Surprise...

Okay, ok... I know it's been awhile. I apologize - life has gotten busy lately.

Anyways, big news: Matt's brother emailed him. That seemed big to me, but it turns out his brother & wife just had a baby - so that's much bigger. His name is Nathaniel Levi Hinton, so now we're an aunt & uncle again.

I feel a little weird about it - I was so happy for Jeff & Kristina (and Lucas and Addison) and worried and I felt really involved with them. This one seems really abstract to me - well, I guess I've never really met any of the players (parents), so it's understandable. Matt's family is so weird, I don't get them.

On the home front - oh, dear, the worst thing just happened.

Last night, we were at home, Matt had worked late, but we were playing the LEGO Indiana Jones right before gonig to bed, when all of a sudden I realized that there was a gargantuan bug crawling up the wall. Icky icky icky icky.

And here's where Matt made an incalculabe mistake - he said "it'll just make it's way outside, c'mon let's keep playing the game."

WHAT?!?!?

I wouldn't rest until the vermin was exterminated (and Matt didn't get to play the game until it was gone, either...) but for one of the first times in my life I wussed out and acted like a girly-girl. I didn't exactly scream, but I have to admit I freaked out, which freaked Matt out.

And in my defense the bug was BIG - like three inches and then plus a huge antenna. Matt said it's a...shudder... cockroach. He also claims that because we are close to the tropics, we're going to get bigger bugs and more of them. He claims that it's normal to have them in the house in NOLA, but I don't know if I believe him - I still have that NoDak mindset that the only way a bug gets into your house is if it's really badly messy.

So I bleached the kitchen last night and made sure all of the food was in ziplocks. Today, after work, I forage for bug spray.

Definately not an overreaction, right?

Anyways, I'm going to try and be a better poster - let's see how that goes...
Barb.

All Day Salad...

Ooooh, so I tried out Welty's Deli - which is a couple of blocks from work, and it was great. I got this huge, gargantuan salad - when I worked in Ithaca I liked to occasionally get a salad from DP Dough, and that was usually a pretty large salad. But honestly, you could eat that in one sitting. And it can't hurt that it was named after Eudora Welty. So very literary. I think this Welty's salad is more like an all day thing - you know, for lunch, snacking, and dinner...

Anyways, it was a good find. So today we get a half day off and tomorrow all day off 'cuz the three presidents of North America (uhhh, canada, US & mexico) are all coming to Gallier hall, which is next door to the bar association. And they are closing all our parking lots, which meant that we couldn't park anywhere, so that meant that we couldn't go to work. :>

Nice little mini-vacation, I just wish I'd known about it earlier, I would have tried to plan to do something. Oh, well.

I'm on my third cold since I moved here. :< I'm thinking that it's the air conditioning, 'cuz I go outside, it's nice and warm, and I go inside and it's all rarified and cold. We've got air at home and in the office, well, the temperature is usually a little chilly for me.

I suppose if it wasn't I'd be complaining about that, so maybe it's better to be cooler and comfortable than warm and icky.

Everyone loves a parade...

So in the last two weeks, I've gone to two different parades. Parades are kinda a tradition around here, and went first to a "second line" parade and then a week later, to a "first line."

So the second line was on Easter, and it was the first one that I'd gone to - and was it fun. We showed up and there were all these barbeques going in the back of trucks, and people with these coolers on wheels, and everyone seemed to know each other. And they were all gathered around talking around the first block or two. So I found a place to watch the parade, thinking, "well, they'll go right by here and I'll have a good view."

Well, it turns out that second line parades, what they do is that instead of waiting for the parade to come to you, everyone goes to the parade and dances along with it. So it starts out on 1st street, then within a few minutes, no one is on 1st any more, 'cuz they've all moved to 2nd. And the food people, they all drive along with the parade.

All the pics that I took, it looked like people were just standing around, so I tried out the movie option on my camera, and got a little movie with the sound of the band.

Matt said that lots of these kinds of parades will have these ringer musicians, so they're professionals that the parade people knew, and they'll walk along with the parade. The one I was watching had that, and they had some people who were members of the Original Pigeon-town steppers and social club, but others were musicians that they recruited.

It was more of an experience than a parade, it was pretty cool.



Anyways, so then the next week I went to the Irish-Italian first line parade. And that was more like the regular parades they have up north. The parade comes to you instead of the reverse.

So Matt & I park the car and then walk a quarter of mile from the parking lot, past one of the staging areas (that looks like it started the party early) and the parade slowly comes along, kinda meandering it's way down one of the busiest streets in Metairie.

Matt runs off to go take some photos, and I look at the first few floats, and the crowd waves at the float and the people on the float throw them beads. So I think I have the system all figured out, and so on the next float, I wave at the people on the float and they throw down a package of pasta.

So now I have to carry this around? And the lady standing next to me says, "yup, that's why we bring these big bags and boxes." She went on to tell me that she was making "Parade Stew" that night. And then someone thew a potato at me.



Matt said that he was wounded by a carrot, but he seemed okay. Turns out they throw all sorts of fruits and veggies off the floats. Cabbage seems to be popular, but I don't know why.



If I'd known that they were throwing bananas, I wouldn't have gotten them when I went grocery shopping that morning.

We stayed for about an hour, and then Matt had to go take pictures of something else, then we went for lunch at a place that was just off the parade route, and the parade was still going on, so we wandered down to check it out.



Lots of parade stuff still going on. Then, just for fun, we drove over the overpass that went over the parade, and took photos out of the window - unfortunately, I was driving too fast, so no good pics from that...

So that was pretty exciting, and I got potatoes and pasta and beads, so I think it all worked out well. Someone at work told me that at the Mardi Gras parades, they throw coconuts that are decorated out of the float, and they beaned too many people and were sued - so that the city passed an ordinance that you had to hand the coconuts off of the float to people. But no laws against cabbages. Yet.

Anyways, it was a good time... Talk to you later...

The Quest for the nearly perfect couch...

So, when I moved the stuff down, we only had a little cargo van. It works well for the little stuff and the treadmill, but not so much if I wanted to take the couch. The comfy antique crushed red velvet couch? Still in my folks' attic, with the wooden claw foot sawn off. Sad, but true. I should have just donated the couch to one of the drama productions around town, but I didn't.

Anyways, ever since we moved into the apartment, Matt's been all big on getting a couch. I don't think either one of us has ever really bought a couch before - I inherited the red couch, and I think the couch he had was from an old roommate. And here's a problem I never really considered - when you go into a town that had a flood, you have to be a little suspicious of anything in the goodwill - like maybe it was in the flood and dried out and given to goodwill. I couldn't believe it, that's one of the first places we hit up, and the entertainment centers all had waterlines on them. It was kinda weird.

So, we didn't really find anything that great at any of the places. We went from the thrift store to some chic furniture place and you know, they were really nice sofas. A little out of our league sofas, but really nice to look at. In New Orleans, there's a big population of interior designers and people who don't mind paying more for the purple micro-faux-suede couch in the shape of an antique fainting couch but with a gazillion pillows upholstered in zebra print.

Then we went to the "Bargain Annex" of the same chic-chic (she-she?) store, and they had the most aggressive sales-slime I've ever met. "Heya, young couple, you know you are sitting on the most popular couch right there. You know you are looking across the aisle at the most popular couch." Then we'd ask him if he had the same couch in a different color and he'd tell us to go back to the non-bargin annex.

Anyways, so every day after work, Matt and I have been hitting up these furniture stores. And I was tired of it. So by chance we swung into one that I'd been in in Covington (across the bridge) but not in New Orleans area.

And Matt liked the most hideous couch in there - no, wait, there was a lime green sofa-recliner - the second most hideous. It had paisley swirls all over the couch, and striped pillows and weird embellishments, and, well, it was kinda icky.

But then we sat on the Patriot Sand colored couch, and it was comfy. Really comfy. And it was less expensive than anything else. So, we went to dinner (oooh, at Raising Canes, yum) and went to a different branch to see if they had the hideous couch in some other color.

They didn't but they had the Patriot Sand couch there, too.

It's weird that the color is Patriot Sand. I guess that's better than "neutral tan." Now they have to deliver it - Matt originally was going to be home on Thursday, but the paper called and asked him to work on Thursday, soooooo, we called to try and get them to deliver it on Friday, but it's good Friday, so we may never get the couch.

Before we stumbled into Patriot Sand couch, we were going to order the couch off IKEA and have it shipped in pieces to us. With all these headaches about the delivery, I think that might have been a better idea.

Oh, well, I guess at least Matt gets his couch - okay, I might sit on it too... But I gotta say, our apartment is carpeted, and it's pretty soft stuff... Huh...

Anyways, talk to you later,
Barb.

No paradiso napkin yet...

Okay, so I haven't found a new paradiso napkin yet, no architectural renderings.

The job is pretty cool. I like it so far. I think it's funny that there's a kitchen on every floor of the building (we have the smallest kitchen, but it's right across from my office...)

I share an office with Darlene. She likes listening to classical music on low, so that's pretty cool.

On the first day, I went into the office, and Darlene was there and she was all like "Don't worry - this isn't really your desk, and this isn't really your computer." So, they had ordered me a new desk and computer but they hadn't arrived yet so they put up temporary ones. I didn't tell her that the desk was nicer than the one I'd had at my last job...

Anyways, so Darlene was busy on the first day, so she gave me a stack of magazines to read, magazines like the one we publish. So, that was it for the first day...

On the second day, she gave me more magazines.
On the third day, the desk showed up, and she gave me magazines that we publish.
On the fourth day, the computer showed up (without the software I needed...)
On the fifth day the software showed up (yay!).

So, that was week one. Not bad - Darlene has been showing me some good places to eat in the area. I've been trying to bring my lunch, to be healthier than I used to be, but alotta the stuff is way too tempting. On my third day of work, they took me out to this restaurant called "Draggo's" which was downtown.

I've never really been a big fan of seafod, but I had the red snapper and it was delicious. Like it didn't really taste like fish - Darlene says that when they pull it right out of the water and cook it, it rarely tastes fishy.

And then we went to this building that looked like a bank on the outside, but when you went in, it looked like a mall. Deceptive space - and we ate sushi at a food court there. And then, we went to the place I've liked the best, the 11th floor of the Pan-Am building. There's a cafeteria there, and they make different kinds of foods. We went on friday and they had a potato bar, with delicious kinds of stuff, I loved it.

The people at work are really nice, so I like that, and they all pretty much love New Orleans and love to share their opinions on what they like to eat.

In fact, it's really weird, but everyone seems to really like food there. There's one gal that's on a diet where she eats 6 times a day. And today we had a pre-meeting meeting to discuss what we were going to be eating at the meeting tomorrow. Uhmmm, seriously.

I'm just going to have to treadmill more often, no worries....

At last....

Dear Auntie Dolly...

Sorry it's been so long, but stuff has been happening.

Ooooh, and the interview I was all worried about? I got the job, they liked me anyways. So that's cool. I'm gonna be the "Communications Coordinator" for the Lousiana State Bar Association. They put out a magazine every other month and a tab every other month from that. Also they need various different things designed & some house ads, brochures, etc. So that's cool. And it's in this totally historic old building that's completely beautiful.

So apartments in New Orleans aren't easy to find. We looked around alot lookin' at a bunch of them. Ithaca's tight, but around here it's not tight so much as they just came out of a tight time and still think that they can charge the same rates. Plus, after living thru the Grand Forks Flood, I didn't really want anything on the first floor or anything in a house or anything like that. So we would go to these big complex type places and they'd be all like "Well, we have a newly renovated first floor apartment that's beautiful." Is it newly renovated because it flooded here? "Why yes, the levee broke just over there...blah blah blah" the other thing that was a little aggrevating is that they charge all these fees, $50 to run a credit check on you, $100 for administrative fees, plus the security deposit, on top of the rent. And we would look at these places, and they wouldn't have the actual apartment to look at but rather a "Model" apartment and you could stand in one room and reach into another, mostly they were really really tiny and in these huge complexes, with lots of other people all around.

Anyways, so we called this one place and the guy's telephone pitch was horrible, he was all like "We don't take section 8. We don't do subsidized housing. We don't run no crazy house. How much do you make in a year?" before he'd even talk to me about the apartment itself. Totally weird, anyways, so I made an apointment, but was kinda thinking "Well, I can blow it off if we want" and we found this other apartment house that wasn't too horrible, and the rent was a little more affordable, and the lady at the building was pretty nice, so we were thinking that maybe we'd go there, but we went to the apointment anyways.

The place was huge, and was originally decorated in the 70s. Like this thick blue shag carpeting. Flurescent wallpaper. But it was two stories, and it has this wonderful window-seat that I was like "Oh, with a couple of pillows that'd be perfect for reading..." So we drove to the old place, and I was all like "I love it. Let's get that place." Plus the rent was more reasonable than anywhere else, but still in the ballpark. So I called him the next day and he told me that the one we looked at was already rented, but he had this other unit that was the same floorplan, just reversed, and if we came by to drop off the security deposit, we could take a look at it.

No 70s wallpaper. Light blue berber carpet. Beautiful window seat. The wallpaper still leaves something to be desired, but it's not horrible. So we took it. Yay! It seems pretty nice.

Once I get my computer moved over I'll make sure to draw out a floor plan on a Paradiso napkin and upload it... :>

Talk to you later,
Barb.

Interviews - yuck...

Dear Auntie Dolly...

So it's like spring down here, it's nice. Everyone keeps saying "just wait" but so far so good. I mean, it's like "what am I waiting for? 40 below zero?" One of the guys that we are staying with is from Indiana, and he said that the humidity will be something to cherish. I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic... hmmm...

We've been looking around for an apartment, but it's harder than Ithaca, if you can believe it. There's so many different neighborhoods, and we're trying to find something a little more central. But it's hard to know what's central until I have a job. Oh, well. I had an interview today, but I don't think it went well. It's weird, it's like dating - do they like you, what can you say to make them like you.... icky, I don't like it.

OK, here's the thing about the interview. I waited for two days for the lady to call me and set it up - like I hung out around the house waiting... waiting... waiting... And then she finally calls me on a Friday morning and sets it up for Monday morning. So all weekend, it's like I'm just waiting for Monday to happen. So I get up early on Monday, get all pretty and ready, I drive an hour into the heart of New Orleans, to someplace I hadn't been before, I get a little lost, I find the place, but I'm still a half hour early, so I walk around a little park. I waste some time, and finally go over there, I have to sign in with some gal at a counter before I find the receptionist, who calls the lady I have an interview with. She comes down like 5 minutes later, and takes me into this big impressive conference room, we sit down and she doesn't ask me any questions - she just tells me more about the job. Okay, I've already had two phone calls and an e-mail where she describes the job to me, but whatever, and I wait for her to ask me the interview questions, and she never really does.

SO I was done within 15 minutes. I paid for 4 hours of parking, so I walked around the area a bit, and then went to lunch at one of the nice little restaurants. I felt incredibly norsky. I didn't want to waste my parking time or something.

Okay, so I'm still not done with apartments: in Ithaca, you find a place, fill out an app and then start paying them money. In that duplex I lived in, they actually called my living references, my mom and the place I used to live. Which was weird. The lady interviewed my mom just like she was a landlord for me or something. Anyways, that's nothing compared to here - they have these "Service fees" for submitting an application that's supposed to cover the cost of them running a credit check and other stuff. So they can still turn you down, but keep your service fee.

Plus we've been cramped together in one bedroom in this gargantuan house. So now, everytime we go look at a place, matt says "You know, it looks a little sketchy." What he means is that compared to the Tudor Mansion that we've been living in, it looks not as big.

Anyways, let's see what else is new - uhhh, nothing I can think of. I've started to get a little restless, and a lot like a "Fer-in-ner" (hey - wasn't that a band?) Okay, injokes don't work well in e-mail. People talk different down here, and they sell homemade candy from their bikes in parking lots. They also tend to eat everything with seafood or onions on it. Weird. We found a thai place, and they had pineapple fried rice - but they made it with onions. I was like - what is this - no onions go into the pineapple fried rice that they made at the Taste of Thai in Ithaca?!

I think the thing I feel the weirdest about is not having a regular schedule. LIke before it was go to work, go home, talk to the folks, go to bed, get up go to work, etc. But now, it's just weird - I get up and go to sleep at different times, so that's probably what's throwing me off kilter mostly.

Anyways, I feel like this is a whiny entry, so feel free to ignore it. Most days I'm happy, today... today I just have to remind myself that there's a weird group of people out there who still like me for some reason. :>

Tuesday...

Dear Auntie Dolly...

Yup, it's Tuesday. What did I do today? Nearly nothing. I applied for a job at a hospital, it was an online app, and it took nearly forever.

It's weird, I always forget that applications seem to always want to know lots of information all in different formats and take awhile to fill out. I filled this one out, got to the button that said "Finish & Submit" and it gave me an error. This one was like 10 different pages of info and then it didn't submit. Sigh. So I called them and asked if they received it or if they could fix it, and the guy I talked to was all like, "Uhm, no." And then he went on to tell me that they were having problems with the server, so maybe I should call them to make sure the server was up before I filled it out again.

And I want to work there?

That was pretty much it for the day, I didn't do much else, which still feels pretty nice.

Anyways, I hope you're all doing well... Barb.

Looks like I made it...

Dear Auntie Dolly...

Well, I left the folks' on Wednesday - the day after a huge storm down south. Pennsylvania seemed to take forever to drive through, and then when it was about 8-ish and I was in Virginia, it started to get all windy and rainy, so I decided to stop for the night. But that meant that I had to drive 13 hours on Thursday to get to Matt's. So I got in a little late, but that was okay.

Today he has the day off, so we goofed off, and I recuperated, which was good. Also, I think it's pretty funny that the most important thing was to get the computer setup this morning. I'd start working on the laptop, which he's been using for work and stuff ever since he left, and he'd say, "oh, look at this..." get me distracted, and then sneak in while I was off doing that other thing. Silly tricks.

It was a fast trip, I listened to a couple of audio books and the states seemed to whiz by. I did see the world's only musical museum in a building the shape of a guitar. Pretty neat-o. Also I resisted the siren call of Dollywood, which I also drove by. Sometime I'll have to go, I think...

Anyways, I'm off job searching... Oh, the fun and excitement.

Last Day of work, first day of freedom?

Ooooh, Dear Aunt Dolly....

Last Wednesday was my last day at work - and it was a long day - I worked 14 hours, but walked out at 10 that night thinking that maybe stuff would be okay. Then I got up the next morning and made a graphic for them and sent it in to Allison. Then I was all good the next day.

It's weird trying to get used to not working - like I keep doing little things and obssessing about weird things. Like the music for my trip, I've spent several days trying to get the perfect mix. People were nice as I was leaving - they had cake and bagels and they wanted me to give a speech (I'm not great at that, oh, wait, I'm horrible at that).

But now it's over and I can look forward to the next part, right after I'm done being spoiled by my mom.

Yup, I was originally going to take off right away, but the first day I was exhausted, the next two days were ice storms, then it was the weekend (and who wants to go then?) then there was quilting. And today? I was supposed to get up early and go, but I was up last night until 3 talking to Joanna... okay and doing some stuff and stuff, so now I'm back to being exhausted. Plus it's super Tuesday and the polls don't open 'til noon. I might finish packing the car and take off early tomorrow, yeah, that sounds like a great plan....

I'll update you tomorrow. :>

Things to watch out for...

DAD...

So, I'm still at work, getting close to the end of the two weeks for the notice. Yesterday, they offered me more money to stay. That was nice, but I still say that if I was ever in it for the money, I would have been a plumber.

The other advice that everyone seems to offer is things to watch out for during the interview. Like, if they ask you four times "Are you sure you want to work here? Really. Honestly, are you sure?" Big red flag.

Someone else said to watch out for the decor of the place - if it looks like they haven't remodeled since Eisenhower, how likely are they to give you a raise?

Oooooh, and another one to watch out for - if they offer you a supervisory position, but then you ask how many people you'll be managing, and it turns out the only one you manage is you, watch out. That probably means you'll be doing the work and hours of four, but only getting only the one paycheck...

Hmmm, funny stuff...
Talk to you later,
Barb.
(PS: That's a funny photo of me from Christmas, Richard got me a T-shirt from "The Office" that was really funny. I love it...)

Dear Auntie Dolly (and others) ....

So, I put my two-week notice in at work. I'm going to be leaving and moving to New Orleans. It's pretty exciting, I'll join Matt, who is already down there. He's pretty stoked about it. It's an all new journey, and I've been delaying it a little - spending time at my folk's, and just hanging out with Richard and Joanna.

It seems like unless I'm in the vicinity, it gets hard to know the two of them, or even talk to them too much. Like, I feel like I know them better than ever before, but at the same time, I don't think I know them very well.

The other thing is the whole uncertainty of moving down there. I don't have a job just yet, so that's a little scary. One of the things that's totally weird about our world today is that it's so defined by what you do. One of the first things people ask you is "What do you do?"

Plus, after having worked at a newspaper, I'm not sure I want to do that anymore. It's honestly amazing how many people at work have said they wouldn't work at another paper. What's more than just a little disturbing is how many "exit strategies" people have.

Here's some quotes: "When I leave, I'm deleting this file right here, then they can't use my work for years after I leave."

"I'm going to destroy my computer's harddrive."

"I'm setting a fire and walking away..."

Like I said, scary. Here's another quote, "I don't have a choice, 'cuz I followed my husband here - I've got to stay working until he's out of school. But I'm never going to work for another paper again - you're too smart to do that..."

Anyways, just a weird time - maybe all people just hope for the day they can quit, and seeing someone else leave gives them that window into what could be...

Talk at you later,
Barb.