second-lining.
"... and i'm jealous of your new orleans shenanigans." my friend zack told me midway through my weekend of fun. this has been such an incredible weekend. i really just want to remember everything about it. good times, good company, good food, good drinks. things clicked all the way around. very very much needed. again, i couldn't imagine being anywhere else but here.
thursday (aka the new friday) was one of those days that i just want to remember every detail. in new orleans these days, no one has a concept of time. hours, days, weeks just pass by. it's hard to think about a month from now or a year from now because no one knows what life and our surroundings are going to be like by then. it brings the cliche "take one day at a time" to a whole new level. since we're not going by "real world time" here, we have future events to keep us moving through our days and weeks. knowing that mardi gras is happening will get us to february 27th. knowing that christmas is happening will get us to december 25th. well knowing that rock n bowl and pat o's were opening on thursday, got me to thursday. it was something to look forward to, something to focus on. i was giddy at work as if i had a date. i definitely didn't, but i didn't feel like i was alone because i was with a good number of people who just wanted to see another familiar surrounding open up again. after a fabulous dinner at chez chuck, the group of us headed to the corner of tulane ave and carrollton for the opening of the midcity rock 'n' bowl along with half of new orleans. a place we've all grown up with. bowling birthday parties. bowling and kareoke for our 8th grade party. tuesday swing nights in high school with joey. the mixed nuts every time i came home from providence. last year for christmas, santa brought me a rock n bowl shirt. i was lucky enough to be with a group of people who felt the same way about such a classic place and could be giddy with me, could dance, bowl, second-line, as if there had never been a storm that changed our lives. i was also pretty lucky that they love pat o's as much as i do, so despite having work in the morning and the 2am curfew, we felt it was appropriate to head to the quarter - driving through a still, silent, and dark mid-city. carpe noctum. it was the other end of the spectrum in the quarter - no one was out, everything was clean. i swear, i've never seen the quarter so clean. we walked down th emiddle of the street without having to dodge trash or people. we had our one drink at pat o's to be able to say we did the night they reopened. i don't think any of us actually had a hurricane though. we took postcards and matchbooks since they weren't selling the souvenir hurricane glasses. jill and i talked to one of the managers - sid - who told us about eddy, the guy that "played the tray" at the piano bar. i had only been to the piano bar once - when joe came in from ft polk before he left for iraq - and i got to meet eddy. eddy was about to turn 94 and had been playing that tray at pat o's for 67 years. since the storm, no one has been able to find eddy. i'm still saying my prayers that they find him or at least find out what happen to him. but it's one of the many stories that i don't think we'll ever really know - the events from that blur in the days after the storm when the lucky ones were glued to the tv trying to find out what happened to our city. nevertheless, pat o's was open with people had stories to share.
i think all of us could have stayed out all night. we tried to go to cafe du monde and morning call. we only went home when there was nothing left open
yesterday we had a wedding double header. both were beautiful weddings. both are beautiful couples. it's a true testament to the sacrament to see these couples who have thrown together a wedding since the storm. they realize what's important. at courtney's wedding, i ended up running into people i hadn't seen since grammar school. there were a lot of "wow, what the heck are you up to these days?" exchanged. we left that wedding reception to come home, see the end of the LSU game, change clothes, and head uptown for becky's wedding. for the record, fr. mcgin can do a mass with the rite of marriage in less than 30 minutes. it was impressive. when joey jokingly told me earlier in the day not to be late, he really wasn't joking. i guess that only meant more dancing at the reception! and by God, there was dancing. i ended up at the carousel bar in the monteleone with most of the ellises, and about 4 and a half revolutions later, we moved the party back to metairie, where there is no curfew.
thursday (aka the new friday) was one of those days that i just want to remember every detail. in new orleans these days, no one has a concept of time. hours, days, weeks just pass by. it's hard to think about a month from now or a year from now because no one knows what life and our surroundings are going to be like by then. it brings the cliche "take one day at a time" to a whole new level. since we're not going by "real world time" here, we have future events to keep us moving through our days and weeks. knowing that mardi gras is happening will get us to february 27th. knowing that christmas is happening will get us to december 25th. well knowing that rock n bowl and pat o's were opening on thursday, got me to thursday. it was something to look forward to, something to focus on. i was giddy at work as if i had a date. i definitely didn't, but i didn't feel like i was alone because i was with a good number of people who just wanted to see another familiar surrounding open up again. after a fabulous dinner at chez chuck, the group of us headed to the corner of tulane ave and carrollton for the opening of the midcity rock 'n' bowl along with half of new orleans. a place we've all grown up with. bowling birthday parties. bowling and kareoke for our 8th grade party. tuesday swing nights in high school with joey. the mixed nuts every time i came home from providence. last year for christmas, santa brought me a rock n bowl shirt. i was lucky enough to be with a group of people who felt the same way about such a classic place and could be giddy with me, could dance, bowl, second-line, as if there had never been a storm that changed our lives. i was also pretty lucky that they love pat o's as much as i do, so despite having work in the morning and the 2am curfew, we felt it was appropriate to head to the quarter - driving through a still, silent, and dark mid-city. carpe noctum. it was the other end of the spectrum in the quarter - no one was out, everything was clean. i swear, i've never seen the quarter so clean. we walked down th emiddle of the street without having to dodge trash or people. we had our one drink at pat o's to be able to say we did the night they reopened. i don't think any of us actually had a hurricane though. we took postcards and matchbooks since they weren't selling the souvenir hurricane glasses. jill and i talked to one of the managers - sid - who told us about eddy, the guy that "played the tray" at the piano bar. i had only been to the piano bar once - when joe came in from ft polk before he left for iraq - and i got to meet eddy. eddy was about to turn 94 and had been playing that tray at pat o's for 67 years. since the storm, no one has been able to find eddy. i'm still saying my prayers that they find him or at least find out what happen to him. but it's one of the many stories that i don't think we'll ever really know - the events from that blur in the days after the storm when the lucky ones were glued to the tv trying to find out what happened to our city. nevertheless, pat o's was open with people had stories to share.
i think all of us could have stayed out all night. we tried to go to cafe du monde and morning call. we only went home when there was nothing left open
yesterday we had a wedding double header. both were beautiful weddings. both are beautiful couples. it's a true testament to the sacrament to see these couples who have thrown together a wedding since the storm. they realize what's important. at courtney's wedding, i ended up running into people i hadn't seen since grammar school. there were a lot of "wow, what the heck are you up to these days?" exchanged. we left that wedding reception to come home, see the end of the LSU game, change clothes, and head uptown for becky's wedding. for the record, fr. mcgin can do a mass with the rite of marriage in less than 30 minutes. it was impressive. when joey jokingly told me earlier in the day not to be late, he really wasn't joking. i guess that only meant more dancing at the reception! and by God, there was dancing. i ended up at the carousel bar in the monteleone with most of the ellises, and about 4 and a half revolutions later, we moved the party back to metairie, where there is no curfew.
it's almost november 15th, and at providence college, it's JRW sunday. junior year, in 204, we made a compromise that stated we could start listening to n'sync christmast november 1. but all other christmas music had to wait until after JRW (hence november 15th). i can't wait for "christmas cheer 2001" again.
"whenever i get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport..."
posted by Catherine at 1:19 PM
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