Good Children

High Hat

On Sunday we decided to grab luch as a family.  What I was really craving were Crepes a la Carts but there is no indoor seating and it was cold outside.  Besides, I didn't have the patience to wait for four crepes from the college student working the grill who was likely to be stoned or hungover and moving very slow.  So, we headed down the Freret corridor.

I remember when the best things on that strip were the Junior League's cast offs at Bloomin' Deals and Dunbar's fried chicken.  Now there is quite a boom of new restaurants and what not. 

I had read good things about High Hat so we landed there -- plus they had pancakes which is what The Husband wanted.  The menu itself was pretty lean for my taste.  It was either po-boys or entrees and heavy on the catfish (blech).  I settled on a $10 shrimp po-boy and fries.  I've had better po-boys.  For the price and the build-up, I expected a special mayo or a mound of shrimp.  The sandwhich itself was small.  I know it's not tomato season, but I certainly exptected something better than the flavorless beefsteak tomato slice that popped out.  The fries, though, were very, very good.

The atmosphere was nice but everything seemed a little overpriced.  $11 for a plate with two pancakes, two slices of bacon and couple of eggs seemed absurd.  Also, the patrons were ... well ... I felt a bit underclassed.  It seemed like that Uptown had crossed St. Charles to slum it on Freret.  I was already pretty sure that we wouldn't be back and then Stacy Head walked in with her family and that sealed the deal.  You can be assured that I made a Tina Fey reference when The Husband pointed her out.

I haven't given up on Freret Street but I'm glad that I tried High Hat now as I had plans to drag my parents there at some point during their impending visit.  We will definetly be hitting Dat Dog with them one afternoon and I still would like to try The Company Burger.

High Hat.  Meh.

Noteworthy News

I started off the day ranting at the radio.  When Gingrich angrily charged that necessitating payment for birth control under health plans was "an outrageous assault on religious freedom," I angrily shouted back that his argument is an assault on women.  Newt, unfortunately, couldn't hear me -- not that it would have mattered.  I'm just so sick and tired of politicians resorting to debating what is is going on in my uterus when they are at a loss of things to fight about.  Furthermore, if the Catholic church is so damn upset about covering non-Catholics' birth control, they should also be complaining about having to administer medical care, public services, and education to homosexuals.  Unfortunately America seems to like "the gays" right now more than my right to control my body.  Men:1,942,002, Women: 0.

Part of the reason why this is bothering me so much is because I'm taking a "diversity" class right now.  It's pretty much a re-iteration of every single women's studies or gender studies class that I took in undergrad.  I'm not learning anything new.  The professors (yes, it takes TWO professors to teach this class, apparently) are under prepared and spend so much time verbally acknowledging what the other says and thanking them for sharing, that class time feels like one giant circle jerk.  Yeah, I just said that.  Anyway, what the class does do is get me all worked up about sexism and racism and other isms that I put to bed long ago.  Hence the anger this morning.

THAT SAID, my mood was instantly elated when I read that that feds have finally caught up with Nagin.  I am not the only one who has been waiting with baited breath for this to happen.  I will continue to wait though until that man is hauled into court.  It's unlikely but it would be the icing on the cake if they could nail Blakely with something too -- just a little nudge to keep anyone from hiring him again.

Finally, on Wednesday I witnessed an crazy auto accident and jumped out of the car to give the victim my phone number as a witness.  I actually do this every time I witness an accident because I feel morally obligated to do so -- and you should too.  Anyway, I got a call yesterday from the man that was hit.  Turns out he's a federal judge and was very grateful as the man who hit him ended up driving off before the NOPD got there.  I also got a call from the NOPD.  An officer actually called me to follow up and get a statement from me regarding a traffic accident.  It's amazing what kind of pull federal judges have in these here parts.  When they get robbed, the NOPD probably even dusts for prints.

Happy Friday! Oh, wait, two more things:

1. Its unfortunate for the gas industry and a certain politician that Battlestar Gallactica has completely changed the meaning of the following headline: "Rick Santorym endorses fracking during Oklahoma compaign stop."  I somehow think that was intentional of the nola.com staff.
2. Voodoo Ballerina Kingcake Soiree is SATURDAY!  Get in for free w/ a cash bar or pay $20 for an open bar.

 

Mayonnaise

The husband just texted me to tell me that it's Richard Brautigan's birthday.  It was sweet since The Husband is not much of a fan.  I was introduced to Brautigan my sophmore year of high school by my English teacher when we were covering modern American poets.  Brautigan is a little edgy and "out there" which was attractive to that fifteen year old girl. 

After digesting the small sample of poems from my teacher, I went to the local library for some of Brautigan's novels.  They had a few in stock but they were in "special collections" and accessible only by a librarian which added to the mystique.  I read The Abortion first and then any others that I could get my hands on.  The Abortion stands out as my favorite maybe because it was the first or maybe because of the library that the main character oversaw.

The library in The Abortion was a place where people would drop off their self-made books at any hour of the day to be put on the shelves.  There were no patrons to ever read them but the act of handing over a completed work satisfied the authors.  [Note: I am working off two decades of memory here - please forgive any errors.]  The summer after I read the book, a friend brought me to the Brautigan Library in Burlington, Vermont, overlooking Lake Champlain.  This was a place where anyone could come in and read the books, written by amature authors, and stored on shelves lined with mayonnaise jars.  I visited multiple times to take in the new additions.  The collection has since moved but to my knowledge is still alive in digital form.

Brautigan died in 1984.  Though there are more shocking, humorous, and substantial poems, the one that always comes back to me is the one below.

 

"A Good-Talking Candle"
I had a good-talking candle
last night in my bedroom.

I was very tired but I wanted
somebody to be with me,
     so I lit a candle

and listened to its comfortable
voice of light until I was asleep.

- Richard Brautigan                                        

Gettin' Real

This was just a matter of time, really.  I'm just glad that it wasn't me.

Day of Service

One service idea from Slate will screw it to rich, white doctors everywhere!  Ok, maybe not.  It's a worthy cause and happening today, I believe.

Cuts

I just had to layoff our piano teacher.  It was harder than I thought it would be.  However, he cost more than the Entergy bill and the first year of opening a business is not very lucrative so we are making cuts.  I hope to hire him back one day but for now, I'll just have to plug away with the kids on out beautiful piano by myself (like I have the discipline for that ....).

I recently wrote to a friend that if I had known that I would be this broke at 35, I would have continued to live with my parents.  On the other hand, I forced myself to take stock of what I do have the other day: two working cars (one paid for anyway), a house with $100K in equity (not many people in this country can say that), passive income from our rental, my health, kids, and a house full of working appliances (for now).  Comparitively, I'm not bad off but typical of life, the moment I think that I get a foothold to pull myself up and build up a nest egg, something knocks me back.

I want to clarify that I still have the housekeeper.  The cable will go before she does.  She keeps me sane even if she comes only every other week.

I recently heard that if a new law firm can stick around for three years, it will be established and lucrative in the long run.  We have two and half more years to go -- that's the same time that I graduate from school and ideally get a good job.  2015 is going to kick ass.

Remiss

Dear Internet ...

I've been meaning to write.  I have composed so many witty commentaries in my head but I've forgotten them all by now.  Christmas was great (or Chrismukah/Yule/Secular Festivities) and we even made it to the Quarter to catch one of the free shows at the cathedral followed up by an order of beignets. 

After presents were opened, I threw myself into painting the front two rooms of the house.  It was a horrific job entailing scraping approximately 40% of the paint off the wall of one of the rooms as it was literally falling off the wall.  The sander I had wasn't adequate so my plaster walls are still laden with bumps and some cracks but it's (mostly) done.  Some highlights included me hitting myself in the nose with a hammer and the dog's purple streak of fur.  Oh, I also knocked out a whole row of outlets while upgrading the fixtures and couldn't figure out what I did for a few days resulting in extension cords running along the floors.  That was super awesome.  Fortunately a visit from a friend and quick crawl under the house got us back up and running.

As I prepare to throw myself back into my studies (I have a 4.0 y'all), I'm also readying the kids for their new school location.  Same school.  Different location.  Longer drive.  I am once again pissed at the administration and the New Orleans Public School Board but there is little that I can do except start looking at other options and fortunately this city is getting to the point where there ARE other options for public schools: public schools not governed by an elected board with a bad track record of stealing money, public schools wherein people return your calls and communicate with the parents and teachers respectfully.  But I digress.

All in all it's been a wonderful break.  We had Christmas dinner with friends at Five Happiness -- along with a significant portion of the New Orleans Jewish population -- and we all stayed awake to ring in the New Year together.  The girls are at wonderful ages where they will go off and play for hours with minimal destruction and fighting.  I'm looking forward to a fabulous 2012.

 

 

Dirty Old Woman

I would like to thank the man running shirtless along St. Charles today wearing only his chef pants and sneakers.  Who knew there were such nice looking pecs in the kitchens of New Orleans?

For a moment he took my mind off an NPR report of a certain morman who I cannot figure out and who I don't particularly want to see shirtless.

Hooray! Monday!

My morning started out with a traffic stopping chase as my precious dog tore through the neighborhood unleashed.  I had another dog that did this growing up.  I'm not up for it this time around and I will be puting a stop to it even if it means cutting off limbs.  The good news is that I'm meeting all my neighbors.

Would you believe that there are actually people living lives that can go entire days, weeks, or even months without cleaning up bodily fluids and waste from anyone but themselves?  Who are these people?  I'm beginning to question my life choices.

And finally, I've been getting a rash of crazy emails again.  Someone has used my email address on a dating site.  This is not the first time.  I have in the past received notifications from cougar.com and sugardaddy.com.  This time I don't know what the site is but I am apparently popular with ladies who don't speak English as a first language.  Most of the emails look like this:

Let us meet each other. I’m Irina.
So, I found yours e-mail on dating site .Use my sister’s account...
I'm looking for novelty in relations.
Well, it's interesting who you are, please type something about u

Irinichka

Yay for me.  I'd like to go back to vacation please.

The Company We Keep

We had a judge come to our wedding as a guest in 2003.  He was booted off the bench a couple years later for handing out bond reductions like nobody's business.

The husband threw me a birthday party a couple of years ago and of the three NOPD officers that were there, two have been fired in the past year.  Though this one was a big surprise to me since she is such a superstar.

I had lunch with an NOPD officer a few weeks ago and as he opened that day's Times Picayune he said, "which of my friends has been fired today?"  He, himself, ran into some trouble a few years back.

I am in no position to judge Chief Serpas' moves -- this isn't about that.  That Henry Glover case is ripping through the department like a cancer.  Rather, it might be time to ask the question: "Are we drawn to corrupt people or is it that odds are everyone in law enforcement ends up corrupt?" 

*** ** *** ** *** ** ***

On an unrelated note ... the movie that I stayed up late to watch last night was Never Let Me Go (2010).  I'm still turning it over in my head.  It wasn't Dancer in the Dark depressing -- I'm still angry at everyone involved in that film for ever making it.  What a dreadful story.  Anyway, Never Let Me Go did not leave me completely horrified - only a little.  Kiera Knightly is in it and she does a fair job but I just can't seem to get on board with her because of her role in the Pirate movies.  There was something about her character ,Elizabeth, either the way it was written or the way she played it, that made her seem like she was always searching for more depth and kept coming up a dimension short.  Anyway, Never Let Me Go ... I hadn't heard of it before yesterday and it's worth watching. 

I'll never make a good movie reviewer.