04.16.07

Monday (my actual birthday)

9:38 AM / 10:38 AM EST

Me: "Graaant, thanks for the birthday wishes. How are ya?"
Grant: "Definitely, man. [Pause] We are in the middle of another gunman running around."
Me: "Oh God. Seriously?"
Grant: "Yeah, one dead and another has been shot. As far as they know."
Me: "That's so nuts. Is it near your campus or back home?"
Grant: "It’s the dorm right next to mine."
Me: "Oh man. Be safe and careful. I would cry a river if you even got hurt, let alone more."
Grant: "Yeah, I’m stayin’ in my room."
Me: “Yeah, probably best. If you need random entertainment at any point today, just call me."
Grant: "Okay, I might."
Me: "I'm retarded. It's a little sad."
Grant: "No, that’s awesome. I’m gonna start drinking."
Me: "I'm contemplating goin' to class 'cause it'd be funny."
Grant: "Drunk class is always fun."
Me: "Oh yes. Okay bud, I’m off. Talk to you later."
Grant: "Seeya."

Grant goes to Tech, for those of you haven't figured it out yet. I honestly was still a little drunk but went to class anyway because I thought it was funny. I saw Ryanne, and she was impressed(?) by my ability to... I don’t know... stand?

Josh and I went to O'Henry’s for our free birthday steaks and a huge appetizer sampler. He was wearing the same thing as he wore the night before too, so I felt vindicated. At O’Henry’s, they had CNN on, and that was the first time I realized the magnitude of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. The count was 30 people higher than the two from the morning. Adrian called me a few seconds later to ask if I had heard from Grant lately. I almost lost it, but apparently Adrian was no more updated than I was. [Grant and the other dozen friends I have at Tech are fine. Thank God.]

Class. I called G-Money again to ask how he was doing. Apparently that morning we spoke in the interim between shootings, so at that point he had no idea what was going on either. My thoughts and prayers have been with Tech since that day.

Whitney and I took Puja "shopping" on Magazine in the afternoon. I use the quotation marks because Whitney hates shopping and we happened to get there right as all the stores were closing. We wound up at La Divina Gelateria, which is basically the Whole Foods / Baja Fresh of gelato stores. They make everything from fresh and organic ingredients. Whitney treated me for my birthday to a three flavor sundae. Cioccolato scuro (dark chocolate), cocco (organic Philippine coconut), and tiramisu.

We went to dinner with Peter, Lauren, David, Lizzie, Sylvia, Nicole, Becca, and Matt. Mat & Addie’s was the best restaurant I’d never heard of. I think, because they were so many of us, we tried everything on the menu. Everything I had was wonderful:

• three-onion, smoked salmon and goat cheese pissaladière (thick crust French pizza topped with house-smoked salmon, goat cheese, caramelized shallots, green and red onions, and capers)
• fried oyster salad (on arugula with green onion rémoulade topped with apple smoked bacon, pickled fennel, and onion)
• crispy duck leg confit and 17th ward blood orange Lousiana yams with Nueske’s bacon-braised collard greens and sauce Rouennaise
• nectar float (homemade vanilla ice cream floated with a local nectar soda)

other people's photos

The following photographs are courtesy of Shannon Will, Abita Banana, Lauren Ruth, Ryanne Clarke, and Caitlin Tully. The first three are from spring break in Panama City Beach; the following four are from "Freshman Night" last Thursday.

Shan and myself donning the life vests

with "Rosie" and "Abita" for our first dip in the hot tub

chillin' at Hooters with my favorite off-duty waitress

exact replicas of those Butler 216 boys in freshman year

I bought Ry an appletini, but a Kara'd be more freshman year.

with Steph, "Quick. Do something freshman year!"

Becca's midriff... totally freshman year

the freakin' weekend...

Baby, I'm havin' some fun...

What happened yesterday? Class. Nap. Whole Foods. Dinner with Matt and Becca at Brooks' place. I made a semi-Cobb at the WF salad bar, and Brooks had picked up sushi from Sake Cafe. I ordered my favorites, spicy yellowtail and New Orleans rolls. We played with Trek, his ex's dog, and Matt and Becca helped me completely fill in the blanks from Thursday night.

In the interest of privacy, I'll leave names out, but note that someone is singular and people is very plural. Here are more things that happened which I forgot in my previous update.

• people snuck into bars
• people pretty much made out
• people groped others' breasts, buttocks, and/or crotches
  
• people had nip slips
  
• people told someone they would do them
• people were throwing themselves at inappropriate people
• people fell... often into things or other people
  
• people couldn't drive/walk/read/speak
• people got laughed at by workers at The Rat
  
• people got into arguments over nothing
  
• someone accidentally hit someone else
• someone hid in the art building from someone else
  
• someone seriously danced with a stripper pole
• someone discussed their sex toys
• people passed out, impervious to light and noise
  
• people woke up still drunk
  
• someone woke up on a couch holding melted ice cream
  

Last night was much less Tara Reid. Some friends and I went to Karma. Last one ever. Sob. It was some people's first time ever, and it was also Tara's and my first Jacque-less one. The mix of food, drink, hip-hop, reggaeton, and bhangra was still amazing. Stephanie brought Samantha and Jeanine, just like I brought Adrian last year. Tara, Ian, Alison, Whitney, Lauren, David, Becca, and many others were also in attendance.

Some of us shuffled back and forth between Nirvana and the oh-so-cheap drinks at The Club: Miss Mae's. At the end of the night, Whitney and I went with some people to the only bar that's more of a dive than Mae's... Snake & Jake's.

bringin' freshman back

Terrorism and lunch with Tara. Typical Thursday.

Very atypical Thursday night! Ryanne had the bright idea of us going to Vera Cruz for margaritas and TJQuills for drinks after to relive the fun of freshman year... even though we're now old seniors. I surprised her with a special present: Kathleen "MIA" Fanone. (It would have been a present to Sylvia too, but she didn't come.) She, David and I even dressed up in old freshman year clothing to recreate "the look."

We went with Whitney, David, and Tully to Vera Cruz. Several flavors of margarita pitcher. Sauza shots on me. I knew NONE of the servers at Vera Cruz, which is probably in it's hundredth revision... just to show how long it's been since I've been there.

Kathleen had an emergency and left, but Stephanie, her sister Samantha, their Pinay friend Jeanine, Becca, Matt, and Paul joined us at T.J. Quills. Pretty awesome. I finally got my Choy sandwich to balance out the Marin one Steph got last year when Adrian visited.

Quills was fun. There was popcorn. Ry and I got appletinis to commemorate freshman year. (R.I.P. Kara "Whorkus" Wagner.) My favorite Quills bartender was there and was all "never thought I'd see you again!" My reply: "Old habits die hard." He gave me free shots.

We went to Phillips next. Danielle, my favorite lab partner ever, was bartending! I thought she left after graduation. She gave me more free shots. Good times. So was Jason "press menswear" Warrington. That brings the count of people-Sylvia-loves-with-me-tonight to TWO.

Whit, Tull, and I went to The Palms next to close out the night. It was packed. I LOVE it around that two in the morning time. I missed Chad Michael like whoa though. Dalia&Co were there too. Awesome.

We closed out the night at The Rat splittin' a turkey sub with "everything," a bacon cheddar burger, and a chicken tender combo. Then Whitney and I got ice cream for dessert.

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.

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

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 antics

So last night I went to dinner with Shannon "Who Wants Me? Everybody." Will and some of her friends. We went to Byblos because we'd both never been before. While waiting for her friends, I tried a bowl of the crab and corn bisque while she opted for some of what I call Shan-Nectar (Malibu and pineapple juice). Delicious. The two of us split a lightly fried crab and eggplant cake topped with parmesan sauce and lump crab meat for an appetizer and then for entrees the Byblos Pasta and a plate of baba ghanoush, lebna, mujadarah, and maybe the best moussaka I've ever had.

(Someone complained about lack of food detail in previous entries?)

Also kind of funny was I saw Katie (who lived on Butler 3 freshman year and whom I hadn't seen in ages) at Byblos and then saw her boyfriend RJ (Butler 2 and also hadn't seen in ages) at the party later. RJ told me a funny story. Ask about it if you want.

David, the six chicks, and what seemed like a thousand familiar faces, most of them drunk, went to the Tulane Ornithological Society's "Bird Flu Party" to get our "vaccinations." Good times. This following photo is courtesy of Lauren Mitchell:

Lauren, Whitney, David, and I were literally the last to leave. We stopped by The Boot for pizza, where we Adrian and company and where Whit apparently gave herself third-degree burns from eating too-hot pizza too-fast?

Today was pretty laidback. I studied for a bit, and Lizzie and I motivated each other to go to the gym. (I met a Gonzaga '01 grad named Chris who's here for med school. Recognition by athletic shorts.) Tonight we finally watched Showgirls for the half of us who haven't seen it and the other half who wanted to subject others to the experience. This following photo is courtesy of The Artist Formerly Known As Jesse Spano and was a moment we found controversial:

November thus far...

November has been pretty laidback so far. I had my English midterm on Thursday and apparently don't know the difference between feminist writers (surprising) and mistook Charlotte Bronte for Jane Austen. Oops, whatever. Jane "&" Austen wrote those other books like Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice. It could have been worse. I could have wrote in the essay that Alison Phillips or Andrew Marin wrote Jane Eyre. Speaking of Alison, I was able to give her a whole calendar of feminism on Thursday night. Let's backtrack.

Becca gave David and me her passes for a screening of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan which was really funny and I'd say I recommend. It's too offensive to be taken seriously and aside from a rather eye-gouging nudity scene - You'll know it when you see it - I kind of want to watch again. It just came out yesterday. So after the screening we went with Becca, Matt, Lauren, and Bryan&Co to Phillips where I bought enough promotional Patron shots to get a free Girls of Phillips Calendar. (It's full of the cocktail waitresses and bartrendesses and now hanging in my kitchen.) I tried to give it to Alison when she and the girls picked me up to go to Vaughan's a few minutes later. She's derided it before, but she graciously refused.

Friday was just class and then sitting and then going to Rue De La Course with Rachel to read for class and then sitting some more and then going to Big Easy with Andre Agassi aka Wes because we were both hungry at like one in the morning.

Now I should get some work done before going to the gym, showering, finally shaving after a few days of not, and going out tonight.

Let's hope I can get back into the rhythm of regularly updates.

Becca's "birthday" lasted longer than even mine.

So Adrian and I were all excited to go to mass together yesterday, and Becca and Matt were coming too. Becca and I were about a minute walk away from the church when Matt called and said they were closed. Very closed. Under renovations. So I called Adrian and told him to just stay in and finish his laundry. Well, now the lovebirds and I had an hour and a half to kill before Becca's belated birthday dinner at Superior Grill. So we just decided to go the restaurant early and have margaritas, a huge bowl of queso, a huge bowl of guac, multiple salsas, and five baskets of chips.

At the time, we didn't have that exact quantity of beverage and food figured out, but it was a good idea nonetheless. Matt and I decided it was intensive training for our new Tchoupitoulas challenges. (Matt and I have both eaten huge sundaes at the Creole Creamery ice cream parlor; they constitute of eight fist-size scoops of ice cream, eight toppings, whipped cream, and cherries.) We're going to research other challenging amounts of food in the city and conquer them together.

My mom called. She was not so amused by the church story even though the three of us thought it was "like the best mass ever." Soon after, the other five girls, Peter, David, and Ryanne and Becca's new roommate Tully arrived soon and we started dinner. I could only eat half of my brisket quesadilla, which was delicious and what the waitress recommended and Sylvia ordered also.

We came back here to the apartment to surprise Becca with her cookies and cream cake... topped with oreos of course. I could barely eat a slice, but it was delicious. And then we hung around for a few hours, seemingly shocking Tully with our I suppose offensive collective sense of humor. She's fine though, I'm sure. I decided I liked her when I met her pre-mass, and she was pouring a glass of wine in the afternoon.

Accomplishments for the evening: Matt learned sarcasm, and Stephanie learned the proper use of "po-tay-to, po-tah-to."