Deep Thoughts

That title may be somewhat misleading because it would seem to imply that I do in fact have deep thoughts to share with you. I'm not saying I don't...I'm just saying maybe I don't have any right this minute.

Zack says he really really enjoys my blog. He loves it. Thinks its great. He just thinks maybe I should write more "deep thoughts" and "less about the weather." (Clearly, someone didn't appreciate that stellar and highly scientific analysis I came up with yesterday linking New Orleans' weather and its crime rate because I thought that was a pretty deep thought, personally).

The problem is that I don't have deep thoughts worthy of being blogged about every single day. Maybe I should, but I don't. I'm having all kinds of thoughts every day that fascinate and entertain me but I'm not so sure they are appropriate or even interesting enough to actually share with anyone else. Let me give you an example.

Whole Foods. The grocery store. There's a huge Whole Foods down here that we go to occasionally but we rarely buy anything because its super expensive. I call it the Hippie Store though, because everything in there is organic, free-range or vegan. I'm not saying every time I go its full of hippies...obviously this is a generalization and other people shop there too; I'm just saying there are a disproportionate number of long haired/bra free/save-the-whales t-shirt-wearing women in there when I go. Make of that what you will. So anyway, I've noticed something about Whole Foods. It always smells like hot dogs in there every time I go. Not like roasting hot dogs over a campfire which might be ok; it smells like soggy, water-logged hot dogs left over in the concession stand after a ball game.

I don't know, I guess I forget since I don't go in there all that often, but every time I do visit that store the first thing I notice when I walk in is the smell. It slaps me in the face the minute I go through the door. I then spend the next 10, 15, 20 (however long it takes me to get what I came for) minutes trying to figure out what in that store could possibly be producing such a smell. It's that overwhelming that it consumes my thoughts while I'm in there. Not gonna lie; the first time I went I spent 15 minutes walking around the store to see if they were selling or giving away free hot dogs somewhere. I didn't want one. I don't even like them. I just wanted to know where the smell was coming from.

See? I bet you're thinking that was a stupid thing for me to share on here. And you're right, it was.

Sunshine

The sun is shining here for the first time in...um...fifteen days. Yes, you read that right. Fifteen. It has rained every single day during the month of October up until today. What? That sounds gloomy and depressing you say? Why yes, yes it is. And has been. And I suppose will continue to be as the weather forecasts predicts more rain this weekend.

I feel like I'm starting to harp on the weather and I really don't mean to but in my defense, that has been one of the biggest adjustments I've had to make since moving here. Unless you've been here I just don't think I can convey or you can appreciate the ridiculously unbearable death-heat, or the incessant thunderstorms that take place on a daily basis. In fact, I've developed a theory about NOLA and its weather that I'd like to share with you.

By now I think we're all aware that the crime rate here is kinda out of control. (And by kinda I mean extremely). You know what I think? I think the weather down here is so darn crappy that it's adding to the crime problem. Think about it. How do you feel when its dark and rainy outside? Gloomy...sad...mopey etc. Furthermore, think how irritable you get when you're hot and sweaty and uncomfortable. Now imagine how you'd feel if you were hot and sweaty and uncomfortable basically all the time. You see my point. After surviving just half of one summer down here I sometimes feel like I'm ready to snap. The heat here is something you can't get away from, even in the evenings once the sun has set; its oppressive and unrelenting and at times, down right maddening. The only other time I've felt kind of like this was when I had kidney stones and the pain literally made me want to run my head through a wall. I'm not joking. I think I even threatened to at one point. Not that the heat here compares to kidney stones on the meter-o-pain, but that feeling of "Oh my gosh I'm going to lose my mind if I can't get away from this," is similar.

So there it is in all its unscientific glory. My theory on NOLA, the weather and the crime. The despair and sense of hopelessness here is the result of an entire population that rarely sees the sun shine and the crime is due (at least in part) to the unrelenting uncomfortable conditions that people are forced to live in every day.

I'm pretty sure this is brilliant.

Nothing At All

Has it really been almost a week since I've written? Geez. Sorry about that. I haven't meant to neglect this thing, I guess I just figured people might get bored reading about how uneventful the past few days have been here in NOLA.

Work's fine. School's fine. The house and cars are fine. The weather is still borderline unbearable (which is driving me nuts) but on the whole, we're fine. (Seriously--its the middle of October; when does it cool down here??? We've still got temperatures in the high 80s with 100% humidity. Yuck).

Beyond the climate there's nothing super exciting but nothing bad to report either.

So...yeah. That's about all I've got. But at least you know we're still alive.

The Good and the Bad

The good news is, I've almost finished the book I told you about yesterday and its really good. It's certainly made for a fascinating read and given me a much more in-depth understanding of what New Orleans was like in the days and months immediately following Katrina, as well as the struggles the city is still facing even today.


The bad news is, after reading the book I'm now a tiny bit terrified of going out in the city by myself. The crime (and by crime I'm mostly referring to murder) rate skyrocketed after the storm, making this the deadliest city in the country. It even earned the nickname of Murder Capital of America for crying out loud! What's really scary is that while those rates have dropped substantially in the past year or so, they're still just ridiculously high--especially for a city this size. I knew when we moved here the city had its problems but gee oh! I didn't know we were moving into a war zone.



This newly acquired knowledge of the dark underbelly of NOLA was fresh on my mind when I was leaving the house for work this morning so it played in nicely to the fact that apparently, our next door neighbors got robbed last night. Our landlord (who lives in a different house on the same property as ours) was outside and told me all the details he knew which admittedly, weren't many. All we really know is that someone broke into the neighbors' house last night and basically cleaned them out. The police haven't caught whoever did it; I don't even know if our neighbors were home at the time but luckily I don't believe anyone was hurt.



So yeah. I'm spooked. And that makes me mad. We live in a nice neighborhood. The place we're renting is not cheap but we agreed we were both willing to pay a little more to have the security of living somewhere we felt safe. We live right smack dab in the middle of Uptown, about a mile from Tulane's campus. This isn't poor, run-down student housing either. This is a neighborhood of the big, old Garden District homes most of which security systems and iron fences around them. I would have thought such things would be at least a slight deterrent to criminals, wouldn't you? I mean I know we're probably not dealing with brain surgeons here but goodness...



I do take comfort in the fact that our house sits on the property behind the main house, so you can't see it at all from the road. Someone who has never been there wouldn't know our house even exists. Plus, the entire yard is surrounded by a fence that gets locked at night.

It irritates me to no end to feel like I'm not safe in my own neighborhood. I was hesitant to move here because of all the crime but once we did, I promised myself I wasn't going to live in fear for the whole 3+ years we're here. I know it's good to have a big healthy dose of caution but I ought to be able to walk to the mailbox without worrying about getting mugged. I don't think that's unreasonable.

I talked to some people at work today about all this and they suggested getting a can of MACE to keep with me at all times. I haven't decided how I feel about this yet. One one hand that seems like an unnecessary overreaction but on the other...well...maybe not such a bad idea.

What I'm Reading

Alright, so this may not appeal to everyone. I get that. But if you're looking for a grossly fascinating and gruesome read, I would highly recommend this book. Zack got this for me for my birthday and I started reading it immediately. My goal is to finish it tonight (though that may be hard since Jim and Pam are getting married tonight on the Office and I can't miss that) but if not tonight then definitely by the weekend.

Without giving too much away I'll just tell you that its the true story of a couple from here in New Orleans and their murder/suicide that took place a few years ago (2006) shortly after they survived hurricane Katrina. I think at the time the media had a field day with the story but now that I'm 2/3 of the way through the book I realize that there's a LOT more to it than what was probably reported at the time. I think it's also fair to say that both of these people were kinda, sorta ABSOLUTELY nuts.

Maybe I'm more interested in such things now that I live here but like I said, while graphic and gruesome it is fascinating.

My Birthday

This past weekend was one of the best weekends ever. Yes, it was my birthday but more importantly it meant that Mom and Dad were in town for a visit! Zack and I had been looking forward to seeing themfor weeks--ever since they bought their plane tickets and decided to come down for my birthday. This was the first time we've seen them since we moved to New Orleans in July.

I'm getting ahead of myself though; there were LOTS of great parts to this weekend that I don't want to leave out. I'll start with Saturday night, when Zack decided to cook dinner for me in honor of my birthday since he knew we'd go out to eat while my parents were here. Of course, I got to pick the menu which was kinda tough because everything he makes is always so good. I hemmed and hawed (sp?) and finally decided I hadn't had a good steak in a long time, so thats='s what he did. He made me an incredible filet with a whiskey pan sauce and asparagus and french fries. Yes, this is what I requested. He also baked my birthday cake Saturday night; an oreo cheesecake with a chocolate ganache swirl (Heaven) and then promptly tried to convince me to eat it that night.

BLASPHEMY!

As incredibly-awesomely-wonderful as that thing looked, I'm a big believer in not eating birthday cake or opening presents ahead of time. You have to wait until the actual real day or it doesn't count. The same goes for Christmas, but that's beside the point.

So sunday morning I dropped Zack off at school to study for a couple hours then headed to the airport to pick up Mom and Dad. For some reason Mom was convinced that my looks had changed significantly in the three months since she last saw me, so I made sure to wear my bright blue UK jacket just in case they wouldn't recognize me. For what it's worth, I'm 99.4% positive I still look almost exactly the same as I did when we moved.

We picked Zack up on the way back into town and grabbed lunch at one of my new favorite places here in NOLA--the St. James Cheese Company. Oh. My. Gosh. I love this place. Its this little cheese and sandwhich shop in the Garden District that imports cheeses from all over the world and gets a lot of its meat from a local charcuterie. The sandwhiches are nothing short of incredible and if money were no object I'd gladly eat here three or four days a week. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Since it was rainy and gross outside (you're shocked, right?) we decided it maybe wasn't the best time to do the cemetary tour we had been planning to do, so we opted for the National WWII Museum instead. Believe it or not, it was actually really, really interesting--and that's coming from someone who is by no means a "history" person. When I suggested going there I figured it had a 50/50 shot at either sucking and being a complete waste of an afternoon, or being really really good. Lucky for us, it was definitely on the really, really good end of the spectrum. I doubt the history museum is the first tourist attraction most people associate with a visit to New Orleans but after going through myself I'd highly recommend it.

Dinner that night was at Parkway Bakery and Tavern over in Mid-City. We figured we couldn't let Mom and Dad leave without experiencing the greatness that is the classic N'Awlins po' boy and Parkway happens to have the best ones we've had since we've been here. (I realize this post is turning into a glorified play-by-play of what we ate all weekend. I'm ok with that). I tend towards the more simple fried shrimp po'boys but Zack and Dad went with the famed "surf n turf." Picture a footlong loaf of crusty french bread stuffed with sliced roast beef, covered in gravy and then topped with fried shrimp and you've got the surf n turf. One of the sloppier, more impossible sandwiches to try eating with your hands but well worth the mess you make doing it. Ah-mazing.

Disclaimer: I didn't take these pictures myself. Thanks, Google.



This brings us to yesterday, which was my actual birthday. I had to work so Mom and Dad entertained themselves by taking a plantation tour and then a Hurricane Katrina devastation tour. Meanwhile, my new friends at work threw me a surprise party! And by surprise I mean complete and total SURPRISE. I had no idea they even knew it was my birthday, much less that they would do anything to celebrate it. It made me feel really good to have only worked here a month and already made friends who are nice enough to do such a sweet thing like that.

Dinner last night was (of course) yet another phenomenal meal. We went to La Crepe Nanou (I'm dropping all these names in case someone reading this blog ever comes to visit the city and wants to know what places are worth trying) which is this little french place over on the edge of the Garden District. What can I say? It was great. It was a perfect place to go for my birthday dinner and I think I speak for all of us when I say is was a perfect way to round out a great weekend. After dinner I got to open presents (yayyyyyyy!) and then dive into the birthday cheesecake I had been waiting TWO WHOLE DAYS to taste. It was every bit as heavenly and wonderful as you'd imagine something like that to be. I'm so lucky to have a husband who not only bakes me birthday cakes from scratch, but who is so darn good at it to boot. There's still roughly half of it left sitting in our fridge which means that I'll be indulging in cheesecake for the next several days. Of course, then I'll probably moan and whine and feel guilty for a week afterwards but I think it'll definitely be worth it.

One of Those Days

Yeah, it's been one of those days.

You know what I'm talking about.

It was one of those days where everything was just a little bit off, nothing quite worked the way it should have and now at the end of it, I just want to crawl into bed and go to sleep so that the day can be over and tomorrow will hurry up and get here.

It all started this morning when I got to work and tried to login to my computer. The company has a big network with a lot of users so sometimes it can be a little slow. I realized I had a problem though, when I had been staring at the blue screen of death for about fifteen minutes. Boggled down server aside, it definitely shouldn't take that long to get going. So, I called IT and was told that a technician would be over immediately to see what was up.

Well the techs work in a different building and before he could get over to my office my boss came out and announced that his computer wasn't working either. (You can guess who's computer took priority once the tech guys got there). While it made me feel marginalyl better that at least this was probably a bigger problem than I realized and was not confined to just my computer, it didn't bode well for our collective productivity for the rest of the day.

So the techs spend probably 45 minutes working on his computer before announcing that they're going to have to take it back to the lab for diagnostic work. (Read: they had no idea what was wrong with it). Meanwhile, I've now spent the first hour and a half of the work day starring at a blank computer screen and accomplishing absolutely nothing. Right about this time another lady from the office strolls up and notices that my computer still isn't working and decides to take matters into her own hands. She completely dismantles the thing! I'm talking parts strewn all over the place; it looked like a small bomb had gone off on my desk by the time she got finished. Long story short, we put the thing back together and it still didn't work. Yeah I know. Shocking, huh? Fifteen minutes later I was back to starring at the blue screen of death when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, my computer just woke up and came to life. It was a miracle!

I made it through the rest of the day with little incident, thankfully, but my frustration level shot right back up as I left work. One of my new friends down here in NOLA had invited me to meet her and some other girls downtown for a happy hour after work. Now, you know that happy hours typically aren't "my thing" but in the name of meeting new people and making new friends, I thought this one sounded like a lot of fun. Plus I work downtown and the place they were going was right on my way home so why not?

The "why not" came about an hour later when I still hadn't managed to find a working parking meter within three miles of the place. I'm not exaggerating. I spent an hour driving around (in downtown, rush hour traffic no less, which just did wonders for my already elevated blood pressure) looking for a place to park that would put me within a safe walking distance. The first meter on the street I tried ate all my money then promtly refused to print out a ticket for me to stick in my window. I've heard the New Orleans police are extremely strict about parking illegally, so I wasn't about to leave the car without the ticket in the window telling them that I had in fact paid to park there. With no change left though, I was forced to look for meters or parking lots that would accept a credit card. I tried three different places; all of them scanned my credit card but wouldn't print me a parking ticket. I thought the impound lot in Lexington was a scary place to visit--there's no way I was going to risk leaving the car and getting it towed down here in New Orleans. I finally gave up, texted my friend, and let her know that I wouldn't be able to make it. Even to me this sounds like a really lame excuse, but by that point I was so frustrated with the city and its stupid parking meters that I just wanted to go home.

The final insult of the day came on the way home when I stopped at Rite-Aid to pick up a prescrption. As the cashier was ringing up my order, she casually asked me if I have always paid $62.50 for these pills? Why yes. Yes I have. I have because when I specifically asked the pharmacist back home whether or not there was a generic brand of the same drug that would be cheaper he told me NO. He told me the brand I was getting was the only choice for that type of pill. "Well, I only asked cause I take the same thing," the girl behind the counter went on, "Only I get the generic brand and it costs like less than $10." UUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

My lawyer-in-training husband offered to try to sue the pharmicst who told me there wasn't a generic option, for the $315 difference that I've paid over the past six months. Hmmm...

Nah.