May 2004

May302004

Spinning Rides and Karaoke

This afternoon I joined Shani and Bianca to go to the Superfair and later in the quarter. My heart really wasn't in it at the fail, as there was hassle getting in and I recalled a much more colorful experience at last year's fair. After having our fill of funnel cake and spinning cages, we left around 6:30. I guess I felt better in the evening, most of which we spent in the Cat's Meow. It'll be a cold day in hell when I get up on stage but it was fun watching others. I also had my camera and 'new' 35-70 f4 zoom lens to keep me occupied. It should be interesting to see how it performs, especially in a low-light environment. After leaving there we stopped in a few other places, and lastly McDonald's on the way to the car and home.

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May282004

Work, a Movie, and Dinner

I went to work for a little while this morning. There wasn't really anything to be done aside from a little cleaning. A little later in the afternoon my dad dropped me off at Canal Place to meet Christy for a movie. I was early so I walked around for a while and got an ice cream cone to pass the time. She showed up on time and we saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I must say the film far exceeded my expectations. I thought the screenplay was superb. We decided to get some dinner afterward and started wandering around the quarter for a restaurant. We eventually sat down in La Madeline, but after looking at the sparse menu, I just didn't feel like having a sandwich so we left. We eventually came across a place called Rita's and stopped there. The food was decent enough, albeit a little overpriced. I had the crawfish etouffee, which was pretty good, and a perfectly sized dish. I had some bread pudding for dessert, which was average. We walked towards canal after leaving the restaurant. When we got to Canal St, I made a remark wondering how long it takes the streetcar to reach the cemetery, and Christy suggested we find out. It took a few minutes for the next car to arrive. The new streetcars are rather nice with air-conditioning and a rather smooth ride. It only took about 15 minutes to reach the cemetery. The trip back was over twice as long though. After getting back where to where we started we went to wait for the bus. We were waiting for a while. Christy didn't feel like waiting any longer and we caught a cab home.

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May272004

Job Interview and Lunch

I had a job interview in Metarie today for a small computer repair firm. I'm not sure that it went too well, but the place is pretty far from my house they received over 200 resumes so I wasn't expecting much anyway. While we were in that part of town, my dad picked up his camcorder that was recently repaired. I called Ann and arranged to have lunch. Before my dad dropped me off, we stopped at Albertson's in Mid-City to get some things for his office. The store was closing down and they were having a liquidation sale. It was rather sad to see a brand new store close down. After leaving there I got dropped off at the mall since there was some time before lunch. While there I bought a couple of games for my Xbox. I eventually made my way to Purple Rose's for lunch. I was early and I had a newspaper to keep occupied. Ann showed up on time and we had lunch. She said my old boss had expressed interest in my returning to the bookstore, which I found somewhat amusing. I actually wouldn’t mind at all provided there was a small raise and better hours. I took the bus home after lunch. I don't remember anything of circumstance in the evening.

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May232004

Paul Varisco at the Rock'n'Bowl

I can't remember doing much after church aside from playing PGR2. I made some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. After dinner dad and I went to the Rock'n'Bowl. My mom didn't feel like going with him I guess. He wanted to see a band he likes, Paul Varisco and the Milestones. They do little reunion performances. It was my first time there. It's a small place that's easily crowded when a musical act is there. The bowling alleys seem more like an afterthought. Anyway they had a pretty good set. They were done a little after 10 and we left.

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May222004

Kali's Last Day in Town

This was Khadijah's last day in town and we thought it would be interesting to cook dinner at her place. I brought some things along so we could make lasanga. After a colorful trip to Wal-Mart for cheese and such, I started cooking with a little help from Roxana. It took a good while to prepare and was a bit of an ordeal with a small, hot, and forign kitchen. That house has a gas stove, which I had never used before. It obvious to me know that they're alot hotter than the electric variety i'm used to. The lasanga cooked in about half the normal time. Unfortunately I didn't take it out quite half way though so it was a little overdone. It certainly wasn't my best work but at least it was edible. We were over there for a little while longer playing cards and the xbox I brought, afterwhich we went home.

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May212004

Quiet Day, Less Than Quiet Evening

I was at home for a good part of the day until I joined Andrey, Khadijah, Toni, and Roxana. We went over to Khadijah's place for the evening. Shortly after getting to her house they decided we needed to rent a bad movie and visit with one of the employee's a Blockbuster who had caught their eye. We saw Shani on the way there and she followed us. We were at Blockbuster for a little while. While they were there I went to Zach's for a shake and to see if a friend was working. She wasn't there but they knew here. I chatted with one of the workers there for a bit, a 'Liz' I think. Shortly after finishing my milkshake they were done and we went back to Khadijah's. We started a couple of movies but never really paid attention to either of them. They played cards for a while and Shani finally left; a pleasant relief as her attitude was pounding my last nerve. Eventually we watched “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a rather good movie I had seen once before. After the movie the gang felt like ice cream so we drove to Winn-Dixie. Upon arriving they lost the craving for ice cream and we left empty-handed. We thought it would be fun to drive past Edna Karr on the way home as this would be the night the senior prank would be perpetrated, assuming there was one. The only one there was a cop in a patrol car. Apparently they were familiar with the schedule as well. I don't exactly remember what we did after getting home… I think we may have watched the movie after the little trip. In any event I got home around 2:30.

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May212004

A Quiet Day with an Xbox

I spent a lot of the day fooling around with my new Xbox. I got the internet play to work, although not without running a cable across the hall. The two other games I won came in the mail today. Khadijah and Roxana stopped by the house briefly in the evening. I hadn't seen Roxy in almost a year, as she had been living in India.

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May202004

Dinner and Pictures

My Xbox came in the mail today. I spent the afternoon trying it out and setting it up in my room. At around five I met Khadijah and we went to the French Quarter for dinner. She had me bring my camera so I could try my hand at shooting black and white film. After getting off the bus we walked down Canal St. We stopped in a few of the camera stores and bought some film in one of them. After walking out with the film we ran into Juan, a friend of Khadijah's I was acquainted with. After chatting for a while we walked to the bank so I could deposit some checks. Khadijah wanted to eat at a place called Deja Vu. Ironically enough, I seemed to recall eating there before, and we had. She remembered them having good steak, but it was just a bar with some tables. I wanted to eat elsewhere, as I recalled the slow service and mediocre food. We walked down to Jackson Square, passing several restaurants along the way. We settled on River's Edge, a nice little open-air place right across the street from Cafe Du Monde. I ordered the Crawfish Sampler and Khadijah got some other sampler plate. The service was the best I'd ever experienced; of course I haven’t been to many decent eateries. The waitress was very attentive without being a nuisance. After dinner we walked around for a good while, taking pictures along the way. We went to the French Market, which I rightfully thought was closed, and back up the riverfront towards Canal. After reaching Canal St. we stopped at the 11th floor lobby at the Wyndham to see the view and sit for a spell. After that we went back down towards the bus stop, pausing at McDonalds for a McFlurry along the way. After getting home I watched a pretty good episode of Enterprise and talked to Khadijah on the phone sporadically for a bit.

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May192004

20th Birthday

Today was my 20th birthday. Bad things have a tendency to occur on my birthdays, and this year failed to be an exception. A phone call woke my up this morning, it was Jessica's mother. In short, she asked several questions about my feelings and intentions, and suggested we not see each other for a while. It was clearly an incomplete conversation and she didn't call again. I didn't do much for the better part of the day and I wasn't really in the mood to be productive either. Later in the evening I joined Toni and Khadijah again. We watched Amadeus. I was pleasantly surprised that they appreciated the 3 hour film. After the movie we played cards for a bit and went home.

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May172004

Up Late and Early

It was wet again today, with sporadic rain throughout. It was pretty quiet around the house. Jeff was no bother. I tried fixing a couple of computers in the house without success. I've been fooling with Don's computer and my parent's PC stopped working this afternoon. It just won't boot. I made some pasta jambalaya for dinner. Later in the evening I packed up my DVD player and went over to Khadijah's place to watch a movie with her and Toni. Toni was a bit late in arriving. Khadijah showed us some of her work over the past year with photography and art classes. Later they decided we needed to go to the store to get snacks. We ended up at Wal-Mart and bought orange juice, cheddar cheese, and Ritz crackers. It all seemed rather ludicrous to me. On the way home Toni's parents ordered her home because of the weather so she dropped us off and left. After fooling around with the cheese and the drinks for a bit we started watching “Catch Me If You Can.” I had seen it before but it's a decent movie and Khadijah liked it. We talked for a little while after the movie and then we watched the HBO Special, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” on which the TV show was based. We talked a while longer after that. At around 5 AM, my dad pulled up at the house, apparently concerned. It's pretty odd for me to be out at that hour and he woke up and saw I wasn't home. I left with him and went to be a short while after getting home.

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May172004

A Little Time out of the House

We left for church a little early today; I was tired from arriving late last night. My grandma came to attend the service and pass off Andrew who had spent the weekend with her. Khadijah came by around two and visited for while. Dad grilled some things for dinner. In the evening I went out for dessert with Khadijah and a friend of hers named Robert. We went to Bennigan's and I got this ice cream cake thing called a “White Chocolate Chill-Out.” I came home after that and did nothing of circumstance in the evening.

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May162004

The Mall. Stop. The Movies.

I went to the mall this afternoon to pay Jessica a visit. It was a few hours earlier than I was expecting. I hadn’t seen her in about six weeks. She came with a friend who I hadn't met. We just walked around for a while, stopping in various stores as mall patrons do. While I was there I bought a book on general world history, a crossover cable for my XBox, a small maglite, and some Goo Gone… nothing I really needed. She had to leave around half past five and I made my way home afterwards. As soon as I returned I found that Khadijah, Toni, and Andrey were going to the movies and asked me to join them so I did. We ended up seeing the 10:25 showing of “Van Helsing” after hanging around Toni's house for a while. It was one of the more disappointing movies I’ve ever seen at the theater. I didn't find it to be terribly coherent, the special effects were pretty unremarkable and there were parts so cheesy it was painful to watch. It did pick up a bit near the end. It's hard to blame the decision to see this particular movie since everything playing seems to be crap.

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May152004

…Some Peace and Quiet

My parents left around noon today to go pick up Jeff from school for the summer. I spent the better part of the day cleaning up and laying around. I was expecting Khadijah to stop by. She arrived from Rustin this evening, but that didn't pan out. In the evening I watched “The Quiet American.”

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May132004

Log Neglect

Once again, I've neglected to post here for a spell. The past week or so hasn't been terribly eventful anyway. I didn't go to work at all last week. It was mostly just hanging around the house, and talking to Jessica on select mornings. Over last week I watched HIghlander, Amistad, Ghost World, along with several Futurama episodes…a new interest of mine. Saturday was devoid of activity. O Sunday myself and some family went to the park for a Mother's Day cookout sort of thing. I was at home again on monday. Yesterday I went to work early and left around noon. On the way home I ran into Ann and Catasha from the bookstore, so I stopped to talk with them for a little while. IN the evening I was on the computer and saw the new multiplayer footage for Halo 2 from E3. I bought an Xbox shortly thereafter. I was at home today, made some Spaghetti for dinner. We just had a pretty severe storm front pass through, but it moved quickly. “Enterprise” had a pretty compelling episode this evening.

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May 2004

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