Thursday, March 25, 2010

3 Weeks and 3 Days Living in NOLA

The vacation home in front of our permanent home. Or is it the other way around?


It's been 24 mostly sunny days in our new city New Orleans. Apologies for the delay on kerouaking updates. We promise to not make you wait so long next time!

Chris has been playing the traditional breadwinner role at Marigny Brasserie while I've been nursing another flare-up of what my best friend likes to call "Reindeer Eye" (See: Iritis. No it's not made up. I know it sounds like it, but it's real and it sucks).

Nevertheless, I'm proud to announce that I was hired by a hotel as a front desk clerk today! It's not my dream job by any means, but it'll give me some income. I start training on Saturday and the hotel is even closer to home than Chris's restaurant is.

In other big news, Chris and I signed for a 2009 black Ford Focus. How nice it will be to have a compact car to zip around in and not have to worry about parallel parking the voluptuous Dod in the quarter.
Voila, le chat noir.

We've been lucky to have had two sets of visitors in the three weekends we've lived here so far! Mike and Amber came for a night and we tried an Italian restaurant on Decatur. Service was very slow but Amber ate the best chicken alfredo she's ever had.
Mike tired himself out having way too much fun with Chris's GI Joe cards. Which makes me think, how do we not have a couch yet but somehow have a deck of GI Joe cards? Something isn't right here…

Jenny and Mykle came out the following weekend and we painted the french quarter red. Jenny and I didn't make it home until 4:30 on either night. We ate some delicious food, sauntered around Bourbon Street, went dancing and we also played pick-up-sticks. The weekend flew by!


Here are some things I've learned from living in New Orleans the past three weeks:
1) When it rains, it pours. Nighttime thunderstorms are common and LOUD. This will certainly take some getting used to.
2) Sometimes food that looks like dog food tastes like heaven. When you come visit I'll show you what I'm talking about. (I won't make you eat Kibbles and Bits, I promise).
3) Open container laws are the best laws. Sure, you can smuggle a coffee thermos of your favorite alcoholic beverage in pretty much any US city. Well, maybe not Salt Lake City since caffeine is frowned upon as well. But in NOLA, you can take your tall boy of Bud Light out on the streets without a second glance from NOPD. With all the "TO GO cup" signs, you'd think they even promote it...
4) EnVie, the cafe around the corner, will make you forget everything you ever loved about Starbucks. They serve coffee for your pep, cocktails for your edge and big ass cookies for... your ass of course. If your not convinced yet, they also offer free wi-fi, they play excellent music and there are even a couple slot machines in the back room if you're in the gambling mood.
5) Bourbon Street should be avoided during the daylight hours like a vampire avoids sunlight. Don't get me wrong, it's a one-of-a-kind awesome time on any given Friday night but you just feel dirty and, well, outright sinful walking along the street during the day. Remnants of last night's shenanigans are cleared by daybreak by the honorable street cleaners, but there's just something in the air (or maybe in the gutter) that makes you feel like you should cut over a block.
6) Never, and I repeat, NEVER wear flip flops on Bourbon Street.
7) Cajun food is not diet food.
8) Po'boys are insanely crave-able for being mere sandwiches. French bread, main ingredient (you name it: shrimp, oyster, alligator sausage, roast beef, ham, turkey, even french fries!), mayo, pickles, lettuce, tomato... who'd a thunk they'd be so spectacular?!
9) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie live around the corner. I'm being serious, they have an apartment down the street. Do you know how many people have told me this when I tell them where I live?
10) Lizards like to sneak their way into apartments around here. The lady in apt. 10 told me she had to put aluminum foil around her ac unit to keep them out in the summer. And I thought pets weren't allowed here…
11) Abita Strawberry Lager is excellent. It's the newest addition to my top 5 favorite beer list.
12) Crawfish are delicious and vicious.

Well, that's all for now. Kudos to Jenny Thornsbury on her new job and a shout out to beautiful mother-to-be Chellsea Wilson and her engagement to the handsome Nick Heiden!
The view. Sometimes I feel like I'm on vacation...

PS: Sorry about the vampire reference in #5.

2 comments:

  1. Sweet place guys. I'm envious. Hope to make it down there sometime before you leave.

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