Mardi Gras '07: part one

H.R.M. Queen of Oshun '07

big-ass unicorn float at Pygmalion

decidedly my new favorite picture of Whitney and me

Maids of Sparta

H.R.M. King Pegasus '07

Miss Molly and me at New Bruno's

Esteban and his bull's-eye

roommates - and everyone over our shoulders

Nicole, Mike, and the gold people at One Eyed Jacks

Hermes float and riders

Tuesday

Terrorism midterm wasn't too bad.

I went over to Adrian's, and we caught up for a bit. He brought me some special deliveries from home. He also showed me his new Polo Rugby wardrobe. (Their "skull and crossbones" insignia coincidentally matches with Sig Ep's. How lucky/convenient for Adrian because now he has an excuse to buy all that PR stuff besides just liking it.)

I met for lunch early with Tara (and Rachel today too). I missed Alison and Frazer by just a little because I had to make a deposit at the bank and print screenplays at the lab.

Lots happened in screenwriting class today. We reached a consensus on how we should spend our provost-awarded "entertainment budget." (Dinner and drinks, naturally.) And we had class for the first time in three weeks. And we canceled another upcoming one. This would be exciting, but if I had it my way, I'd have screenwriting every day and my other classes combined into a one week three-hour session. It's my favorite course thus far.

Chick: "Have you guys ever seen that movie Maria Full of Grace? The main character there, this girl who's smuggling drugs, and I can't for the life of me remember her name--"
Me: "Maria."
Chick: "Oh! Yeah. That's it."

The most (horribly) sensational part of the day was when I returned my father's phone call during a break in screenwriting class. (He called during the first half.) He told me my grandfather called to let him know there was a passing in the family. Unfortunately he didn't specify that it wasn't my grandmother but another "Letty" (my great aunt) right away. And then I asked if Adrian knew of and the correct identity of the death, and he said I should double-check.

After the break, we convinced the teacher that for our last assignment we should analyze the screenplay of and have a screening of the great Eddie Murphy film Coming To America.

Ben and I had our weekly dinner and caught each other up on the past few days. And now I should be writing a screenplay or doing other work or sleeping, but I'm going to push to get these other two Mardi Gras photo albums up.

other people's pictures

Krewe du Vieux with Shan - photo courtesy of Gabriela Molina Schleusz

Miss Molly's after-party for Sparta and Pegasus - photo courtesy of Katie Austin

girls on shoulders get more stuff - photo courtesy of Brooke Hansen

with a perhaps (yet unlikely) sober Lizzie - photo courtesy of Meredith Robinson

Peter, Cosmin, and I lookin' tough - photo courtesy of Paul Murphy

Carter's departure - photo courtesy of Will Southerland

5:48 a.m. on Mardi Gras - photo courtesy of Reshelle Smith

Where'd the weekend go?

Friday was classes then groceries. Then began the back-to-back laser tag nights. Yeah. Apparently when you turn 22 you want to reaffirm your youth, so you decide to play laser tag. Ryanne and Ben, indepedently of each other, both wanted to play laser tag for their birthdays. Friday was Ben's night. We went with Katy&Co. After that I had made a raspberry tiramisu for Tara since she wasn't at Italian Night, so she and Ian came over. They approved. (Personally I prefer the strawberry version, less tart and less sweet. The raspberry version looks better though because it's a burgundy color and the berries require no chopping and distribute more uniformly.)

Shannon came over to have tiramisu also and convinced me to go to Beaux Arts Ball, the architecture party, at the last minute. I didn't have a costume ready. The theme was ConNEXTion. So she wrapped me in packaging tape because tape connects things? Whatever. Beaux Arts was fun. All the architects were drunk as usual.

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur: The Boot, J(ai)L Hall, The W Hotel, and then some French people's party somewhere.

Saturday was pretty chill. Laser tag again that night, Ryanne's "party." We had to split up into two groups of four because there weren't enough slots for all eight of us. Stephanie and I were on the red team and were assigned the code names "Cinderella" and "Aladdin." I had a lot of fun shooting the bitchy old couple who made two kids give up their vests and guns 'cause they accidentally let too many people in.

After that was a quick trip to the Big Easy because Lauren was hungry, and I just hung out at home the rest of the night. Mommie Dearest, which I'd never seen, and Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is one of my favorites, were both on TV. MD is a fucked up movie.

Sunday I made "macaroni" (really penne) and cheese from scratch to tide me over until Mexican Night. I'm never going to make the orange crap that comes out of the box again.

Mexican Night was a huge success although apparnetly "Mexican" is synonymous with "dip" because we had at least four of them. But one of them was Stephanie's guacamole, so I was automatically satisfied with our menu. We also had chicken and vegetable fajitas, Mexican lasagne, beans and rice, various forms of corn chips, a cake decorated with a Mexican flag, "Dos Amigos" ice cream (Mexican vanilla and Mexican chocolate), and of course, the strawberry tiramisu that we pretended was Mexican.

Just like Thanksgiving and Italian Night, we all said what we were thankful for (but Mexican things this time.) I guess that went succesffuly and unoffensively.

Some of us stayed after to watch The Oscars, but by the end only Becca, Leah, and I were left. I was happy because all of my predictions (Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, Helen Mirren, Martin Scorsese, Pan's Labyrinth, and THE DEPARTED) won except one.

happy 22nd, Ben!

Hmmm, since my last update: Classes, LOST, sleep, classes, lunch with Tara but this time on the sunny beautiful quad, errands, and laundry. Then Shannon and I went to a screening of Amazing Grace, which was pretty good for a PG movie. She and I were most excited, respectively, about the chick from Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and Mr. Fantastic playing the romantic leads.

Ioan Gruffudd and Romola Garai pre-Amazing Grace

After that I went out with Ben and Katy&Co for his birthday and spent the moments we were not drinking trying to cheer him and convince him that 22 is not that old. (Especially considering that I'll be the same age in less than two weeks.). Pub, free champagne, expensive champagne, Clover Grill for special club sandwiches and french fries.

from last Friday but pretendin' it's from yesterday

Is it mean to say "Cartman?"

HAPPY MARDI GRAS

I'm sure it'll be no surprise that actual Mardi Gras itself was anticlimactic. Well, it always is for me at least because everyone is intoxicated and exhausted. And at that point I don't even care anymore. I don't even call for beads or Zulu coconuts, let alone catch them. I just kind of bat the flying objects away from my face, so I don't get bruised by eager throwers. (It's happened to others.)

On that topic, the best beads I got this year were not the ones that were signature to each parade, not the Christmas ornament size ones, or not even the must-catch clay medallions. My favorite were the fiber-optic Muses beads that light up and changes colors.

Anyway, despite being drained and drunk, Mardi Gras was tons of fun.

After Nacho Mama's, we hit up "The Daiq Shack." They had a special on large daiquiris, so we got those.

At Stephanie's apartment, we hung out with Sarah and watched The Butterfly Effect (which was on TV) and Mean Girls (from my DVD collection). I was able to find a drinking game for the former and had long ago concocted one for the latter, so we played both.

After those, we got ready and headed out to "Tequila Sunrise" at The Boot. (I'll just say at this point that almost everyone local went to Zulu, so I won't even bother dropping names.) We saw two awesome guys standing outside. The first was wearing a nice blazer but eating french fries out the trash can, and the second was making out with two different girls next to the porta-potties. Some of us stopped by The Palms for a bit. I guess they got tired of being classy, so they replaced their pool table with a stripper pole? Then a handful of us went to Jackson & St. Charles early to stake out our spot.

Stephanie and David had found a great little market next to Igor's (where we get Bloody Marys) where we could get hot breakfast. It was beyond awesome to have eggs, bacon, sausage links and patties, hash browns, grits, and biscuits all fresh and ready to eat. Zulu was fun. A few of us left before Rex. Sarah, sober sister/hero of the day, was nice enough to pick us up.

When I got up after the most glorious pass-out ever (no fire alarms like last year's Mardi Gras pass-out), I went to dinner with Lauren, Evian, and Stephanie. Apparently Mardi Gras coincides with National Pancake Day this year, so we went to IHOP for dinner/breakfast.

I've been putting the Gras in Mardi Gras all break as any avid reader would know by now. So I had the chicken fried steak dinner, which came with corn, onion rings, garlic bread, and a side salad. And of course I took advantage of the free pancakes for NPD.

I'm going to justify all those carbs with the fact that carbs soak up alcohol, and it was the end of Mardi Gras. Do the math.

My mom asked if I had "a picture or two" I could show her from this Mardi Gras season. It's more like "a hundred or two hundred." They'll be up eventually. Here's the very last one. We're laughing because Lauren had just shoved David to the side and said "I'm the girl. I get to be in the middle!"

HAPPY MARDI GRAS
AND HAPPY ASH WEDNESDAY TOO

Lundi Gras

My day began with wakeup by Peter and a phone call with Ben. All our newly awakened, hoarse-from-too-much-partying-and-drinking, Tara Reid voices sounded exactly the same. A shower fixed that.

Lauren, her friend Evian, Stephanie, and I went to Mother's Restaurant downtown for lunch. It was amazing. Evian doesn't eat red meat or seafood so she got a chicken poboy, but the rest of us formulated a plan of attack that would get us what I consider the best stuff Mother's Menu has to offer: Ferdi's Po-Boy, a dressed po-boy of roast beef, ham, debris, and cheese; the combination plate (Jerry's Jambalaya, crawfish ettoufee, red beans and rice); a fried oyster plate; and an absolute overload of potato salad. Then we split some delicious peach bread pudding for dessert.

After that we walked down bourbon so Evian could see it, showed her Pat O'Brien's, bought drinks. and had a sang the afternoon away at their Piano Bar before walking to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and by the river.

We went back uptown to Ben's place for Proteus and Orpheus where David and OMG Sylvia(!!!), with Jack in tow, joined us. We went out to dinner at Nacho Mama's after and pretty much dove headfirst into some guac. I highly recommend the shrimp and bacon quesadilla.

We left dinner at eleven to finalized plans for our last Mardi Gras.

Sundi Gras

Sunday started off with a trip to Popeyes, so it was a good day by default. David and I picked up the chicken he bought for the day long camp out on the neutral ground that our group of friends planned for the Krewes of Okeanos, Thoth, Mid-City, and Bacchus. It was amazingly successful. I'd say about fifty people were there at one point. Besides the Popeyes (and requisite biscuits and sides), we had king cakes, chips, crawfish, burgers, hot/corn dogs, random food items people bought from nearby places all day, and gallons of beer and liquor. (There was a creation of a controversial new drink called "The Peter," which is cranberry juice, vodka, and champagne.)

I got kicked in the stomach! Looking back, it was pretty hilarious. I'll be nice and not say who the culprit was. I was upstairs with some other people in the apartment of our friend Brooks, who was nice enough to let us use his bathroom. I went back down the stairs to head out to St. Charles when I saw a girl coming in, looking madder than a wet hen and soaking wet. I said "____, what happened to you???" And I admit I was chuckling a bit because it was a funny sight. "I HATE YOU. DON'T TALK TO ME OR TAKE A PICTURE. I'LLFUCKINGKILLYOU!" Then she kicked me in the gut and ran away.

Explanation? Apparently Drunk Cosmin, who was watching the parade from a window upstairs spilled his beer... and it landed on poor _____. She thought I had decided to throw alcohol on her then run downstairs to laugh at her. Pretty funny. Well, maybe not to her.

At the end of the parades, ______ and I rode back with another fun Drunk Girl and got caught in traffic. _____ took a nap on me, and we cuddled and she said "we should sleep together more often." At the end of the ride - luckily Sober Peter was driving - she told me it was the best nap she ever had and napping on me was "like sleeping on a cloud!" I guess that kick softened me up?

Carter&Co, Nicole, and I went out to dinner but wound up at New Bruno's because everywhere else was already closed or extremely busy. Everyone else got the usual cheese fries and sandwiches, but Will and I decided to accompany our Black 'N Bleus Burgers (dressed 1/2 pounders with bacon and blue cheese) with Debris Fries, which are amazing waffle fries topped generously with roast beef debris, green onion, and a little horseradish sauce.

After a pitcher of beer, we walked back to Nicole's place for the travelers to crash and for me to say seeya to 'em. And somewhere in that ten minutes, the world fell apart.

When I got back to Bruno's, Car Ride Drunk Girl had apparently left due to a personal crisis of sorts. And members of the baseball team that had been bickering in Bruno's had been exiled to the street where they were openly brawling now. Bouncers from both of the Bruno's had to pull them apart and eventually N.O.P.D. showed up. At the end of this, I was about to walk back in and some bitch tried to shove me out of the way. Then I realized the bitch was Kicking-Cloud Drunk _____. She said she was so happy to see me, and then she hugged me and went to stand in the corner and looked upset. She called me over, and I asked what was wrong and if I'd seen Someone, and I told her I hadn't, and she told me to leave her alone. Emphasis added for irony's sake. Then Lauren came rushing out to save the day.

Eventually Lauren came back, and life was fun again. Lots of other people were there too. Sometime after as-yet-unmentioned Drunk Girls had made out (apparently prompted by my t-shirt) another new Drunk Girl grinded with Jordan to Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You." They were grinding in front of the dartboards to the chagrin of all the players. I wouldn't want to piss off people holding darts but whatever. Last Drunk Girl of the Evening decided to throw up in her drink, set it back down on the table, and pick up a new one. (That's when Lauren and I decided it was time to leave.)

On the way out, those two tried to convince me that New Orleans is "pretty tame" and that Gainesville is the party capital of the country. They asked what time our bars closed. Ours don't! Shut up, bitches.

I like [drunk] girls that like [drunk] girls.

Satur(ated )day

So I woke up around four in the afternoon, I think. I returned a few phone calls and considered having the remainder of Marney's chocolate chip cookies for breakfast when Carter called. He came over to pick me up and apologize for the night before. (And I'm cool with everyone now even though I went to bed cursing everyone who was part of my night from 3AM to 9AM.) We went to "brunch" (really dinner) at Port of Call. Huge burgers, extremely loaded baked potatoes, and their signature "monsoon" drinks.

We watched Endymion from downtown. Some 13 year old girl with a mother nowhere in sight had taken off her shirt and was jumping up and down demanding beads from all the floats. She lots of them and lots of disapproving looks from riders and passersby alike. After the parade we hit up Handsome Willy's in the Central Business District. It's undoubtedly the coolest bar in the CBD because they had a television set dedicated to a SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. So we played Mortal Kombat 3 and Mario Kart. (I forgot how much the 90s liked spelling C-words with Ks.) Good times.

After that, we showed Alex the craziness of Bourbon and got him the signature drinks. Pat O'Brien's hurricane, Tropical Isle hand grenade, etc. The crazy Christians told us we were all going to hell, but I met my new hero... a sane Christian holding up a huge sign saying "I'm sorry" to apologize for all the nut jobs who misrepresent us.

We left Carter and Will to Napoleon's Itch and went to the dance club next to Napoleon's Itch, where some girl offered to give me head for the huge beads I had on and I was sure it wasn't worth it 'cause she was gross. We then started heading back to Esplanade and Bourbon where we parked. (We had fantastic luck with parking spots this weekend, even better than Ryanne Clarke's.) Carter and Will went to Cafe Lafitte in Exile (gay bar) while Alex and I hit up Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar (oldest bar in the quarter).

We finished off the night in the piano bar of Lafitte's before heading home to crash so we could get up on Sunday for the big camp out!

F-ed Up Friday

It was... in both the good way and the bad way.

First class: Canceled after we turned in our discussion topics. Second class: Short. Third class: First exam. SERIOUSLY WHO GIVES AN EXAM THAT'S NOT ON THE SYLLABUS AT THE START OF THE YEAR ON THE LAST FRIDAY BEFORE MARDI GRAS SAYING THE ONLY OTHER DAY WE COULD HAVE HAD IT IS THE FIRST DAY AFTER MARDI GRAS AND DOESN'T OFFER MAKE-UPS? Joyce. That's who.

After that, I checked mail and found I'd gotten a package of homemade chocolate chip cookies from Marney, mother of my brother's best friend, lovely woman that she is. Makes me wonder what she send Adrian or her own actual son. That was a nice pick-me-up after the exam

Carter & Co came over to meet up with Peter and me, and we went to happy hour at the boot for a quick round before some shopping on Magazine St. (Apparently Carter missed certain stores and me as a "shopping buddy.") We picked up some new duds at the style lab and found exact replacements of ruined clothing at buffalo exchange.

Ben was nice enough to put us on the guest list for watching the Krewes of Hermes, D'Etat, and Morpehus at his St. Charles condo, so we stopped by The A&P to pick up some ice, Jim Beam, and a bottle of Grey Goose as a present for our gracious host. (We later found out that during the parades I ended up drinking half the bottle of Beam by myself; no mixers for it and no one else wanted it straight up.)

After the parades, we went to Sake Cafe and had a sushi feast and then went to Bruno's for a few rounds. Ben and Peter went their separate ways, but I went to Frenchmen Street with Carter & Co. Cafe Negril had an amazing live reggae band playing, and James Gandolfini was hanging out there too. We made eye contact and I mouthed "Tony Soprano." He responded with a smile and handshake and told me Happy Mardi Gras. Awesome

The rest of the night (or morning since it was 3AM at that point) went downhill from there. We should have followed Tony Soprano's lead and gone home and crashed, but we didn't.

A few highlights of the short version are:

• loud, sloppy Bourbon St
• tired and drunk and annoyed at the bar
• Carter&Co, aka my ride home, wanted to stay
• quest for a cab with Ben
• We became the drunk guys with dead cell phones and no rides.
• minor bitchfest with Ben
• almost fist fight with cab driver
• loud altercation at my front door with Carter

The story ends with me going to bed at 9AM.

Thirsty Thursday

Lord, this weekend needs to chill as soon as possible. It's off to a fantastic start even though last night there was kind of a bump in the road... or more like a huge f-ing pothole. But it's all good.

Thursday I got up after lunch with Tara, I hung around my room and waited for Carter, Will, and their friend Alex to arrive. (The collective trio will hereafter be referred to as Carter&Co or C&C if I feel really lazy.) So they arrived and met my non-Peter roommates. We mixed a few beverages to go and off we went to the parades to meet up with a bunch of other people. We were going to watch outside Fat Harry's-ish but moved a block down St. Charles to outside Cannon's since there was more space there.

The Krewes of Babylon, Chaos, and Muses all rolled and were lots of fun. In between parades, we went to Cannon's for more drinks.

After the parades, some of us piled into Carter's car and went to Reginelli's for pizza and beer. In the interest of being respectful, I'm not going to say which guy passed out at Reginelli's or which girl said this quote after she fell down a few times:

"I don't know where the fuck I am, but I fell and broke my knee or something. I should probably go to Tulane Memorial Hospital, but those bitches don't take greenbucks!"

Nicole and I split a Parthenon Pizza, which is garlic herb sauce, mozzarella, feta, artichokes, roma tomatoes, onions, mushrooms. It was delicious. and we all nursed a pitcher or two of Abita.

After we dropped a few drunks people off and picked a few up, and the rest of us went down to 80s Night. Unfortunately a lot of the regulars weren't around, but I did gather another "welcome back" from Strict-Bouncer-Guy. Dancing. High life. Dancing.

We came back uptown, and I showed Carter and Alex the new Bruno's. We crashed (relatively) early at about two in the morning since we figured we needed our strength for the next few days. We were right.

I still have an entire album's worth of photos, but don't expect any soon. They might not get loaded until after Mardi Gras itself.

Valentine's (VVednes)day

Happy VD, everyone.

A cell phone went off during adolescent psych today spawned this:

"Oh, someone's drug dealer is calling. Or someone's calling to wish you Happy Thanksgiving. or Valentine's Day. See what I associate today with? Eating." - Professor Cunningham

That is exactly why I'm inviting him to the "Take a Professor to Lunch" program even though Lizzie and I have had a long-standing arrangement to take Norbert to it.

Classes. "Breakfast"/Lunch. Review session. UC. Mail.

Mail Room Worker Frustrated By 50 Package-Delay:
"I need some Tylenol and at least two shots of everclear."

As I walked home, I saw United Parcel Service and Federal Express trucks going head-to-head for the spot in the mail room driveway.

UPS and Fed-Ex

This evening I just studied, made dinner, and watched LOST with Dalia. All the other regular cast members couldn't make it apparently.

Desmond David Hume and Penny Ellen Pompeo

Mardi Gras Update: Due to weather conditions (Chicago's not New Orleans') 'Sela and Mikey both aren't coming down, but the former will be here for graduation and the latter for another upcoming weekend. But Carty just called, and he's about to get on the road to drive down!

I missed The Grammys.

Tornado Tuesday Two

Today was like the epitome of New Orleans weather rapidly shifting from gross to gorgeous. Apparently the tornado scared all the clouds away because the rest of today was sunny and in the 70s.

I went and got my haircut this morning, and, had Aidan Gill's fine barbershop not been packed and busy, would have gotten their "perfect shave." (I've never considered it before, but since this morning I could shower, brush my teeth, floss, mouthwash, and even put in my contacts but still NOT shave, it seemed it like a good time to consider it.) Luckily for my wallet, neither I nor the place had the time considering I hadn't made an appointment in advance.

I was almost late to my terrorism class, but then it was canceled along with the classes for the rest of the day. Awesome. Becca and I (and others) finally made good on our sushi date plans and then went to Creole Creamery for ice cream after. Then she and I went to the levee (which was more packed than I've ever seen it) and then to the park to enjoy the sunlight.

That worked out well considering that my regular lunch with Tara and regular dinner with Ben were both rain-checked due to scheduling conflicts. (Unrelated but picture uploads have also been rain-checked due to the lack of electricity and internet.)

When I got back here, finding the power restored, I did laundry and studied until going to the mall with Sylvia for a little bit. Good times.

I don't want to go back to class tomorrow.

Tornado Tuesday

So I went to bed this morning around three, and I could hear the tornado (which is not a hurricane, mystery-text-sender) outside. I fell asleep but heard my fan turn off, indicating a loss of power. Whatever. I was asleep. Then Adrian called at 4:30 to make sure I was alright and to tell me to call Mom and Dad and assure them the same. Personally I’d be more alarmed by a call at 4:30 in a morning than the opposite. Adrian told me he was “safe” and “at Snake and Jake’s.” An ironic combination. They couldn't have their Christmas lights on but were still serving their patrons. New Orleans!

I couldn’t get back to sleep after that, so around 6:30 I decided to go for a jog. When I got back from Audubon Park, I noticed the UC was lit up. Great! I went in and as I was buying breakfast, I asked the TUPD officer if all the power was back. “Just here and the academic buildings.” (Emphasis added by me.)

What the fuck, Tulane? The emergency website has the nerve to say:

Power has been restored to the uptown campus. Everyone is expected to report to their usual work and class schedules.

First, it’s a college campus so technically every building is academic. Secondly, power hasn't been restored. Thanks David, I wouldn’t have thought to check the website. Anyway we couldn’t without electricity or the internet. And thanks Viralyne for looking it up for him.

I’m going off-campus again. Please God, bring power back for real before I return. I really love italics this morning.

mundane Monday

I've taken tons of pictures in the past week. I'll post them soon.

Not too much excitement today: Classes, my second exam of the semester, reading, writing, planning this week and weekend, resting up physically and financially for it.

The most exciting part of today was my first international conversation with Chad, who's now in Australia.

Me: My friend Gisela and Mike are driving down together.
Chad: Gisela, that's an awesome name!
Me: She's Latina. You'd like her.
Me: She's one of my mejores amigas.
Chad: Ah, I'm so jealous! Tell her I said "hola."

Because I guess his harem of a dozen or so Latinas isn't enough?

con Chadito and a mere fraction of his "Latinas perras" last year

All's well that ends well.

And this weekend definitely did.

I started post-Bruno's today by showing Steven and Katie around the new UC. They recognize a lot of it. When we left, a pair of drunk girls stumbled up the stairs. (Katie's sorority memories came flooding back. Chi O, for those of you who care.)

The two girls were like "Are you prospies??? You should totally come to Tulane!" (I guess they were still observant enough to notice that I was, in a way, giving a tour.)

And I told them that they were actually graduates, and I was a senior.

"Really. Come to Tulane!"

Whatever.

As we were walking out, another pair of drunk girls (perhaps the same) stumbled out after us.
They were yelling, so we could hear them get into a fight about which had the other's cell phone and who loved the other more, culmating in one calling the other a "smelly butt-whore."

Next time I get shitfaced, I know what I'm going to call someone.

After a couple of hours of sleep, I met up with Steven and Katie again for lunch. I also got to meet Steven's brother Matt for the first time, so now I can proudly say I've met the entire Brooksher family.

Fiesta Bistro, for those of who haven't been, is a restaurant on Carrolton that serves Spanish tapas (for appetizers or to combine into a meal) and Mexican entrees. They also have $2 mimosas all-day on Sunday. We got patatas bravas, manchego flambe, taco salads, and steak quesadillas.

As I was coming back to my room, I saw Ryanne, Steve, and Tully. They invited me to go see Krewe of Barkus (the dog parade) in the French Quarter. So I went.

As we were walking to the route after parking, we came across a peculiar creature... a mix of a poodle and a dalmation. Use your imagination. I christened it a "poomation," which sounds like something disgusting used for winter holiday television programming. Ryanne came up with a better title, "dalmadoodle."

Two other choice conversation excerpts were:

Steve: "Balls aren't funny, but blue balls are."
Ryanne: "Blue balls are funny? I'll have to remind you that next time."

Ryanne: "And when it's $5 per box..."
Tully: "Oh, is that what you regularly charge?"

After Barkus, we stopped by The Creole Creamery on the way home.

Shannon and I went to Target to get a few things, grabbed some Chinese food for dinner (some kind of chicken each and white rice) and then saw Pan's Labyrinth, which was awesome. A beautifully macabre fairytale. After watching, I took issue with something, but after thinking about it, the issue disappeared. Just be aware if you don't understand Spanish, you'll have to do some subtitle reading.

It should win at least half of its six Oscar nominations.

"Stop getting drunk..."

"...and let me finish my damn story! Pardon my French."

That's just one of the choice quotes from Miss Molly this fine evening.

So my friends and I planned to watch the evening parades (Sparta and Pegasus) from The Columns again, but we overshot and drove too far. (I knew Stephanie and I couldn't have both been wrong about where to turn.) So we wound up at McDonald's.

After the parades I went to Miss Molly's Mardi Gras Party, where there was a MAS(A) reunion. I've missed Grandma and Gramps, aka Maureen and Steven. (Adrianne unfortunately wasn't in attendance). Good times.

Then the few people left who closed out the party went over to Bruno's. Guess who knew more people at Bruno's than Steven and I (i) combined? MISS MOLLY.

We got there and half a dozen girls (former students) immediately pulled her to sit with them, and when we went over to play darts, another girl leaned over to me and said "Oh my God, is that Mrs. Kenan? I love her!"

Ditto.

quickie Friday entry

I had my first exam, classes, went to the grocery with Shannon and Shivani, and then met up the gang for our annual Oshun and Pygmalion happy hour at The Columns. (We always go this Friday since the Friday right before Mardi Gras is always too busy.) Drinks. Beads. After that, we grabbed some dinner at Superior Grill, where the waitress carded everyone even though only Stephanie ordered a margarita. It was pretty funny. Some of us went out to Bruno's after for beer and darts. Good times.

Steph and Peter in any pose resembling this exemplifies Mardi Gras!

this Thursday

I slept in today then went to my one class of the day, terrorism... which is in the 100+ person lecture hall in Richardson. (The largest classroom on campus, for you non-Tulanians.) A guy dressed as a "terrorist" (for lack of a more specific but also more offensive word) came running in yelling gibberish in the middle of it, prompting the girl in front of me to jump out of her seat in fright. (As if an actual terrorist would have nothing better to do than terrorize our class!) And then a guy dressed in fatigues ran in, tackled him to the floor, struggled with him, and then chased him up the stairs and out the backdoor. Even our professor found it funny although he swears he had nothing to do with it.

He let us out of class early, which is great because Tara had to eat early and run errands. So we got our usual lunch half an hour early. How many times can I use the word "early" in one paragraph?

I went to the park to enjoy the warm weather study for my exam tomorrow. Becca joined me before and after her run. We walked back home and then said bye to David who's leavin' for the weekend.

Lauren, Whitney, and I went to Walmart even though they don't have cheap ink cartridges. In fact, they don't have ink cartridges at all, so the main objective of the trip wasn't accomplished. We got some other stuff though then stopped at Subway for dinner. Good times.

There was a campus-wide (possibly uptown-wide) power outage for about ten minutes. That was fun.

The consensus is no 80s Night, to rest up for this weekend and the madness of next weekend.

So I think I'll go the gym and study some more. Maybe.

Rest in peace, Anna Nicole. 1967-2007

Martinique Bistro...

...was just so good it's getting its own little entry.

So over break I got this on my wall:

Tara Tolford wrote
at 2:21pm on December 22nd, 2006

dear andrew,
last night i spent eight dollars on one cocktail and it made me think of you. it was a damn good cocktail. pears and gingers and things. in january, let's dress up fancy and go somewhere ridiculous for drinks and dessert only. i miss you!
love tara

So we set our hearts (and stomachs) on Ristorante Civello, which is a gorgeous little Italian place, and eventually set the date for Tuesday night. Unfortunately Civello was closed that night, so we made a reservation at Martinique Bistro. Both of us had never been there but had always been curious about its French cuisine with a hint of Caribbean as well at its picturesque patio.

The plan was "drinks and dessert only" but we just couldn't resist the entrees. We went on a little splurge, the likes of which I've only seen before sophomore year when Stephanie and I went on that "f*ck this being hungry and miserable while everyone else is out to dinner with their parents" dinner.

Tara chose her own adventure.

• potato and bleu cheese soup
• duck breast and leg quarter with molasses and pear sauce, goat cheese grits, and green beans
• chocolate cabernet ice cream, made in-house
  

I opted for the set menu.

• venison terrine with hazelnuts and blueberries
• lamb tenderloin with a currant shallot demi glace on carrot mashed potatoes, snap peas, and julienned vegetables
• chocolate and hazelnut "pate"

We washed it all down with bellinis, sazeracs, and a Lillypilly dessert wine recommended by the waiter that tasted like alcoholic honey.

It was worth every penny... The meal actually involved well over 10,000 pennies but whatever. In closing, I'll share a little blurb I got on my wall earlier tonight:

Tara Tolford wrote
at 9:00pm on February 7th, 2007

tara+andrew+food=love.

the week so far

"I saw you at Krewe de Vieux the other night, Andrew. Not going to say what you were doing but I saw you there!" - Professor Cunningham

Sunday:
Harrah's
Cafe Brazil
Krewe de Vieux
DBA
port of call
Bubba Gump

Lauren hates when anyone grabs her boob(s).

Monday:
classes
gym
Adrian time

Tuesday:
terrorism classs
Tara time
screenwriting class
Ben time
Martinique Bistro
Pitt St. Pretties time
Lauren time

"dress up fancy" ... just a little

Wednesday:
class
Rachel time
classes
nap
LOST
studying

in preparation for Wednesday

Two LOST spoofs. Somehow both official???

an inside look at the writing process:


screening of the series finale:

"Better than Bruff!"

Was what Shannon hypothesized after our Court of Two Sisters waiter told our party some of the 80 items featured on the menu. The Jazz Brunch was probably the best brunch buffet I've ever been to. They have everything you'd associate with a regular brunch buffet, all expected Cajun specialties, all eggs made to order (including omelets and Benedict), and an apparently top-shelf-only bar. As Shannon and I were walking to the restaurant, we saw a little parade called Krewe de Kork pass right by us on Royal Street.

some dream analysis

Now that I've had time to reflect on the dream and other people's opinions on it...

It's also not Chris and Rachel's wedding - which I neglected to say earlier - because it's not in New Orleans.

Now here are some other people's thoughts.

Someone said the cold, freezing hell of a Godforesaken city might be Detroit. Maybe. So it could be Jacque and Jason's wedding postponed.

"The seven fat cows mean seven years of plenty..."

Thanks.

"Dude. Your mind is more fucked up than that J.Lo The Cell movie."

Thanks.

"My mom is in this dream, so this is f'ed up... The rest of the story makes sense to me... Do you dream about my mom often?"

Only on weekends. Actually no, not at all. And I think the entire "story" is f'ed up, not just the part about the mom.

"Maybe since everyone's rushing to this marriage and no one gets there, you subconsciously want none of your friends to get married."

No. I love weddings because I'm a gushy romantic at heart and because they usually have open bar afterwards.

"Naughty girlscout uniform. Now where would you ever get that idea from?"

I have no idea. Maybe anyone who was at the Pick Your Poison date party could enlighten me.

"Well, I think the rear-ending is symbolic of you being afraid of being rear-ended. You're homophobic."

[But I was sitting shotgun, so I wasn't as close to the rear-ending as five other people were.]

"Well, maybe you're afraid of... anal orgies?"

I need a dream analyst.

Or at least I need a dream dictionary? This may be the most bizarre dream I've ever had that I remember.

Let me stress that this is a dream lest anyone who's skimming this entry mistake it for reality:

ONCE UPON A TIME... some of my friends and I are going to attend a wedding, which I know is NOT in Chicago or in Illinois. The reason I know the non-location is because David, Gisela, and Mike are all with me, and they all have homes in Chicago but not in this new mystery city. But apparently I have a new apartment there. Let's just refer to it as Marinopolis from now on. For kicks.

The aforementioned three, Stephanie, and Wes all arrive at my apartment with bags. So we now know that Marinopolis is not in Baltimore or West Virginia. Since I seem to have no fucking clue the way the city is laid out... It's certainly not New Orleans or DC. (Why I moved to a city I know nothing about is beyond me.) Shannon also shows up, but she has her car? So maybe Shannon lives near here.

Okay. Well... Shannon might move to Texas or Arizona, but Marinopolis can't be there because it's currently freezing. (I guess this dream is taking place one year in the future?) So it's certainly not in those states. I would guess that it's Jacque and Jason's wedding since they don't make an appearance, but it's way too F-ing cold to be Miami. Also their wedding is set for August, so it would have taken place by now probably. And if it took place in Michigan, Tara and Rachel would have shown up. So... David, Gisela, and Shannon are with me. So hopefully it's not any of their weddings? It's not Lauren and Sonny's wedding because their relationship ended with that whole "I want a vodka and soda, I really have no clue what that means" episode the other weekend. It's also not Becca and Matt's because Becca would never allow a wedding in this climate.

At this point, I can only think of one more possibility. Maybe it's Jenna and Jerry's wedding? No. They moved to the middle of nowhere, certainly not a city like Marinopolis. And again this place is way too cold to be in Tennessee or Louisiana. I give up.

So everyone's loving my new apartment, which as we walk through turns out to be a loft. And it's large, and modern, and beautiful, and well-furnished, and spacious. David muses that this would have come in really handy for "last Mardi Gras." And I muse that it wouldn't have since we're NOT IN NEW ORLEANS.

So we all hang around. Stephanie for some reason has Lauren's camera? We look through the pictures, and they're all of Sylvia and Kosmin in ridiculous poses... sadly no pose that's ridiculous/sexual enough to be compromising. So we all have a good laugh, and suddenly we're running late. For some reason, we think it's a great idea to just pack our clothes for the wedding into backpacks and just change when we get there.

(At this point in time, Shannon and Gisela, who are really nothing alike, become interchangeable even though they were separate entities before. I just remember every now and then the singular girl who was driving Shannon's car was sometimes Gisela, and everytime I was ready to call her Gisela, she was Shannon again. Whatever.)

So we stuff all these backpacks into the trunk, and then all seven of us pile into Shazela's car somehow. I guess at this point Gisela's the one in charge of driving because Shannon would never allow that many people into her car. And off we go.

We get caught in traffic. (Marinopolis is freezing with heavy traffic. Why the fuck did I move here? Those are like the two things I'd hate the most about a city. Oh yeah, I have that loft. Nevermind.)

So we pull off the interstate and stop at some random residence where Mike convinces the home owner to let us change. So we all rush into the house. Everyone changes. It turns out Wes' bag was the last one into the trunk, but he wasn't the one who closed the trunk. So his fell off? We worry and think about asking the home owner if Wes can borrow clothes. David calls his mom, who's apparently at the wedding, to see if everyone there is really dressed up. (So maybe it is David's wedding? But I hope not because we're so late that V will be more pissed than if we brought her to that Naked Sushi Joint.) Mrs. Lipps says yes, everyone is dressed up... and that we should just stop by Nordstrom and get Wes new clothes. Turns out I have an extra tux in my bag, which makes no sense because I'm a light packer and I don't even own a single tux. Whatever. We all get dressed up.

So we drive off again, and we pass by the airport because Shazela thinks it's a shortcut? I don't know. We're driving by the arrivals area, and then for some reason she loses control of the car. I'm sitting in shotgun which is beyond me because with this many people someone would have called it, and I never do. So we careen through a divider wall into the arrival pick-up lane with oncoming traffic in the opposite direction. Shazela manages to turn her miraculously undamaged car 180 degrees, and we're about to drive off and not get hit when her phone rings. She assumes it's her boyfriend Adam, or Alberto, or Adarlto. Whoever. She ANSWERS it and doesn't drive. It's a telemarketer asking her opinion on Mona's? BANG, a car rear ends us.

So now airport security is all over the place. Everyone's getting out. There's some woman in a Mona's uniform (Mona's doesn't have uniforms) with a cell phone asking if we're all right, and Shazela yells that this is all Mona's fault. Stephanie is trying to sweet-talk the officers because for some reason her elegant dress has morphed into a naughty girl scout uniform. I don't know. I give up trying to make sense of anything at this point.

The rest of us all wander over to a window looking into the airport's restaurant. Shazela sees a girl she went to high school with and HATED who is waitressing. The girl scowls at Shazela and laughs at her car. At this point, Shazela must be Shannon again because the waitress is from Maryland. Then the waitress is suddenly outside, and she looks through the window and goes "Oh my God, is that Nick Hamisevicz?!" I actually do know Nick Hamisevicz, he played soccer and graduated Gonzaga a few years before I did. But I was never good friends with him or with his brother Victor who played baseball and graduated the same year I did. In fact I haven't seen either for almost four years (five if you're counting this dream's fictional year). But surely enough, the entire Hamisevicz family is sitting down to a meal at this airport restaurant. They all wave. THE END.

If anyone has an interpretation of that (or has an Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for that matter) let me know...

weekend's off to a great start

Thursday I made lunch for Adrian, and we caught up. For those of you who don't know, he's pledging Sig Ep and is president of their pledge class. And he has a super-single now. Apparently his former roommate moved to another building to be with his girlfriend (and they broke up within three days). I had lunch with Tara and spent my free afternoon doing laundry and studying. Wes and I finally watched the Legend of Zelda: Animated Series he has on DVD, and he lent me the discs so I could finish it. I've watched them all. I made my dish for Italian Night - more on that later - and dropped off a portion for Sarah as thanks for lending me her mixer, but Maddie found it first. Then I went to 80s Night with a bunch of friends and even more were there.

Yesterday after class I slept away the afternoon. Then I went over to Becca's for the ITALIAN POTLUCK DINNER we planned in honor of Giada De Laurentiis, whom we both love. I was impressed with everyone's cooking. The menu:

• two kinds of bruschetta
• salad with parmesan crusted broccoli and cauliflower
• garlic bread
• stuffed mushrooms
• cinnamon gnocchi
• sausage pizza
• two kinds of lasagna
• several kinds of pasta
• chicken parmesan
• and I made a strawberry tiramisu

Also, like we did on Thanksgiving, we went around the room and everyone said what they were thankful for. But this time the things had to be specifically Italian. After dinner, everyone waddled away to various things and some of us hung around, chatted, and drank too much wine. After that, a few of us decided to go out. There was a brief interlude of Nicole walking around Aron quad with a glass of wine and my knife block, looking like a serial killer, while waiting for Will. We all went to my apartment for a bit, and Becca joined us. Nate had woken up, and Nicole had one of my two favorite quotes of the night when she invited him to Bruno's / introduced herself:

"Put your pants on, and let's go! How many guys have I said THAT to??? Oh and my name is Nicole."

On the way to Bruno's, Will had my other favorite quote of the night:

"Well with Top Chef, I can't eat the food... but with Project Runway, I can wear the dresses... So..."

But at least we all agree that Top Design sucks.

I brought out my waterproof cards since last time Nicole and I were at Bruno's (with Carter and Peter even) we ruined a deck playing Kings. This time we ruined the game by not remembering all the rules and by letting two obnoxious drunks play. But it was still fun. After a little Photo Hunt and another round, we called it quits.

No pics yet but here are some screen captures of that dvd.

Princess Zelda, Ganon, and (my hero) Link

the Triforces of Wisdom and of Power

weight-gain Wednesday

Today was pretty much classes and a lot of eating. After my first class. I had lunch after returning my ethics book to the UC. (I dropped the class after staring at the first 300-word discussion topic for five minutes, realizing I would have to do this once a week for the rest of the semester.) More classes. David and I went shopping for Italian Night. My poor roommate almost had an aneurysm in the pasta aisle of Sav-A-Center because of a lack of gnocchi, but thank God we found some. He was in the middle of his own personal hell day/week/month/semester.

I went to the Tulane Big/Little Brother Reunion "Picnic" which ended up indoors with not that many people, but plenty of food was in attendance. Stephanie beat me to it, but [Grown Up] Sarah was still there. She commiserated with my uncertainty of what to do post-graduation and reassured me that "life sucking for a while" is completely normal. Great.

I made dinner because I realized the chicken breasts in the fridge were mine, and I didn't want them to go bad, but when I went over to Stephanie's for the Top Chef finale she gave me an extremely delicious barbeque chicken wrap. How could I say no? And I just had to sample [Roommate] Sarah's soup, which was also awesome.

After that I hurried out to meet up with Rachel to see Babel. I enjoyed it, but I could see why many people wouldn't. It is LONG. Lots of lingering shots. But it has a great cast. AMC Moviewatcher also gave me Wednesday-specific free popcorn, so I had to take it.

And since films seem to have been the focus of the past few days/entries anyway, does anyone who hasn't seen Pan's Labyrinth or who liked it enough to see it again want to go sometime in the near future? I think that's the last flick on my checklist.

Dr. Seuss says: Brad is sad.