April 2004


Friday

At Work – Update to come

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Wednesday

Not a whole lot going on today. Jessica called again in the morning. I played UT2k4 a little thoughtout the day. Watched 'Enterprise' and the movie 'Equlibrium' in the evening.

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Tuesday

This morning I started the Red BEans I had prepared last night. In the afternoon I watched the 1991 film, “JFK.” It was one of the more compelling and interesting movies I have ever seen. I spoke with Khadijah late in the evening and played some online games with her before bed.

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Monday

I was at home again today so not much went on. Jessica called me in the morning and we spoke for a while, probably the longest single conversation I've ever had with her. I made a jambalya pasta dish for dinner, watched some cartoons at night and then prepared for tomorrow's dinner, and that was pretty much my day.

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Singin' in the Rain

This afternoon my dad and I went to The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. This was my third time attending. The weather today was pretty horrendous. It rained pretty profusely for the better part of the day. When we arrived at the fairgrounds we went to the blues tent to see Big Al Carson, who we'd seen the week before at the French Quarter Festival. We got pretty wet making our way over there and remained for a while to dry off, at least partially. Being rainy as it was, we were compelled to stay put, and we pretty much did. With few exceptions, we were in the Blues tent the whole time. It was no loss though. There were several great acts: Joe Krown, Wanda Rouzan, Chris Thomas King, and the legendary Etta James. Her set in particular was quite a spectacle, especially her performance of “At Last.” After her set was done, it started raining rather heavily so the tent remained occupied for some time. Eventually we left and made our way to the car, getting soaked again in the process. I had my camera with me today and it got pretty wet. The body seems fine although the lens seems to have gotten some stuff in it. Anyway after making it to the car we went home. I got something to eat, watched a little, TV, and checked some stuff on eBay. I talked to Khadijah and Ami on the phone for a good while late in the evening.

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Saturday

Parents at Jazz Fest – Dull week

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Monday

After a late breakfast, I went to work with dad. The first stop of the day was the west bank office. The office neded a little cleaning and the new computer needed to be fixed up. After that we went to the east office for a while. I got lunch and did a little filing work on the computer but that was it. We left there after a while and stopped at the Mid City office for a short while. I had nothing to do there. After that we came home. The evening was rather uneventful. I did some prep for tomorrow's dinner before midnight.

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FQF Last Day – Streetcars Back on Canal St.

After church, my dad and I went to the French Quarter Festival again. It was a lot easier to enjoy myself without any whiny baggage. The crowds today were even thicker than yesterday. During the day I can't recall us stopping too long for any one act. We say a couple of brass bands, including the Dukes of Dixieland in Jackson Square. Some time after that we saw Timothea on the riverfront. I ran into Ashley Murray before that, a former classmate I had not seen in some time. I had a fried catfish po-boy for dinner. I should have eaten it as a platter that happened to include French bread; I would have saved myself a lot of hassle. After dinner we went back to the riverfront and saw Papa Grows Funk for a good while. We went home following his set. Overall, the French Quarter Festival was quite enjoyable, and a good primer to Jazz Fest that starts next week. After returning I 'talked' to Ami on the phone for a while, damaged my camera winder, typed this up, and went to bed.

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French Quarter Festival

The family and I attended the French Quarter Festival this afternoon. We parked downtown a little before three and walked down to Bourbon St. The first act we say was Tim Laughlin, a formidable clarinet player that I saw last year at Jazz Fest. We walked around a good bit, saw some of the other stages, and made our way to Jackson Square because my parent's wanted to see Charmaine Neville. During the act I took a little walk around to the riverfront and back, I saw Andrey along the way. Later after Neville's performance we went to Cafe Du Monde, and eventually made our way home. This was my first visit to the FQF, it's my understanding that this is perhaps the biggest crowd they've had yet. The high volume of people did make it look like the event has outgrown the venue. I watched “Monster's Ball” late in the evening.

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Thursday

Nothing of circumstance to speak of, I was home today. I updated the gallery to reflect new posters on my wall and took a couple pictures of my camera with the winder.

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Finally, Something to Do.

Monday and Tuesday passed without incident. I was at home both days. It rained pretty good. I went to work with Dad this morning. I picked up the pictures I took last Saturday. It was my first roll on my 'new' camera, and they came out pretty decent. They can be seen here. Some filing and cleaning needed to be done at the Mid-City office. I got this filing and computer work done around noon. At about one, I met Ann from the bookstore for lunch at the usual place. She brought Sharon with her, a mild surprise. The fried catfish was better than last time; I think they switch the batter ingredients on a whim. She called last Saturday, seemingly pretty happy. I thought they fired Renee or something but things aren't so peachy over there, as Ann is always very through in describing. After lunch I caught the bus back up Tulane Ave. and back to work. I cleaned the floors and cleared out the hallway and a closet, and that was pretty much it.

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Friends in Town

I was expecting a rather dull day at home, but it turned out alright. Bianca and Toni are in town for Easter. Bianca didn't feel like sitting home all day either, so her, Toni and I decided to walk around the quarter for a while. The weather was nice, a bit warm, exacerbated by the dark clothing I was wearing. I didn't have clean light colors. I brought my 'new' camera with me to try out. After taking the ferry we parked next to the Jax Brewery and walked over to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. Having satisfied the need for the best doughnuts in the world, we walked back towards the Riverwalk. Bianca wanted to get a 'mardi gras doll' for a cousin or something. We walked through the mall for a while, stopping in stores and such. Bianca got her doll. Toni had a leather bracelet made with her name engraved. I saw the laziest of my former bookstore co-workers, Catasha, and said hi. Having walked through the rest of the mall, we ended up at the food court. I got some ice cream and a Coke, the girls got Chinese. Shockingly enough, neither of them came close to finishing their food. We then proceeded out of the mall towards Jackson Square as Bianca wanted to check out a couple of little shops. After wandering around some more we went back to the car to go home. Shani called us as while we were waiting at the ferry landing and ended up making arrangements for an evening movie with all of us. On the way home I dropped off the roll of film that I had just exposed. I think there might be at least one good shot on it. Khadijah called me during the hour or so while I was at home and we spoke briefly. I wasn't expecting to hear from her as she is currently visiting family in Texas. Shani soon picked me up and we went to the theater. I regret to admit having went to see “The Prince and Me,” a dull and predictable chick flick and lousy rip-off of “The Princess Diaries,” another ridiculous movie. Sorry-excuse-for-a-film notwithstanding, it was nice to see some friends again. It was quite nice to be out of the house given the events previous in the week.

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Finally Got the Frames

Today being Good Friday, both my parents were off of work. My cousin Arien visited at the house today. It felt like Saturday with some housework going on and such. I was rather tired most of the day and I spent the afternoon lying in bed listening to Rush on the radio. Later in the evening my mom, brothers, and I went to the store for groceries, among other things. I bought some film so I could finally start using my new camera, as well as some batteries for the winder that's on the way. I also wanted some poster frames as they've been sitting unused since I got them. They didn't have what I wanted at Wal-Mart so I had to get the frames from Walgreen's on the way home. So after getting home I spent the rest of the evening cutting the poster frames to size, they were six inches to long. I've done this before and I had a good x-acto knife this time so it was alot easier. I suppose I'll take new pictures of my room before long to reflect those additions.

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Today Sucked

Entry typed Sept 24, 2005: I think this was the day Jessica came by my house with Shani. Jessica was very distraut as her sister Ashley spilled the beans about our relationship and her parents were forbidding her from seeing me ever again. We visited for a few hours and she left, neither of us sure we'd see each other again.

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