peeks

As noted in the previous post, life has been busy and unsettled, so I haven't had time for the blog (also why you haven't seen a 101 in 1001 post in awhile...I'll be doing the list wrap-up this weekend!). In the meantime, here's what the month of March has looked like:

E, A, M, Richie, and I (with a few other strangers) went to Serendipity for Eric's birthday and had three cheese platters, including this birthday one.

Much-anticipated Indian Potluck for the Around the World potlucks.

Helping out Richie and his stepdad at work. I sanded the shit out of some doors and baseboards.

A wealth of St. Patrick's day cabbages. One of these cabbages is not real. Another of these cabbages is actually a Moon Pie.

Resting in my hotel room after a whirlwind day of two flights to Chicago, a business reception, 4 glasses of wine + a cheese platter + a pitcher of sangria with Erin, and a high of 28.

Annual photograph with Erin :) Except this year's will be bi-annual because I'll be back in Chicago for her October wedding! (SQUEE.)

Enjoying Louisiana warmth with Lianna at The Fly.

gras fotos

I was going to upload Mardi Gras photos with the 101 in 1001 February roundup but I decided they deserve their own post.

First, I need you to play this in the background. I heard this song at least 10 times while walking 100s of blocks all over the city, and I never failed to start dancing.

The night of Endymion was miserable and rainy. Richie lives very close to Canal and Carrollton, so even though we were without rain gear, we thought we'd just run down the street and get some ponchos. We ended up taking refuge on the porch of an insurance company while waiting for the rain to calm down. Endymion ended up being great though--we got drunk at Richie's job, met some nice people and the rain stopped about 3 floats in.

Some friends we made while parading. Two of them were in Box of Wine and hooked us up with copious amounts of vin when they passed, since we shared so much of our booze with them at parades. This photo was taken at Hermes, right after I insisted everyone take a celebratory shot from the bottle of Jack Daniels in my bag. Like a LADY.

 

L to R; Paul S., self, Suz, Jesse. On Sunday, My friend Susan, her boyfriend Jesse, and Jesse's roommate, Paul, came into town for their first Mardi Gras ever. We had a long day--65 blocks of walking (yes, I counted them), LOTS of alcohol and  4 parades (Okeanos, Mid-City, Thoth, Bacchus). They enjoyed it. This was the day I got hit in the face twice with beads. Once was at Okeanos, when someone threw some giant beads that hit me so hard in the mouth that I cut the inside of my upper and lower lips. I worried it had chipped my falsie tooth, but luckily, things seem to be okay there. Later, someone threw a handful of beads at a throwback float and they hit me square in the side of the head and left little goose eggs on my forehead. This was also the day that Ashley got engaged.

My parents came in on Lundi Gras. This is us at Orpheus. I drank pretty much the entire contents of a bottle of Crown that evening (some of which is still in that cup I'm holding). My outfit here is a variation on what I wore to most parades: leggings or tights, 10-year old Chucks (seriously, those things have been through so much: various Mardi Gras seasons, every music festival I've ever attended, plus being my go-to tennis shoes), tutu, top, thrift store military jacket. This night ended badly--I got sick due to a potent combo of alcohol, little food, and 5 hour energy drinks. I had a bad anxiety attack later, made worse by my darling little brother, who didn't show up at my house until 7am (without responding to my multiple texts about where he was and if he needed me to come get him). But the day was good until that point.

Downtown, right after Zulu. I was in an AWFUL mindset at this point: very little sleep, all friends except Matt totally bailed on going to the parade, still not feeling well, parents disappeared. But a super nice lady at Zulu gave me one of the many coconuts she caught and her gesture was a small bit of loveliness in what ended up being a fairly shitty day otherwise.

"but you'll fight and you'll make it through/ you'll fake it if you have to"

I didn't mean to take nearly a month's hiatus from the blog, but life has been so busy lately. Plus, I'm sure no one minded :)

Things have been a little tumultuous lately. As it stands today, I've received three letters of rejection from programs: OSU, Vanderbilt, and Rutgers. OSU was a blow for me; I was really hoping to get into that program. Still waiting to hear from LSU, Stanford and Indiana. Before I sent in apps last semester, one of my professors told me that a longer wait is not a bad thing--it usually means they're still considering your application instead of outright rejecting it. I'm holding out hope that this is the case for Stanford. It probably isn't--they probably just have a billion applications to sort through--but a girl can dream, can't she?

I also, after much consideration and a long talk with my adviser, decided to nix the thesis. In the end, I think I could have done it, but I would have been insane trying to squeeze in a thesis between work, carnival season, Chicago/AWP. The sheer volume of work I'd have to do in a month, even barring those extras, would have been incredible. And I decided, and supported in this decision by Tom, that I didn't want to write something hurriedly and end up publishing something that I wasn't 100% proud of writing. I'm still a little bummed about the way things played out, but also admittedly relieved that I've been able to have a free semester. I've been reading a LOT (I'm caught up on #19 on the list!), I went to TWENTY Mardi Gras parades, I saw lots of friends, I've had time to clean my house and watch movies and be a little lazy, which has been a rare luxary over the past two years. I feel good about what I did--I finished my MLA in a year and a half. I'm graduating with a 3.95 GPA. I learned a lot and made an amazing friend. And now I just want a little time to enjoy New Orleans some more, especially if it might be my last time for a long time to live here. 

In addition to the above, and maybe because of in some sense, I've also been fighting some depressive episodes this month. When I first started this entry a few days ago, I was listening to this Rilo Kiley song on repeat in an effort to remind myself that I've gotten to a place in life where I know how to fight those situations. This has just been a tough one. I've had multiple anxiety attacks this month. I've been trying to center myself with balanced friend and alone time, cooking, cuddling with the cat, and whiskey. The last in moderation. Mostly.

But, all in all, it's been a fairly good month. Mardi Gras was a blast (excepting the actual day, which was awful for me for reasons I don't want to go into here), I ran around in a leather corset and a tutu, I saw friends, I got a Zulu coconut, my friend got engaged, Richie made me an AMAZING Valentine's Day dinner (seared scallops on garlic butter angel hair, followed by duck breast topped with a cream and Abita Amber reduction, on a bed of pureed turnips and garlic sauteed kale) and I made him one of the best cakes I've ever made--a double layered red velvet cake with a layer of cheesecake in the middle. I'm ready to round out the month with a train ride to Chicago, panels on writing, playing in one of my favorite cities and spending a week with some of my very favorite people.

and sometimes when you're on 

you're really fucking on
and your friends they sing along and they love you
but the lows are so extreme

that the good seems fucking cheap
and it teases you for weeks in its absence
but you'll fight and you'll make it through
you'll fake it if you have to
and you'll show up for work with a smile
and you'll be be better and you'll be smarter
and more grown up and a better daughter
or son and a real good friend
and you'll be awake, you'll be alert
you'll be positive though it hurts
and you'll laugh and embrace all your friends
and you'll be a real good listener
you'll be honest, you'll be brave
you'll be handsome and you'll be beautiful
you'll be happy

mardi gras 2011

Friday:
-Drove into Baton Rouge, met Nelson and Christie at Red Star.
-Ate Taco Bell at 2:00am with Christie
-Drink count: 2 whiskeys

Saturday:
-Rain + Spanish Town parade
-Text from Kimberly: “BR is under tornado watch. Are you still doing Spanish Town?” Me: “I NEVER MISS SPANISH TOWN.”
-Ross, Peter and Scott meetup. Hounddogs for pool and more drinking
-Found Nelson and took him wandering
-Foiled opportunity for crawfish
-Georges for sandwiches and beer + The Goonies on ABC Family
-Nap at Blair and Peter’s apartment before drive home to NOLA
-Grocery shopping with Nelson at 11:30
-Meet up with Alyson and Cain at Pal’s
-Move party to Mid-City Yacht Club
-Watched weird Girls Gone Wild-esque videos at the bar until 3:30am
-Drink count: 2 Abita Strawberry Harvest, 12 oz. cup of vodka soaked gummy bears, Jello shot, Blood Mary, vodka + Gatorade, High Life, Sangria, Abita Amber

Sunday:
-Woke up at 9am to make king cakes
-Made 2 delicious Nutella cream cheese-filled cakes
-Peter arrived in NOLA
-Vodka + Gatorade
-Ridiculous driving escapades. Almost-wreck count: 7
-Parking on Danneel and Josephine after an hour of driving around. Assisted by group of people who asked us for some kush
-Unexpected Krewe of Thoth
-Box of Wine parade
-Wine consumed out of fake manbreasts
-Meetup with Eric
-Safety Gras rules outlined
-Missed most of Chewbacchus waiting in bathroom line at Igor’s
-Followed end of Chewbacchus with band playing the Imperial March and us playing air guitar
-Lots of wandering, trying to find people/a party, catching beads
-Miles and miles of walking around uptown
-Crawling in someone’s hedge to pee
-Shady Kwicky Mart experience where someone tried to sell me some coke
-Delachaise for fish and chips, chalkboard falling on Peter’s head, free food, random gay guy telling Peter and I that we were meant for each other, watching Endymion from windows before deciding to go outside
-20 pound bag of beads flying at my head. Girl tries to take them before telling me, “Well if you REALLY want them, you can just have them.”Me: “I mean, I kind of do.”
-Peter and I victoriously lugging beads 19 blocks back to car
-Mimi’s and meeting up with Eddie + Jason after they walked from the Convention Center to the Marigny
-Calling 911 for an awful wreck and being put on hold; finding Eddie’s car
-Sleepover!
-Drink Count: vodka + Gatorade, 2 High Lifes, Restoration Ale

Monday:
-Nelson back to Arkansas, Eddie and Jason back to BR
-Little Tokyo with Peter
-Nap
-Christie and Blair arrive
-Neighbors’ friend shows up with 2 black eyes and can’t find people. Drama ensues
-Walk to Z’OTZ for iced coffee
-Drama continues to ensue, 6 phone calls from neighbors
-Walk home; drama ends
-Eddie and Ross arrive
-Scrambled eggs for Blair
-Eric arrives/leaves
-Pal’s for air hockey, free food, drinking, finding and friending another Mandi, new nicknames
-Mimi’s again for pool, brass band dancing, potatoes, Blair being hilariously lewd
-Marigny singalong
-Bob’s house
-Leaving Blair and Ross to party while me + Christie + Peter +Eddie went home, scrambled more eggs, ate leftover noodles and went to sleep
-Drink count: vodka + orange juice, High Life, 2 gingeritas, ½ NOLA Hopitoulas

Tuesday:
-Blair and Ross arrive back at 9am
-Miss all parades due to sleeping
-Rouse everyone to go party, get grumbled at
-Bud’s Broiler for burgin’
-Food coma, everyone sleeps on floor
-Blair leaves
-Cooter Brown’s for Eric meetup, beers, oysters
-Chatted, ate, drank outside while it rained
-Tentative plans for Spring Break beach camping trip
-Hugs, kisses, everyone goes home
-Glorious, glorious sleep
-Drink count: 2 Abita Ambers