Katabasis

Once again I wait too long between entries.  In the meantime, the pendulum swings one way, then the other, and now finally I think I’m back to a (somewhat) even keel.  

Early to mid April was kind of blah.  S was working and stressing too much, and I was alternating working too much for the time of year with not being productive at all.  Then the Boston thing happened, definitely unsettling. We went to New Orleans a few weeks ago – left on Friday afternoon, uneventful flight.  Checked in took a nice walk around the neighborhood, sushi dinner at Geisha, really nice cocktails at 21st Amendment at La Louisane and drinks/snacks/piano bar at Spirits.  We saw Spirits on Bar Rescue and I really wanted to go take a shot in the barber chair, which we never ended up doing – bah!  I had no idea it was a piano bar, but it was really nice to sit and have drinks and listen to music.  We were making some pretty bizarre mash-up requests which was funny at the time.  Stayed out too late and drank from a fishbowl.  Yup.

The next day we got up super early, picked up the rental car, and headed out to the Angola Rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.  Yes, a rodeo in a prison – yahoo!  This is a huge thing they do in October and April each year, the prison is a maximum security facility, but is located on a huge campus including a farm.  Many of the inmates work with animals every day and they seem to have a ton of working programs for them, which I think is a great thing.  The rodeo itself has been going on for almost 50 years now.  I had my reservations (putting people who don’t have a ton to lose in dangerous situations for public amusement?) but S has been aching to go for years now so I got the tickets for our anniversary this year.  The drive was nice, we got lunch on the way which was a good thing because I think everything at the rodeo was fried at least once.  Just the smell was making me a little sick – deep fried Coke and deep fried Onion Blossoms…why?  

The rodeo itself was really wild.  We walked around for an hour or so, the inmates were working at the food stands and in the booths selling various items (called hobbycraft) that they’d made.  There were paintings, woodworking, leather goods (including fake branded items, so strange!)  I was super-impressed at the variety of activities they had for the inmates, booths were run by various clubs and the convicts had designed their own personalized tee-shirts for the rodeo.  The inmates aren’t allowed to handle cash, so there were employees and/or volunteers at each stand to take money.  If you wanted to buy some of the hobbycrafts, you’d get a ticket, bring it to a booth to pay, and then give the prisoner a chit they can exchange for goods at the commissary or whatever.  They have lots of educational programs to and Angola was one of the first facilities where inmates could attend college classes and earn a degree. Honestly, the prison was far better equipped than my high school!    

We got a sno-cone, took our seats, and then the festivities started out.  It was just too much:
– Christian equestrian group – riders with wings, spears, trumpets and long blond wigs, long white robes, on white horses with long flowing manes.  So bizarre!
– Inmates riding bucking horses 
– Inmates riding angry bulls
– Four inmates playing poker, angry bulls released, last one to get up wins
– Inmates standing in hula hoop with angry bull released, last one to step out of their hoop gets prize
– Rodeo clown jumping over tractor trailor on motorcycle
– Female non-inmate barrel racers guiding horses around a path marked by barrels ,this was cancelled when one of the horses fell and a few slipped, luckily none hurt
– Absolute best part: Tiny monkey-jockeys riding on sheepdogs, herding miniature goats!
– Finale involved 20 inmates competing to pull a poker chip from the forehead of an angry bull.  The same guy has won this for the past 7 or so years, good for him!

I was on the edge of my seat the whote time, a few people injured but no major incidents luckily.  The horses and bulls had straps on their balls to agitate them, and the rodeo clowns would entice the bulls to run at the inmates with scarves and motion.  It’s interesting, for sure.  The rodeo is big business now – raises a lot of money and the funds go back towards educations programs for inmates, so in the end I’ll say it’s a good thing.  It’s obvious this is something the inmates look forward to all year.

Way home was uneventful, we drove a few hours, got food, stopped at an outlet mall and S bought some shoes.  Didn’t do much in the evening, we had the rental car so we drove St. Charles and Magazine Streets – so much has changed.  So many great new restaurants in our old neighborhood, there’s a whole corridor of adorable shops and restos that wasn’t there a few years ago.  I love it, would really like to take a few days and just explore that area.  But we had to drop off the car, so we headed downtown again, did that, then went to dinner at Angeli, because S needs to eat there every single time we go to NOLA.  Slept in the next day, then got up, got breakfast and took a nice walk through the Marigny to the Bywater.  Another completely new area for me,I l really loved it and want to explore more.  Hit Harry’s Corner on the way out of the Quarter, then hung out at Lost Love Lounge for a good long while.  Too many rum and cokes while watching The Hangover II on their big screen – yahoo.  We ordered spring rolls in an attempt to stave off premature drunkenness but it was a lost cause.  Best iced coffee ever at Booty and excellent discovery of their bathroom art installations by Big Freedia and a guy from last season of Project Runway that I have no recollection of.  He must not have been that memorable, but the installations were really neat.  

After Booty we headed to Bacchanal, a really fun wine shop/restaurant/backyard patio with live music.  Outside was already packed, so we found a table in the new space upstairs.  S got wine, ordered food, and then we got to meet up with Miss Chase and her new beau!  They were great hosts, both so sweet and charming.  In contrast, I drank way too much wine and deteriorated to a ridiculous beast after a few hours.  Honestly I don’t think I was even making sense after a while – conversation topics included us deciding we’d like to come back as [bluesea]’s children in our next lives, and me getting indignant with S because I thought he directed me to a bathroom with no doors.  What?!  Yeah, there were doors, just pocket doors, not swinging ones.  In my defense, I’ve seen some weird bathrooms over the years, including one that same day with only a shower curtain as divider (Lost Love), but really, a bathroom with no doors?!  In retrospect I just have to laugh at myself.  Then, at some point I decided it was a great idea to start picking Chase up and swinging her around.  Because of course, she is so cute and tiny, you just have to swing her around.  It was all fun and games until I lost balance, and fell onto her, crushing her.  It was so bad, I am just glad she wasn’t killed or marred for life.  Welcome to my world – it’s a fun place to visit but there are no doors on the toilets and you may be smushed by a wayward giant at any moment.  Ugh. 

The next day we got up, checked in with Chase who was thankfully okay or at least toughing it out, and walked around a bit.  It was a really nice day but I was in a horrible mood until the evening when we got dressed and headed over for the grand opening of Pêche.  The building itself was awesome, kind of a neat renovated old warehouse with lots of crumbling brick, marble counters, and reclaimed wood tables.  Really neat space.  The lighting was a bit bright and I saw children in the restaurant, but other than that, very inviting.  The food was excellent!  We started out with a "seafood salad" that was more like a ceviche of different white fishes in citrus.  So good.  We had a cup of gumbo, which was nice, and then the entrees.  I had the grilled tuna with olive salad, and S had the daily fish which was I think catfish with a puree of leeks and potato.  Everything was yummy.  That was already too much food but somehow we always end up overdoing it in New Orleans so we shared a slice of key lime pie and a glass of port.  Weirdly they only had a half-glass of port left (on the first day?) but it was tasty (and free) so who can complain.  Flight home was uneventful, nice short work week but a productive one.  

On Thursday we went to a library event that sounded cool but ended up being really odd.  There was a deejay and cocktail reception, then an actor, a comedian, and a writer each read excerpts from different letters/writings on the theme of love.  It was strange because they obviously hadn’t chosen the pieces themselves, I thought it would be more like people reading things they’d written or at least selected.  The comedian, Andy Borowitz, was kind of snide and obnoxious, I didn’t think he was very funny.  The actress, Maria Thayer, was cute with pretty red hair and had my favorite excerpt which was actually written by Ronald Reagan to his son on his son’s wedding day.  It was oddly sweet.  Lauren Weisberger, the author of "The Devil Wears Prada" and a few other similar books was the last reader – she seemed very proper and did a decent job.  My main takeaway was that there is a sequel coming out next month, called "Revenge Wears Prada."  I predict it will suck but I’ll probably still read it.  We left right after the readings – walked home and got some food I think, don’t remember where.

Friday was laid back, I went into the office, got everything I need to do done before vacation, and then went to get a manicure-pedicure.  Essie "Trophy Wife" – very summery.  We were going to go out after my appointment, there is a great bar across the street where S usually meets me.  For some reason (some girl was getting one of those shellac mancures, I think the chemical smell was bothering me) I started feeling really ill, like a hot flash where I started sweating like crazy and almost blacked out.  I called S and asked him to come meet me (I didn’t want to faint on the street walking by myself) and luckily he was right outside and we just walked home instead.  The next day I packed and we went to brunch at a new Italian place in our neighborhood.  It was really nice and so much fun.  Great decor, I’m a sucker for a tin ceiling, and the crowd was really young, attractive, and festive.  We had a couple of crostini, one with ricotta, lemon, honey, and truffle oil, and one with fig, gorgonzola, and proscuitto.  All were so good.  Margherita pizza, solid but just okay.  French toast that never came, but by then we were stuffed and didn’t bother mentioning it.  

The highlight was the DIY Prosecco bar – they brought a bottle and a tray with fixings for the bubbly:
– Aperol
– Fig infused vodka
– Pomegranate juice
– Blood orange puree
– Candied ginger
– Pomegranate seeds
– Blackberries

We made drinks and had a contest to see who could make the best drink each round.  S is generally better at this than I am, but we both had some good mixes in there.  Really nice last day in town for a few weeks.  We took the train to the airport, and I flew to France.  

This entry is already incredibly long so I’ll write about the past couple of weeks here in a later entry.  And pictures!