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.