After a morning of finding out that I was not needed at work, I then came to find out that I had nothing planned for the day. What to do...what to do...
I ended up calling CK up with a request of accompanying my bored azz to the movies, where we could see how good that Narnia movie is said to be. (I felt a little antsy; King Kong was not a barrel of monkeys...)
On my way to pick up CK I discovered that children are complete idiots when it comes to riding their bikes in high traveled traffic areas. This kid stopped his riding in the middle of the street not even two feet away from the sidewalk, so he could lick the ice-cream that was dripping down his fingers. His two friends rode around him, waiting for him to complete this important task, while they all saw me driving not even a block away, and made no attempt to move. Where the hell are the parents when their kids were riding and stopping in the middle of the streets even when a car was coming? Huh? WHERE?? Dare I say, I tried to scare the tweens by getting as close as possible as I could to them with my car, though I learned that didn't phase them one bit.
I continued my drive to CK's hut, picked him up, and we headed out the the theatre. That was after another run-in with the idiots. This time they were on the move, swerving back in forth in the street, looking back every once in awhile to spot the lucky person who would get to run them over. I related my initial run-in with them to CK, though was completely dumb struck when Kid Lick stopped, again, in the middle of the road, again, and licked his fingers, again. I gave a hearty "you've got to be shitting me" laugh and pulled up aside Kid Lick to instruct him on the laws of cycling. It's a shame I didn't speak his language, because from the look he gave me, he must've not spoken english.
Oh well, off to Narnia! (After a McNugget stop that is...mmm, McNugget...)
The movie turned out to be delightfully wonderful, with only one con: the moron who sat on my row. (No, not CK...sheesh.)
About 70 minutes into this movie, the moron pulled out her phone and could be heard loud and clearly saying, "Yea", "No", "Uh-huh", all followed by me going, "Excuse me...EXCUSE ME! SHHH!!(commence pointing finger to movie screen in a slight reminder to moron that there's a movie taking place.) I got the feeling that this one understood english by the way she quieted down, while sinking into her seat. I swear, nothing can pull you out of a period piece quicker than someone going, "Yea." I wish I had a cattle prod...
12.27.2005
Queen Angie, the Outspoken
12.25.2005
12.24.2005
The Goose is Getting Fat
"Deer", James Jean
It has been spoken with many a co-workers, friends, and family, that Christmas has come just too darn quickly this year. Though for many, many, many of us, that is a sentiment felt year after year, I feel that this year it especially rings true with the disappearance of September.
2005 Christmas Revelations:
1. Chocolate is beleived to be the fundamental required gift of many a persons during the season. I currently have about 5pds of the deliciously evil stuff in my home, and I'm sure to receive more.
2. Company Christmas parties can become really fun when the invitation list consists of only those who work at the company and not those that the company is smoozing (AKA kissing up to). Oh, that and also about 3 Vodka Collins can do the same.
3. While CK confesses that he really, really loved the "Adventures of Superman : Season One" DVD I gave him as a gift, it will nver ever beat his own gift of getting a car. (Finally!!)
4. Speaking of CK, it has also come to my attention that he has a hidden power to seduce the girls, which did not make Satcey too happy. ;)
5. Satcey's friend Em is a fun woman to hang with...especially when she's drinking.
6. Santa and the wife are apparently having marriagable problems. (Well, either that or she doesn't mind his loose ways.)
All in all, this has been one heck of a year with surprise after surprise after surprise. The year in reveiw blog will come next week, so instead,
HAVE A HECK OF A HAPPY HOLIDAY!!
HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
HAVE A GRANDE OL' TIME!!
Oh, and good luck with the family. Now I shall end with my all time favorite Christmas song (sung to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas) which is also a new Orleans classic!
THE TWELVE YATS OF CHRISTMAS
(Benny "Grunch" Antin) Anzel Anzel, BMI
1. On'da foist day'a Christmas mah
Mawmaw gave'to me a Crawfish'dey
Caught in Arabi
2. In'da Christmas Picayune I seen it
Dere'n Section E, Tujaque's Recipe
3. On'da thoid day' a Christmas we
Stopped at McKenzie for Three French Breads
4. On the fourth day I said OK let's get a
Christmas tree Before'ya Drive Me Nuts
5. On the fifth day of Christmas we
stopped at A&G for Frrried Onion Rrrings
6. On'da sixth day'a Christmas we
stopped at K&B's for a Six Pack'a Dixie
7. Cemetery traffic got backed up to
Metairie at the Seventeenth Street Canal
8. On'da eighth day of Christmas me and
Rosalie Ate By'ya Mama's
9. On the ninth day of Christmas we drove
down Delery in'da Lower Ninth Ward
10. I used'ta be at Kaiser now I'm woikin
down'da street at'da Tenneco Chalmette Refinery
11. On the eleventh day at Vetran's
Highway try'ta cross the street with Eleven Schwegmann Bags
12. On the twelfth day of Christmas my
true love gave to me a Dozen Manuel's Tamales
12.15.2005
Merry Christmas!!
It's never too early too early (in the month of December) (ONLY in the month of December) to celebrate Christmas!
12.06.2005
The Outer Limits: Part I
I'm off work today and tomorrow. It was hard not to take advantage of this beautiful 60 degree weather we're having down here by taking a little drive around the city.
It turned out to be quite revealing.
I asked CK to join me since two is better than one, and we toured Uptown, Riverbend, the French Quarter, City Park, Esplanade Ave., Canal Street/Boulevard, Lakeveiw and Westend. I really wish I had my camera with me.
We started out with a drive down St. Charles Avenue, with the destination being this great sushi place on Oak Street. The avenue really was pretty darn nice. There was trees missing here and there, though it was the complete absence of the St. Charles Streetcar that proved to be a little unnerving. We drove just waiting to see a streetcar that wasn’t going to pop up any time soon.
Speaking of unnerving, we took a stroll through the French Quarter after lunch. I had a main objective of satisfying this major craving I’ve been having for a cup of java at my most beloved coffee shop in the entire city. (Ask CK all about how freaking giddy I was when I found out that they were indeed open!) As we were taking our steps into the Quarter itself, I couldn't help but take notice of something that was missing: music.
We were on the very corner of the famous Jackson Square and not a peep, not a single note could be heard in the air. If you've never been to the Quarter, let me just tell you, it's down right scary for the only sounds to be heard are the vehicles that are occupying the road. Jackson Square is famous not only for the St. Louis cathedral that crowns the top of the park, but also for the many artists and musicians that set up around the area day in and day out. You could find at least one artist on the Square even at one o'clock o a Tuesday morning. Now all that could be found were vehicles, which pre-Katrina, was not allowed. CK expressed his disappointment with me for bringing up this observation.. Apparently I answered his unspoken question on "what's wrong with this picture." This outing was his second time to post-Katrina Quarter, and he couldn't figure out what was wrong when he last was there. I figured it out. Anyway, we headed to my java spot and ended up chatting with the owner for a bit, which ended with the guy suggesting that we drive up Canal Street/Boulevard to see the damage that was endured up there.
At least 45% of the places we drove by were unlivable.
You see, Canal is scattered with businesses that eventually dissolve into beautiful homes as you drive further up the street, going toward Lake Ponchatrain. In post-Katrina New Orleans, you could now spy the dried up evidence of where the flood waters decided to stop at as you drove up the street. The stain gradually moved up from one foot, to two feet, to three, four, and five. Inside some of the structures we could see homes that were gutted out, nothing but their skeletons remaining. Two things went through my head.
1. Thank freaking god this did not take place in my hometown across the Mississippi. The Westbank--well, most of it--lucked out greatly. I was so glad I didn't have to see my parents react to what could've been. They just bought a new house a little over a year ago due to the downfall of our old neighborhood. For years, they would speak of a misjudged decision to stay in that neighborhood after a category 1 hurricane flooded the crap out of our neighborhood back in 1985.
Those pictures you see on your left-hand screen is what went down. Our house was elevated about 4 feet higher than the average home in the subdivision and we still got two feet in our house. (I want to also mention that before the subdivision was built it used to be a swamp. Needless to say, my old neighborhood got hit horribly for Katrina. heck, any place in the city that used to be a swamp got flooded.) It took about four months to fix up the place before we could live back in it.
That first week after the Katrina hit, during the family's evacuation, my mom spoke fearfully that if our home flooded again, that was it. She wasn't going to stick around to gut out and fix up the place again. I'm pretty sure that type of feeling is what many have felt with Katrina. If you been through it once, chances are you don't want to go through it again.
2. Potential Real Estate. I felt kinda bad for thinking this, but it was hard not to. I think ever since I was 15, when I first experienced the exquisitely beautiful homes that are in uptown/garden District, i wanted to be a part of that history. One of my main goals in life is to purchase an antique, one hundred or more years, home and restore it than call it home. In the wake of Katrina, many homes will end up being abandoned due to feelings that have been stated above.
As bad as things were out there, it was hard not to crack a smile at a local's inspirational phrase that was spray painted across his house: F U Katrina.
12.01.2005
Life's Lessons
Lesson of the day:
Mischeif can lead to exaggeration.
The other day, some co-workers and I delve into the land of "you know you're not suppose to do that" by tasting/drinking an alcoholic beverage at work. I must mention that this was on company time. Like I said, into the land of "you know you're not suppose to do that."
The restaurant I work at was physically a small place, and at the time, we had no customers. Earlier that day, due to our bartender not being on the clock yet, a waitress (we'll call her Elle) made a few White Russians for some customers. They ordered numerous White Russians from her. Later that day, during the time i refer to, we asked Elle if she could make another one so we could taste it and she happily obliged.
We discoverd why the customers ordered numerous drinks.
We discovered that she offered a taste to a waitress that was in the kitchen.
We discovered that our cook noticed this.
None of this would have been that bad except that our dishwasher said that he noticed a customer storm out of the restaurant.
Now not one of us waitresses noticed this, which we would of, because the seating area was directly behind us. We heard about the "so-called" customer about ten minutes after the taste test took place. I do not cut back on the tasting by calling it that. A few sips was all that was had.
Of course, our manager found out about this the next day. The story that she heard was practically told to her as "the girls were making/drinking mixed drinks at the bar and neglected a customer."
BULLSHIT!
All of us waitresses were informed by the manager on that fateful day on how stupid a decision that was to do what we did. If we do it agian, we fired!
To Ms. Manager: Good decision. The main fault was that we had alcohol on the job. I know that no matter how little it may be, you're not suppose to that. Very much, our bad.
The one thing about the reprimanding that really irked me was that a fellow co-worker confirmed the entire thing. She wasn't even there during the so-called incident. She came in later that evening!!
Grrr...I really hate that woman.
Now that I have reflected on the matter, I should change the lesson learned:
You should always follow your mantra when it comes to never doing anything against the rules for no matter how little or rare an occasion it is, you will get caught.
