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Dec252009
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Christmas 2009 |
This Christmas Eve was a pleasant day at home. I had the day off and didn’t have much of anything to do. Dad made his awesome jambalaya for dinner, sort of a Christmas Eve tradition. I felt strangely tired early this evening and went to bed around eight.Following a long night’s sleep I was up at a decent hour this Christmas morning. Sometime after ten everyone was up and we opened our gifts. We didn’t put up the tree this year so they were all stacked in front the fire place under the stockings. It was gadgets all around this year. Mom and Dad bought me a Zune HD and some toiletries. Andrew got a new laptop and Jeff got an iPhone. Dad bought Mom an Amazon Kindle, apparently a very popular gift this year. I gave away several copies of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album and cash this year. I spent the better part of the afternoon playing with my new toy. I have one of the old Zunes now known as the “Zune 30.” It’s a nice player but the new Zune HD is very appealing. Its OLED screen is the best display on a portable device I have ever seen. The interface is quite slick as well and the applications and web browser and nice novelties. Like most mainstream players, it lacks FLAC and DivX support which is a bit disappointing.Later this evening, I went out with Andrey and a few friends of his. One my way across the river I picked up LaQuenta, an acquaintance of Andrey’s I went to high school with. She was part of our “lunch table” crew but I had not seen her since I graduated. She doesn’t live here now but was in town for the week and staying just off De Gaulle drive.We went to Melange at the Ritz-Carlton where we were to meet Andrey and a couple of his friends. Even though it was Christmas Day, the place was still quite crowded and Jeremy Davenport was playing like any other Friday night, although the repertoire was more “seasonal.” I managed to find a table for the two of us although it wouldn’t suffice after the rest of our party arrived.Andrey arrived with two ladies in tow about 15 minutes after we did. I met one at Patrick’s birthday a couple weeks ago. We all stuck around at the Ritz for an hour or so. We were two chairs short for the duration though so Andrey and I had to stand. After we left the Ritz we walked a couple blocks to the Ohm Lounge. There was supposed to be a DJ there this evening but we didn’t see one yet. LaQuenta had to be home by midnight and Andrey gave her a ride back. One of the other girls was hungry so I went with both of them to IHOP on Canal Street while we waited for Andrey to return from the west bank. I was hardly hungry but I ordered a little something to occupy myself.Following our late night meal we met back up with Andrey on canal Street and went back to the Ohm Lounge. The DJ finally showed up a while after we did. The house music wasn’t bad although it did make conversation cumbersome. We called it a night around two if I remember right. I caught a cab from Canal Street in short order and went home and to bed around three.