I Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans

I have to admit, I was terrified when the letter came. I had no idea what I had done to offend the Supreme Court of Louisiana, but I was sure I had. My grandpa and my parents were so excited by it that they wanted to open it without me. As it turns out, they were inviting me down to New Orleans to give me an award for volunteering down there after Katrina.

After a bit of trying to decide whether to actually go, my sister and I made the 14 hour drive down on the Friday before the ceremony. That meant it was going to be a crazy weekend rush. Drive down on Friday, come back Monday night. It didn't hit me how happy I was to be in NOLA till we were driving down Magazine St. It almost felt like going home. We got to eat lunch at Parasols, which my sister declared was the "dirtiest place she had ever eaten" and "the best sandwich ever" (shrimp po'boy, dressed). It was good to see that inspite of the crime and the total Assclown in charge, that New Orleans is making notable progress. However, it was a bit disheartening to see the St. Charles streetcar running only because the producers of K-Ville got the city to run it in front of where they were filming.

That night we waited in line for almost 2 hours to eat at Port of Call. It was almost worth the drive just for that meal. Afte that it was a fun night out in the French Quarter. The next day was a tad on the rough side, but we had Nacho Mama's for lunch before a walk around the Quarter in the day light. We capped the night off with some ice cream at the Creole Cremery.



Monday morning we went to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and coffee which, in a stunning New Orleans moment we got to enjoy on the Moonwalk with the Mississippi River on one side and a guy playing the sax on the other side of us. It was a beautiful fall morning. After that we wandered over the the St. Louis Cathedral. It was blocked off by a bunch of Secret Service looking types and LA State Police. As it turns out, it was the "Red Mass" or blessing of the judges. Right as we walked up the bells starting going off and a flood of clergy poured out followed by a mass of judges. After that we wandered around the French Market buying nicknacks for the people back home funding the junket. I managed to pick up a pretty cool little "Abogado" devil. The guy didn't seem to find as much humor in me buying an anti-lawyer charm as did.



The awards ceremony itself was nice. There were at least 100 names of volunteers printed in the program and around 20 of them showed up. I was expecting to get a handshake and maybe a certificate. I was a little shocked when I got a plaque and my picture taken with the Chief Justice of the LA Supreme Court. Afterwards, there was a reception coinciding with the LA judges reception. I stayed long enough to get thanked by a number of judges and attorneys.

It was quite an honor to get welcomed and awarded like that. I got involved with New Orleans becuase I was fortunate enough to make some great friends. I volunteered because I fell in love with the city the first moment I visited it. I only wish I could have seen it before Katrina. However, the New Orleans I know and love is still a wonderful and chaotic place. It's going to take more than just me volunteering down there to help preserve what is good about the city while repairing what is broken and wrong with it.

Golfing with the Father

[note, I started this post about 2 weeks ago and then things intervened to stop me from finishing it till today]



The day after the fair, I went golfing with the Librarian's Father and Brother. It was damn near perfect day; bright and sunny, warm but not hot, with just enough of a breeze. We went to a public course near her parents house that in my opinion was pretty cool. It was nicely laid out and fairly interesting for such a small course. The coolest hole started at the top of a hill that overlooked the course. At the top of the hill you could see the sand traps for the hole were laid out to look like Snoopy. That was pretty goofy, but whatever. It was a fun hole because you could whack the hell out of the ball and it would go flying forever and mine did, right in to a protected grass area. Like about 10 of my balls, that protected grass ate the ball.

I held up fairly well at the start of the game. I shot the first hole with an honest 7 strokes. I went down hill pretty fast after that and the wheels totally came off for the last couple of holes. On about the second or third holes there was a water hazard that I warned everyone I was going to hit my ball into no matter what I did. Her dad reponded with, "That's fine, just don't hit the ducks". I was rather worried as I watch the ball break and hook right over the ducks heads. I think it would have been a pretty good story though if I would have killed or maimed one of the ducks. I could only imagine the look on her dad and brothers faces if that had happened.

One of the highlights of the game was that I didn't manage to lose all of my balls. I only lost a couple to the water and a few more to the protected grass areas. I even managed to get yelled at by a referee when I went into the protected grass areas to look for my ball. The downsides to the game were that by the 14th hole I couldn't hit a damn thing or make any consistent movement forward. The other problem I had was putting and chipping. No matter how softly I thought I was hitting the ball, that little bastard went flying. I might have had better luck if I had used my putter as a driver.

It was a good day though. I only got a little sunburned on my neck; probably because I had gotten a little burned at the fair. After we got back from golfing I took a nap while the Librarian talked to her dad's cousin about their trip to Italy. After that we came back home. All in all, a very nice little trip.

MN State Fair

I think it's been, say, 12 years since I've been to a state fair. The Librarian, and her family, however, go to the MN state fair every year. It was quite the family affiar. We were up and at the fair at like 9 in the morning and started eating shortly there after. If there was anything besides my current injury to kill my training dead was this state fair. The amount of food I ate was seriously offensive. And delicious, soo delicious. We had everything from hotdogs, to funnel cakes, to fried fruit on a stick, to Sloppy joe on a stick, the food on a stick thing was very popular up there. I even got some Kashi, and that earned a couple of odd looks from the Librarian's parents.

Bondage Sheep.

I was also, ahem, restrained from battling any of the farm animals. Even though, the Librarian's mom did give me explicit permission to do battle with my nemesis, the cow. We ended up leaving around 9 at night and I don't think it was possible to sleep on my stomach that night. The only bad part of the fair was that I have shot back up to 200 pounds. I'm going to have to work hard on getting rid of that.