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Nov142009
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"New" Places |
This post will summarize three days and will be consequently abbreviated. I can safely skip over Wednesday as there was nothing really going on outside of a normal day at the office.Work on Thursday was similarly uneventful, although I did eat out at Café Minh for lunch. After work, Dad gave me a lift to class. This evening’s practicum session had a lecture on interview. Afterward I went uptown for ballroom this evening. Thursday night was the second week of Cha Cha and I had a good handle on the material. There was a light crowd of a little more than 20 this evening and a surplus of guys. Late that evening I talked to Ami on the phone for the first time in quite some time. We both had new jobs to talk about.I took the day off Friday. Dad cooked hamburgers for dinner. That evening I went out to meet Aunt Lauren. She is in town with Arien for a couple days to visit. She originally told me to meet her at Le Bon Temps Roule but the band she was expecting was not there so we met at Rock ‘n’ Bowl. The bowling alley / music venue moved recently from its Carrolton and Tulane location into a new building. This was my first time at the new facility and I was quite impressed. There are several homages to the old location including a long entry hallway, much like the photo-lined staircase you used to climb. Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, a well-known zydeco group was playing. They took a break shortly after I arrived. I got a drink and waited for Lauren and her friend to arrive.Lauren and her friend whose name escapes me at present arrived about 20 minutes after I got there. The band started back up not long after that. The new location is considerably larger and consequently more conducive to dancing… and plenty of people were. An older gentleman even got Lauren out to dance for a song. While we were there I said hello to Kevin Fontenot, a history teacher at Tulane I had a couple classes with. I’m always impressed that he remembers me.We left Rock ‘n’ Bowl after having our fill of Zydeco. Lauren’s friend parted company with us but Lauren was not ready for bed yet to we went to the Maple Leaf Bar to see Big Sam’s Funky Nation. There was another band playing when we arrived whose name I cannot recall. After the opening act finished, Lauren and I got a spot right at the stage on the left side.There was a considerable wait for the main act to start and when they did we learned out great spot wasn’t so great. It was entirely too loud so we moved to the back where the sound was a lot more tolerable. Later on we moved to the patio in the back for a while before heading out for the evening.Rather than catch a cab from Maple Street, I had Lauren drop me off in front of the Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street. I had not been there in a long while and wanted to stop in before heading home. Unfortunately I arrived just before one, closing time. It took me a minute to realize it. I sat down at the bar and got no attention while I saw the bartenders locking up the liquor.Still not in the mood to go home, I took a walk up Canal Street and stopped in IHOP on a whim. The Canal location is not that old. I ordered a little something to eat and then walked up a bit more to the Roosevelt Hotel, which reopened not to long ago. I just wanted to look around and I stopped in the Sazerac Bar for a drink. I only had time for one round as they closed at two.I hailed a cab home from Canal Street after my drink. I think I went to bed not long after getting home.