N.O.

Well, I'm back at work after my big New Orleans Saints Monday Night Football extravaganza. It was fun. We had seats in the terrace level, the highest level (nose-bleed section). We had a great view of the field. It was a little hard to see U2 and Green Day when they performed, but I took pictures when they showed them on the big video screen. It was really something. The biggest negative thing was getting into the stadium. They had blocked off some of the entryways to the second level, where all the doors to get in are. We speculated they were doing something for Bush1 who was the coin tosser. They aggrevated the situation by putting a stage right in front of the doors at the top of the entry ramps. This caused a crowd to form from the stage at the top all the way down the ramps. We, and thousands of others, squeezed thru a small gate entrance to the parking garage, up a small staircase and onto the upper terrace level. That didn't help much. We still got stuck inthe very thick crowd. We moved very slow, taking baby steps and inching our way to the front doors. When we got near the stage we realized the crowd could have dispersed to either side of the stage and entered thru other gates that surround the dome. We barrelled thru the crowd and out the side of the crowd and got in immediately at the next gate. Really poor planning by the dome crowd control people.
Once inside, it was fine. It was nice and cool. There were still way too many people, but it was to be expected. The beer was warm, just like it used to be. I had two pulled pork sandwiches that were good. The game was great b/c we won.
After the game, we walked back to the quarter, quite a hike. There were lots of people partying in the quarter, but it certainly wasn't packed. My friends from new Orleans said it had been dead all weekend. Unusual.
My friend manages some restaurants in the quarter, so we went to one of them to have a beer and rest. Then we went to our group's favorite bar, the Gold Mine, but it was closed for the night. So, we went to the Old Absinthe House. My friends are straight and I was bored. I had also stopped drinking earlier b/c I was queezy. So, I ended up being the only sober person in a group of drunks. Not a good idea.
We stayed out till around 330 and went back to the room. Had to get up at 730 to leave. I took off Tuesday to relax. Whew! Now onto the Baltimore game in October.

Party!!!!

Well this is the big weekend I've been waiting for. My friends, Rob and Jen, are coming in from St. Louis to stay at my house. My friend Ed, from DC (orig. from N.O.) is also coming in. Others that will be at my house, my friends Jack and Beth from Lafayette; Beth's boyfriend Todd, who I went to high school with; Kim and Kyle, who are married. I went to high school with Kyle. I met kim in college. When Kyle decided to come to school in Lafayette, I introduced him to Kim. The rest is history. Now Kim is pregnant! My friends Barry (another one from high school) and Ben (barry's ex-bro in law who I've known since he was a kid) will also be there. Susie can't come b/c she is celebrating her mother's 60th b'day with a trip to London for the weekend. She left yesterday(Thursday) and will be back Monday. Quite a whirlwind trip.
Anyway, we finished putting together the photo album for Rob and Jen. Remember, they lost everything in katrina. I found a few more pics, some from college, others from their wedding, that will need to be placed in the album before they get here.
Beth is bringing gumbo and boudin, so that will be what we are eating. I still have to pick up beer, rice and french bread, plus a dessert.
I received some great news from Ed last week. He has an extra ticket to the Saints Versus Falcons game on Monday night football this monday. It's the Saints first game back in the Dome and I'm excited. U2, Green Day and the GooGooDolls will perform; Irma Thomas will sing the anthem and Bush 1 will toss the coin. Wish they could have gotten Clinton to toss the coin, but at least it's not Bush 2. I will go down to the Quarter Monday at noon. I leave work early. I'll park in the Quarter and cab to the dome, so I'll be able to drink at the game. It looks to be a really big event. The internat'l news media will be there plus, GMA, CNN, etc. I'm very excited.
I'll write later to let you know how it went.

Annoyed

I'm annoyed quite often. Usually it's the REALLY poor drivers in Baton Rouge, or the lies that the wingnuts spew all day as disinformation against their massive failures of the past 6 years and their absolute hatred of the Clintons and anything good in the world. Today it's my working conditions. I work in a computer room which, for those who aren't familiar with the IT world, is very, very cold. They keep it cold because the mainframe and servers need it to be cold. We counter the cold by bringing heaters. I finally remembered to bring my heater today. I plugged it in and was enjoying the new-found comfort when my computer shut off. I immediately knew I had blown a circuit breaker with the addition of the heater to the circuit. This is not an uncommon occurence in the world of work. I didn't think it was such a big deal till the maintenance guy came to fix the circuit and told me there is nowhere for me to plug in my heater. So, I'm going to have to just be very, very cold at work all the time. My cubicle neighbor has a heater, but with only one circuit, she can have hers but I can't have mine. Therefore, I'm annoyed. Why they stick humans in cold ass rooms like this is beyond my comprehension. At least they are promisiing that we will be moved out of this cold room when they remodel. Of course, the remodel will be done in dog years. I might be retired by then (just 22 more years!).
On another subject, my friends, Rob and Jenn, who are from New orleans, but moved to St. Louis after the storm,, will be visiting again at the end of September. Rob worked for the Saints and wanted to be in the Superdome for the first home game after the storm. I believe it's a Monday night game. We've nearly completed their photo album. They will be visiting for a couple of days and staying at my house. My friend Ed, also from new Orleans, but who has lived in Washington, DC for years, will be there too. He's the one whose brother I helped after the storm. His brother worked for the water board, who control the water pumps that always fail to pump the water out of the city. He made it to Baton Rouge after the storm and needed a place to stay till he could catch a flight to DC. He had lost his ID and had to wait for his brother to send his ID so he could use it to get on the plane. They don't look all that alike, but it worked, and he was off to DC.
Unfortunately, my friend Susie won't be able to join us this time. She will be in London with her mom for her mom's 60th birthday.