last post of the year

Instead of packing I went to get sushi for lunch at Ninja with Lauren then flew home. (I travel light.) Back here I've gone out to eat a lot, done last-minute gift shopping at malls and been unsuccessful, watched Casino Royale a second time with my mom, saw The X-Men Trilogy again with Adrian but out of order, been searching for that Wii thing, and gone to a few Christmas parties.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

'06 was pretty much The Best Year Ever...
Let's close it with the killers' new single.

December - my own photos

What Lauren and I look like in blurry beer vision

Chad's and my celebratory dinner after winning at blackjack

Snake&Jake's Christmas Club Lounge with Sarah

Tits McGee at her going away party

December - other people's pics

end of the hello goodbye party - photo courtesy of George Bartlett

drinking dreidel or "drinkel" - photo courtesy of Georgia Whiddon

the big bad wolf and the three little pretties - photo courtesy of Wes Jeffers

after a successful pub crawl - photo courtesy of Becca Johnson

All good things...

...must come to an end. This time the good thing is fall semester '06.

I went to dinner at Babylon with Shannon, Jenna, and some of her friends. I'm going to miss Jenna. (What kind of silly Jacque girl graduates early and moves away with her boyfriend???) We reminisced on some fun memories partially obscured by alcohol, and both got the baked eggplant sandwich. Delicious.

After saying "seeya at Mardi Gras" to Jenna, I came home and chilled until Lauren and I went out to Uptown Cajun because she'd never been and we wanted to take advantage of the pitcher special.Well, they were really busy and out of pitchers, so we went to both Bruno's bars and then came back to split a pitcher of whiskey and soda. Greg was bartending, which was a pleasant surprise. Some friends met up with us and we sang (and sometimes clapped) along to the excellent playlist Uptown Cajun had.

At one point Josh said that whenever he sees tampon commercials, he thinks of home.

(He's from Tampa, which makes him a Tampan I suppose.)

After that, Lauren and he spent about an hour and the entire walk home arguing about Florida.

Good times.

no classes = awesome

Lauren and I closed out Sunday night by goin' to Cooter Brown's, which I think qualifies as our regular haunt now. Lizzie came too and was nice enough to drive. We played pool, split a pitcher, and (of course) ate cheese fries.

Yesterday was entirely laidback and chill. It was great. I spent my day cooking, eating, going to the gym, watching television with Peter, seeing Blood Diamond with Shannon and Lizzie "Blood" Diamond, chatting online with Lauren, and going out with Josh, Joe, and some of their friends.

We went to Dragon's Den on Frenchmen, where Jody eventually met up with us because apparently Tucks wasn't that fun last night.

Apparently "the alley pic" is a tradition.

Then we went to F&M's for a quick round and snacks.

You know F&M's is dead when people actually play pool.

After quick stops at both Bruno's (old and new) and seeing The Boot closed at only three in the morning, we decided to call it a night.

Peter left for home a few hours ago.

And then there was one...

best day of Lauren's life

Well, that's what she said. She called me when she got off work to wake me up and tell me to wake up Peter for our long-awaited lunch.

I missed Shannon's call, so I returned it. She came to eat too.

So when we got to Harrah's for the buffet, we realized it was Champagne Brunch. So we had to ante up a bit more than we planned, but it was so worth it.

What a great buffet with lots of delicious food, free mimosas, and Lauren's chocolate fountain.

After that I decided to play a little blackjack and have some Johnnie Walker Black and Lauren and Peter decided to join as well.

We all won, and Lauren and I even doubled our money. Then we went to Blockbuster to get Pulse aka "Veronica Mars and Boone Carlyle Vs. Cyber Demons." Oh yeah, you love it.

They're sexymart enough to fix cars without tools.

If you've forgotten how significant that movie, let me refer you to perhaps my favorite voicemail of all time:

"Andrew! hi, it's Lauren, um [laughs] (Peter in background: 'okay, drunk dial.') I'm not drunk-dialing you. I'm calling you about something important! I want... [laughs] I want to go see the movie Pulse when you get back because I really want to see it, and I think you'llgosee it with me ('drunk diiial') so please dooon't see it without me. call me back. bye. ('drunk di-') [click]"

'tis the season

This is by far the longest entry I've written a while. Mad props and a little extra holiday cheer if you get through it all.

Wednesday night Rachel (Kinks/Prudence Rachel) and Wes convinced me to take a study break from my last final and go to Celebration Under The Oaks in City Park with them, Tara, Alison, and some other friends.

It put me in the holiday spirit! We roamed around Storyland with all the fairy tales, bedtime stories, and nursery rhymes and took pictures like we were little kids.

They had all sorts of fun including Christmas trees decorated with ornaments schoolchildren made, a Cajun night before Christmas, a living nativity scene (that we missed), rides, Santa, and a laser light show. And if you like little light-up villages, you'd love the miniature New Orleans city, with distinct neighborhoods and streetcars even.

Thursday morning I took my last exam of the semester. Freedom!

To celebrate, Rachel, Tara, Becky and I went to Nirvana and over-ate as usual. Well, Becky didn't but whatever.

That night I got to see Alifun for the second night in the row! (But not in her actual home of course.) Since her boyfriend Frazer was getting kicked out by his landlord for no good reason, she decided to host her graduation shindig there... aka "The Loudest Party EVER" and give that landlord a good reason. Alison... always stickin' it to the man.

After that I met up with Shannon AND Jenna to celebrate J's last Thurs before she graduates college. We hit up Bruno's and Miss Mae's. I'm glad Jenna takes the "calcium" - She must have meant vitamin C. - in her screwdrivers so seriously.

Then those two decided to go home and talk to/about their long-distance boyfriends or something, so I stayed out and hit up Grits (ugh, very briefly) and then F&M's with Audrey, Aurell, and Dalia. A blast from the past, Jason "Delt" Talley, was kind enough to give me a lift home. (We ran into each other outside F&M's.)

Friday I got up by sheer will power alone (and David surely would've woken me had I not) to go with him to Dunbar's for some serious artery clogging. We both got gumbo, red beans and rice, and their perfected fried chicken. That was entirely too much. We went to Winn-Dixie right after, so he could pick up the applesauce and sour cream for Lizzie's Christmakkuh Party. It was hard to walk.

Back on campus, while David entered cholesterol-induced-hibernation, I went to wish Tara happy holidays since she was leaving early the next morning. I miss my JigglyJuggs already. It was SO hard to walk the two blocks to her office.

That evening was the Christmakkuh party! Lizzie decorated her apartment with lights, two-dimensional-tree, faux-fire, and blue stockings. She also served her guests latkes and kugel. Delicious. There were also several kinds of holiday cookies, chocolate coins, and a butter/cheese/caramel popcorn tub.

Drinks were not lacking either. My contribution was hot apple cider, and Chris' was eggnog. And... there was Manischewitz. Then for some reason Rachel (Virginia Rachel) suggested we play Drinking Dreidel. (I abbreviated it to "Drinkel.") And for some other reason, David and I thought it would be a great idea! The three of us (with just a little help from Jon and Graham, who each played 5-10 minutes of the game) finished two battles of Mani.

Drink(ing Dreid)el was not a good idea. And neither was the rum that followed when I decided to meet up with Conrad, Ben, and Katy. But hey, I had to see them before they left for Christmas.

Saturday I was actually productive and cleaned my room and some of the apartment. Miss Molly called me in the afternoon to tell me about her Catholic Center Christmas Party at her house and how I HAD "to bring Whitney!" It made my afternoon.

Too bad Whitney left the other day. The party was still fun. Lots of friends and some friendly, familiar faces. A million kinds of cheese with crackers, jellies, and vegetables. Bottle beers and fine wines. Some amazing chili with sides of rice, corn, salad, coleslaw, and rolls. And too many desserts (if there is such a thing).

I love family parties because meeting people's parents, children, siblings, and other relatives is one of my favorite things.

An assortment of pastors, both past and present, were there too. As I was leaving, Fr. John said "God bless you," Fr. Jose said "Be good," and Fr. Carl said "You must be going to another party with maybe food but surely drink." Which do you think knows me best?

I went to "Welcome back Dooner, Cya Later Brandi" (in reality spelled "Brandie" with an E) at the Nashville House to celebrate Dooner's homecoming and Brandie's departure.

And besides those two parties I managed to go to Snake & Jake's Christmas Club Lounge with Lauren and Sarah. (Decorated for Yule all year but Lauren had never been and Sarah and I thought it a perfect time to go.) And somehow some of the Nashville House die-hards and I went to Bruno's before calling it a night an hour or so ago.

Sunday. It is SO time for bed.

examenes

I started Tuesday by seeing Chad off, so the fun stopped there.

I roofied my English final, slept with her, and made her take a walk of shame home. But I did NOT rape her. (I take issue with usage of that as slang.)

I got out early and ran into Ben on the quad, so we we caught up for a bit, recapping our (rather drunken) weekends for each other.

And I've been saying for a while I was going to be "double-teamed by my Stats Final and my Calc Final." But I didn't realize until the afternoon before that those bitches would be simultaneous from eight to twelve. Seriously. I hate math.

So I E-mailed my teachers but got no response, so I trekked over to Gibson. I ran into Riedel first, and Norbert told me I should take his exam by virture of the fact that he was the one with whom I spoke.

Just to be nice, I went over to Dupre before he proctored his stats final, and Maurice (some call him "Diamond") told me he'd just sent me an E-mail (from the exam room) and wanted to meet at one for me to take his final. Thank God.

If I had less integrity, I would've sent Adrian to take my calc final and handled the stats myself. But I'm a good person.

So Dupre told me I could "take it in the library." (We were in Gibson, across campus.) And I was like, that's a walk. And then he told me I could take it in the math library, only a flight of stairs away.

If I had less integrity, I would've utilized my books and notes since he was gone and I was in that room by myself. Oh, not to mention it's the MATH LIBRARY, and I could've utilized those resources too.

After surviving mathematical Scylla and Charybdis, I studied all afternoon and most evening for my last final, animal behavior.

fun weekend

Thursday was great. I got to see three live musical performances.

Jonathan sang us a song he wrote for our English class as a review / "closing remarks" to end the semester.

Better Than Ezra played their awesome free show at McAlister in celebration of the new LBC UC.

Kermit Ruffins' live set at Vaughan's which, to Rachel's, Tara's, Ian's, and my collective dismay, he didn't finish because he got high even though he played through the blackouts.

Friday night was the pub crawl that Lauren and Becca had planned since they couldn't get drunk at the date party.

It seemed like so many of my favorite people (including CHAD!) were at Boot happy hour. Then a bunch of us (people kept comin' and goin') hit up Phillips, New Bruno's, Old Bruno's (where "Team Cleavage" stopped to dominate Photo Hunt), even TJ Quills for quick shots, Uptown Cajun, The Palms, and then The Boot again. Lauren, Lizzie, Leah, Becca, and I were the only five to "survive" the night.

And I tried to piggyback Lauren and Lizzie home (one at a time) but neither would last long before the other would yank her off.

Back at Lauren's, the two of us chilled with Sarah, ate honey nut cheerios, and then watched as Lauren lit a napkin on fire while labeling it "worst idea ever."

Saturday I had lunch at Babylon's Cafe with Adrian and Chad. I studied all afternoon then went to dinner and margaritas at Felipe's with Shannon. We were impressed by their full bar and then realized the owner also owns the liquor store across the street. After that it was Cooter Brown's with Lauren. Mission unaccomplished.

Sunday afternoon, Chad and I went down to the French Quarter to spend the afternoon at Harrah's drinking Johnnie Walker Black and playing blackjack. We were successful enough to buy a nice dinner at Cafe Giovanni on Decatur afterwards. We split prosciutto pinwheels as appetizers and a bottle of pinot noir, he had the shellfish stuffed shells in cream sauce over spinach, and I had duck breast in truffle sauce with crawfish and eggplant stuffing. After stuffing ourselves, we quickly walked down Bourbon Street for convention's sake and stopped real quick at Tropical Isle before heading back uptown to The Boot to play pool.

Today Lauren and I had to postpone the buffet lunch we were so excited about last night, so I went to the bubble for sushi with Chad and his Latinas. After a brief visit to Newcomb, Michelle, he, and I took the Tulane shuttle downtown to Riverwalk Mall so she could buy presents at The Body Shop while he felt the need to interact with everything labeled "Try Me!"

We went to Harrah's after since it was on the way back or whatever, and it wasn't as successful as yesterday but still fun and "free" drinks.

I studied for my English final with two classmates for about two hours and then went to Cram Jam with David, Lauren, and Stephanie.

Tomorrow when Chad leaves, my fun ends. I'm going to disconnect my internet and silence my phone...

...because now I have to deal with those pesky finals.

December?

I suppose it's time for an update.

The rest of Thanksgiving break I spent with my mom since my dad left on a well-planned trip the day after Thanksgiving and Adrian was seeing all his friends back from college for the first time. We shopped, cooked, played with our dog, saw The Prestige, saw The Departed (again), and ate a lot.

Since coming back here it's been the usual weekly stuff... grocery shopping, visiting Tara at Cafe Luna, going with Lauren to Cooter Brown's, having Bubble lunches with Rachel, going to classes, and studying. Ugh. But the semester's almost over anyway. And I saw Casino Royale, and, very minor nitpicking aside, it was awesome.

The Phi Sigma Pi "pick your poison" party was this past weekend, and the lovely Lizzie asked me to be her date. She was a Bahama Mama, I was an Irish Car Bomb, and everyone else was costumed as another alcoholic beverage. After the party at Grits officially ended some of us wound up at F&M's and then utilized Tulane's wonderful Safe Ride back to The Big Easy for late night food.

Mixed Drinks: Screwdriver, White Russian, Long Island
Iced Tea, Irish Car Bomb, Dirty Girl Scout, and Muff Diver

Last night Becca made chili and of course served it with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese. AND she made brownies with frosting. Dinner was awesome, and the lucky group she served sat around watching (critiquing) Wife Swap and Supernanny... mostly because I think everyone was too busy talking to get up and change the channel.