It's only been 3 weeks since Thanksgiving but it seems longer than that to me. The hustle and bustle of the holidays is well under way and I can't believe I've already been working at my job for 4 months. I still have lots of photos I've yet to post, but during the day I find many ways to waste time rather than work on my blog. For now, I'll do a quick update to inform all of the goings on around my house.
Last time I left off, Caitlin was jetting off to Boca Raton Florida for the final football game of the ULM season. It was her first time ever to fly and just as I expected, she was hooked! She had a wonderful time, and ULM ended their less than stellar season with a win! YAY!! But that's not the real story. The real story is now one of my new favorites. Because Caitlin was asked to join the trip at the last minute, she hadn't been assigned a seat in advance. So when she got on the plane, the seat she'd been assigned a few minutes earlier was already taken. Well, as she stood in the aisle awaiting further instruction, the head coach of the football team invited her to sit alongside him for the ride to Florida! So, for her very first plane ride ever she rode on a big private plane sitting next to the head coach! She said chit chatting was a bit stressful, but she took the travel time to give him lots of game notes to add to his plan, and I'm SURE that's why they won in such spectacular fashion! And now, the two of them are best buds. OK, that part's not really true but I have to say I've snickered many times thinking about Caitlin B chatting it up with the football coach. My dad would have gotten the biggest kick out that.
Last week my two college girls were in the middle of taking finals, while at the same time John was in the middle of giving his. It's always an extremely stressful week for me. Between the girls trying to cover all studying bases and John's stories of his students and who's on the cusp of passing and failing......I can barley take it! But by the end of the week I'm happy to report the girls' attempts at test taking were all successful and except for one pathetic bugger in John's class......all people passed. And that's all I have to say about that.
On the high school front....some yahoo at some level in the school system had the brilliant idea that the public school finals would begin next week and continue until the day before Christmas Eve! It's THE dumbest thing ever. I'm certain the person who made this decision wasn't a mom and didn't check with one single person. So, Owen will begin his semester finals on Monday of next week. I can't even think about it without being annoyed. On a lighter note, this year the Neville football team made it to the finals in their division and the game was to be played in New Orleans last weekend. After much discussion and planning, which I do ad nauseum at almost everything, John, Emma, Olivia, Owen and myself decided to make the trip to the dome....the Superdome that is. So off we went Friday afternoon.
As we were coming into New Orleans, there was a lovely sunset on Lake Pontchartrain.
Everything went smoothly as we made our way to our hotel and then arrived at the Superdome!
Then we found our seats with plenty of time to spare.
We finally gave up on this photo after John's 10 attempts, even though Olivia isn't visible.
The girlies.
It was the first time any of us had been to the Superdome. It was pretty impressive even though John, Olivia and Owen, who've all been to Cowboy's stadium, said the video screens were less than impressive.
Waiting for the game to start.
The game got underway and I decided to take a few pics....until Emma freaked me out about using flash photography and possibly getting in trouble, so I put the camera down.
After a few more.
Emma, who contemplated taking a book to read during the game, looks happy and content with her circumstances. She was not.
After the game, Neville won with an undefeated season, we took the opportunity to take a couple of outside pics.
To show proof positive we'd been there.
Then we drove down Magazine Street looking for a place to eat and found The Pita Pit. Yum. I've never been to New Orleans at Christmastime and it was quite lovely. I'm already wishing I'd taken more photos than I did.
The absolute best thing about NOLA is the architecture. I could take hundreds of pictures of everything.
After we returned to our hotel, we changed and were going to take a walk to Bourbon Street. Now every time our family stays at this hotel, we have elevator adventures. On this trip, there were multi ones. As we walked towards the elevator to go do our walkabout, some people were getting on and I slowed down so as to miss the awkward, we want to smush in with you but we know it won't work moment. Well, Emma looked at me like, "What are you doing" Which prompted Olivia to say.....within earshot of the elevator peeps, "Mom doesn't want to ride down with those people." OMG! Olivia, who didn't know the door was still open, proceeded to bust out laughing. They heard it. I know they did. So, after we rode some extra floors to avoid the piercing glare of the people I shunned, we walked to Bourbon Street which is ALWAYS an experience. If you're looking for weird and wacky, you'll never be disappointed with Bourbon. There were so many people. SOME of our peeps (not me or John) were party poopers and wanted to cut our walk short. John and I could have stayed and "people watched" for a long time, but the grown ups were herded back to the hotel by the younger, hipper generation. Total bummer. Which brings us to the next elevator story. This time we were fortunate to get an empty elevator for our ride to the 18th floor, but JUST as the doors were about to close, a woman got in, went to the back of the elevator, grabbed the rail, closed her eyes and held on for dear life as if she'd just strapped into the scariest roller coaster ever....pretty sure it was for her. And of course her destination was the 18th floor! OMG! Bourbon had clearly gotten the best of her.....and I'm not talking bout the street. All I could think was, "woman if you start vomiting in this elevator it'll soon be painted with yours as well as at least 4 other people's." Well, I'm relieved to report she held onto hers which allowed us to hold onto ours and as we parted ways, I couldn't help but think she was gonna be hugging some porcelain the rest of the night. Dr Pepper has NEVER done that to me.
The next day we got up and out to make the most of our day. We started with a little place called Antoine's Annex. We found this place last time we were there and loved it. It's small and quaint and perfect.
Emma took this photo behind Jackson Square where she also found William Faulkner's home that's now a bookstore.
If you know Emma, you know she loves books and she could've stayed in this place for most of the day. The owner was very nice and let her take some photos. Love this one.
And this one.
Just outside the bookstore the four of us waited for her in the alley, and we looked up and saw that someone had a bubble machine on the third floor of this house. As we stood and watched, the bubbles gently floated down the alley towards us. It was an enchanting moment and made me think if Whitney had been there, she'd have been undone by the loveliness of it. I can't explain it, but I know I'll never forget it for the rest of my life.
Love the alley. Love the lamppost. Love it all. The bubbles floated the whole way down to us.
Olivia unawares on this chilly day. I've never been to a chilly New Orleans but it was this time!
I love a good lamppost next to a lovely balcony.
I've taken many photos of this one door. I love it.
Love.
After lots of walking and a little Christmas shopping, we went to eat at Mother's. And although it's somewhat like herding cattle into a feed trough, the food was good. John thoroughly enjoyed his Cajun food platter. I ate ham. I'm not adventurous when it comes to food. And besides, they have the world's best!
After we ate we left New Orleans on our way to Baton Rouge to do a drive through of the LSU campus and a drive by of the stadium. In case you're wondering, I didn't hire a plane and take this. I just felt it necessary to include a photo of tiger stadium as well as a disclaimer to the photographer in case he or she happens by my blog and sees this "borrowed" pic. If so, I'm not taking credit for your photo!
We arrived home Saturday night exhausted but pleased with our 36 hour jaunt.
Oh, I forgot our very last elevator story! So as we were preparing to leave the hotel and our very last elevator ride, the five of us, all loaded down with our belongings, stepped onto the elevator. I said to everyone, "Let's spread out and take up all the room so no one gets in with us." These elevators were tiny and I'm just saying it's weird being smushed up with strangers so close they can touch your pillow. Well of course the elevator stopped on the 16th floor and an elderly couple was standing there and this crotchity old man looked at all of us and proceeded to cram his way in leaving no room for his wife, who then said, "I'll get the next one." Ummm ya think? Since there's only room to wedge in a very skinny toothpick? And so the rest of the ride down was everything I'd tried to avoid, touching was unavoidable and just plain awkward. I was at the very back, and Emma had long ago pressed the 6th floor button instead of the 5th floor where our car was, so when the doors opened on the 6th floor, the old man took himself and all his stuff out and turned and waited for us to get off and said huffily, "Is anyone getting off here?" We all hung our heads in shame as we had to admit Emma chose a floor unwisely, and with disdain for us all, he reentered his tiny portion of space and the 6 of us rode in painful deafening silence to the 5th floor. And during that long one floor ride I was in uncontrollable, convulsing, silent laughter, which of course is the MOST painful laughter of all the known laughters. You know the kind. Your face gets all red as you force yourself to hold in the huge sound of the laugh that's just at the edge of your mouth causing you to be unable to catch a breath feeling like you might suffocate from the whole experience. It's the laughter reserved for quiet moments or religious ceremonies, when laughing out loud would make you look like an insensitive idiot. I've experienced it many times. Dale has as well. We were at A FUNERAL one time and as I was entering the pew he tripped me ON PURPOSE, and as the buckle of my purse clanked against the wood of the seat in front of me, all eyes turned to glare at ME. He's shameless. I remember quite well that day his punishment was painful silent laughter.
And there you have it. My report of the last few weeks of life here in our household. And since the last few days haven't yielded any important information that I feel should be imparted here, I shall end this post, hoping my afternoon at work will be filled with silent children......which of course is completely implausible.
The end for now.
