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I arrived in New Orleans yesterday... flight was nice and I slept the whole way (and the flight attendent even left me pretzels... I love the pretzels on NWA). I have to add that there were tons of college kids from U of M on the plane headed down for Mardi Gras, so I was so glad that I was upgraded to First Class. I don't remember being that crazy in college... but we probably were. Anyways, once we landed I had to wait forever for my luggage. But at last, I retrieved my luggage and was picked up by our company shuttle. This was the part that sucks. Our hotel is right on Canal Street in Downtown New Orleans and since I didn't get in till 5, the shuttle couldn't drop us off at the hotel. We have a remote lot about 8-9 blocks from the hotel and so we walked... with my luggage... and since its Mardi Gras time, it was company policy to walk in groups of 5. Luckily for me, I had a group of great people who carried and/or pushed my luggage for me. It was fine until we got about 2 blocks of the hotel and then there were just tons and tons of people lined up waiting for the parade to begin. But we arrived and I settled in. I had a great view from the 34th floor of Canal Street so I was able to look out of me windows at the floats... there were some pretty cool ones down there. For those who have not been down here for Mardi Gras, they have parades going on for weeks leading up to Mardi Gras and there are different parades every night. Last night's parade supposedly draws the biggest crowd since it featured the Krewe of Bacchus floats. It's pretty neat being able to experience it even though I was never a big fan of Mardi Gras.

Anyways, since I was so comfy in my room, I decided to just get room service and continue watching the floats and Grey's Anatomy...I paid $17.15 for a sandwich and a 10 oz. pop. The pop alone was $3. How insane is that? It totally stinks, but I was starving and wasn't about to head out to get something.

Well, I have 2 more days of the Mardi Gras craziness... I guess the whole place really shuts down at midnight Tuesday/Wednesday in observance of Lent. The police actually will get people off the street so the cleaning can begin. I may venture out one of these nights just to check things out a little bit.

Oh, and it's crazy to see the waterline on the homes that were underwater...

one of the crews today saw Lenny Kravitz in the lower 9th ward, which was the hardest hit area... he was walking around filming footage... I also heard Willie Nelson and Jim Belushi were in town... I totally want to meet someone famous... but I never do.

And FYI, never talk back to Louisiana Police...I hear they get really really mean...

you know... unless there is a reason for me to do something at a certain time, I cannot make myself do something until I feel like it...

take this morning for instance...

I woke up at 6:30am - plenty of time for me to get up and shower and get to work early (as in 7:30am)

but no.

I get in at 8am, because I have nothing to really motivate me to get in 30 minutes early. no meetings, no deadlines, no phone calls...

nothing.

if I do happen to leave early enough, I'll go grab breakfast somewhere, because I have all this extra time.

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kind to like parties or dates or something.

if it were not for lorie, I'd be late to everything...

well, not everything, but most things which means meeting up with people for parties or shopping or leaving to drive somewhere for a weekend...

why?

because parties do not require me to be there to get things started. I figure, why put undue pressure on me to hit a certain time? I have enough of that with work, so I'd like my life outside of work to be as stress free as possible.

which is why I have decided just go with the flow...

party starts at 7:00pm - so maybe I'll get there on time, and maybe I won't... I'm not the only person going, so why make a fuss - not to mention the awkward silences experienced when sitting around waiting for people to show up - "oh, so, um... how's work/things/significant other/family/etc?"

bleeech - I'm all for conversation, but forced conversation is not fun... it's almost like work.

because shopping can be done at any time. if you want something badly enough you will get it no matter what time it is - if you don't - you can probably find it online because waiting for something to come in via rain check just takes too damn long...

because leaving to drive somewhere for a weekend usually means you are on some sort of vacation, and those should be relaxing and hence you should leave whenever you feel like it, not because you are rushing to get somewhere...

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don't get me wrong - it's not a matter of respect or disrespect - it's a matter of sanity...

something which, as of late, I have been in short supply...

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