Some days you're a redhead, others you're a blonde.....

I was at a friends BBQ….Muscle Jay. I think it was his birthday, actually. Pig roast, lots of Coors light, sun, ladder golf, and best of all, amazing friends. Laughs abounded, birds were singing, and I was being given crap about my ugly feet. Feet are SUPPOSED to be ugly!!

We felt bad about the local bartender that had to work and couldn’t come join the festivities, so we made several trips back and forth to the bar to keep him company. After the third or fourth trip, three of us decided that we wanted to change up the venue completely. We settled on Uptown to grab another drink or two and crash at my place.

We all decided that none of us were in any shape to be driving (hooray good decision making!), so we called Dry Drivers. The location change to Uptown was also nice because it was the closest – saving us all cab money. Bald Man had driven, as had I, so the only decision left to make was which car to take. He wanted his with him and I, of course, wanted mine with me. We were going to be at my place, it was the thing to do!

After many minutes of back and forth, we finally settled on his car, but only because he agreed to let me smoke one cigarette on the way home. Dry Drivers is cool because they follow you home in your car, so that you have it in the morning. Seriously a great service.

Well, when we arrived at my place, I figured out the real reason I wanted to take my car with me. As will happen, people tend to not believe the drunk chick, or the young chick, or any chick for that matter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been right in life (I’ll give you a hint, it’s more than I’m wrong), and yet people still don’t trust my judgment. When it comes to boys I’ll concede that my judgment sucks (future post coming on that), but when it comes to life, I think I have a pretty good grasp of it and know what I’m doing. So just trust me dammit.

We’re getting ready to pay the guy when the light bulb goes off in my head. I have my car key, so I can get into it in the AM, but I don’t have my house keys. I don’t carry a purse, so I left the house keys in the car, and kept the car key with me. After much embarrassment and loads of apologies (along with an extra $40 in cab fare), we ended up back at Bri’s. Bald man gave me a ride back to my car in the am, and I crashed. In fairness, I was born a blonde…..

Sunday Funday!

Well, it started out that way, anyway. I got up early to catch the Italy v. New Zealand game at the local bar. Not that I really care about soccer, but somehow I drew Italy in the bar pool, and if they win the World Cup, I win $300. ITALIA, ITALIA, ITALIA!!!!

After the game, the bar emptied out, but as it got closer to the Brazil game, it filled back up a bit. There were a couple guys sitting near me for the first game that left and came back. When they came back, we started chatting, and I found out one of them plays kickball at the field close to my house. And they both live within stumbling distance to the bar. There weren’t any kickball games due to it being Father’s Day, but there was a party on the field, so we decided to check it out.

En route to the field, my phone died…and then really died….like done. Finished. Kaput. Of course with my luck, it had to happen BEFORE I called my father, but that’s just par for the course in my life. It was hotter than hot, so we stopped into the bar right by the field, where I’m pretty sure I consumed my weight in water. We eventually made it over to the field where a kiddy pool and a makeshift ‘Slip n’ Slide’ were set up. We chatted and laughed with their teammates and I said hello to a few friends….but after about an hour, I thought I was going to die. I walked back home and crashed.

I don’t know if it was the heat or something I ate, but I thought I was going to die. I slept fitfully until about 2 in the morning and couldn’t get myself back to sleep…too late for a sleeping pill, too early to think about going to work. So I stared at the ceiling and reflected. And then all of a sudden, it was time to go to work. I haven’t felt right since, and I’m hoping I will by tomorrow…..this is not a good time for me to be sick. To a better week!!

Saturday Boringday?

The life of a single girl isn’t always as glamorous as it seems. Saturday was one of those days. A trip to Target, a venture to the suburbs to meet a friend for a beer, moping (and by moping, I mean eating Baked Doritos, drinking Diet Coke and writing blog posts) about on my porch due to the lack of a social life here – ah, the mundane boring things that married people do!

But then, sometimes the life of a single girl IS as glamorous as it seems!!

A call out to my assistant, pleading for girly time lifted my mood immediately. She had mentioned earlier in the day that she had made a verbal commitment for the evening (which depressed me immediately because I was being a negative nancy). Turns out, the verbal commitment was with a couple co-workers at a super cute restaurant with a fabulous patio.

She had told me a week or so prior about the exclusive “Veuve” parties thrown by one of our co-workers. I didn’t know him that well, but when someone says Veuve, I say how high? I agreed immediately and inquired about the dress code. Fancy schmancy, of course. And what better dress to wear than my new dress straight out of Sex and the City 2?! I of course wanted to wear my new shoes, but the pedicure I treated myself to the day prior dictated open toed shoes. Not wanting to change my yellow purse out for the black one, I settled on these, in blue snakeskin. Yum.

We met at my place and cabbed it here, an ULTRA cute restaurant in the Marigny that used to house servants on an old plantation. The history in this city is amazing. We sat in the little courtyard, sipping champagne, the sounds of water fountains dancing in our ears. While I wasn’t particularly hungry, the crab cake was toying with me, until I saw the macadamia nut cheesecake on the menu. Dessert for dinner? Sold.

After a while, we packed up and into the “bus”, and headed off to the house party. I assumed this would be a most extravagant event, with tons of fabulous people, and amazing appetizers. I was a bit disappointed it was just the four of us, only because the utter hotness I was radiating was completely and utterly wasted with three girls, one husband and the first member of my NOLA gaytourage. Once I got past that though, it was super fun. The house was pure southern charm – his partner is an artist and basically painted the whole house. It was stunning!

We made it through three bottles of Veuve before we cracked the absinthe….in fairness, I only had a sip, but it was much better than I remember it. Maybe it was in the presentation (traditionally with a spoon and flaming sugar vs. out of a bottle in Ireland), maybe it was the company (fabulous colleagues), but it was delightful – the anise danced all over my tongue and down my throat, warming everything as it made its way to its resting spot.

It was one of the best evenings I’ve had since I’ve been here – so thanks to all involved. I really appreciate and can’t wait for the next time.

This will not destroy me....

It will make me stronger! Cliché, cliché, cliché. I’m a walking, talking, living, breathing cliché. Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m also a ridiculous blonde sometime, most recently in the sense that I completely blew off a site tour at another hotel to watch soccer. Really?! I neglected to put it in my Outlook calendar; if it’s not in my Outlook calendar, it doesn’t exist. I felt awful about it, especially considering what transpired in the interim (future blog post), but because it was at one of our sister properties. Eventually the sales guy made it to the happy hour spot and I bought him a couple beers to smooth things over. How ridiculously unprofessional of me.

We all departed and with my plans for the evening in the same place my phone was a couple months ago (the toilet for those not in the know), I could have sat home and moped about. Instead, I went and had dinner at our hotel bar, and discovered a new bar in a new part of town.

At the Mono concert a couple of weeks ago, a fellow fan and I were discussing music in general and where to go to see it. Music is one thing that is definitely not lacking in this town. He mentioned that there was a similar band playing the following week called “This Will Destroy You” at a bar in the Bywater called Saturn Bar (though for some reason I always want to call it Sunset Bar). I decided to hell with it, I was going to go enjoy some decent live music. Even if it was by myself.

And enjoy I did. They were awesome. A little more rock-y than Mono, but the sound was great. The bar was slightly too small for a stage, so they were actually playing in the audience. I didn’t catch the name of the opening band, but met a couple of the members. Good guys and decent music. Overall, the night could have been a complete bust, but I made the most of it and ended up having a most delightful evening.

Amazing what a little positivity does to a person….

Laughing

*I swiped this post from a previous blog I started. It seems fitting right now. I'll elaborate in the future, but suffice to say, yesterday afternoon was challenging. I'm my own worst critic and worst enemy sometimes, and I just need to remember that it doesn't have to be like that.*

At myself. If I can't, who can? I took a step back when I got home last night and looked at the last week of my life. And all I could do was laugh. Laugh at how wonderfully ridiculous I can be, at how many wonderful things and people are in my life that I don't recognize sometimes. Laughing at something as silly and insignificant as a Post-It note and how integral they are to my life. I laugh at how oblivious I can be. I laugh at where my priorities lie. I really laugh at how clumsy I am.

As I sit here reflecting on the direction my life has taken, and the places I've been, I realize how ridiculous it is when I complain when something less than ideal happens. I've been extremely fortunate in my lifetime. I have a pretty amazing lifestyle. Granted, I've worked extremely hard for it. I travel to amazing places, I attend fabulous events, the food I consume is nothing short of incredible and I dress well. I drive a shitty car, but that's because cars are stupid (I've put less than 20K miles on it in 3 years). I'm able to save for retirement and still live comfortably.

Next time I complain about a situation that doesn't turn out how I want it to, or about a bad day at work, please refer me to this post, and tell me to put it into perspective. Tell me how utterly ridiculous I sound. Because there are a lot of people out there that have it a lot worse than I do. I'm extremely optimistic about my future and I'm going to stop taking things and people for granted. I'm going to continue to live with passion and I'm going to focus on living with purpose.

Someone I admire very much is Randy Pausch. If you haven't seen "The Last Lecture" run, do not walk, do not pass go and do not collect $200, to watch this video. This man was absolutely incredible. His passion for life and appreciation are to be admired and cherished. Sadly Randy passed away a couple of years ago, but the lessons he shared stayed. This is one of my favorite quotes from the speech...

"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people."

- Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )

This one is the full speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

This is the short Oprah version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IjVl8xzCSk