Picture update!

Below are some pictures from random occasions here in New Orleans. They are in no particular order - in fact the first picture should be further down after the ones of me on Tate's back. This is a picture of one of the many battle wounds Tate and I got after he fell down with me on his back...on Bourbon street..... The pictures of of how this battle wound came to be are below somewhere! ;)

Wednesday at the Square - Lafayette square

Tate trying to get on my back.....obviously an unsuccessful venture.

Me on magazine after the first Wednesday at the square...

Karen and I at Lafitte's

Meaghan sandwich - Razoos

me and Karen at Goldmine.

Me on Tate's back right before he falls and hits his head on the concrete......this is where the battle wounds came from - but not to worry, we still made our way to the goldmine later that night

Wednesday at the Square.

Razoos

Wednesday at the Square.

Meaghan and I at Razoo's.

So, I went sailing yesterday for the first time!! It was awesome!! I should be getting pictures from that adventure later this afternoon. I will post them as soon as possible.

This weekend was pretty fun!! On Friday night, I stayed in and watched The Color Purple - an amazing film!! I cried like a baby!! On Saturday, I woke up, worked out, then drove to Covington. My friend Stacy works as a speech therapist at a neurological rehabilitation center in covington, and she has successfully scored me a student position under the OT there. I have a meeting with the OT tomorrow. I'm super excited about that!! Saturday afternoon Tate and his friend Brent came into town - they were there with a bunch of other kayaking Natchezians to work as kayak life guards in lake pontchatrain for the Iron Man triathalon that was on Sunday morning. That evening we went to Bourbon and drank.....of course.

On Sunday, the guys got a phone call saying the swimming part of the triathalon was canceled due to high winds - which i think was a relief since they had to be there super early. So, we went to have breakfast with Tate's parents and some friends of theirs and then went sailing! Sailing was fantastic. We each got our turn at sailing the boat.....it was really exhilarating. I loved it!! Yesterday evening we went to meet up with Tate's parents and their friends at Lucys, then went to have pizza on the balcony of their apartment! It was an amazing weekend.

Today, I'm not too busy - going to run to Wal-mart I think and go for a jog a bit later.....not too much on my agenda. I'll post the sailing pics when I get them!

Boats boats boats!!

I just got another job offer - a permanent position - on a boat. Thank goodness I've planned summer school!! I haven't paid for it yet, so it's not official....but I'm going to stick with it!! Can't shake the yachting industry to save my life....it just keeps creeping up. I can see how people stay in it so long without planning to.

Surviving in NOLA

So, living in New Orleans has been everything I hoped it would be! There's so much going on all over the city any day of the week. Since we've last spoken, I've been to Wednesday at the Square twice - each times were great. I find myself running into old friends from college that I haven't spoken to in ages. Ben and I also went to a Rebirth concert at Maple Leaf, and he experienced his first Jacques Imos meal - and loved it!! People have been coming to visit every weekend - you can't keep people out of this city!! Last weekend was French Quarter fest and JP and Ryan Brashier came to visit and Eric was in town and a friend from New York I met Mardi Gras weekend - all in town the same weekend.....too much goodness to go around......if that's possible! :)

Ok, so I've touched up on how fun the city is, not let's talk work. I didn't have any luck finding a job. I don't have any connections here in the oil industry, so it makes finding work a bit harder - which honestly is kind of a relief! I don't want to work in oil and gas. So, I've made the decision to go back to school for my masters in OT. I've got classes scheduled at UNO for the summer to get started on my prerequisites for the masters program. I also think that I'm going to start working in Covington at Stacy's rehab clinic under the OT there - which would be an awesome gig for a year or so. I was also trying to get a job at Jacques Imos, but one last boat gig came up for the month of May, so I'll start hard core selling myself to Jacques (the owner) when I get back from my boat trip.

So, let's the discuss the boat trip..... I got a month job on a boat that's docked in St. Thomas. It's a 200' boat, and I'm only going to be doing laundry - which is fine for a month. The boat is doing the Atlantic crossing, so I'm going to see the Med!!! YESSSSSS!!! Even though I won't be spending the whole summer there at least I will be able to say I saw it. We will stop in Gibralter, Spain, and that's where I'll get off the boat and fly back to NOLA!! Then I'll spend Memorial Day here and Lizzie will be in town!! Yay!! Then school starts the following week! I'm so glad I've got something to fill my time until school starts!! :) The pictures below are from French Quarter festival weekend!

Eric and I - he's my favorite!! ;)

Some of Meaghan's friend (Meaghan is the one in white, blue, and black). She's the girl I met the weekend of Mardi Gras who lives in New York - she is a New Orleans lover!!

Stacy and I at French Quarter Festival!

JP and I at French Quarter Festival!!

Fabre and Friends Fest '011

Pictures from last night - courtesy of Andy Andrews. Micah and I at BBC

Mike, Ross, Andy and Micah in the front.

Andy, Ben, and Joey at Razoo's.

Learning some new moves at Razoo's.

Fellow taking a nap in front of The Goldmine.

Ben and I

Ross, me and Micah.

Ben and I at the goldmine

Happy Birthday Ben!! :)

This week was my roommate's birthday. I decided to bake him a cake as a surprise. I found a recipe for a death by chocolate cake and some oreo truffles.....of course I baked both!! Friday, after I gave Ben his cake we went out to dinner. We wanted to go to Jacqus Imo's but after driving by and seeing the hundreds of people on the sidewalk waiting to be seated, we decided to take a rain check. We went to a Mediterranean place called Byblos instead - it was delicious!!! I think it was some of the best hummus I've ever eaten!! After dinner we got a beer from The Bulldog then went home - called it an early night! The next day we ran some errands while we waited on Micah, Andy, and Mike to get into town from BR for Ben's birthday celebration. When they got into town, we headed straight to Bourbon St. We day drank at BBC then ate at Cafe Maspero on Decatur......this is where it gets a bit fuzzy! ;) After dinner, we went to Razoos and the 6 hour dancing marathon began!! After Razoos we went to the goldmine and the night ended around 3:30 - it was amazing!!! Today, I've been recovering from the events of yesterday..... :/ Tomorrow, I'm heading over to the coffee shop to continue my job search - hoping to secure a job by the end of the week.....that might be a bit ambitious of me.... Pictures from last night to come soon - waiting for Ben and Andy to post them on facebook. The park a block from my apartent in New Orleans, LA

A huge house across the street from the park.

The death by chocolate cake I made.

Oreo chocolate truffles.

The final product - with melted chocolate on top!! mmmmm..........

A couple of more pictures.....

The following photos were taken with an iphone, so they aren't the best quality. They're also not listed in any particular order - thanks Ree for some of the group photos from Haley's wedding weekend and for introducing me to Hiptomatic - I love it! :)

View of the MS River from Magnolia Vale. Friday, before Haley's rehearsal dinner, Ree, Ryan, Sarah, John, Sam, Ms. Barbara and I got to have a couple of cocktails here and enjoy the view!

Happy St. Patty's Day - I enjoyed a rather peculiar St. Patrick's day tradition that's done in Natchez every year. People start at the Catholic church and "chase the snakes to the river" - I just drank beer and watched.....oh yeah and caught beads! It was a lot of fun!

View of the lake for Dad and Christine's porch

At Haley's reception

Sarah, Shay, Haley, me and Ree at the rehearsale dinner

me, Ree and Sarah at Magnolia Vale - enjoying the view before Haley's wedding rehearsal

A group picture of the Natchez clan + a few wannabes :) taken at Haley's reception

me and Sarah at Magnolia Vale

Another Natchez group pic - we're a proud bunch!

Girls at Rehearsal Dinner - think I have this photo on here twice......good thing we're pretty! ;)

Another Natchez group pic - love me some Natchez group pics.....even if everyones eyes do look scary!

Be a New Orleanean.....wherever you are! ;)

Well, it's official - I'm living permanently in New Orleans and loving it!! My apartment is in an amazing part of town. It's walking distance from shops, restaurants, and walgreens......with the weather being so beautiful, I don't have to drive anywhere. I just walk there. It's amazing!

My first full weekend here was Mardi Gras! JP came to stay and Cappy and Lindi stayed sunday night as well - Ben and I had a full house! Sunday night, Cappy, Lindi, and I went to Bacchus ball - JP was in the parade so we met him at the convention center. It was huge! I had never been before and didn't know what to expect. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures from the ball - I have no idea how I managed that! :-( But I have some good memories!

I did remember to get a few pictures from Friday and Saturday night of Mardi Gras :)

Me and Stacey at a party on a balcony on Bourbon from Friday night. One of Stacey's friends invited JP and I to a private party. Basically, being invited to a private balcony party is the only way I'll make it to Bourbon St. for Mardi Gras. It was a fantastic time! We danced for a solid 6 hours straight I think :) good exercise!

Me and JP

This is me and Lindi on Saturday night. Saturday got started a bit slower than most Saturdays of Mardi Gras. There was a terrible rain storm right in the middle of the day, so we stayed inside and lounged around until that passed. All the parades were post poned until Sunday so we weren't going to see any parades..... Around 2:00, we finally left the house and met up with Mike and Stacey at some pub/restaurant. We sat around there for a couple of hours and drank bloody marys and had lunch. Then we left there and headed to Lucy's, Red Eye, and Goldmine. This picture of Lindi and I was taken at Red Eye - more hours of dancing late into the night were had! ;)

JP and me at Red Eye

me and Stacey at Red Eye

This picture was taken the following weekend - which was Haley and Ben's wedding weekend! This is a picture of Sarah, Ree, Haley, me and Lizzie at Andrew's in Natchez after the Rehearsal Dinner.

me and Lizzie

Sarah and I at the Under the Hill Saloon after the wedding. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and somehow I managed to pull of my scripture reading! After the wedding the reception was at Dunleith and that was of course followed up with an after reception party at the bars of natchez! It was a great weekend!!

Will at the saloon! So the city is voting on whether to start closing our bars down at 2:00. Of course there is a petition going around to "save the bars" - which was signed by everyone....maybe twice :)

So, this week I've been hard core job searching in New Orleans. I really need some steady income, but it's not as easy I had planned. You would think that with an engineering degree and 4+ years in the oil and gas industry something would pop up, but not yet! I emailed my old boss from M-I yesterday, so I'm hoping there's something there..... I would really like to break out into something new/different but I may not be that lucky. I should just count my lucky starts that I live in the greatest city ever - or one of the greatest cities ever.....Natchez is up there of course :)