hardly stand it. I found Faulkner's Books, which is a tiny little book store housed in the house where Faulkner lived when he wrote his first novel, built on the former Spanish prison yard. I also found Pirate's Alley Cafe where I sat in the sun and read a book. It was there that I met a photographer for the city of New Orleans who was taking new stock photos for the tourism bureau who told me about the Great Gatsby party at the Ann Rice house the night before. I only wish I had learned about it before! That would have been a neat party to attend.

It's also where I met a man named Irish who is a pirate. Well, he's not an actual pirate, he's a street performer. But he kind of looked like a pirate and he works at the Pirate's Alley Cafe on Pirate's Alley. And his name is Irish. No joke.

My friends re-joined me after they took a tour of the Garden District and we had one of the most wonderful, enjoyable, entertaining, delightful dinners ever. Our new cab driver friend (more on him later) told us we should try Adolpho's on Frenchhman Street. It is Italian Creole food. It's also a tiny little room above a bar with maybe 8 tables and 2 waiters. They don't take reservations and the wait is anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. We got lucky and got in under the one hour mark. We made a few new friends while we were waiting for a table as well. You have to "go downstairs and wait! I will call you" after you put your name in.

WOW. That was a good meal! Mussels in a white wine sauce, peppered steak in bourbon cream, crab, crawfish, shrimp, spaghetti,... It's a local spot as well and when the power went out and it went completely black in the place, about 5 people from different tables all got up and turned on their cell phones, downloaded flashlight apps (who knew that existed??) and lit the kitchen for the cooks so the food could keep being made. I don't know what their heat source was in the kitchen but luckily the blackout only lasted about 10 minutes and there didn't seem to be any disruption in the food preparation. It was kind of amazing.

On Monday, my friends flew home again. I, however, was asked over the weekend by my client to attend a conference taking place in New Orleans. My client knew I was going there for the weekend for fun and when she got sick and couldn't fly, she asked me to attend in her stead and to make sure her clients were taken care of properly. So, on Monday morning, I checked into the hotel near the convention center, went to the mall and bought some professional clothes and shoes (all I had with me were my costume and jeans - not very professional attire) and jumped right into work.

I got to see a whole different side of the city for the next three days. The super touristy side. I am so happy I got to experience the city from a different angle over the weekend! My saving grace though was that cab driver I mentioned. Anil was wonderful. He was always available to help in a pinch, to provide guidance on where to take clients to dinner, what to do/avoid, and of course to provide excellent, prompt, and reliable transportation whenever I needed it. I looked like a rock-star in front of all these very important vendor- and client-types because I could get a recommendation for a great restaurant or a cab on Halloween night with a simple text message. Anil made me look very good.

In return, I will help him with a screenplay he's writing. He's looking for help understanding the trial jury selection process and I figure that's the least I can do for his superior service as a driver and a guide while I was in his city.

I was definitely ready to come home when I finally did after being in New Orleans for 6 days and I am most definitely more partial to the non-touristy side of the city. I also know that I will absolutely, positively be returning to that city in the not very distant future. It's a city that is ridiculously easy to fall in love with.

good days gone bad

I know it's been a while but a lot has happened and I've been travelling like it's my job. This month alone, I have been to Long Beach, San Diego, Boulder, Fresno, and have spent a grand total of 5 days at home. Tomorrow I'm off to New Orleans for the Halloween weekend. I'm pretty excited about it!

As I allowed myself to wake up slowly this morning, I was thinking about how good my life is. Truly. Yes, I have stuff that worries me. Yes, there's stuff that could be better. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm living a pretty great life. It's good to realize that sometimes. I decided I would start my day off with a nice cup of my favorite coffee and write a blog post about how lovely my life is.

I made myself that good cup of coffee and sat down at my computer to begin putting my thoughts down.

Then I spilled that cup of coffee all over the table, my laptop, my favorite new WHITE shirt... CRAP!

Then I realized that I have a million things to do before I get on that plane tomorrow morning like pack, straighten the apartment, get work projects done that are due tomorrow, etc.

So I decided that instead of basking in the glow of a nice, quiet morning, I should go ahead and make myself some breakfast and get started on my to-do list and maybe calm down and write about my good life later.

Here's how this great day has gone so far: spilled coffee (I know I already said that but, come on, something that annoying deserves a second mention), burnt toast, spoiled milk, and that was just breakfast.

I have now given up and am just doing things as they occur to me. So far I've accomplished soaking that white shirt in stain remover, de-coffee-ing my laptop, having a cup of coffee without milk, eating scraped off burnt toast, and finding my work projects to be more difficult and annoying and time-consuming that I anticipated.

I foresee a late night in my very near future and I assume that when I get to New Orleans and unpack my bag, it will be a ridiculous mixture of weather-inappropriate clothing and missing/forgotten pieces of my costume.

Oh well... my life is still pretty great. Even when good days go badly. I'm getting on a plane to go to New Orleans tomorrow. Really? How awful is that?

getting ready...

I love fall. I mean I really love fall. The only thing I was concerned about when I moved to California was that there would be no true fall. Luckily that fear was never realized.

This week, fall has been in the air. I know the weather is going to change again and next week we will be plunged into a beautiful and delightful late summer (I was told last night that it should be called "Persian Summer" by some Persian friends). BUT I have been savoring this fall-like weather.

This fall-like weather has also put me in the mood for Halloween. I'm going to New Orleans for Halloween this year. I've never been to New Orleans and I'm really excited about it. Among the great music and the history, I am hoping that we can find a masquerade ball and/or some fun Halloween party to attend. And for this I have begun preparing:

Yesterday I played around with some make-up. It was the first attempt and I was a little rushed so clearly there are things that need to be refined but, my first attempt at my vampire look (New Orleans is the city of vampires after all...) wasn't awful. Now I'm even more excited!



Wig, no wig, different wig... I haven't decided yet.



little vampire teeth!



As you can see in this picture, I rushed on the eyebrow concealment. Next time, you won't be able to see my natural eyebrow. At least that's the plan.

Sometimes I forget

I often forget that I know famous people. It's not any fault of my own, it's that I went to a college that spits out performers, some percentage of whom are bound to be famous. But I don't typically run in those circles so it always catches me by surprise when I see one of my old classmates in a movie or a commercial or a tv show.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I was looking at some wedding photos from a college friend's recent wedding. The pictures of her bridesmaids made me stop short. I checked the tags in the picture (thank you facebook!) for the name of one of the bridesmaids and then checked imdb.com. I had seen a few episodes of "Drop Dead Diva" and, lo and behold, one of my friend's bridesmaids plays the main character on that show.

Earlier this year I was watching the Tony Awards pre-thingy. I knew he was doing a new show but I had no idea my old college friend Chad (with whom I share a birthday) was nominated for a Tony for his role in the musical "Memphis"! Yay Chad! (I promptly congratulated him on facebook.)

Last November, I was canvassing in San Francisco for a local election and walked by a store that had the cover of a magazine taped in the front window. The picture on the cover of that magazine stopped me in my tracks. My walking partner asked me what was wrong as I walked up to the window. "That's my college room mate" is what came out of my very shocked mouth. Yup, Florian is not only a well-loved German TV star (a German McDreamy if you will), but also a film star. He was in San Francisco the week before promoting two of his films. One mainstream (with one of my favorite German actors) and one independent one he wrote and directed himself. Very exciting!!! Unfortunately I missed him by one week. It would have been great to see him and catch up.

I recently began watching the TV show "Mad Men" on Netflix. Tonight I was watching episode 5 from season 1. About half way through, a new character was introduced and I completely lost my concentration as I said - out loud - "Andy? Andy Hoff?" So, I hit pause and checked imdb again. Sure enough. Another fellow TBC graduate.

It's nice to see so many of my college friends doing what they always dreamed of doing. Makes me proud.

personal space

Ok, we all know I'm a hugger. I am a tactile person. I don't have too many issues with people entering my personal space. I'm pretty casual about that. But sometimes, it's just a little annoying.

Here's the situation: I was at the post office yesterday, waiting in line. There were two people working and the line wasn't moving very quickly. I hung out at the front of the line for a while waiting for one of the two windows to open up. The person behind me kept crowding me, kept bumping their packages into my back. I could feel this person so close behind me that I felt I might feel their breath on the back of my neck at any moment.

I inched forward a little but I didn't really have anywhere to go and it wasn't as if the place was so crowded that this person was being pushed forward. There were maybe 4 or 5 people in line, a fairly normal mid-day "rush" but not crazy busy.

I inched forward again and really had nowhere else to go but this person bumped into me again. So, I had a choice to make. I could either ignore it, or turn around and say something. If I chose to turn around and say something, I had to decide whether I would be annoyed and angry or happy and smiley. My instinct was to be mad and say something rude but I know that I always get better results in confrontations when I smile and stay pleasant.

I plastered a big smile on my face and turned. All I had time to say was "excuse me, am I in your way?" before I registered that I was speaking to a very old man, a priest nonetheless. I don't think he even heard me. I was just thankful that when I turned back around, one of the windows was open and I got to move away from him. But it did annoy me for the rest of the day.

I think I might have a bruise on my back from the corner of his packages that kept banging into me. Hrmph.

lacking inspiration

I bought some beautiful eggplants at the farmer's market this past weekend. I know I had something in mind for them but I can't remember what it was and now I can't think of anything that sounds appealing to do with them. :(

Suggestions anyone? I don't want them to go to waste.

Reason #259 why I love my neighborhood

I know everybody is a little tired of hearing how wonderful my neighborhood is and how much I love living here but I have to share just one more thing.

Today, as I was enjoying my regular Friday morning conference call walk around the lake, I decided to take a little detour and explore the community gardens that are on the route. I have a friend in town visiting and thought it would be a neat little side trip on the walk. We walked through the herb gardens, the flower gardens, the bonsai garden, the little trails with benches, and observed a group of 60-somethings doing Tai Chi in the late morning chill.

As we made our way through the vegetable gardens back to the regular lake trail, I noticed a little basket on the edge of one of the gardens with a sign on it that read "free produce" so I peeked in. There were three beautiful large zucchinis and I chose one that looked just perfect. So, on the way home, we made a quick stop at the store and got a couple of additional ingredients to make a fresh zucchini and whole wheat pasta lunch. Simply delicious.

I love getting my lunch inspiration from the local community garden! I will make the gardens a regular side-trip on my Friday conference call walks now. Very exciting!!